Sonos Ace Ultra ($449) and Beam Ultra ($699) Launch Sept 29, ChatGPT Control Arrives Sept 8

Sonos opened preorders on Tuesday for two new products and a rebuilt software platform, its biggest hardware push since the original Ace headphones. The Ace Ultra headphones cost $449, the Beam Ultra soundbar costs $699, and both ship September 29. A third piece, the renamed Sonos 27 operating system, starts letting ChatGPT control Sonos speakers from September 8.

Beam Ultra adds real Dolby Atmos, not the simulated kind

The Beam Ultra is the first Beam-series soundbar with upward-firing drivers, which is the hardware that separates genuine Dolby Atmos from software-simulated surround sound. Driver count jumps from five on the outgoing Beam Gen 2 to nine: five tweeters, arranged as one center and two side-firing plus two upward-firing, backed by four low-profile woofers.

Sonos calls the result "true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos" in a mid-size cabinet. It connects over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HDMI eARC, and can pair with other Sonos speakers as wireless rear surrounds. A new AI Speech Enhancement feature offers four adjustable levels for clarifying dialogue, aimed at people who ride the volume up and down during quiet conversation scenes.

Ace Ultra headphones bring longer battery life and stronger ANC

The Ace Ultra succeeds the original Ace, Sonos's first headphones, and adds active noise cancellation the company says is roughly twice as effective as before. Battery life with ANC on rises to 35 hours, up from 30 hours on the first-generation model.

The bigger change is software rather than acoustics. Ace Ultra works with Sonos's own voice assistant but is also built to connect to third-party AI services, a shift from the original Ace's more closed setup. "Headphone linking," which ties the Ace Ultra into the rest of a home's Sonos system for handoff between speakers and headphones, launches as an early-access feature alongside the hardware. It joins a crowded field of 2026 headphone launches, including the recently refreshed Bose QuietComfort line.

Sonos 27 opens the platform to outside AI assistants

Sonos renamed its audio platform Sonos 27 and used the launch to detail how outside AI tools plug into it. Two pieces do the work: Sonos 27voice is the company's own curation assistant for picking music and setting a mood, while a separate component called Sonos 27mcp is what lets external assistants like ChatGPT reach into a Sonos system.

ChatGPT integration through Sonos 27mcp begins rolling out September 8 in early access. Once it lands, people will be able to ask ChatGPT to start playing music on a specific Sonos speaker from their phone or computer without switching out of the conversation they are already having.

Sonos 27 also adds:

• Sonos Fabric — lets Sonos products sense each other and adapt their behavior automatically.
• Sonos Positioning Technology — uses high-frequency sound to help the system understand where speakers sit in a room.
• Portable surrounds — extends surround-speaker duty to the battery-powered Move 2 and Play models.
• Sonos Custom Agents — a coming feature for building personalized AI agents, not yet available at launch.
• A redesigned Sonos 27 app with reworked navigation.

Price, dates, and how to preorder

Both the Ace Ultra headphones and Beam Ultra soundbar are open for preorder now directly through Sonos, with general availability September 29. Sonos has not published pricing or a ship date for markets outside the US in its announcement materials, so buyers elsewhere should check the Sonos site for local availability before the September 29 date.

The launch lands under CEO Tom Conrad, who has pushed Sonos to position itself as a broader AI-connected audio platform rather than a speaker maker alone. Opening the Ace Ultra and the wider Sonos 27 system to outside assistants like ChatGPT is the clearest sign yet of that shift.