What's Sonos Ace and how did we get here? With Adib Mehrabi, Director of Innovation at Sonos

Summary

Innovators, a Best Buy powered show, explores the Sonos Ace headphones with director of innovation, Adib Mehrabi. The discussion highlights the headphones' comfort, sleek design, and multifunctional microphones for noise cancellation and calls. Mehrabi explains the product's integration with Sonos home systems for a seamless audio experience, emphasizing the brand's design philosophy of elegance, simplicity, and timelessness. The episode showcases the extensive testing and user-focused approach behind the portable, high-quality audio innovation.

Takeaways

• 🎧 The Sonos Ace headphones are designed for comfort with memory foam padding and a sleek, non-bulky headband.
• 🔊 They feature noise-canceling technology with microphones covered by a mesh to reduce wind noise during calls.
• 🎨 The headphones have a minimalistic design with a matte finish and come in black and soft white color variants.
• 🔗 The yoke design is internal to avoid trapping hair and to enhance durability against breakages.
• 🧊 The memory foam cushions are replaceable, ensuring longevity and comfort for users with different ear shapes.
• 📡 The headphones have eight microphones for telephony, active noise cancellation (ANC), and voice assistance.
• ⚙️ The control scheme includes multifunction buttons for core features like play, transport, volume control, and a dedicated ANC button.
• 🔄 Sonos Ace integrates with Sonos home theater systems for a seamless transition between loudspeaker and headphone audio.
• 🔁 The product design philosophy emphasizes elegance, simplicity, and timelessness, aiming to create objects that are loved and displayed in homes.
• 🌐 Sonos has expanded from home audio systems to portable solutions, aiming to fill every aspect of life with sound.
• 🧪 Extensive product testing includes hardware verification, listening tests, and user research to refine the product before launch.

Q & A

What is the name of the show that Bradley Hasemeyer is hosting?

The show is called Innovators powered by Best Buy.

What product is being discussed in the show?

The product being discussed is Sonos Ace headphones.

Who is the director of innovation at Sonos and what is his role in the discussion?

Adib Mehrabi is the director of innovation at Sonos, and he is there to talk about the innovation within the company and the Sonos Ace headphones.

What is special about the padding on the Sonos Ace headphones?

The padding on the Sonos Ace headphones is made of a material similar to memory foam, which provides comfort and enhances the user experience.

What is the purpose of the microphone meshes on the Sonos Ace headphones?

The microphone meshes serve a dual purpose: they contribute to the design aesthetic of the headphones and help mitigate wind noise during calls.

How does the headband design of the Sonos Ace differ from traditional headphones?

The headband of the Sonos Ace has a sleek design that hugs the head without appearing bulky, and it features a matte finish.

What is the 'yoke' in the context of the Sonos Ace headphones?

The 'yoke' refers to the mechanism that connects the headband to each of the two ear cups on over-ear headphones. In the Sonos Ace, it is intentionally designed to be less visible and more integrated into the ear cups for aesthetic and functional reasons.

Why are the ear cushions on the Sonos Ace headphones designed to be removable?

The ear cushions are designed to be removable because they are prone to wearing out and need to be replaceable for maintenance purposes.

How many microphones does the Sonos Ace headphones have and what are they used for?

The Sonos Ace headphones have a total of eight microphones, which are used for telephony, active noise cancellation (ANC), and ensuring clear audio for calls.

What is the purpose of the multifunction buttons on the Sonos Ace headphones?

The multifunction buttons on the Sonos Ace headphones are designed to provide key functionalities such as play, transport controls, volume adjustment, answering calls, and switching between ANC modes, without cluttering the design with too many buttons.

How does the Sonos Ace headphones integrate with a Sonos home theater system?

The Sonos Ace headphones, when used at home with a Sonos home theater system, can connect via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to the Sonos Soundbar, allowing for a feature called TV audio swap, which lets users seamlessly transition between listening out loud and having a personal listening experience on the headphones.

What is the significance of the Sonos brand name being a palindrome?

The significance of Sonos being a palindrome is that it reads the same forwards and backwards, and it also works aesthetically with the product design, as the logo can be oriented in any direction on the speakers.

How does Sonos approach product design and what philosophy guides it?

Sonos approaches product design with the philosophy of elegance, simplicity, and timelessness, aiming to create objects that persist in their elegance over time and are loved by users, fitting well into their homes.

What was the motivation for Sonos to move from home audio systems to portable speakers?

The motivation for Sonos to move into portable speakers was to extend the sound experience that users love in their homes to other aspects of their lives, allowing them to take the Sonos sound experience wherever they go.

What kind of testing does Sonos perform on their products during development?

Sonos performs various types of testing during product development, including hardware verification testing such as drop testing and oven testing, as well as extensive listening tests with multiple rounds of feedback and adjustments to perfect the sound quality.

Outlines

00:00

🎧 Introduction to Sonos Ace Headphones

The script opens with a warm welcome to 'Innovators powered by Best Buy,' a show exploring the stories behind popular products. The host, Bradley Hasemeyer, introduces the Sonos Ace headphones, highlighting that they are among the first to examine this product. The conversation features Adib Mehrabi, the director of innovation at Sonos, who discusses the design and functionality of the headphones. Key features include comfortable padding, noise-canceling microphones, a sleek headband design, and replaceable memory foam cushions. Mehrabi also explains the headphones' microphone array and the multifunction buttons for ease of use.

05:02

🔄 Seamless Integration with Sonos Home Systems

This paragraph delves into the integration capabilities of the Sonos Ace headphones with Sonos home theater systems. Mehrabi explains that the headphones can connect to a Sonos Soundbar via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allowing for a feature called 'TV audio swap.' This feature enables users to transition between loud home theater listening and a personal headphone experience. The discussion touches on Sonos' reputation for high-quality audio and the brand's unique palindromic name, which is also visually represented in their product design. Mehrabi also discusses the company's design philosophy, emphasizing elegance, simplicity, and timelessness in their products.

10:03

🛠️ Extensive Product Testing and Sound Development

The final paragraph of the script focuses on the rigorous product testing process undertaken by Sonos to ensure the quality and performance of the Ace headphones. The testing includes hardware verification, such as drop and oven tests, to ensure durability and performance under various conditions. A significant emphasis is placed on listening tests, with over 1000 hours invested to refine the headphones' sound quality. The collaboration with a 'soundboard' of content creators and audio professionals is highlighted to gather feedback and make iterative improvements. The summary underscores the balance Sonos seeks between design and sound experience in their portable audio products.

Keywords

💡Innovators

In the context of the video, 'Innovators' refers to the show's title and theme, which is about exploring the stories behind favorite products and the innovation process. The show is powered by Best Buy and aims to provide insights into the creation and features of new and exciting products like the Sonos Ace headphones.

💡Sonos Ace

Sonos Ace is the product being discussed in the video. It is a pair of headphones that the show's host and the director of innovation at Sonos are exploring. The term represents the innovation within the company and the new technology being introduced in the headphones, such as active noise cancellation and Bluetooth connectivity.

💡Director of Innovation

The 'Director of Innovation' is the title of the guest in the video, Adib Mehrabi, who is responsible for the innovative aspects of Sonos products. His role is central to the video as he provides insights into the design and functionality of the Sonos Ace headphones, illustrating the company's commitment to innovation.

💡Noise-Canceling

Noise-canceling is a feature of the Sonos Ace headphones that allows the user to reduce or eliminate unwanted ambient sounds. The video script mentions microphones on the headphones that are designed for active noise cancellation, enhancing the listening experience by focusing on the audio content the user intends to hear.

💡Headband

The 'headband' is a structural component of the headphones discussed in the video. It is described as having a sleek design and being part of the mechanism that connects the two ear cups. The headband's design is important for both comfort and aesthetics, as it needs to fit well and look good on the user.

💡Yoke

In the context of headphones, the 'yoke' is the part that connects the headband to the ear cups. The video describes a unique design choice where the yoke is not external but encapsulated within the ear cup for aesthetic and functional reasons, such as preventing hair from getting trapped.

💡Memory Foam Cushions

Memory foam cushions are used in the ear cups of the Sonos Ace headphones to provide comfort to the user. The script mentions that a lot of time was spent getting the shape and style of these cushions right, and they are designed to be replaceable, which is a practical feature for longevity.

💡Microphones

The video mentions that there are a total of eight microphones in the Sonos Ace headphones. These are used for various functions, including telephony, active noise cancellation, and web, which likely refers to voice-activated features or web services integration.

💡Multifunction Buttons

The 'multifunction buttons' on the Sonos Ace headphones are designed to provide the user with essential controls without overcrowding the device with buttons. The script discusses the balance between functionality and design, highlighting the importance of user interface in product design.

💡Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Integration

The video explains that the Sonos Ace headphones have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities, allowing them to connect not only to personal devices for portable use but also to a Sonos home theater system for a seamless audio experience. This integration showcases the product's adaptability to different listening environments.

💡Design Philosophy

The 'design philosophy' of Sonos is discussed in the video as focusing on elegance, simplicity, and timelessness. The company aims to create products that are not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing and enduring. The design philosophy is integral to how Sonos develops its products, ensuring they fit well into consumers' homes and lives.

Highlights

Introduction to the Sonos Ace headphones with Bradley Hasemeyer and director of innovation, Adib Mehrabi.

Excitement about being some of the first to experience the Sonos Ace headphones.

The comfort of Sonos Ace with memory foam type padding and foldable design.

Presence of microphones with noise-canceling features and aesthetic mesh coverings.

Design considerations for the headband and yoke to avoid bulkiness and hair trapping.

Aesthetic and functional reasons for the choice of materials and finishes.

The replaceable memory foam cushions designed for comfort and durability.

Eight microphones for various functions including telephony, ANC, and web.

The multifunction buttons for ease of use and avoiding an overly complex interface.

Integration of Sonos Ace with Sonos home theater systems for a seamless audio experience.

The unique palindromic nature of the Sonos brand and its packaging.

Design philosophy emphasizing elegance, simplicity, and timelessness.

The balance between design and sound experience in Sonos products.

Expansion from home audio to portable audio to fill life with music.

Product testing process including hardware verification and extensive listening tests.

Involvement of a soundboard with content creators and audio professionals for feedback.

The iterative development process with multiple rounds of testing and adjustments.

Final thoughts on the Sonos Ace headphones and a call to action for the audience.

Transcripts

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to Innovators powered by Best Buy.

This is the show that takes you behind some of these stories

of some of your favorite products.

I'm Bradley Hasemeyer, and today we're talking about Sonos Ace.

Yes, we are.

Some of the very first people to even get our hands on these.

It's very exciting.

And who better to talk about the innovation within the company

than the director of innovation, Adib Mehrabi.

Let's get into it.

Welcome to the show.

Hey, Bradley.

Glad to be here.

How are you doing?

I'm well.

Your accent makes you sound like you're from Nebraska, but I could be wrong.

Where are you coming from?

Yeah, just a little bit off.

I'm in London.

Fantastic. Fantastic.

So let's talk about these Sonos Ace

headphones. Can you kind of walk me around this?

Like, we'll take a little bit of a tour,

one of the first

things that I think people notice out of the box

that it's very comfortable, the padding up top here, almost

kind of like a memory foam type of material, which is nice.

I love how they fold in.

And I noticed on the outside what I would only assume are microphones

for noise-canceling.

There's kind of like these, like dark gray, little tiny, perforated slits.

Is that what that is?

That is what it is, yeah.

So those that we call them the mesh, the meshes

that kind of cover the microphones and then they're multi-functional, they

there's kind of a design aesthetic aspect to those

They're their to kind of enhance the way that the product looks.

But they also help mitigate, for example, wind noise.

You know, if you're out and about making a call,

it helps to kind of mitigate the amount of wind noise

that comes through to the to the person on the other end.

But going around the product. Yeah.

So we've got, you know, a headband, quite smooth, sleek design there. Very kind of

we wanted to create a product that really kind of hugs your head in a way, I guess.

Right.

And doesn't look like something that's big and bulky

as you are going about your business wearing it.

We've got a nice matte finish.

I see you've got the black ones there. We also have a soft white color variant as well.

We've got

the actual yoke, what we call the yoke on a headphone on an over ear headphone

is basically the mechanism that connects the headband to each of the two cups.

Okay and that's this right here?

It's actually the bit below that that goes into the cup.

So on many headphones there'll be a yoke that kind of sits external

and outside on the cup, you can see it on a lot of other overhead.

Yeah and it'll be like two

wires on the side kind of thing.

Yeah. Kind of like two arms.

That kind of sit down there and we intentionally chose to kind of

to encapsulate that in the cup partly for aesthetic reasons.

And there's also again, there's a functional reason for this.

You know, it means you don't get your hair trapped in it or these kinds of things

and it's less susceptible to breakages and getting damaged.

Then on the

cups, we've got, you know, two cushions,

memory foam cushions that been a lot of time was

spent getting those the right shape, the right style and super comfortable.

I don't know if you've tried this before,

but you can actually pop off the cups there, the cushions.

Are they a magnet? Oh yeah look at that.

I mean, yeah, it's quite a satisfying feeling. Kind of.

Yeah, it really is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So these are replaceable, you know,

because these are a part of headphones that, you know, is prone to wearing out.

So, you know, we made sure that these are replaceable.

We've got the meshes, the, the kind of grilles inside of those cushions as well

that have been meticulously

designed to work for a large range of ear shapes

and make it such that, you know, your ears aren't rubbing up against the inside.

So we've got a total of eight microphones in there and they're used for this one.

For the record, this is one microphone inside here are eight.

That's innovation. That's crazy to me.

Yeah, right.

And they're used for a range of things, right?

They used for telephony, for making calls

and they're used for ANC and they're used for a web.

Which is active noise canceling.

That's right. Sorry. Yeah, sorry. Active noise cancellation.

Speak to the multifunction buttons because it's really easy to be like,

all you need to power on and you're like, Well, I kind of want to pause it.

I kind of want to be able to skip the track.

I want to go to volume up.

All of a sudden you start realizing, man, you're going to look like a race car

steering wheel with like a thousand buttons real quick.

So how did you decide to kind of integrate all this and to just,

I don't know, one, three buttons essentially on here?

Yeah.

So there's a lot of work that went into kind of coming up with that final design.

And it's a trade off, right?

Because on the one hand, you know, there's a lot of things like you say

that a user wants to be able to do with a headphone.

On the other hand,

you don't want to turn it into like an airplane cockpit.

Right, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

So, yeah, right.

Really trying to figure out, like, what are the key things that a user

might want to do. So we kind of pulled out

the core features there like play, transport, we call transport controls.

So moving, you know, skipping back and forwards between tracks,

playing and pausing content, answering telephone calls.

And so, you know, and changing the volume up and down.

And those are the

some of the key bits of functionality and what we call the multifunction button.

And then we've got a dedicated ANC button on there and a power button

which doubles up as a Bluetooth pairing button as well.

So so those are things that, you know, we feel get used very frequently,

you know, powering up and down

and using ANC and away mode and switching between those.

So we wanted to make sure there were kind of dedicated touch points for those.

Now, will this integrate within that same Wi-Fi mesh network

like your speakers would in your house?

How are those going to talk to each other

or will this be your just portable version of that?

Right.

So so yes, so Sonos Ace is a Bluetooth headphone but when you bring it

in the home, if you have a Sonos home theater system in your home

we actually have a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip in there

and we can connect to your to your Sonos Soundbar.

And so we've got this feature that we call a TV audio swap.

And once you set up Sonos Ace it allows you to seamlessly transition between

out loud listening in your home theater system, in your home or wherever you are,

and listening, having a personal listening experience on headphones.

And there are some great use cases for this.

You know, as you mentioned, you know, as a parent, you know,

it could be that the kids are in bed.

You know, you need to turn it down, but it doesn't sound how you want it to sound turned down.

And so you can put out Sonos Ace,

hit what we call, you know, the swap

the swap button, and the audio will seamlessly transition

between playing out loud and playing out just for you on the headphones.

You know, I think a lot of people know Sonos, right?

This is a this is a household name at this point, especially for high end audio.

You guys really carved a great corner in the market for, like,

the connected speaker in the house.

You know,

it was like, I think you guys did a great job of

like before people even knew that they wanted that.

Then you showed it and they were like, I don't just want that.

I need it.

But one thing that blew my mind about Sonos is not only is the name a palindrome

right forward and backwards, but and I discovered this on accident.

But the name this way for those watching is Sonos.

If you flip the box upside down, Ta-da! It's still Sonos.

Yeah, it is.

And it works really nicely with our speakers as well, which again

many of them can be positioned into orientations.

So it means we can kind of position that logo on the speakers

and it just works, whichever way you put it.

I love that.

I love that.

Now, I'm curious about the design of the product.

You mentioned this, good looking, design, not just the innovator who's good

looking, you know, or the host, the actual products.

Even the packaging experience is a whole thing.

And I feel like that's been early on like day one, Sonos was like,

we're making a product in very few color ways.

It's going to be very sleek and that's that's always been it.

So how does design inform your your technology and the product itself?

Yeah, it really does in a massive way.

Yeah.

I'd say the kind of the types of words that come to mind

when I think about our design approach or philosophy is, is

elegance, simplicity and timelessness, right?

And because these are objects that are people, people are putting in their homes.

So these needs to be objects

that kind of persist in their in their kind of elegance over time.

And also people don't just kind of, aren't just happy to put in their home,

but really love, you know, placing and showing off and giving

pride of place in their homes.

So, it's really about balance because we've got a lot of technology

we pack into products, obviously they're audio products.

So the acoustics and the way that they sound is a major factor

in you know, in what we're trying to achieve.

And even the shape right? like the shape of a speaker

makes a huge difference when we're talking about sound.

It really does. Yeah. Yeah.

The shape, the size, you know, where you put the speakers,

you know, within the enclosure, All of these things have a factor.

So really trying to find the right balance

between our design goals and our sound experience goals,

you know, results in kind of where we land with the way our products look.

And you guys were in the home for a long time.

Now you're kind of more portable, which leads us into Ace. You went from

like, let's fill your home with music to now, like, let's fill your life with it.

Like, what was the, what was the thought there to to go portable, essentially?

Yes. I think there were a few factors that kind of played into that.

But it was really kind of looking at,

again, focusing on the customer, looking at, you know,

what are the experiences we're creating in the home

and what do people love about those experiences

and then really trying to understand, okay, so we know that sound

can show up everywhere in our lives and it's super important for,

you know, for many people for many different reasons.

So we saw a great opportunity to kind of learn from what

we've done in the home and the things that people love

about the products that we have in the home

and then, you know, bring that to other aspects of their lives, you know,

whether that's on the patio, having a barbecue or by the pool

or even going to the beach or trekking up a mountain, you know,

you can now take that, you know, that sound experience that we provide

and take it with you wherever you go.

So that was the real kind of motivation for going into that kind of portable

loudspeaker category.

So how did you go about product testing this?

I mean, was it just like we got 30 people in a room and we said, what works?

Or, you know, did you just have kids throwing these down?

And like, well, that broke, so let's try this again.

How did you figure out to get to where we are today?

Yeah, there's quite a few aspects to how we kind of test

the product as we go through it.

And you know, at each stage we'll be developing

hardware and software prototypes and testing things out

and then putting that through various different types of tests

and then iterating and making improvements.

And until we get to a point where we think like, Yeah, we got it, this is good.

Let's go.

And the types of I'd say the kind of different types of testing we do.

We do a lot of hardware verification testing.

So each time we build a hardware prototype,

we'll really put it through the wringer.

You know, we'll do drop testing, oven testing.

Wait oven testing? What is that?

In case someone's headphones fall off

when they're baking cookies?

Where you put them in an oven, you bake it up

and you make sure that it's not going to you know, that it's

going to perform at a high temperature, that that we need it to be able to.

Okay.

You know, we drop these things in various ways, in various

various distances and probably no surprises in audio company.

We do a lot of listening testing

and that's a that's a big one for me and, you know, for the work that my team does,

you know, we go through multiple rounds, many, many rounds. In developing Sonos Ace

I think we've done over 1000 hours of listening

to develop this to finally land on the way that this product sounds

And that's not even design.

That's just how it sounds.

That's just the speaker.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we work with, something that we call the soundboard,

which is a group of content creators, music engineers, audio

engineers and artists and film mixers that we work with.

And we kind of get iterative.

We have various stages of working with them to get feedback,

make adjustments and continuously improve the way that it sounds.

So yeah, I would say there's the hardware side, there's the user research

and the software development side, and then there's listening, which is,

which is a huge role.

I'm excited to say that I was one of the first.

I'm an early adopter, which is great.

So thank you so much for your time and I hope you have a great day.

Yeah. Thanks ever so much for your time.

These things are fantastic.

I've really enjoyed them, and so make sure you pick them up.

Also, make sure you subscribe to the show.

We've got a lot more coming your way with some of your favorite products,

but for now, keep exploring, innovating and embracing your future.

Have a great day.