Sonos has just made three new announcements at IFA 2018 that will make your connected home work better, look better and sound better. It's all about versatility! Here are the details of the new API suite, the partnership with Sonance for hidden architectural columns, and, of course, the new hardware: Sonos Amp.
The center of your smart home
The first announcement was about a new set of management APIs that aims to make Sonos more integrated with other platforms and services and, ultimately, the center of your smart home. Opening up for developers, Sonos gadgets will become a more dynamic part of your home, which we still can’t imagine, but the possibilities in terms of software are endless.
Amplifier for connecting the present and the future
From a hardware point of view, the new Sonos Amp was announced. It can work with four speakers, not two, as in the old version, and produces 125 watts per channel at 8 ohms. The higher price, $ 599 in the US and € 699 in Europe, reflects this.
This is a sleek amplifier that won't be out of place near your TV, on a shelf, or even mounted vertically on a wall. The round top, which helps him keep cool, resembles a turntable for an extra thigh kick. This minimal device has an IR receiver, a status indicator, a play / pause button and volume up and down buttons on the front panel.
if you have Sonos One or the Beam that comes with Alexa, the Sonos amplifier will play well with Alexa, so you can use voice control. Other software aspects include the ability to set volume limits and disconnect the device from Wi-Fi through an application that will also be extended to some existing Sonos gadgets in the future.
The situation is complicated only at the rear, where exciting parts appear for the sake of connection. There is a (very popular) HDMI port for connecting to a TV, which allows your TV to act as a “phantom” center channel if you have speakers on both sides, two Ethernet ports, an audio input for connecting a vinyl player to your old school, not to mention already about support for AirPlay 2 and much more. All of these connectivity options mean that you can have everything: a combination of digital and analog, old and new.
Speakers you don't even see
The problem with custom home audio, apart from the price, is that with a good sound setting you often have ugly bulky speakers everywhere. This is why I am most concerned about the announcement of Sonos’s partnership with Sonance, which will feature “architectural speakers”. They will be built into walls and ceilings, as well as outdoors. We will have to wait and see what special functions the amplifier will add to them, but the wait will not take long, since they are planned to be released in early 2019.
What do you think of Sonos? What other features would you like to see? Let us know in the comments!
