Sonos Buys Mayht for Its Small-Form-Factor Transducer Technology

Sonos acquired Netherlands-based transducer maker Mayht Holding for about $100 million in cash, it said Monday. Mayht’s approach to engineering smaller and lighter form factors “without compromising on quality,” will allow Sonos to broaden its product portfolio, said CEO Patrick Spence. The company will release more details on its fiscal Q2 earnings call in May, it said.

The transducer company has over 50 patents and patent applications, says its website. Its Heartmotion technology delivers the “same sound” as a conventional speaker from a form factor less than a tenth of the size, it says, depicting a large driver in an enclosure with reduced depth. A 1.5-inch Heartmotion driver has the same output as a traditional 3.5-inch driver, and a 3.5-inch Heartmotion driver has the same output as a conventional 8-inch driver, it says.

Mayht says applications for its technology include smart speakers, sound bars, wireless home speakers, portable, automotive and professional. Sonos has products in all those categories, including Audi’s Q4 e-tron electric vehicle (see Ref:2104150031]), Sonos’ first in-car system that launched last year.

Mayht says its drivers eliminate the need for a separate subwoofer with a sound bar, and all the bass and spatial surround sound can come from the sound bar alone. A hockey puck-size voice speaker using its driver could replace most popular home audio products, it said, showing an unbranded speaker resembling the Sonos One. Heartmotion 3.5-inch woofers could free up more than 20 liters of space inside a car’s doors, trunk and underneath seats, it said. Heartmotion can produce room-filling, “uncompromising” sound from a form factor small enough to fit on a shelf, “where a conventional speaker would not,” it said. The company could design a portable speaker that's 10 times smaller than a counterpart, without sacrificing bass; it could also deliver a speaker three times smaller with double the battery life, it said.

Heartmotion drivers use self-balancing tech, allowing engineers to design lightweight audio systems that don't shake, Mayht says. Three air displacement variations can be used: dual-firing, front side-firing and front firing. The drivers are designed to work best in compact form factors and don’t require increased amplifier power to overcome the high air pressure inside an enclosure, the company said.

Sonos' recurring goal is to launch two products each fiscal year. Its most recent launches have been second editions of the Roam portable speaker last month, without voice control (see 2203020012), and the second-generation Beam sound bar (see 2109140031) in September, which added Dolby Atmos support. It's due for one more new product before the first week of October.

On a Feb. 9 fiscal Q1 earnings call Spence said Sonos had less than 2% of the $89 billion global audio market, which the company expects to grow “as we enter entirely new product categories and new geographies."