Sonos, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONO) introduced on Tuesday the launch of a new model called the Amp Multi, its first such launch in more than a year. Targeted for the professional integrator channel, Amp Multi is, as the name suggests, a multi-channel streaming amplifier that appears to be designed to encourage integrators to incorporate more Sonos products in larger, more sophisticated residential installations.
But will integrators go along with this scheme?
See all about the new Sonos Amp Multi…
I find two things that are interesting about this announcement from Sonos. First, with the timing of this launch, the company has broken its frequently repeated promise to the investment community that it would introduce at least two new products every year. Second, this launch is not targeted at Sonos’ largest channel, the consumer market, but rather the professional integration community, which is a smaller channel for them.
Very Few Clues as to Why This Path
It’s hard to decipher the meaning of this development. Is the company changing its strategy and focusing more of its time, energy, and innovation on raising its success in custom integration? Or is it a knee-jerk reaction to the very public and troubled launch of Ace and the horribly bungled Sonos app update? There are very few clues in their formal announcement.
Sometimes I think Sonos is a company that can’t decide what it wants to be when it grows up. Do they want to be the choice of professional integrators/installers addressing the luxury residential market with powerful behind-the-scenes gear that makes users’ lives more enjoyable? Or would they rather be a big consumer brand with as many devices as possible sold through every commercial means possible in order to ensure Sonos products end up in every home? They are two entirely different visions addressing two entirely different markets. Somehow, Sonos doesn’t seem to be able to make up its mind.
Amp Multi – A Closer Look
In any event, let’s take a closer look at Amp Multi. While the company contemplates that consumers may want to purchase an Amp Multi for themselves, it is almost assuredly designed to be installed by a professional integration specialist. The company says the Amp Multi was developed, “…in close collaboration with integrators.”
<<Attention any integrator reading this: If you participated with Sonos in developing the Amp Multi, please reach out to me to discuss the process (off the record or anonymously if you prefer). Reach me via either the Strata-gee “Contact Us” page, or at info@strata-gee.com.>>
8 Channels, 4 Zones
Amp Multi is a class D amplifier with 8 channels of 125 watts of power (8Ω, all channels driven), driving four zones. The amplifier utilizes Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology with post-filter feedback (PFFB). Each channel can drive up to three “Sonos Architectural speakers” for a total of 24 speakers across the 8 channels.
The company notes that the unit is a fanless design for cool, quiet operation. Amp Multi also comes with Sonos ProTune, “a new manual sound optimization tool that gives integrators granular control of each output, including a 10-band parametric EQ, gain, width control and delay offset.” Also included are DSP tools such as Optimize Sonos Speakers, which deliver detailed DSP profiles for Sonos Architectural speakers.
Sonos Thinks: Amp Multi Offers A Powerful Combination of Capabilities
Sonos believes that the combination of its renowned streaming platform, its intuitive control solution, and a product architecture optimized for the integrator community will make Amp Multi extremely popular in the integration community.
We created Amp Multi with integrators at the heart of every decision, drawing on their deep understanding of real-world installation challenges to design a product around how they actually work. The goal was to reduce friction at every stage of a project, from installation and setup to system tuning. This is about giving professionals more control while keeping the system approachable for the people who live with it every day.
Chris Heintzman, Sonos VP of Product
More Features of Amp Multi
An app-based setup process speeds the installation with a robust but efficient set of tools to provide, for example, quick and easy management of zones, sources, and outputs. And, as you would expect, Amp Multi fully integrates with top brands, such as Control4, Nice, Crestron, URC, and RTI.
Rack-ready, the Amp Multi is a 2U design (rack mount sold separately). Even the rack mount is smart – it automatically provides for ventilation space, obviating the need for any additional vent panels.
Need even more than a single Amp Multi can address? No problem, the company says you can simply add more Amp Multis to further scale the system to any size installation.
Availability…
The company says that the Amp Multi will be available “in the coming months.” I am not sure just exactly what that hazy estimate means. Previously, the company had announced that there would be no new hardware products until the second half of Fiscal 2026. If that remains the timetable, then Amp Multi won’t be available until some time in June 2026 or later.
SEE AMP MULTI AT ISE – For those attending ISE in Barcelona next month, Sonos says attendees can experience Amp Multi in person by visiting Stand 1E500 in Hall 1. The company will be holding demonstrations of the Amp Multi every 15 minutes in its stand.
To learn more about Sonos and its products, visit: sonos.com.
There is no need to speculate on the company’s focus, as it has been clear for 10 years or more.
It is somewhat understood that the custom community had a significant impact growing this brand in its earlier days. Back when Sonos sold their own monochrome and later color handheld controllers, integrators saw this as a system that was easy to roll out and easy for any client, including elderly ones, to understand. We as integrators had enough influence to install it and spread the word and become free advertisers.
Early on, Sonos sought client email addresses, but many of us used our own or even a dummy address to stay under the radar. Later, that became impossible, And Sonos began marketing our clients directly, which is obviously bad company policy if you want to keep the professional community in your corner. Many professionals will use a system with fewer features such as Heos, vowing to never support a company that shoots them in the back.
To any casual observer, what is obvious is that they don’t have enough of a market to support the professional community, without harvesting their clients later. They need more market penetration, or they just will not survive. They need us and push products geared towards us, yet they have no choice but to steal our clients.
That is the decision they made long ago and there is no way to retreat from that. How many quarters in a row have they lost money? I believe they are in a race for survival, and will either have to start turning profits, or get acquired by a larger company that can pour money into them.
It’s an obvious first step towards survival. What a change from being the 800 lb gorilla in distributed audio with its own ironclad ecosystem to playing nice with others!
Maybe, just maybe, with the baked-in 10-band parametric EQ, Sonos products might finally sound good.
Hi Rolf, thanks for adding your perspective here. While this latest move from Sonos may be “an obvious first step towards survival,” what is less obvious to me is if the decision to a move away from the creative inventiveness of the original founders that made Sonos into that “800 pound gorilla”…to a more conventional CI product direction will carry them to new level’s of prosperity.
I’m skeptical… I’ve heard from integrators who question this new product’s design. Many of them originally sold Sonos because of client requests for the popular consumer brand…or from the fact that there just was no other option to that completely unique original line. This new product has a lot of competition…offering a lot of options.
This has the foul odor of a big consumer brand chasing the far more beneficial margins of CI, while trying to remain a big consumer brand. I’ve watched many big brands try that and fail. It’s perhaps impossible to be a major consumer brand with aspirations to be in every home, while – at the same time – trying to keep a painfully thin veneer of “specialty” reputation in order to glean a fatter margin.
I would love to hear the new team at Sonos articulate a new vision for the brand. Instead we get this disjointed mix of old and “new”?
If you have one foot in a bucket of ice, and the other in a bucket of boiling water, are you, on average, comfortable?
We’ll see how this works out for them. My question is not so much about this particular product itself, it’s about the company’s evolving marketing strategy, brand definition, and product/market fit.
Ted
Better margins in CI?
Aren’t consumer margins way better, selling basically retail vs. CI dealer cost? I don’t understand.
CI doesn’t give them more profit necessarily, but it moves a lot more boxes at a lower margin.
Hi Tom…As a general rule of industry dynamics, retail is higher unit sales at lower margins, while CI is typically lower unit sales at higher margins. There can be exceptions to any rule, but in my experience, the general rule holds.
Ted