Sonos stages its comeback: Ace Ultra and Beam Ultra are built around audio AI you control

Ace Ultra headphones.Credit: Sonos Published Sep 1, 2026, 12:03 PM EDT Jon is a seasoned journalist who has written definitive coverage of consumer tech at publications like Engadget, Android Authority, and BetaKit. He's an expert on making tech accessible ranging from mobile and PCs to emerging platforms like wearables. When he's not writing, he's going on adventures with ihis family and is an avid photographer. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Sonos has used its much-hyped Open House event to premiere two new devices that it hopes will recover its reputation, including an AI platform it says will give you more control. The company has introduced Ace Ultra headphones and a Beam Ultra soundbar that are built on a new Sonos 27 "audio operating system" with AI at its heart. The new platform includes a 27voice assistant that helps you find music, but the real draw is a 27mcp that connects "any" external AI model to your setup rather than locking you in to someone else's technology. You can ask ChatGPT to play music in your home, for instance. Sonos has also teased Custom Agents that will have their own personas as they perform multiple tasks. The Sonos 27app, meanwhile, has "more intuitive" community-shaped navigation. The Ace Ultra also brings a feature requested ever since the first Ace arrived: connecting your headphones to your Sonos network. A new headphone linking feature coming in Early Access this fall lets you move audio from your headphones to your speakers and back, even if your phone is nowhere nearby. If you've been blaring a hot new album around the home but want to keep the house quiet at night, you can push it to your over-ears. Linking doesn't work with the original Ace models as it requires the Ultra's new hardware, Sonos says. The Ace Ultra uses Sonos-made 40mm drivers and 10-microphone active noise cancellation (up from eight). The Beam Ultra, meanwhile, is a 7.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar with a cleaner-sounding center channel and "warmer" bass. It also makes use of a Sonos 27 upgrade that uses portable speakers like the Move 2 and Play as rear surrounds the moment they're in the right position—you can take some of your setup outside for a party, and bring it back for a movie night. Sonos Ace Ultra, Beam Ultra, and 27 price and release date Software comes before hardware The Ace Ultra is available to pre-order now for the same $449 as the first headphones, while the Beam Ultra is is also available to pre-order at $699. Both should reach stores and customers by September 29. Sonos 27 is coming as a software update for all devices that use the S2 app and system. The navigation upgrade starts reaching customers on September 8 with portable speaker surround and an Early Access version of 27mcp's AI integration. Headphone linking will ship alongside the Ace Ultra on September 29. For Sonos, this isn't just a fall product launch — it's a redemption effort. The company drew flak in May 2024 when it delivered a redesigned app that was supposed to streamline control, but lost major features (such as sleep timers) and introduced numerous bugs. The debut was bad enough that it led to the resignation of then-CEO Patrick Spence, hurt the Ace launch, and prompted long-running effort to restore features and reliability. The Ace Ultra, Beam Ultra, and Sonos 27 theoretically show what Sonos has learned in the two years. While they're not major hardware upgrades in themselves, they both address user wish lists and reflect community feedback. You hopefully won't see a repeat fiasco, and might even come back if you were burned before.