Sonos is in the phase of doubling down on the custom in-home audio market with new products and new partnerships. The company has announced its new version of the Sonos Amp and a partnership with 'Sonance' that will give birth to three architectural speakers — in-wall, in-ceiling and outdoor — which will get additional functionality when paired with a Sonos system as claimed by Sonos.
Sonos also announced an upcoming Control APIs which the company says will make it easier to integrate Sonos into ever-evolving smart homes. This gets on well with the long-standing approach of Sonos to work with other platforms and offer its customers plenty of services.
The new Amp will allow owners to use their traditional home audio speakers with the Sonos system, connect stream media or a turntable with just the Amp and power up a set of bookshelf speakers. As stated in the specs sheet, the Amp has enough power to push most of the high-end bookshelf speakers.
This new Amp version outputs 125 watts per channel at 8 ohms, and can power up four speakers instead of two. Also, the additional power makes the Amp more versatile than the previous version. Sonos says that the Amp can be used to add stereo to a TV (via HDMI support) or add wireless rears to a theater setup from Sonos. Or else to add a complete surround sound system by using two Amps.
The Amp works with both AirPlay 2 and Alexa when used in conjunction with an Amazon Alexa-enabled Sonos device like: Sonos One or Beam.