Sonos launches its first AI-powered sound mode to enhance speech
Sonos has rolled out a major update to the Arc Ultra, introducing its most advanced Speech Enhancement tools to date. Available starting May 13, this update brings four all-new enhancement levels – Low, Medium, High, and Max – powered by Sonos’ first-ever AI sound-processing technology.
Developed in collaboration with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), this intelligent system uses AI to analyze audio in real time, isolating and enhancing speech without compromising rich bass, Dolby Atmos immersion, or overall audio balance. It activates only when needed, ensuring clear dialogue and an optimal listening experience across every scene.
If you have used speech enhancement tools before, you are probably familiar with hearing the dynamic range of the sound, and especially the bass, suddenly get massively reduced in exchange for the speech elements getting pushed more forward. However, that is not the case with Sonos’ new mode – powerful bass, the overall soundscape, and the more immersive Dolby Atmos elements are all maintained far better. That is for two reasons: one is that the speech is being enhanced separately to other parts, and the other is that it is a dynamic system that only activates when it detects that speech is likely to be drowned out by background noise.
It will not activate if dialogue is happening against a quiet background, or if there is no dialogue in the scene. It is a system that works by degrees – it applies more processing in the busiest scenes, and less when the audio is not as chaotic.
The new Speech Enhancement feature will be available to use on Sonos’ Arc Ultra soundbar via a software update rolling out today.
