It’s been known for some time that Sonos has been working on a streaming video device that was aimed to launch in 2025, with major leaks revealing what it would entail.
Now, after Sonos’ previous CEO left as a result of the company’s horrible 2024, Sonos has a new CEO that’s changing a lot of things within the company – and according to The Verge, this has led to the cancellation of the streaming video box launch. The Verge has proven to have very accurate Sonos information over the years, so this is almost certainly correct.
Now, given that I called this box “doomed” based on the details we initially heard – specifically, that it would have ads-based software, yet would cost up to $400 – I can’t say that I reacted with much surprise to seeing this news… but actually, I really hope this project isn’t fully dead, because one half of it sounded amazing.
The Sonos streaming box promised to provide a whole new kind of wireless home theater experience with Sonos speakers, acting as an HDMI switch with 4K 120Hz passthrough. This is a great feature on its own because even in 2025, most of the best TVs will only have two HDMI 2.1 ports, and one will probably be the HDMI eARC port for your sound system.
But also, HDMI switches with auto-switching between sources are really rare, so a smarter version that does this is very desirable.
In addition, the box was set to offer new home theater configuration options with Sonos speakers. At the moment, the Sonos surround system consists of a soundbar wired to the TV, two rear speakers, and an optional subwoofer, but the streaming box was said to offer the ability to use individual Sonos speakers as front left and right channels, with a soundbar potentially acting as a center speaker.
Sonos fans have been crying out for this for years, to provide a more ‘real’ surround system as an alternative to the best Dolby Atmos soundbars. It seemed to finally be on the way – and I hope this baby isn’t being thrown out with the bathwater.
A simpler box, that’s more price competitive?
I already wrote an essay about why this flexibility could’ve made the Sonos box a big hit with home theater enthusiasts, so I won’t go too deep into it right now.
But let me lay out what I’d like to see because I think there’s something that could be a really big hit here. What if Sonos could still release a connection box? It just wouldn’t include the smart TV part, meaning it needs far less powerful processing.
It would still include the HDMI passthrough and switching functionality, and wireless connectivity to Sonos speakers – perhaps it costs around $200. That’s not cheap, but as part of the right speaker system, it could easily be worthwhile.
Let’s compare this to the Sony Bravia Theater Quad, which costs $2,500. That’s a one-box system that includes four surround speakers and a wireless connector for your TV. Each speaker has forward and upward firing drivers.
The Sonos equivalent to this would be my hypothetical wireless TV connection box, plus four Sonos Era 300 speakers. Like the Sony, this would provide both surround and upfiring drivers – but the cost for this set would be, at the time of writing, $1,906. That’s $200 for my box that I invented and $853 per pair of Sonos Era 300 speakers.
We could add in a Sonos Ray for $179 as a center channel (something the Sony system sorely lacks unless it’s connected to a Sony TV), and still spend way less than the Sony option costs – you could add a subwoofer too, in that case, if you want.
This kind of speaker setup, with genuine satellite forward left and right speakers, isn’t possible officially with a Sonos setup right now – a box that enables it could be a great deal compared to most other wireless home theater setups, even if it appears to be expensive to buy on its own at first blush.
So what I’m really hoping is that Sonos is planning to kill off the smart TV software side of things that no one really wanted but keeps a smaller, leaner, meaner version of its TV box.
I’ve written before that if Sonos doesn’t have some kind of tech for wireless connections to TVs coming, it’s going to have a real problem long-term, because that’s absolutely going to become more mainstream in the next couple of years.
This would solve that problem and enable even better options that fans have been crying out for – it’s the kind of thing that could put Sonos back in fans’ good graces. Let’s see if it happens…
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