What's new from Sonos in 2026, and what's worth it in a Central Oregon home

Oct 1

9 min read

Sonos has been our go-to for whole-home audio for years, mostly because it's the system clients actually keep using after we leave. The music is good, the app is simple enough, and it doesn't need a manual taped inside a cabinet.

2026 has been Sonos' busiest year in a long time. There's a new software platform called Sonos 27, AI control, four new products for homeowners, and a multi-zone amplifier built for professional installs. Most of it is good news. Some of it is early. A couple of pieces matter a lot more in a Central Oregon home than the headlines suggest.

Here's what changed, what we'd use, and where we'd wait.

Sonos 27: your current system probably just got better

The biggest Sonos news of the year isn't a speaker.

Sonos 27 started rolling out on September 8 as a free update for Sonos speakers on the S2 platform, which covers most systems installed in the last several years. Instead of asking you to buy new hardware for new features, Sonos is pushing them out through software.

The most visible change is the app. It now has three tabs along the bottom (Home, System and Search), and you can pin the rooms you use most. There's a new on-screen volume dial, and iPhone users get Sonos controls on the lock screen. Saved presets for rooms, music and volume, plus a view of your system's health, are due later this fall.

That sounds minor until you have ten rooms and a patio. Getting to the right room fast is most of what people want from a Sonos app.

One caveat: if your system is old enough that it still runs on Sonos S1, Sonos 27 won't reach it. We see a fair number of those in second homes in Sunriver and Black Butte Ranch that were set up ten or more years ago. If that's you, it's worth a conversation about which speakers to keep and which to retire.

AI control has arrived, in Early Access

Sonos is opening the system to AI in two ways.

Sonos 27mcp lets outside AI assistants control your Sonos system. Sonos names ChatGPT and Claude as examples. It's an Early Access feature, which is Sonos' term for "working, but still being refined." It runs through a service Sonos hosts, so it needs a working internet connection.

Sonos 27voice is Sonos' own AI assistant for music, due in Early Access later this fall. Sonos says it's built for the way people actually ask for music, by mood or moment instead of exact titles. So instead of remembering an album name, you'd ask for something easy for dinner, or something mellow after a day at Mt. Bachelor.

Our take: this is the direction smart homes should go. You talk to the house the way you'd talk to a person, and you stop learning interfaces. But we treat AI control as a bonus. The keypad on the wall and the Sonos app are still how the system has to work every day, for you, for your guests, and for whoever's watching the house while you're away.

Sonos Voice Control now runs your Lutron lights and shades

Since this summer, Sonos Voice Control can turn Lutron lights on and off, dim them, raise and lower shades, and run Lutron scenes. It works with Caséta, RadioRA 2 Select, RadioRA 3 and HomeWorks, and the commands stay on your home network.

We install Sonos and Lutron together on a lot of projects, so we covered this in detail when it launched: controlling your Lutron lights and shades through Sonos. The short version is that "Hey Sonos, turn on Evening" now works, and it keeps working if your internet drops, as long as your home network is up.

Beam Ultra: real Atmos in a compact soundbar

The new Beam Ultra went on sale September 29. It's Sonos' compact premium soundbar, and the difference from the Beam Gen 2 is real.

It has nine drivers, including two that fire upward and bounce sound off the ceiling, so effects like rain or a passing helicopter come from above you. Sonos rates it at true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos, which in plain terms means it has dedicated drivers for overhead sound. The feature we expect clients to notice most is AI Speech Enhancement, which has four levels. Dialogue is the most common complaint we hear about TV sound, and turning up the voices without turning up the explosions solves it.

It also has Night Sound for quiet late-night listening, Trueplay room tuning (now on Android as well as iPhone), a single HDMI connection to the TV, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, and the option to add a Sonos sub and surrounds later.

Two things to know before you order one:

It's about four inches wider than the Beam Gen 2 (roughly 29.5 inches versus 25.6). If your current Beam sits in a cabinet niche or under a wall-mounted TV with tight spacing, measure first.
Up-firing drivers need the right ceiling. They bounce sound off the ceiling above, and they work best on a flat ceiling somewhere between 7.5 and 12 feet. Under the high vaulted ceilings in a lot of Central Oregon great rooms, most of that height effect disappears. In a room like that, in-ceiling speakers do the job better.

For a den, a bedroom, or a living room with a normal ceiling and a mid-size TV, Beam Ultra is an easy recommendation.

Your portable speakers can now double as surrounds

This is the Sonos 27 feature we think people will use every week.

Set a matching pair of Sonos Play or Move 2 speakers behind the couch, and a compatible soundbar (Arc Ultra, Arc, Beam Ultra or Beam Gen 2) works out where they are and uses them as rear surrounds. Sonos calls this portable surrounds. When the movie's over, pick them up and take them outside.

In Bend, that means the same two speakers can play on the deck during a July barbecue and turn into the surrounds for movie night once the sun goes down. That's the kind of flexibility we like.

Sonos Play: one speaker for inside and out

Sonos Play is a new portable speaker made to move between the house and the outdoors. It gets up to 24 hours on a charge, it's sealed against dust and water (rated IP67), and it's built to survive a drop. It connects over Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, works with AirPlay 2, and comes with a charging base.

The feature that makes it work outside is Automatic Trueplay, which keeps adjusting the sound to wherever the speaker is sitting. Carry it from the kitchen to the deck, the garage or a campsite near Sisters, and it doesn't stay tuned to the room it left. A summer thunderstorm rolling over the patio isn't a problem. (For music that stays outside year-round, built-in speakers are still the better answer. We covered that in outdoor entertainment systems for Central Oregon backyards.)

Era 100 SL: Sonos without the microphones

The Era 100 SL is the Era 100's sound without built-in voice control or microphones. It has two angled tweeters for stereo separation, a midwoofer, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, AirPlay 2, and a USB-C port for a turntable or other line-in source (with Sonos' adapter). Two of them can be a stereo pair or rear surrounds.

This one fits Central Oregon well. A lot of second homes here double as vacation rentals, and plenty of guests don't love the idea of a microphone in the bedroom. The same goes for home offices and some businesses. Era 100 SL keeps those rooms on the Sonos system without the question coming up.

Ace Ultra: headphones that join the whole-home system

The new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones connect to your Sonos system over Wi-Fi instead of only pairing to your phone. Sonos calls it headphone linking. Press a button on the headphones and the music moves from the kitchen speakers to your ears, or back. A press also pulls the TV sound from a compatible Sonos soundbar to the headphones. Headphone linking launched in Early Access alongside the headphones.

The rest of the spec sheet is strong: a 40 mm Sonos-designed driver, ten microphones for noise cancellation and calls, spatial audio with head tracking, and up to 35 hours of battery with noise cancellation on. Sonos also made the ear cushions and the battery replaceable, so normal wear doesn't mean buying new headphones.

The real-life use is simple: late-night TV or music in a quiet house without waking anyone up.

Amp Multi: the one that matters most for custom homes

Homeowners will hear more about Beam Ultra and Ace Ultra. From where we sit, Sonos Amp Multi is the one that changes how we design whole-home audio.

Amp Multi is built for professional installation and is available only through Sonos installation partners. It has eight amplified outputs at 125 watts each, which can be set up as up to four independent zones. One unit can drive up to 24 Sonos Architectural speakers when it's set up within Sonos' specs.

Here's why that matters. Until now, a Sonos whole-home system with in-ceiling speakers typically meant one Sonos Amp for every stereo zone. Great room, kitchen, primary suite and patio meant four amps on the shelf. Amp Multi can run all four from one box. That's a cleaner rack, simpler wiring and easier expansion later.

It also comes with ProTune, a set of detailed sound-tuning tools for installers that work speaker by speaker. In practice, that lets us balance in-ceiling speakers in a tall, open great room so the music sounds even from the kitchen to the fireplace. Amp Multi is fanless and silent, rack-mountable, and works with third-party control systems.

It's also the clearest example of why audio planning belongs in the design phase. Speaker locations, wire runs, the equipment rack, ventilation and the network all get decided before the drywall goes up. We wrote more about what to prewire before drywall.

None of this works without a good network

Every feature in this post has one thing in common: it rides on your home network.

A modern Sonos system can have dozens of devices streaming, syncing rooms and taking commands at the same time. Ace Ultra now joins over Wi-Fi. AI control needs the internet. Add the TVs, cameras, laptops, thermostats, lighting system and everything else in a typical Bend home, and the network becomes the most important piece of infrastructure in the house.

That's even more true out past town. On a Starlink connection in Tumalo or Powell Butte, a solid internal network is what keeps the whole-home system steady. We wire the soundbars and amplifiers to the network wherever we can, and we design Wi-Fi and networking alongside the audio system from the first walkthrough.

A great Sonos system starts with good audio design, and it depends on the network, placement, wiring, tuning and integration behind it.

Where we'd hold off

We'd rather tell you now than after you've bought something.

Don't build a system around Early Access features. AI control and headphone linking are promising. Treat them as extras until they're out of Early Access.
Don't expect Beam Ultra to fill a vaulted great room. For a big, tall room, in-ceiling speakers or a larger soundbar with a sub is the better fit.
Don't use portable surrounds in a dedicated theater. They're great for a family room you use now and then. In a room you watch in every night, you don't want to set up speakers each time. Fixed surrounds are the right call.
Don't replace a working system just to get Sonos 27. If you're on S2, it's free. If you're on S1, that's when it's time to talk about upgrades.
Don't stuff an Amp Multi in a closed closet. Fanless means it cools by airflow. It needs a ventilated rack, which is one more reason to plan the equipment location early.

What these updates mean for your home

Look past the individual products and the bigger story is flexibility. Portable speakers turn into surrounds. Headphones join the system. Voice runs the lights. One amplifier can power a whole floor of architectural speakers. And compatible systems you already own keep getting better.

That's why we don't start with "Which Sonos speaker should I buy?" We start with better questions:

How do you want music to move through the house?
Where do you entertain, inside and out?
Which rooms need TV sound?
Do you want speakers you can see, or speakers hidden in the ceiling?
Should the patio be on the same system?
How should audio work with your lighting, shades and network?

The answers determine the system. The equipment comes next.

Thinking about a new Sonos system, or getting more out of the one you have? Whether you're building in Central Oregon, remodeling, adding outdoor audio or upgrading a home theater, we'll design it around how you live. Explore our whole-home audio and home theater work, visit our Technology Design Center in Bend, or call us and we'll take care of it.

SecuraCore: Technology made simple. More Central Oregon smart home advice on our blog.

Product features, availability and Early Access status are as published by Sonos as of October 1, 2026, and may change. Some features vary by product.