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Sonos is a leading American audio technology company that is best known for pioneering wireless multi-room audio systems, which make it easy for listeners to stream music and other content throughout their homes. The company continues to innovate, creating wireless speakers, home theatre systems, headphones, architectural components, and integrated home audio solutions that revolutionise how people listen and connect to sound.

Global Head of Editorial

Our Global Head of Editorial, Steven Saftig, managed to get his hands on the new Sonos Arc right before we closed our offices. He couldn’t stop talking about our newest soundbar, so we finally told him to just write a blog post about it. From setup to Dolby Atmos, he shares what it’s like to have an Arc in your home when you’re spending the entire day there. He also talked with sound engineer Chris Jenkins about his Oscar-winning sound mixing for Mad Max: Fury Road and what it’s like to hear it in Dolby Atmos, the gold standard for home theater audio.

I was on a train, coming back to Santa Barbara after visiting my family when I got the email from our head of HR: “All employees, please work from home.” We were a little under two months away from announcing 

 to the world and I hadn’t even heard what it sounded like yet. Whenever I write about our products for the blog, I immerse myself in the experience because I want to be able to share what it’s like to actually live with them. How was I going to write about our new home theater speaker without ever having heard it? And, to be honest, I still didn’t fully understand what Dolby Atmos was—one of Arc’s most exciting features. So when I received that email, asking us to get everything we needed out of the office by the end of the day, I panicked. So I started texting. Desperately.

Hey, does anyone have one of our new, top secret speakers lying around? Just, you know, waiting to be picked up? Like, right now?

Fast-forward through a cinematic montage of secret closets, product handoffs, and I finally had an Arc in my hands—an hour before our offices shut down.

Unboxing Arc: A shape-defying design. And 76,000 individually-drilled holes.

Back at home, I began one of my favorite parts of setting up a new Sonos product—the unboxing. The experience with Arc is as exciting and dramatic as I had hoped. More importantly though, we’ve continued to look for ways to minimize the environmental impact of our products. As Michelle Enright, Senior Design Manager, Packaging Experience describes, “For Arc, we had a clean slate opportunity to design packaging from the ground up. We created a 96.1% paper-based construction—moving away from foam-based cushions, which would have been the easier and more cost effective path.”

I peeled back the final layer of protective packaging and there it was. Now, by that point I’d seen a ton of photos of Arc, but because of the subtlety of its design, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I finally saw it in person. I carefully carried it over to my media console, placed it in front of my TV, and stood back. (You can also mount Arc to the wall.) Here’s the thing about the design of Arc: It’s actually quite difficult to describe its shape. It’s not a box. It’s not a rectangle. It’s not even a cylinder. It almost appears like it’s in motion, as if undulating. The overall effect is that Arc doesn’t feel like it’s trying to compete or stand out from the rest of your home theater setup. As Kitty Suidman, Director, Color Material and Finish says, “[Arc’s] design is purposeful, delivering a seamless, soft familiar profile. It feels like a piece of furniture in your home.”

I started to circle around Arc. And with each angle from which I observed, a new dimension of the design was revealed. There are no harsh edges, clunky protrusions, or jarring cavities. In short, it’s stunning. Turns out, this is all very intentional. “We take a 360-degree approach,” says Philippe Vossel, Industrial Designer at Sonos. “It doesn’t matter where you first look at the product—it all matters. If you look at it from the side first, that’s where it matters. If you mount it to the wall and look at it from the bottom first, that’s where it matters.” Vossel and the Industrial Design team were also thoughtful about how your eye travels along the product. “We want to make sure you don’t get hung up or distracted by unrefined details,” he said. “And in the end, it’s how these details all tie together that allows us to create a visual story about sound.”

There’s one more thing you should know about the design of Arc. Every Sonos product is the result of a creative, collaborative balance between what the hardware and software teams want to put inside the speaker and how the industrial design team wants it to look. There is a lot of technology packed into Arc. (More on that in a moment.) And the grille is the bridge that brings these two interests together—the piece that encases all of this incredible technology, while allowing the product to look as seamless and beautiful as you expect from all Sonos products. Building on the success of technological advances we made with the grilles on Play:5 and Playbase, Arc’s grille is a single seamless sheet, carefully molded and drilled with more than 76,000 holes to ensure exceptional sound and wireless performance. “It’s the latest version of something we’ve been working on for years,” says Dana Krieger, Senior Director of Design, Product.

I set up Arc in the middle of a work day, so I couldn’t immediately sit down to watch a full movie. But I was so anxious to hear what it sounded like that I decided I had to at least listen to a song. And, as anxious as I was, I still used Trueplay™ to tune Arc to my living room, which is not a uniform shape. (Trueplay is, by far, my favorite Sonos feature. Not using Trueplay is like riding around in a new car without adjusting the seat and setting your favorite radio stations. You’ll still enjoy the ride, but you’re missing out on an experience that’s customized just for you.)

I queued up my test song. (You have a test song, right? I play the same song whenever I test out a new speaker: “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac. I’ve been listening to that song since I was a baby, so I know every corner of it. If you don’t have a test song, check out this playlist of tracks we created to show off your system at its best.) I then sat down on my couch and listened the way that Greg McAllister, Sound Experience Manager at Sonos taught me how to listen.

Two things were immediately obvious to me—spaciousness and clarity. What do I mean by “spaciousness”? I don’t just mean that the sound fills the room, which it does. But imagine that you were given a one inch by one inch piece of paper, 6 colors of paint, and then told to paint a picture of your house using all of the colors. With a steady hand, you might be able to create a crude depiction. But there wouldn’t be much definition to the front door. You wouldn’t be able to draw the flowers in the window boxes. And some of the colors would blend into a pool of muddy brown. Now, imagine that you were asked to do the same thing, but with a five foot by five foot piece of paper. This is the type of spaciousness that Arc gives to music. For me, it meant hearing additional layers to “Rhiannon” that I’d never heard before. And alongside that spaciousness is remarkable clarity. The vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, and drums all sound crisp, clean, and pure. In short, the song sounded glorious.

TV shows with Arc: Sound from a galaxy far, far away

For my first TV show with Arc, I chose The Mandalorian, streaming on Disney+. Sound is integral to the Star Wars universe, so I decided that this would be a good place to start. I wasn’t disappointed.

To hear the roar of the Razor Crest’s engines and the coos of The Child with the same spaciousness and clarity that I’d heard with “Rhiannon,” was electrifying. Even without rear surround speakers, the immediate feeling of listening to Arc is one of total immersion. And that’s because, as Chris Davies, Senior Director, Audio Engineering, explains, “Arc creates an ultra wide soundstage by using highly optimized beam-forming rays. These rays bounce sound off the wall in your room to create a truly immersive sound experience.” In other words, Arc doesn’t just send sound towards you. It uses sophisticated technology (and the information you provide about the size and acoustics of your room with Trueplay) to bounce sound off the walls in order to truly envelope you in the show’s soundscape. The magic, of course, being that the sound reaches your ears at the exact same time, completely in sync.

Later, when I turned down the lights, something subtle but amazing happened. The status light on Arc dimmed automatically. Arc has an ambient light sensor that adjusts the status light based on how bright the room is—another small example of how Arc is made to seamlessly blend into your home.

One final note on Star Wars. You can stream everything in the galaxy on Disney+, including a just-released eight-episode documentary called Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, which delves into the making of the series, including the iconic score.

As you can tell, I was beyond thrilled with my experience of Arc, completely on its own. Without Sub. Without rear surrounds. Without Dolby Atmos. But Arc was designed to evolve along with the rapid advances in home theater technology. And that means playing Dolby Atmos, the new gold standard of home theater audio. I had to see what Arc could do with a full Atmos setup.

But first, what is Atmos? While there are lots of videos and explanations on the internet describing this technology, I’ll describe it in my own words here. Prior to Atmos, elements of sound from a film or show had to be assigned to a particular channel (left, center, right, rear left, rear right, etc.) With Atmos though, sounds are treated as objects—and all of the channels work together to project those sounds into different parts of the room. Here’s where it gets cool—Atmos also adds height to the equation. (Arc achieves this by utilizing upward-firing drivers that bounce sound off the ceiling.) This allows those projected sounds to be heard—not just along a horizontal plane—but anywhere in the entire three-dimensional space of your room. What does that mean for your listening experience? I was hoping you’d ask.

Movies with Arc: The Dolby Atmos Experience

I paired Sub and two Sonos One SL rears to Arc. I used Trueplay to tune my system again (to account for the addition of the rear speakers). I popped popcorn. And then I sat down to watch Mad Max: Fury Road. From the very first scene, it was immediately obvious to me why Atmos is the new standard in home theater sound. In the opening sequence, a flood of voices and ambient sounds swirled around me. It’s surprising and thrilling and has made me completely rethink the way I’ve used the word “immersive” in the past. Over the next two hours, I felt completely a part of what was happening in the film. The sound design of the movie is bold and vibrant—and watching it in Atmos adds so many layers to the experience. At the same time, I could hear every word of dialogue perfectly—even amidst a thunderous score and barrage of epic sound effects. As Chris Jenkins, Oscar-winning sound engineer and Sonos Soundboard member would later tell me, dialogue is the backbone of every movie. Even without Speech Enhancement turned on, Arc delivered the dialogue with detailed clarity. And then there are the quiet moments in the film—serenely beautiful scenes that offer delicate sounds and whispers. With the sonic precision of Arc, I found these scenes just as engaging as the action sequences.

But perhaps the most interesting and respectable aspect of the Atmos experience is that nothing comes across as gimmicky. While sounds do occur around you, nothing feels out of place or like a trick. You’re not suddenly pulled away from what’s happening on screen because of a random noise behind you. It all feels seamless and, ultimately, allows you to become all the more immersed in the world on your TV screen.

After watching Mad Max: Fury Road, I wanted to go deeper. Specifically, I wanted to see under the hood, but from a creator’s perspective. I also knew that the re-recording mixer for the film, Chris Jenkins, who won an Oscar for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road, is on the Sonos Soundboard. He helped tune Arc—which means that the way I experienced the movie with Arc was as he intended it to sound. I wanted to learn more.

So we met for a conversation over Zoom. The first thing I learned is that while working on the film, he would meet with the director, George Miller, and the rest of the team for six-hour sessions, during which they would discuss 15 minute chunks of the film. Fifteen minutes of film. Six hour sessions. That’s how integral sound is to the movie. Needless to say, Jenkins remembered every minute aspect of the film I threw at him.

Early in our conversation, Jenkins helped explain why listening to Dolby Atmos on Arc doesn’t feel gimmicky. “There are certain rules that you make—and sometimes break—with sound in movies,” he said. “If you move a human voice too far outside of the screen, it breaks the concentration of the listener. There are certain sounds you can place anywhere—music and nature sounds, for example. But the more specific a sound gets, the more we expect it to be heard from where it’s coming from visually.”

With Mad Max: Fury Road, he chose to break that rule in the very first scene of the film. “At the beginning of the movie, you hear all those little sounds swirling around you,” he said. “For example, the little girl’s voice whispering ‘Max,’ which then echoes over and over. On a lot of the release prints [before Dolby Atmos], you never got that attention to detail. And then all of a sudden you hear the Atmos version on Arc, and you’re like, ‘Oh, cool,’ because those sounds are not trying to compete for the same three speaker drivers. If you have all this space to put all the sounds into, your ear can say, ‘Yeah, that voice is here. And I hear that sound over there.’” He then went on to explain why he broke the rules of where voices should come from. “You can direct the listener’s ear to where you want to prioritize information for them. In the case of Mad Max, the girl’s voice is extremely important because she’s a pivotal character in Max’s life. Ultimately, you want the purest playback system to hear all those details that the filmmakers have put into it. And the opening of Mad Max is a great example to me of really being conscious of space, and of sounds not cluttering each other.”

Eventually, we got onto the subject of what it’s like for him, as a sound engineer, to be able to mix a film’s sound for Atmos. “There’s just so much space,” he said. “You can create separation between the sound design and music, while still keeping the dialogue protected. So you could have a very quiet whispering performance from an actor, but instead of lowering all of the music to make sure it’s heard, you can just create more space around the whisper. With Atmos, you can sculpt the soundtrack around different elements in a way that you couldn’t with just a left, center, right mix. It’s like racking focus, sonically.”

As our conversation wound down, Jenkins pulled back from all of the technical talk to focus on what really matters in the home theater experience. “It’s all about storytelling,” he said, “We want the shortest distance between the creator or the writer or the performer and the listener’s ear. So we cut out whatever we can from the middle, the clutter. And then, whether it’s dialogue from a 1939 movie, or the most current piece of content today, it’s still a matter of finding the most transparent form of getting that storytelling across.”

As this post goes to publish, we’re still working from home. And over the past several weeks, I’ve been listening to a lot more vinyl and rewatching movies I love—which feels really comforting. But hearing them with Arc has made revisiting favorites feel fresh and inspiring. Make sure you visit 

 to learn about all of the incredible technology that powered the experience I shared above. If you already have Arc and want to make sure you’re getting Dolby Atmos sound, check out 

*Sonos may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our affiliate partnerships.

I Got a Sonos Arc and Then Didn’t Leave My Home for Weeks. Here’s What Happened.

In celebration of global Pride, we’ve launched a new station on Sonos Radio called Full Spectrum. The limited-edition station, initiated by a group of LGBTQ+ employees at Sonos, includes songs from artists in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as music considered integral to the LGBTQ+ experience. Along with personal liner notes recorded by Sonos employees, the station features exclusive interviews by Rita Houston with beloved LGBTQ+ artists, including Brandi Carlile and Laura Jane Grace. Below we tell how the station came to fruition and why it may sound different from what you’re used to hearing during Pride season.

Our personal stories are what bond us together. Even in the workplace, it’s the human connections we create with colleagues that make it possible to get the job done. Built by sharing stories of our weekend activities, family life, and hopes for the future, these bonds reinforce trust, provide outlets for stress, and help us dig deep when it’s midnight and we’re trying to get a project over the finish line. Now imagine trying to build those relationships while hiding major aspects of your life. It’s next to impossible to really get to know someone if they can’t tell you about their struggles, the songs that make them want to get up and dance, or the person they’ve chosen to spend their life with.

While the LGBTQ+ movement has made increasing strides in the past decade, for many in the community, the workplace is still a challenging place to be their most open, authentic selves. With that in mind, a small group of employees at Sonos joined together in early 2018 to establish an employee resource group (ERG) to help the entire company work towards creating a more welcoming, supportive atmosphere for all LGBTQ+ employees.

Named Pride@Sonos (but often referred to by its shortened moniker “Pride@”) the group joined other ERGs at Sonos including Black@ and Women@. (Since then, employees have founded Latinx@, Veterans@, and more.) One of the early decisions the planning committee needed to make was whether Pride@ would only be for members of the LGBTQ+ community—in order to provide a safe space to talk about challenges the members may be having—or whether it would be open to everyone at Sonos, including allies. Ultimately, the group felt that the LGBTQ+ community has always been about being open and that the ERG should reflect that. This decision also ensured that those who were questioning their sexuality or gender identity could receive the support of the group without calling attention to themselves simply by being a member.

From the outset, the group found support from Sonos leadership. Dmitri Siegel, VP Global Brand, extended his support into an official capacity, becoming Pride@’s official executive sponsor. “I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be an ally in the Pride@ group,” he said. “As a straight white male, it’s common to feel intimidated or uncomfortable engaging on LGBTQ+ issues because you feel like you are going to say the wrong thing or be offensive in some way. Being a part of Pride@ has given me the opportunity to do my work—listen and learn. Getting over insecurity and discomfort unlocks all these amazing people and a whole aspect of the human experience that I would otherwise miss out on.”

Pride@ has continued to grow its size and impact at Sonos. Since its founding, the group has brought in presenters to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ issues, donated to local and national charities, organized employee participation in local Pride events, and hosted a LGBTQ+ youth group in Santa Barbara for a lab tour and Q&A session with Sonos employees.

As Pride@ began preparing for Pride season this year, it became increasingly clear that an in-person activation or event was unlikely. “When we started discussing ideas, we weren’t even sure that anyone would be back in the office by June,” said Shelby Branam, Pride@’s current chairperson and a software engineer at Sonos. “So we started to think, how could we do a really meaningful activation in a way that felt inclusive, even if we weren’t together in the office.”

At the same time, excitement was growing within the company for the launch of Sonos Radio. From its inception, Sonos Radio was designed as a way for Sonos to provide owners with an incredible radio experience, while at the same time, sharing more about who we are as a company. Members of Pride@ realized that doing something on Sonos Radio would enable them to support Sonos employees as well as the community at large. So they reached out to the Sonos Radio team to see what was possible.

“Now that we had this amazing platform of Sonos Radio, doing something with Pride@ felt like a perfect fit,” said Saidah Blount, producer on the Sonos Radio team and curator of Sonos Sound System. “And it started out very simply—let’s get a whole bunch of tracks together and have this be a representative station. But Pride@ is a crazy talented, cross-organizational group of people, with diverse interests outside of what they do at work. We realized that this could be an incredible discovery moment for Sonos Radio, while at the same time, tapping into the emotions of what global Pride is all about.”

A defining element of the Sonos Radio experience is hearing from artists themselves—from entire stations curated by music industry icons including Thom Yorke, Brittany Howard, and David Byrne, to Radio Hours on Sonos Sound System with Nancy Whang, JPEGMAFIA, and Phoebe Bridgers. As Pride@ began gathering song recommendations and recording stories from its members, Blount and the Sonos Radio team got to work adding the voices of artists from the LGBTQ+ community. But first, Blount wanted to find the right person to do the interviews. At the top of her list was Rita Houston, Program Director at WFUV in New York City and the host of The Whole Wide World with Rita Houston. “Rita is known within the radio community as one of the best interviewers in the business,” Blount said. “She has a rapport with artists that makes it feel more like a conversation than a promotion. Additionally, she’s been out and very vocal about being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.”

With Houston on board, the station began to fall into place. “We reached out to some of the team’s favorite LGBTQ+ artists and invited them to pick the songs that meant ‘Pride’ to them and share about their experience as a member of the community,” said Rita Houston. “They responded as enthusiastically as we could have hoped.” Throughout the three month-long global Pride season, listeners will hear from Brandi Carlile, Laura Jane Grace, and other celebrated artists in a format similar to Radio Hours on Sonos Sound System. Siegel added, “I think that the tremendous response from artists speaks to the strength of our brand and the Sonos Radio team, but mainly, I think artists responded to the authentic nature of this effort.”

But the heart of the station are the songs and stories shared by Sonos employees. Listeners can expect to hear about the full spectrum of the LGBTQ+ experience—from the hidden struggles to the triumphant highs. “You’ll hear the celebratory songs of our community, of course, but also songs about rage, confusion, hopelessness, and protest,” said Eric Bowers, member of Pride@ and an attorney on the Sonos legal team. “Whether it be a trans artist struggling to be heard, a disco song that celebrated our community, or a modern country singer expressing his support for inclusion, we have it. We wanted the station to be true to life, not a corporate approximation of our community.”

Unsurprisingly, collaboration on Full Spectrum has had a huge impact on everyone who participated. “As an ally, working on this station has been transformative for me,” said Blount. “To hear about the process of coming out and actualizing oneself is deeply moving. It’s been such a privilege to work on this station in collaboration with Pride@.”

From Bowers’s perspective, the feeling is mutual. “This has been a real partnership between the Sonos Radio team and the Pride@ ERG. The Radio team listened to all of our comments and suggestions and responded to each with compassion and understanding. Our ERG members were included as seminal participants in the creation of the station from the very beginning all the way through to the final finishing touches,” he said.

Starting today, you can listen to Full Spectrum on Sonos Radio in the app under Sonos Presents. And if you’re interested in starting your own LGBTQ+ employee resource group at your company, you can learn more 

. “I think ERGs are important because they give a platform to the needs of different communities at Sonos,” said Branam. “And when a company supports them, it’s a step above saying that it cares about its employees—it shows that it’s willing to celebrate the differences of its employees as well.” Happy Pride!

Full Spectrum on Sonos Radio: The Story Behind the Station

 brings movies, shows, and games to life with crystal clear dialogue and an immersive Dolby Atmos experience, you might expect music to have been an afterthought. Far from it. Arc’s advanced internal components ensure that the listening experience when you step away from the screen is as dynamic and engaging as when you’re in front of it. To illustrate this with our new brand campaign for Arc, Sonos’s advertising team chose a movie with a soundtrack that is an essential extension of the film itself: 

 the perfect film and soundtrack to showcase how Arc surrounds you in the story.

Music has been an integral element of movies since live orchestras used to accompany silent films at the dawn of the artform. Since then, filmmakers have continued to push the ways songs and score can further a story, deepen the emotional impact, or add intellectual subtext to what’s playing out visually on the screen. When done right, that music can serve as a vehicle to extend the experience beyond the theater and into everyday life. Great soundtracks allow the audience to infuse their lives with the feelings that movies so powerfully generate—confidence, passion, exhilaration, love, joy.

With both movie and music lovers behind the scenes at Sonos, Arc was designed to offer depth, clarity, and richness for everything you want to play. “Although Arc is a soundbar, it’s designed to be able to play back music incredibly well as part of the Sonos system,” said Chris Davies, Senior Director, Audio Engineering. “We’ve used the arrays that we’ve created for home theater to maximize the music listening experience,” he continued, referring to the array of speakers within Arc that precisely direct sound throughout the room. “The center array creates a nice center image while the left and right arrays create an incredibly wide soundstage.” The result being a soundbar that seamlessly transitions between providing brilliant sound for what you’re listening to on screen and off.

It fell to Sonos’s advertising team to communicate this in a way that was visually exciting. Luckily, Lorrin Pascoe, Sonos’s Senior Director, Global Advertising was already intimately familiar with the interdependent relationship between movies and their music. “How many times have you watched an epic movie, loved the music, and then immediately started playing the soundtrack or score on repeat?” he said. “It can work the other way too—the music can remind you of a particular scene and then you’re streaming the movie later that night. That was the story we wanted to tell with Arc.” But first, Pascoe and his team had to find the right movie for the project: a film with a soundtrack that didn’t just serve a supporting role, but stood on its own.

When director Ryan Coogler reached out to Kendrick Lamar about his in-development film, Black Panther, he reportedly only asked for a few songs. As the story goes, after Lamar saw a large portion of the movie, he was inspired to deliver a full 50-minute album. And, although the rapper is only credited on five songs, his voice can be heard on almost all of the tracks. Black Panther The Album, like most of Lamar’s lauded catalogue, is a cohesive, inspired work of art. So when Pascoe met with colleagues Jamaal Layne and 

 to license a movie and music for the spot, they quickly agreed that Black Panther was the ideal choice.

“Sonos isn’t about a single product—

. And our advertising reflects that,” Pascoe said. “While you might expect to see hardware as the hero in a spot like this, we wanted sound to be the main character.” In order to stay true to the film and the world of Black Panther, Pascoe and his team used the purple shockwaves from the film and the necklace pieces from the soundtrack’s album cover to represent the two different sources of sound. The result is a spot that visually depicts how Arc and other Sonos products immerse you in the world of your favorite movies and their music. Check it out.

Films are meant to entertain, challenge, or comfort us. And while great movies only need to do one, it’s often the films that masterfully do all three that can have the biggest impact on our lives. These are the films we revisit again and again. These are the films we want to carry with us. These are the films that earn our attention and continued exploration. With 

, you can enjoy these experiences with the brilliant sound they deserve.

Arc’s Stealth Superpower

All our products are designed to look timeless, blending into the unique style of your home. But while aesthetics may endure, technology is constantly moving forward. With this in mind, we wanted to introduce you to the new Sonos Sub and Sonos Five in the architecturally significant Elliot House. Designed by R.M. Schindler, protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Los Angeles home exemplifies how to bring modern advantages to a timeless classic.

After Rudolph Schindler arrived in Los Angeles in the early 1920s—at the request of Frank Lloyd Wright, who asked him to supervise the construction of the revered architect’s celebrated Hollyhock House—Schindler and his wife quickly found themselves at the epicenter of the city’s progressive, bohemian counter culture. Emboldened by the nonconformist atmosphere, Schindler bucked the popular Spanish Colonial Revival trend when he designed his own home. Often cited as the first modernist home in America, the Schindler House was created for four adults, including the builder of the home and his wife, as well as the Schindlers. The house reflects Schindler’s unique approach to architecture, with a mix of private and communal spaces and blurred boundaries between indoor and outdoor living spaces. Schindler’s willingness to prioritize the actual living experience within his creations is beautifully evident in the home he later designed for his insurance agent, the Elliot House.

Built in 1930, the house fell prey to short-sighted updates like a prefab kitchen and the removal of a built-in wooden desk and cabinetry before current owners Cameron Silver and Jeffrey Snyder bought the home in 2001. Silver and Snyder worked with Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner to restore the historic home, intent on preserving Schindler’s unique approach to space, lighting, and atmosphere. And, like Schindler did in his time, they took full advantage of the most current construction methods and material options, like new kitchen appliances and a contemporary color palette. It’s this approach—preserving the original artistry of a design while modernizing it for the world of today—that made the Elliot House the perfect setting to introduce the new 

The most powerful Sonos speaker for music, the new Sonos Five delivers vividly clear, room-filling sound. Internal updates include increased memory and processing power while the 3.5 mm line-in port allows you to connect your turntable, CD player, or other device directly to Five and play to your entire system. Five blends into the unique aesthetics of your home with an enduring design that has been updated in all black and—for the first time—all white.

Sonos Five: The high-fidelity speaker for superior sound

You can feel and hear the difference when you connect Sub to any Sonos system. While all Sonos speakers are designed for great bass, adding Sub allows those speakers to focus more on midranges, resulting in richer sound. And, like Five, the new Sonos Sub has increased memory and processing power ensuring the best possible performance while preparing Sub for future updates. Two force-canceling drivers at the center of Sub eliminate vibration and rattle so you get powerful bass without any distortion. Its award-winning and versatile design features a slim, sculptural shape and high-gloss finish. And, you can position it to be noticed or hide it away because Sub can be placed upright or laid on its side.

Sonos Sub: The wireless subwoofer for deep bass

As the sun sets each day, it casts golden light through a west-facing window and illuminates the richly-toned wood along the kitchen wall. This is Silver and Snyder’s favorite time of day. Even after owning the home for more than 20 years, they still appreciate the thoughtful details Rudolph Schindler weaved into the house (even if the milk box has long been removed). To learn more about the new Sonos Five, 

Sub and Five: Modern Interpretations. Original Artistry.

While sound is integral to everything we do at Sonos, there has never been a specific sound associated with our brand. Until today. Coinciding with the launch of Sonos Radio, we are thrilled to reveal our new sonic branding. Composed by Philip Glass, iconic master of contemporary classical music, listeners can hear his original composition when tuning in to Sonos Radio. Here’s the story behind the sound.

In the months leading up to the launch of 

, Dmitri Siegel, Sonos VP of Global Brand, discovered that a major piece of the listening experience was missing. “We realized that Sonos didn’t really have a sonic brand identity,” said Siegel. “We’re obsessed with sound—it’s what we think about all day—and yet we didn’t have a sound that meant Sonos. When we made a dream list of who might compose that sound for us, Philip Glass was always at the top.”

Glass’s decades-long exploration of repetition and modularity made him a natural choice to build upon the Sonos name and visual identity, which are rooted in symmetry and simplicity. Luckily, he was known to have Sonos in his home and even 

, thanks to a long-standing relationship with 

Sonos’s Global Head of Music, Brian Beck

. Siegel added, “Philip Glass is the perfect fit for Sonos because of the combination of formal structure and exuberance, humanity and technical rigor in his music.”

Once Glass agreed to the project, Siegel’s brief to him was simple:

Sonos is a made-up word that means sound.

Now we need to make up a sound that means Sonos.

And, as one of the most influential American composers of the last century, he delivered. Describing the result, Glass noted, “The composition reflects two opposing ends of a spectrum: the organic and the electronic. The organic, represented by the acoustic instrumentation, speaks to the act of listening as both communal and personal. The electronic, which can be heard in the synthesized elements, is a nod to Sonos products as breakthrough technology, both in sound reproduction and connectivity.”

To learn about the sound profile of Sonos speakers, Glass worked with Giles Martin, award-winning composer, producer, and Sound Experience Leader at Sonos. “We wanted to be sure that the tone and range of the composition demonstrated the capabilities of the speakers and that the composition addressed those moments in the user experience where sound is used explicitly,” said Martin.

To bring the composition to life, it was recorded with 21 musicians at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City. The recording includes a 17-piece string section, flute, trumpet, French horn, piano, and electronic synths.

Once recorded, Martin mixed and mastered the sonic branding in collaboration with Grammy- and Emmy-winning recording engineer Sam Okell. When they were finished, Siegel finally had the sound that means Sonos.

In all, Glass created a complete set of branding elements, ranging in length and purpose, which will serve as a “sonic toolkit” for the Sonos sound experience. Martin and the Sound Experience Team will draw from this toolkit as they chart and define the brand’s sonic identity going forward.

We’re now proud to share the final product, brought to life in the animation below. It’s best experienced on your Sonos system because, as Glass notes, it was composed “using the full frequency spectrum in order to demonstrate the range and depth of Sonos speakers.”

 where you can hear the new sonic branding in brilliant sound, along with curated genre stations, original programming, and thousands of radio stations from around the world.

What Sound Means “Sonos”? Philip Glass Had the Answer.

Fitness classes. Concerts. Happy hours. Religious services. School. It’s all streaming now. Here’s how to use Beam to experience your social life with the sound it deserves.

While it was once considered anti-social, screen time is now the best way to stay connected. You might not be able to spend time in person with your friends and extended family, but you can create greater closeness through shared experiences. And with the latest tentpole films, premium fitness classes, and performances by world-class musicians and artists all streaming to your home, there’s a lot to share. Our most versatile speaker, 

 is the easiest way to experience it all with brilliant sound.

There’s no lack of options when it comes to streaming quality content. 

We worked with Oscar- and Emmy-winning creators

 in the entertainment industry to fine-tune Beam so that when you watch your favorite movies and shows, you’re hearing them the way they were meant to be heard.

From The Great Courses Plus to Beachbody, smart TVs offer so much more than your standard video streaming services. Learn, sweat, and more with high-definition sound.

While technically categorized as a “home theater speaker,” when it comes to music, Beam delivers. Choose from hundreds of stations on TuneIn or from more than 100 music streaming services. If you want music for cleaning, cooking, working, playing, or dancing, it’ll sound better with Beam.

Whether you’re playing a game with friends in a Discord call or watching on Twitch, Beam’s rich, room-filling sound is the best way to truly immerse yourself in your favorite online worlds.

The connectivity our phones provide have become even more valuable. Now we can attend a yoga session in the morning, an online class in the afternoon, and a DJ set at night. To listen with brilliant sound, stream directly to Sonos from your iOS devices using Apple AirPlay 2. And when you need a moment to tune everything out, listen to your favorite YouTube videos (comedy, unboxing, or the music video you learned the entire dance to in junior high) out loud on Sonos.

 or just watching videos your family sent you, you can use AirPlay 2 to stream directly from your Mac to Beam as well. That video of your niece’s first steps (and the family’s reaction) definitely deserves to be heard with brilliant sound.

Beam has voice control built in. While Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are good at helping you be productive, they’re also a great way for the family to have some screen-free fun. Try these:

“Hey Google, tell me something interesting”

With so much incredible, free content out there (and more coming every day), there’s a lot to enjoy on Beam. We wanted to share a few of the things that have been keeping us entertained, amused, energized, and inspired.

 COLORSXSTUDIOS is a unique aesthetic music platform showcasing exceptional talent from around the globe. They’re lending their YouTube page to artists from around the world who are at home and unable to tour.


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBhEryRqrIk

 Live Nation’s Live from Home. A steady stream of live performances from up-and-coming artists to powerhouses.


 NFL Game Pass gives you free access to full broadcast replays, condensed games, and coach’s films.


 NFL App, Website, and other supported devices. https://gamepass.nfl.com/packages?redirected=true

 NBA League Pass provides access to full-length and condensed replays of all games from the 2019-20 season, as well as an expansive archive of classic games and content.


 NBA App on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android mobile and tablet devices, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and other supported devices. https://www.nba.com/nba-fan-letter-league-pass-free-preview

 The Home Cooking podcast from Samin Nosrat (SALT FAT ACID HEAT) and Hrishikesh Hirway helps you figure out what to cook.


 https://pod.link/homecooking and your favorite podcasting platform.

 Easy Asian Home Cooking with Adam Liaw provides home cooking recipes, tips, and advice from Adam Liaw, Destination Flavour host and prolific cookbook author.


 https://www.youtube.com/user/adamliaw/featured

 Cirque du Soleil is offering a front-row seat to moments from KURIOS – Cabinet of Curiosities, O, and LUZIA, with never-before-seen angles that can only be experienced on your screen.


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ5eUJNXrMw

 Class Central is a search engine and reviews site for free online courses popularly known as MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses. Ivy League schools are currently offering 450 courses for free right now.


 Various learning sites like Coursera, all compiled here: https://www.classcentral.com

 Planet Fitness is offering free at home workouts called Home Work-Ins.


 CorePower Yoga is offering free yoga classes daily.


 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4z1

 Headspace is offering free meditations that are part of a larger collection in the Headspace app called Weathering the Storm. It includes meditations, sleep, and movement exercises to help you out, however you’re feeling.


 Scholastic has curated a free digital hub designed to support virtual learning plans. Scholastic Learn At Home allows open access to daily learning journeys divided into four grade spans—Pre-K–K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, and Grades 6–9+, covering ELA, STEM, Science, Social Studies, and Social-Emotional Learning.


 https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html

 Circle Round adapts carefully selected folktales from around the world into sound- and music-rich radio plays for kids ages 4 to 10. Each 10- to 20-minute episode explores important issues like kindness, persistence, and generosity, ending with an activity that inspires deeper conversations between children and adults.


 https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1246443751?mt=2

We’ll continue to keep this page updated as more things become available to stream. And, we’d also love to know what you’re enjoying. Tag us on social with #athomewithsonos.

Google and YouTube are trademarks of Google LLC.

Your Social Life Is Now Streaming. How Does It Sound?

They aren’t just for playing hard. Your Sonos speakers can also help you work hard. From flow-inducing soundtracks to using your voice assistant for hands-free help, here’s how to get to work when you’re at home with Sonos.

If you’ve set up your home as a place to relax, entertain yourself, and enjoy time with loved ones, plunking an office down in the middle of it is bound to create some challenges. For every advantage (getting that pile of laundry folded), there are three more disadvantages to grapple with (dogs begging to be pet, playtime noise from the kids, and the temptation of that new game you just bought). While your Sonos system can’t solve all distractions, it can help inspire you to get going in the morning, stay on task, and be productive throughout the day. Here’s how.

There are a lot of things to consider when you start setting up a new 

—from equipment and ergonomics to connectivity and logistics. Here’s how to integrate your system into that setup, allowing you to reap the benefits of working with Sonos.

If you do most of your work on a computer, you might find it easier to control your Sonos system from your desktop. You can download desktop controllers for both Macs and PCs 

. (The link to download will automatically populate with the correct controller based on what kind of computer you access the page with.) Browse and search content, control the volume, group rooms, and pause the music when your boss calls.

For content you can’t control with the Sonos desktop app (like YouTube videos and sounds from websites), there’s Apple 

. Just make sure that you’ve clicked “Show volume in menu bar” from the Sound menu in System Preferences. Then, click the volume icon in the upper right hand corner of the toolbar and choose a speaker from the list of Output devices. Pair two Sonos Ones, Play:5s (Gen 2), or Moves to listen in stereo sound.

With or without a Mac, you can use line-in to connect your computer directly to Play:5 with the built-in 3.5mm jack, or Port or Amp with RCA in.

Finally, consider naming your work speakers as such. That way, your family won’t accidentally group you into the impromptu dance party that just started downstairs. To rename a speaker, go to 

. Choose the speaker you want to rename, then tap 

There are plenty of ways to utilize your voice assistant while you’re working from home. Here are some of our favorite ways to use Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant on the job.

 Say “Alexa, add ‘team conference call at 10 am’ to my calendar,” or “Hey Google, what’s on my calendar today?”

 Say, “Alexa, check my email,” or “Hey Google, set a reminder to call Eric.”

 Say, “Alexa, add ‘printer paper’ to my shopping list,” or “Hey Google, what’s on my shopping list?”

 Let the rest of the house know when you’re finished working for the day or it’s time for dinner. With Announcements, you can send recorded audio or text-to-speech content to be played back immediately on compatible Alexa devices throughout your home. Learn more 

 Initiate a series of events like turning on lights, starting music or news, and sharing what’s on your schedule for the day with Routines. Learn more 

Without the normal daily cues that the workday has begun—a rigorous commute, stopping by the coffee shop, greeting coworkers in the morning—it might be difficult to get started. Here are some ideas on how to get inspired in the morning and coax your brain into go-mode.

More time at home means more time for listening. If you don’t already subscribe to a streaming music service, now is a great time to try one out. Try 

 free for three months, and for a limited time, you can also try 

Choose a song, album, or other sound that you’ll play each day to signal that the workday has begun. Consistency is key here. Still procrastinating? Set an alarm using that sound for the same time every day. (More on using alarms later.)

No single album, playlist, station, or soundscape works for everyone. For as many different tastes in music there are, there are just as many working styles. Perhaps you’re doing something repetitive and need something more engaging to keep up your energy. Or maybe you’re creating and find lyrics distracting. Play around with finding the type of music or sound that helps you get and stay motivated when you most need it. Not sure where to start? We’re loving More Minimal, a playlist created by our Global Head of Music, Brian Beck. Featuring electronic, film scores, instrumental hip hop, post-rock, and more, this playlist can provide some momentum without distracting you from the task at hand. Check it out on 

You know that feeling when you’re been working on something for so long that it’s turned into a big blur of words or numbers or concepts or colors? Yeah, us too. When you’ve hit a wall and want a change of scenery, you don’t have to leave the music behind. Grab Move and head out to your patio or backyard for some fresh air, sunshine, and a new perspective. With auto Trueplay it will sound great no matter where you take it.

 have shown that a moderate level of ambient noise enhances productivity. So if you’re suddenly missing the subtle noises of your coworkers, it’s understandable. Alternatively, a high level of noise can hurt creativity. So, here’s how to use your system to make the best of both situations.

The sounds in your home that normally provide joy can suddenly feel distracting when you’re trying to crunch numbers or finish a report. White noise is a great remedy. Defined as noise containing many frequencies with equal intensities, the soothing sound can help mask unwanted “peak” noises—like a game show on TV or a door slamming—by reducing the difference between those sounds and normal ambient background noise. Check out 

 for playlists and albums of white noise.

Even libraries have a litany of subtle noises that add up to a consistent din of auditory liveliness. Whether you’ve realized it or not, the random sounds at your office, local coffee shop, or bustling coworking space might have been helping you stay focused and on task. If you find your remote workspace too quiet, there are a ton of options to fill that void. Start with 

 when you’re ready to explore more complex and interesting sound environments like “Cabin during a storm,” “Tech lab,” or “Hogwarts library.”

With the right structure in place, you might wind up being more productive than you were in the office. Here’s how Sonos can help you get it done.

Without something to signal the end of the day like a commute, you may sit down to work in the morning only to find yourself still at your computer at 7:30PM, starving with nothing but a whole chicken in the freezer. You can use Sonos alarms to break up your day and remind yourself to do the things that keep your head clear. In addition to setting an alarm to start work in the morning, set alarms as reminders to get outside for fresh air and a walk, start making lunch and dinner, and to log off. (You can even set one to let the kids know when it’s time to start cleaning up.) By scheduling moments of self-care into your day, you won’t reach the end of it burnt out and exhausted.

For a more advanced option, you can try the Pomodoro Technique. With this time management method, you commit to working on a single task for chunks of 25 minutes. You can set Sonos alarms for each interval and then choose a celebratory song when it’s time for a longer break. Learn more about the technique 

Even under the best of conditions, big transitions are challenging. Figuring out how to be productive in a new environment will take time, but hopefully using your Sonos system along the way will make it easier and a bit more enjoyable. And, at the end of the (work)day, your speakers will be there with great music to help you blow off steam or a comforting TV show to help you relax. Just don’t forget to set an alarm to wake up for another productive day.

Home Office Help: Using Sonos to Get Motivated, Stay Focused, and Be Productive

At Sonos, brilliant sound includes the technical smarts needed to easily listen to what you want, where you want, how you want. But it’s our commitment to how our speakers sound that truly defines our work. Over the next few weeks, we’ll share what “brilliant sound” means to us. To kick things off, today we’re unveiling Inventing Brilliant Sound, a short film introducing you to sound at Sonos.

Smooth. Light. Comforting. Neutral. Cozy. Honest. True. Brilliant sound may be hard to define, but it’s easy to recognize. Studies have shown that casual, everyday listeners prefer the same speakers as those who have been professionally trained, despite the latter group’s experience analyzing audio for the specific attributes that make it great. When you set up your first Sonos speaker, you probably noticed that the sound was richer or more detailed than you were used to—even if you weren’t able to explain why. Here’s a three-step process to help you understand why your Sonos speakers sound brilliant.

1: Prepare your environment (and yourself)

To truly evaluate sound, you’ll need to create the right conditions. Make sure the space in which you’re listening is as free of ambient sounds and distractions as possible. Position yourself at the center of your speaker (or speakers). Then take a moment to center yourself, allowing your ears to adjust to the silence before starting the song.

Art is designed to engage us intellectually, emotionally, or absolutely. You’ll need to detach yourself from the song at first in order to draw your focus to the sound quality alone. Try concentrating on one element of the track—the lead guitar, backing vocals, or the bass line. Notice where it sits in the overall mix and if that changes over the course of the song. How does it sound in relation to the rest of the song’s disparate elements? Then try turning up the volume to observe the clarity of the detail you’re focused on.

As Emily Lazar, President and Chief Mastering Engineer at The Lodge and Sonos Sound Board member explains in 

, great sound “fills the room with an emotion.” While there are many aspects to evaluating great sound that fall on the scientific end of the spectrum, don’t discount the artistic part of the process. Allow the entire song to wash over you. How does the sound make you feel? What emotions or feelings does it evoke? Where do you feel it in your body? If that feels esoteric, remember that sound is ultimately just vibrations in the air. As Greg McAllister, Sound Experience Manager at Sonos notes, “Sound is just slightly less tangible than other senses.”

Adele’s “Lovesong” was produced and mixed in a way that allows an aspiring sound expert to clearly identify distinct elements of the track. Make sure you’ve tuned your speaker with Trueplay, pull up “Lovesong” on your favorite streaming service, and follow along for a brilliant sound journey.

Clean guitars during the song’s intro are ideal for hearing more subtle details, like the sound of the musicians’ fingers on the strings.

If you have two speakers stereo paired or a home theater speaker like Beam, Playbase, or Playbar, you’ll notice that the first acoustic guitar comes distinctly from the left for the first four bars of the song, while the second acoustic guitar is situated far to the right.

When Adele’s vocals join in, they are positioned squarely in the center of the two guitars. One way expert listeners assess sound is by evaluating the spatial arrangement of a song. You can think of it like a giant movie screen, with a character in the center and supporting cast members at the edges. With “Lovesong,” the spatial arrangement of the guitars and vocals is clearly defined.

The song should sound natural—as if you were in the same room as the musicians playing live. Without audio effects like reverb or distortion altering the guitars and vocals, you can more easily appreciate their tone and character.

I Got a Sonos Arc and Then Didn’t Leave My Home for Weeks. Here’s What Happened.

Full Spectrum on Sonos Radio: The Story Behind the Station

Arc’s Stealth Superpower

Sub and Five: Modern Interpretations. Original Artistry.

What Sound Means “Sonos”? Philip Glass Had the Answer.

Home Office Help: Using Sonos to Get Motivated, Stay Focused, and Be Productive

What We Mean by Brilliant Sound

A letter from our CEO

Secrets of Nostalgia: Simple Ways to Warm Up Your Holidays

Celebrating Black Businesses With Reissue of Limited Edition Sonos One SL

Soundtracking Sonos: Behind the Scenes with Our Head of Music

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I Got a Sonos Arc and Then Didn’t Leave My Home for Weeks. Here’s What Happened.

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