Following a leak late last year that Sonos is developing a successor to its ultra-premium Sonos Arc soundbar codenamed ‘Lasso’ we’ve had another more recent leak courtesy of The Verge that reveals images of the new speaker, and reaffirms that it might boast some high-end audio tech when it drops.
Right off the bat, Lasso doesn’t look to have any serious changes from what users got with the original Arc in terms of design; it’s a long black plastic-encased sound system with a single HDMI port and an Ethernet port to offer this Wi-Fi enabled speaker a more reliable internet connection.
That said, one interesting detail is the addition of a button with a Bluetooth logo above it suggesting the Lasso will support Bluetooth audio playback – something we haven’t seen before from a Sonos soundbar. Additionally, there’s a physical switch for enabling or disabling the built-in mic if you want to feel a little more confident that the smart speaker isn't listening to you.
Where things get really special, however, is The Verge reaffirming the rumors that the Lasso will be the first Sonos speaker to feature Mayht tech.
Sonos acquired speaker manufacturer Mayht Holding BV back in April 2022, and we’ve been waiting a long time for that purchase to bear fruit. That’s because it allows for smaller speakers to deliver the same power as something much larger – with Mayht previously explaining you could get the power of a Sonos Five from something the size of a Sonos One (via T3).
This same tech allows manufacturers to cram a subwoofer into a much smaller speaker, with Mayht explaining that even with no subwoofer a mid-sized soundbar could deliver true bass (down to around 30Hz) using its audio gadgetry. This means you might be able to get away with buying just the Lasso, without needing to splash out on a Sonos Sub – but we’ll have to wait and see.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about the Lasso: while we think it’ll be called the Arc 2 officially, that might not be the case. We also don’t know how much it’ll cost, though rumors point to it being around $1,200 (so likely around £1,200 / AU$1,800 using previous Sonos global pricing strategies and exchange rates) instead of the Arc’s $899 / £899 / AU$1,499. Finally, we don’t know for certain if it’ll launch in 2024 or if we’ll be waiting a while longer.
For now we’ll have to take the rumors with a pinch of salt, but it certainly looks like Sonos is cooking up something; lets just hope its next speaker update doesn’t go the way of its recent troubled app refresh.
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