Following a leak late last year that Sonos was developing a successor to its ultra-premium Sonos Arc soundbar, codenamed 'Lasso', we've had another, more recent leak courtesy of The Verge revealing images of the new speaker and reaffirming that it could feature high-end audio tech when it launches.
At first glance, the Lasso doesn't appear to have any serious changes from what users got with the original Arc in terms of design; it's a long, black plastic-clad sound system with a single HDMI port and an Ethernet port to give 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 that the Lasso will support Bluetooth audio playback – something we haven’t seen before on a Sonos soundbar. Plus, there’s a physical switch to enable or disable the built-in microphone 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 when The Verge reaffirms rumors that Lasso will be the first Sonos speaker to feature Mayht technology.
Sonos acquired speaker manufacturer Mayht Holding BV in April 2022, and we’ve been waiting a long time for that purchase to come to fruition. That’s because it allows smaller speakers to deliver the same power as something much larger – Mayht previously explained that you can get the power of a Sonos Five from something the size of a Sonos One (via the T3).
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This same technology allows manufacturers to cram a subwoofer into a much smaller speaker. Mayht explains that even without a subwoofer, a mid-sized soundbar could deliver true bass (down to around 30Hz) using its audio devices. This means you might be able to get away with just buying the Lasso, without needing to splurge on a Sonos Sub, but we'll have to wait and see.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Lasso: while we think it will officially be called the Arc 2, that may not be. We also don’t know how much it will cost, although rumours point to it being around $1,200 (so likely around £1,200 / AU$1,800 using Sonos’ previous global pricing strategies and exchange rates) rather than the $899 / £899 / AU$1,499 of the Arc. Finally, we don’t know for sure whether it will launch in 2024, or if we’ll have to wait a little longer.
For now we'll have to take the rumors with a grain of salt, but it certainly sounds like Sonos is up to something – let's just hope its next speaker update doesn't follow the path of its recent, problematic app update.
