Sonos to bring Apple Music Spatial Audio support to several smart speakers
Sonos has announced that some of its products will soon support Apple's Spatial Audio technology. The company will be the first external partner for Apple Music that offers the technology, which will debut in the Era 300 smart speaker. Incidentally, Sonos also announced the Era 100 today, which replaces the Sonos One. The technology will make its way to the Arc and Beam (Gen 2), too.
Sonos has not confirmed when Spatial Audio support will become active, but the Era 300 does not ship until the end of the month. In short, Spatial Audio integrates Dolby Atmos, which is designed to create a good facsimile of a 3D soundstage. For reference, many Apple products now support Spatial Audio, including the new HomePod 2.
It remains to be seen whether Sonos will optimise Spatial Audio for the Arc, Beam (Gen 2) and Era 300 as well as Apple has with the HomePod 2 and its earbuds. With that said, Giles Martin, VP of Sound Experience at Sonos commented:
It's a thrilling time in music as spatial audio - and the artist creativity that comes with it - continues to grow...Sonos continues to put its listeners at the forefront of sound innovation, ensuring they have access through Apple Music to transformative experiences like spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, so they can feel more from the content they love.