A deep dive in a German patent application published in August 2021 suggests that Sonos is considering a set of wireless headphones that can work on Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth. Should Sonos launch a set of headphones with Wi-Fi capacity, it will be the first of its kind and Sonos will give users an unprecedented level of control over their music.
What do we know here:
Rumors that Sonos plans to release his own wireless headphones and/or wireless earbuds have been roaming for years. And while many designs have surfaced – again, thanks to the pictures found in patent applications – very little discovery about how these headphones or earbuds may be functionally different from existing products from companies such as Sony, Bose and Apple. Inside German patent application Topic “Cable return mechanism for headphone devices“However, this is a highly revealed statement:
[…] A consumer expects a Wi-Fi-capable headphone to have the same type of reliable internet connection for their wireless access points that they experience when using the tablet. […] – Translated from German by Google translation
While a patent application does not mean that the new technology is imminent, it seems the biggest indicator that we do not intend to launch a set of traditional Bluetooth headphones only. Why is this important details involved in a patent which is related to cable withdrawal and not Wi-Fi? It turns out that if you want to create a set of reliable Wi-Fi-able headphones, you need an antenna system that goes well beyond the engineering requirements of the Bluetooth device.
Need another antenna
As per the application, a set of Bluetooth headphones can be away with a single antenna, which is placed in one of the two headphones earcups. Because of this, a very thin, audio-online cable can be used to connect the secondary earcup to the primary earcup. That cable can be rooted without fear of easily damage through headband and earcup forks, even the headphone earcup is increased and is done to correspond to various heads sizes of people.
To connect Wi-Fi connectivity, you will expect a phone or tablet with the same level of ranges and reliability. Antena should be placed in both ears as the human head has a tendency to block Wi-Fi signals. The problem is that now it will need to pass both audio and Wi-Fi antenna signal from one earcup to another, and it requires a thick cable that effectively affects different internal wires from each other. A thick cable also creates real issues when it comes to running it between the earcups, while simultaneously lets the earcups move inside and out the headband. Kink, bends, and other points of potential damage may seriously see the lifespan of this thick cable.
[…] The examples described here may be in a diameter of more than 4 mm in diameter, a cable assembly containing each conductor required for better wireless headphones. It is almost double the diameter of a specific headband cable in a Bluetooth-only headphone. […] – Translated from German by Google translation
The main body of the patent describes various methods in which Sonos is planning to cross this challenge. Its main strategy combines a serpentine routing pattern via a headband with cable content made of elastomeric plastic. Such cables can be heat-arranged in that accordion-like size and will also be near the elasticity required to pull themselves back to shape after long growing.
Why Wi-Fi?
When Sonos can go through this trouble to add Wi-Fi to a set of wireless headphones, the rest of the industry appears to rely on Bluetooth?
First, Wi-Fi has a much larger bandwidth capacity than Bluetooth. Bluetooth is great to send less distance, sending compressed audio. But even the latest version (Bluetooth 5.2) and Aptx HD, LDAC, and LHDC with the use of high-quality codes, remains out of access to something really defective, hi-race audio on something like 24-bit/192 kHz. Wi-Fi can distribute these audio signals without breaking sweat.
This extra wireless audio loyalty cannot make you very good when you are out and the movement of life. But at home, it can provide true Audiofile-grade sound for a set of wireless headphones, which are something at the high end of the market that want.
The second is that the entire sonos ecosystem of wireless connected speakers is based on Wi-Fi. However, it is true that Sonos Rome and Sonos Move Portable Speakers have Bluetooth connections, too, the Wi-Fi sonos remains the backbone of the experience. And, for now, its powerful and elegant app for the computer controls only Wi-Fi devices for the computer-it does not work when the Rome or the trick is set on Bluetooth mode, for example.
So when companies like Apple and Sony understand the benefits of Audio quality of Wi-Fi, they do not have the same ecosystem-driven incentive to create Wi-Fi-SAP headphones that Sonos does. If and when Sonos launches these headphones, it may first be the first to listen to Apple music on a set of wireless headphones to hear the full range of the defective audio catalogs of Apple.
Is a new cable the only challenge?
No, the patent application refers to the details given above how Sonos intends to manage the thick cable required for Wi-Fi, but a major challenge is that Wi-Fi requires much more power than Bluetooth. More power means either a large battery means that the same hearing time as Bluetooth, or as the same size of the battery, but with very little hearing time.
Nevertheless, given that we have seen Bluetooth headphones with a capacity of 45- to 50-hour, this hearing time has reduced this hearing up by 50% to provide Wi-Fi.
These can explain the requirements of electricity Another sonos patent It emerged in 2021 and depicted a set of true wireless earbuds, while wearing earbuds, even equipped with a set of magnetically attached power plates designed to increase the hearing time.
What about Bluetooth?
Any wireless headphone released Sonos will have to support Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi, and it seems that Sonos wants to become a leader in Bluetooth space. The company recently acquired Bluetooth audio startup T2 software, ProtocolWhich is working on ways that can integrate products the next generation of Bluetooth: Bluetooth Le Audio.
Bluetooth Le Audio brings a new Bluetooth codec, known as LC3, which promised high quality audio with very low power consumption. It also combines the concept of public and private “shared streams” – the ability to stream in several received devices from a device sending a Bluetooth. Getting expertise in this field will give Sonos an edge, not only it is related to any wireless headphones that makes it, but also when it talks about better integration to the Bluetooth speaker in its Wi-Fi-Cowl Multum Ecosystem. Shared currents can essentially reproduce Sonos’s Wi-Fi audio distribution instead using Bluetooth.
Price and availability
So far, we do not have any reliable information about when (or even) Sonos will launch a set of Wi-Fi-competent headphones. But given that patent applications lag behind in real product development – when a company actually intends to sell a product that uses the technique described in the patent – it is possible that Sonos can announce these new headphones later in 2022. The supply chain issues, which have delayed several products over 2020/21, may push back by 2023.
In terms of price, the consensus appears that the sonos will ask up to $ 500, put his headphone in direct competition with the $ 549 Apple Airpods Max and above the price of the headphone 700, above the price of $ 349 Sony who-1000xm4 and $ 399 Bose Noise. Multipoint, and wear sensor, it can easily make its high price correct through the inclusion of Wi-Fi and Sonos app control, which will make it really unique in the market.
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