Sonos’s Next Rumored Release Could Unlock Its Speakers in New Ways

After breaking into headphones last year, Sonos eyes yet another new category.

Published February 6, 2025

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Sonos is looking for a fresh start. After a very challenging 2024, the multi-room wireless speaker giant has a new CEO and, after entering the headphone market last year, is looking to expand into even more new product categories.

A Sonos-branded TV streaming box (a la Apple TV) has long been rumored to be in the works, but it appears to be reeling ever closer.

According to The Verge‘s Chris Welch, who has broken news on many Sonos-related leaks in recent years, including the most recent Ace headphones and Arc Ultra soundbar, Sonos is gearing up to release a TV streaming player in “the coming months.”

Sonos Beam 2 soundbar — According to reports, Sonos will release its first TV streaming box in the coming months.

New details have emerged about Sonos’s rumored streaming box

In the article, Welch claims to have seen images of the streaming player, which is code-named “Pinewood,” looks similar to an Apple TV. When viewed from above, Welch describes it as “a flattened black square and slightly thicker than a deck of trading cards.”

On the one hand, Sonos’s upcoming streaming player will work like other streamers, aggregating streaming apps like Netflix, Max, and Disney+ into an intuitive software experience (which Sonos was known for before its app debacle this summer). Welch says it’ll come with a physical remote, but you can control it with Sonos Voice Control, too.

On the other hand, it promises to have several special features exclusive to Sonos speaker owners. (Something unlike the Ace, which for the most part worked exactly like every other pair of noise-canceling wireless headphones.)

Apple TV 4K streamer — The Sonos streaming box will be a similar size to the Apple TV, but will work more like a traditional receiver with multiple inputs and HDMI switching.

Doubling down on home theater

The main appeal of Sonos’s streaming box, if the rumors and leaks are true, will revolve around delivering the ultimate Sonos home theater experience. In many ways, it sounds like it’ll be capable of many things traditional receivers have handled.

The box will have multiple HDMI inputs for connecting various devices (such as gaming consoles, a Blu-ray player and a cable box) and you’ll be able to seamlessly switch inputs within Sonos’s software using Sonos Voice Control or a physical remote.

To date, Sonos has allowed home theater enthusiasts to create a wireless surround sound system with a maximum of one soundbar, two rear-channel speakers, and two subwoofers. However, the Sonos streaming box should unlock new possibilities. For example, you could add front-channel speakers, such as two Era 100s or two Era 300s, to work alongside a Sonos soundbar and create an even more immersive experience.

If you don’t have a Sonos soundbar but do have other Sonos speakers, the streaming box may allow you to configure a surround sound system similar to Sony’s HT- A9, which uses a control box and four wireless speakers (two front-channel and two rear-channel).

According to Welch, Sonos is still finalizing the exact speaker configurations that will be supported.

The receiver of the future?

Sonos’s streaming box promises to solve other issues for home theater enthusiasts, such as audio delays and signal dropouts, which have plagued its soundbars when paired with certain TVs. According to Welch, the streaming box can “wirelessly transmit lag-free TV audio” to its various soundbars, speakers and subwoofers.

But being late to the streaming party, Sonos’s streaming box will have a lot of competition. And there are still unknowns. What multichannel and lossless codecs will it support? What about HDR? And will it support Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), a must-have feature for today’s gamers?

That brings us to the last bit of important information — Welch reports that Sonos’s streaming box could cost anywhere between $200 and $400, making it significantly more expensive than the Apple TV 4K (which Apple now sells for $129).

That price considerably narrows the target audience for Sonos’s streaming box, who will have to really want the ultimate Sonos surround sound experience (and be willing to invest in the extra speakers to do so). Or Sonos will have to nail the tech specs and support for various audio codecs and HDR formats, making it a must-have for home theater enthusiasts.

Even so, it feels like a product not aimed at the average Sonos speaker owner.