Sonos CEO says the company remains 'really excited' about headphones but in-car audio isn't a priority

Date:
Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:33:14 +0000

Description:
Sonos boss Tom Conrad has been speaking to Bloomberg about plans for headphones and audio for the car.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get the TechRadar Newsletter Sign up for
breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The man in charge of Sonos has more to share He says Sonos is committed to the headphones category In-car audio is not a main priority right now, however Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has been busy speaking to outlets including TechRadar about his plans for the high-end audio company going forward, and in a new interview he confirms Sonos's continued commitment to one product category while dampening down expectations in another.

Conrad spoke to Chris Welch at Bloomberg about how Sonos intends to follow up on the Sonos Ace headphones that launched in June 2024, and the CEO
emphasized that his company remains "really excited" about new pairs of headphones in the future. It sounds as though the Sonos Ace 2 headphones
might not be too far off then, but Conrad did express some regret about how the original pair were positioned on the market and suggests selling them to existing Sonos customers first may have been a better strategy. Article continues below You may like Sonos launches 2 new speakers, and CEO Tom
Conrad tells us all about them Sonos' CEO explains what went wrong with the app, and what's being fixed Sonos CEO Tom Conrad full interview: in-depth on hardware, software & more

"I think the thesis for Ace at launch was it's a $5 billion or $6 billion category, we can make a pair of headphones that is as good or better than anything else on the market, and the opportunity is to go out there and do hand-to-hand combat with Sony and Bose and Apple and win," says Conrad. 'Strategic power' The new Sonos Era 100 SL speaker (Image credit: Sonos)
While it seems likely that more headphones are on the way, don't expect any kind of in-car audio solution from Sonos in the near future. Sonos already
has a partnership with Audi, but at the moment we're not going to see much more than that certainly nothing along the lines of Cadillac's AKG Dolby Atmos system , for example.

"As soon as you're in the car, there are a bunch of new gatekeepers," says Conrad. "I look for venues where we have some strategic power, and it feels
to me like in the car, it's a little hard to make the case that we have a ton of strategic power."

However, there is still a "small team" working on potential Sonos products
for the car. "I would characterize what we're doing in automotive as a
hobby," explains the CEO. "Let's see what happens there." Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

As well as future speculation, there are actual new products from Sonos on
the market you can go out and buy right now, which fall under the company's core focus on wireless speakers: there's a refreshed Play speaker with added portability, as well as a cheaper version of the Era 100 we've got all the details here . Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too. Today's best Sonos deals Sonos Era 100 Wireless Speaker 199 View See all prices Sonos Era 300 Wireless Speaker 449 View See all prices Sonos Move 2
449 View See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/audio/sonos-ceo-says-the-company-remains-really-exci ted-about-headphones-but-in-car-audio-isnt-a-priority


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