Sonos smart home theater speaker outed by FCC filing
It could be the Alexa-enabled successor to the well-liked Playbase.
- Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
Could the Sonos Playbase (above) soon have a successor with HDMI and Alexa voice control?
The superb Sonos One is the only smart speaker to earn CNET's Editors' Choice Award. And our reviewers called the Sonos Playbase a "home run" among home theater speakers.
Now an FCC filing hints that the wireless speaker company has a new product up its sleeve that combines both.
The FCC filing shows a microphone icon on the product's label.
As spotted by Variety, the filing describes a "home theater speaker," complete with a model number (S14) and an HDMI input. The latter is notable because the Playbase and Playbar lack HDMI, a connection that allows higher-quality audio formats -- like DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby True HD and Dolby Atmos -- than optical digital.
More intriguing is the information in the filing that points to the S14 being a smart speaker with Alexa, like the Sonos One. Before being redacted, according to Variety, the filing originally called it a smart speaker. A diagram in the filing even depicts the same labeling array, complete with a microphone icon, as the One.
Reached for comment, Sonos' representatives replied via email: "We are constantly looking at new ways to deliver the best possible experiences for our customers. We do not have any additional details to share."
Updated 12:58PM ET with comment from Sonos.