Sonos has been rumoured to be working on a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to tackle the likes of Sony, Bose, Microsoft, AKG, Marshall, JBL and Apple for some time now. And while there has been a steady trickle of details about the over-ear headphones, we haven’t enjoyed a clear look at the design of these hotly-anticipated new cans. Until now, that is.
A new patent filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office includes a detailed line drawing of the product in question. Sonos filed for a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office back in September 2020, but while there were drawings included with that document – there wasn’t much detail at all. In fact, they just looked like pretty generic headphones. The German documentation, which was filed in December last year but published a few weeks ago, appears to show a finalised design.
The Sonos logo can clearly be seen on the earcups, as well as detailed drawings of the playback controls and headband design.
Sonos seems to have made a few changes since the US patent last year, including a new shape for the earcup and a much simpler connection to the headband. Based on the drawings filed with the patent, Sonos will use a USB-C port to recharge the headphones. A 3.5mm audio input is also present in the design – so you’ll be able to connect to the entertainment system on your next flight without juggling a number of adapters (like you’ll need with Apple AirPods Max, for example).
Just like your wireless Sonos speaker system at home, you’ll be able to bring playlists, albums and artists from a plethora of sources, including Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, as well as radio from TuneIn and Global Player and audiobooks from Audible, to name a few. Sonos also has its own curated radio service.
Sonos is purportedly set to use both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for listening on the headphones. One of the flagship features of these forthcoming headphones is rumoured to be the ability to hand-off music from the headphones to your speakers at home – or take the music with you as you walk out of the door. Whether that’s enough to convince customers to move away from more established brands like Sony and Bose remains to be seen.
