Sonos has announced the Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar and the Sonos Ace Ultra over-ear headphones. The two products arrive alongside Sonos 27, the latest version of the company's audio operating system. Beam Ultra delivers true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos without growing beyond Beam's compact footprint, while Ace Ultra introduces new hardware that links the headphones directly to a Sonos system. Japanese pricing is 99,800 yen for Beam Ultra and 69,800 yen for Ace Ultra.
Same Footprint, More Inside: Beam Ultra
Beam Ultra keeps the size that made Beam easy to place in front of a television, but packs in nine custom drivers. Two of those fire upward, bouncing sound off the ceiling to produce true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos. Sonos also reworked the low end, giving the soundbar a fuller, warmer bass response.
A quieter but potentially more useful change is the redesigned center channel. Dialogue clarity is usually the first complaint people have about soundbars, and Beam Ultra addresses it directly, then adds four levels of AI Speech Enhancement on top. Night Sound remains available for late-night viewing. Being able to dial the effect up or down in steps matters most in households where turning up the volume is not an option.
The system is designed to grow. Add a Sonos Sub for deeper bass, or add rear surrounds later. New this time around, compatible Sonos portable speakers can serve as rear surrounds, so an existing speaker can be repurposed into a surround setup without buying dedicated hardware. Connectivity covers WiFi, Bluetooth and HDMI eARC.
Ace Ultra Treats Headphones as Part of the System
Ace Ultra is a premium over-ear model built around a Sonos-designed 40mm driver. Noise cancellation uses Adaptive ANC driven by ten microphones, and battery life reaches up to 35 hours with ANC switched on. That is enough to survive a week of commuting or a business trip without a charger, which is generous for a runtime measured with ANC active.
The defining feature is Headphone Engine 2. This is new hardware that links the headphones directly into a Sonos system, and Ace Ultra is the first product to carry it. The capability ships as early access.
What it does is simple. One press moves whatever is playing on the Sonos system to the headphones, and another press sends it back to the speakers. The important detail is that no smartphone is required. Most wireless headphones depend on a Bluetooth connection to a phone, so without the handset nearby there is no way to redirect audio. Ace Ultra talks to the system itself, so moving a film's audio from the living room to your ears midway through requires no device juggling. USB-C and 3.5mm connections remain for wired listening.
Tuning Sound to the Room and the System
Sonos has long offered Trueplay, which adjusts output to match the acoustics of the room a speaker sits in. Beam Ultra supports it, and TrueCinema plays the same role when Ace Ultra receives audio from a compatible soundbar. The goal is to preserve the sense of space you hear in the room even when listening through headphones.
Tuning also draws on outside input through the Sonos Soundboard, a group made up of people working across music, film and other industries. Sonos describes it as a way to keep playback faithful to what creators intended. Chris Jenkins, Executive Vice President of Digital Studios at Universal Music Group, said Beam Ultra creates the feeling of being inside a scene rather than listening to sound coming out of a speaker.
Sonos CEO Tom Conrad described both products as a combination of next-generation innovation, acoustic design and decades of knowledge gathered from real homes. The intended pattern of use is carrying the immersion of a film watched at night into the following morning through headphones. More than 100 streaming services are supported.
Pricing and Release Schedule
Beam Ultra costs 99,800 yen including tax, with pre-orders opening on September 25 and sales starting on October 9. Ace Ultra costs 69,800 yen including tax, with pre-orders from October 16 and release on October 30. Both will be sold through partner retailers nationwide, including online stores.
The soundbar arrives first, with the headphones following three weeks later. Since the Headphone Engine 2 link only becomes meaningful once both products are in place, anyone targeting that combination will be waiting until the end of October.
Summary
Beam Ultra is a soundbar that reaches 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos with a nine-driver array while keeping its original size, and Ace Ultra is a headphone with ten-microphone Adaptive ANC, up to 35 hours of battery life and a direct link into a Sonos system through Headphone Engine 2. They cost 99,800 yen and 69,800 yen respectively, arriving on October 9 and October 30. Sound quality aside, the most notable shift here is that Sonos built the path between speakers and headphones into the hardware itself.
