Sonos readies its AirPods Max competitor as FCC approval arrives ahead of launch

Rumors of smart speaker company Sonos entering the headphone market have been floating around for a while now, but so far nothing has actually launched. There was a report last month that Sonos was struggling with a software issue which meant that the launch of the headphones had been pushed until June. The issue was thought to relate to the way the headphones would connect to a user's Wi-Fi network, but now there's a hint that things might be progressing well.

That's after it was discovered by one Reddit user - and then picked up by MacRumors - that the headphones appear to have wound their way through the FCC approval process in the United States, a fact that suggests a launch is edging ever closer.

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The headphones themselves are going to work with Bluetooth 2.4GHz as well as WiFI over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks as confirmed by the FCC documentation. We expect the new headphones to be designed to go up against Apple's AirPods Max but be priced slightly lower at around $449 which could give them the edge. The headphones will then be priced around the same level as competing products from Sony and the like, although potentially with a slightly different feature set.

As for Apple, the AirPods Max are starting to get ready for a refresh with reports suggesting that will happen towards the end of this year. However, new features are unlikely with Apple instead simply offering some new colors and switching the Lightning port out for a USB-C one instead.