If the various rumors, leaks, and teasing by the CEO are true, Sonos is on the cusp of releasing its first wi-fi headphones in 2024, and the advantages to Sonos’ prospects may very well be appreciable. With the ability to use one set of headphones for journey, workplace, and residential use — that additionally combine with the Sonos ecosystem of whole-home wi-fi audio system — can be handy.
And, assuming the brand new headphones work with Wi-Fi (like the remainder of the corporate’s merchandise), they are going to be among the many first wi-fi headphones to ship lossless, hi-res audio with out the necessity for particular codecs, good wi-fi circumstances, or an adjunct like a headphone DAC/amp.
Nonetheless, the success of potential Sonos wi-fi headphones is way from assured. It’s a really mature market with cutthroat competitors. If Sonos hopes to make this product vital for its prospects, there are a number of pitfalls the corporate must keep away from.
Consolation is king
It ought to go with out saying, however headphones have to be comfy. Any strain factors attributable to a poor match or a poor alternative of supplies will restrict how lengthy you possibly can put on them earlier than fatigue units in.
Even corporations which were creating headphones for years can inadvertently construct a product hampered by an uncomfortable design. This was actually the case with the Shure Aonic 40, a fantastic-sounding set of cans that I merely couldn’t put on for greater than an hour.
When you think about that Sonos has no historical past of designing merchandise like headphones, earbuds, or different units that want a powerful ergonomic part, there’s a threat that its first try gained’t hit the bullseye.
Dwelling and away
Wi-fi headphones have turn out to be our fixed companions, whether or not we’re utilizing them to take heed to podcasts on our each day commute, block undesirable distractions on the workplace or native espresso home, or take voice and video calls from anyplace. Briefly, they go the place we go.
Sonos headphones want to supply all the flexibility and portability that we’ve come to count on from manufacturers like Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser whereas away, plus a seamless transition to our Wi-Fi community after we get dwelling.
Sonos has monitor file to this point. The Sonos Roam and Sonos Transfer 2 audio system can be utilized away from dwelling — because of built-in batteries and Bluetooth connections — after which re-join the community routinely if you return. This shall be vital functionality for Sonos’ headphones.
The place Sonos has confirmed weakest is its lack of app assist when its units are in Bluetooth-only mode. It could not matter which you can’t use the Sonos app when your Sonos Roam speaker is away from dwelling — Bluetooth audio system solely have a restricted variety of changes. Wi-fi headphones are a unique story. We’re used to having whole management over settings like energetic noise cancellation (ANC) and EQ all the time. Sonos should alter its app to make that occur.
Peace and quiet
As soon as upon a time, it might have been acceptable for a corporation like Sonos to promote wi-fi headphones with out ANC. However that’s historical historical past. As we speak, you’ll discover extremely efficient ANC on $60 wi-fi earbuds. Sonos should provide ANC that’s at the very least in the identical ballpark as Apple, Bose, Sony, and Sennheiser, even when it fails to beat them.
The identical is true for transparency mode — an arguably a lot more durable feat.
A number of makes use of, a number of units
As I stated earlier, we’re as possible to make use of our wi-fi headphones for Microsoft Groups conferences as we’re to take heed to the newest Olivia Rodrigo album, so it’s not sufficient for the audio to sound good to us — we have to sound good to our callers.
Which means Sonos’ headphones will need to have sufficient microphones to seize our voices clearly whereas additionally blocking out undesirable exterior sounds.
They may also have to assist Bluetooth Multipoint so we will be related to 2 units concurrently.
Killer spatial audio
With its Beam Gen 2, Arc, and Period 300 audio system, Sonos has confirmed that it understands the significance of spatial audio, whether or not it’s Dolby Atmos for exhibits and flicks or Dolby Atmos Music for streaming music providers.
Nonetheless, spatial audio for audio system is a really totally different factor than spatial audio for headphones. With headphones, problems abound: Do you utilize Dolby’s know-how for binaural rendering or roll your personal? Do you provide digital spatial audio, which makes an attempt to provide any supply of stereo a extra immersive expertise, or do you keep on with simply content material created for Dolby Atmos or different 3D audio codecs? Lastly, do you embrace head monitoring — a sensor-based know-how that Apple has been closely selling on its AirPods and Beats household of wi-fi earbuds and headphones?
It’s surprisingly exhausting to get this proper. Apple has chosen to work solely with Dolby Atmos content material (with and with out head monitoring) with out digital spatial audio. Relying on the supply, it could possibly sound nice. Bose has taken the opposite route, letting you virtualize any audio right into a 3D model, once more with and with out head monitoring. It has additionally been profitable.
However I used to be much less impressed with Jabra’s model of spatial audio on its Elite 10 earbuds, and with some merchandise, just like the Soundcore Liberty 4, it feels very very like a gimmick.
Gotta be true TV
At the moment, in case you have a Sonos soundbar like a Ray, Beam Gen 2, or Arc, you’ll get the absolute best Dolby 5.1 or Dolby Atmos sign out of your TV through HDMI or optical. If you wish to share that sound with different Sonos audio system in your own home, you are able to do that by grouping them.
Nonetheless, your grouped audio system — even when they’re additionally soundbars — will solely get a downmixed, stereo model of the TV audio with no low-frequency channel (subwoofer) data.
That’s not going to fly with Sonos’ headphones. They have to provide parity with the Apple AirPods Max, which may wirelessly sync with an Apple TV 4K, and get a totally head-tracked Dolby Atmos presentation of appropriate content material.
Furthermore, if there are a number of Sonos headphones in a single family, every must get this identical excessive degree of audio high quality.
Battery blues
Sonos is aware of that battery life issues. Probably the most spectacular issues it modified when it debuted the second-gen Sonos Transfer, was a greater than doubling of the speaker’s stamina from 11 hours to 24 hours.
It’s that sort of considering that Sonos might want to apply to its headphones. Wi-Fi is historically extra power-hungry than Bluetooth, and with the extra calls for of processors, sensors, and microphones, trendy wi-fi cans can demand numerous juice.
The Hed Unity — the primary Wi-Fi headphones available on the market — are a cautionary story. Even when utilizing Bluetooth alone, they’re solely rated for about eight hours of use. That may be acceptable for headphones which can be destined to remain dwelling, however a set of travel-friendly cans should do much better.
Editors’ Suggestions
Supply Hyperlink : https://jendela.uk/
