“We’ve never seen a product request this high” – Sonos on the Ace headphones and India’s audio market | Exclusive – Technology News

Sonos, the brand synonymous with high-quality home audio, recently made its bold debut in the personal listening space with the launch of Sonos Ace. These premium, over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones promise to redefine the way we experience sound with features like lossless audio, spatial sound, and cutting-edge Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). We sat down with Scott Fink, Sonos’ product manager, to dive into what makes the Ace special, the challenges of the headphone market, and what this launch means for the Indian audience.

Excerpts.

Q: Why is Sonos entering the headphone market now?

A: This is a huge opportunity for us to bring a great experience to both existing customers and a new set of customers. Globally, it’s a $5 billion market, growing double digits year over year. Consumers are spending more on great audio experiences for home and on the go. In my 13 years at Sonos, I’ve never seen a product request as high as this one. It’s not just about fulfilling that demand, but also about introducing Sonos to a new set of customers who maybe weren’t thinking about us because they weren’t shopping exclusively for home audio.

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Q: What excites you most about the Indian market?

A: I’ve been inspired by how enthusiastic Indian consumers are about multimedia—music, film, sports, Bollywood, TV. Sonos fits right in. Indian customers appreciate great sound in large, multi-generational homes, and Ace adds to that by being perfect for on-the-go, especially for those commuting through the hustle and bustle of cities like Delhi. With Ace’s noise-cancelling features, you can block out the noise and enjoy your content wherever you are.

Q: Can you tell us more about the Aware Mode?

A: We’ve been iterating on headphone design for years, especially on microphone placement. Ace has eight embedded microphones that we use for Active Noise Cancellation and Aware Mode, which streams ambient audio back into the headset. We worked hard to make sure the ambient sound feels natural, with minimal delay. We don’t just throw in technology for the sake of it—everything has to enhance the user experience across different scenarios.

Q: What was the thought process behind the tactile buttons?

A: We explored a lot of options, but both internal tests and external feedback pointed to tactile controls as the most intuitive. While capacitive touch is great, especially on our speakers, when it comes to blind navigation on something you wear, we found the content key worked best. Users loved how easy and reliable it was.

Q: Can you talk more about the build and comfort especially with regards to the memory foam material?

A: We’ve been using headphones for years and years across the product team (even if they weren’t our pair of headphones). We realised that the first thing that will wear out if you use your headphones a lot are the cushions. We don’t think that you should have to throw a whole pair of headphones just because your cushions are starting to get a little frail or lose some of their memory. That’s why we created cushions that are easy to detach so you can get replacements without having to buy a whole new set of headphones. We were trying to not only design something that’s comfortable and stylish, but also being responsible with our design.

Q: What’s up with the Sonos app?

A: You probably saw the note from Patrick Spence, our CEO or maybe our investor call. Right now, the Sonos app is our top priority. We know that customers have a very high expectation from the experience we deliver at Sonos, and we didn’t meet those expectations when we first launched the app. And so, our top priority is to get the app in a great spot, so our customers love it now like they’ve loved it before.

Q: Your take on annual cadence of technology products and Ace 2 launch roadmap?

A: When you look at the other categories that we’re in, like sound bars and music speakers, a lot of the competing companies will refresh things every year. That’s not how we approach product development at Sonos. We want to make sure that we’re delivering an even better experience than the previous generation, and if we can accomplish that in a year’s time, that’s great. But honestly, the thoughtful iteration and generational leaps that we want to make in hardware and software often take longer than a 12-month cycle. So, we’re going to stay true to that and make sure that we’re really advancing the state of the experience of the product versus trying to tie ourselves to any given timeline and refresh cycle.

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