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Sonos One launched in new colours, as partnership with HAY brings new yellow, green and red models

The vivid speakers are also a little more expensive

Andrew Griffin
Tuesday 17 April 2018 17:06 BST
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Sonos has launched its newest speakers in a whole range of new colours.

For the most part, Sonos's line of speakers is fairly conservative: they come in white or black, with the occasional dash of silver. But it has now launched it in yellow, green and red, too – with the colours designed in partnership with design firm HAY.

On the inside, the speakers are the same as the Sonos One that was released to rave reviews last year. But it is not just the outside that will change: the speaker costs more, too.

The new, colourful Ones will cost £229, $229 and €259. The normal Ones cost £199, €229 or $199.

They will be released in September this year, and will be sold on Sonos's own website as well as its flagship stores in New York, London and Berlin.

Sonos says that it has picked the fairly constant colours of its speakers to ensure they blend into the places they live: "our speakers aren’t designed to claim attention, but to blend naturally into their surroundings," said Sonos's vice president of design, Tad Toulis. But the new colours had been picked to ensure that was still true despite the introduction of the new hues, HAY and Sonos said.

“Colour is one of the most important tools in the design process, and it was very important we didn’t just create a colour scale that looked beautiful,” says HAY co-founder and creative director Mette Hay. “Colours can hide completely and disappear, or provide contrast.”

“These speakers deserve to be treated like furniture: strong, independent objects that fit different needs and spaces,” said Ms Hay.

Sonos also noted that the One will be fully compatible with Apple's AirPlay 2, when it is ready to come out. That is likely to be limited to the newer speakers, like the One – but buying just one of the speakers will be enough to make a whole house compatible with the new Apple streaming technology.

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