Homebound trends during the COVID-19 pandemic drove demand for premium sound bars, said Futuresource Wednesday. Models priced $1,000 and higher rose 32% from Q1-Q3 in 2020, as less spending on outside-of-home activities freed up discretionary dollars for in-home entertainment, said the research firm. Consumers who had wanted to invest in high-quality speakers in the past were able to justify the spend during the pandemic, when average selling prices rose across many audio product categories, it said. Record-high demand has also been seen for luxury audio products costing over $5,000 in 2020, including turntables, which are expected to see 15% growth for the year. The pandemic will have a long-term impact on consumers’ lifestyles, with remote working set to become more common, leading to reduced commuting and business travel. The post-COVID world is likely to be more home focused, “creating more opportunities for consumers to listen to music and watch movies at home, which will ultimately place a stronger emphasis on the quality of home audio products,” said analyst Alexandre Jornod. Futuresource expects the trend to drive long-term growth for high-end audio products, “especially as consumers who have experienced high audio quality are usually more likely to upgrade to perfect their listening experience or access the latest tech features.”

Beyerdynamic introduced telecom products geared for remote work and learning, it said Thursday. The company’s Miy 2.4 app firmware adds features to optimize its Lagoon headphones ($219-$259) for telework and virtual education. The Sidetone feature is designed to improve voice audibility on phone calls, and Equalizer includes preset equalization profiles that allow users to adjust music settings to their preferences. It also bowed the Phonum Bluetooth/USB-C speakerphone as a teleconferencing product. The $199 device works with smartphones and computers, acting as a “high-quality speakerphone,” said the company. Beyerdynamic updated its T1 and T5 over-ear headphones with a “gentle bass boost” designed to create a warmer sound experience, it said. Both models, with Tesla drivers, have a list price of $999.

Sony added video streaming capabilities and content creation tools to its 360 Reality Audio services and products, it said Friday. The 360 Reality Audio platform allows creators to produce music by mapping vocals, chorus and instruments with positional information and placing them in a spherical space to give the sense of being in a studio or concert venue “without leaving the comfort of home.” Sony Music artist Zara Larsson will release a live performance in 360 Reality Audio Monday at 5 p.m. EST, viewable with the Artist Connection app on a smartphone. Viewers can experience the performance using select Sony headphones and the company’s Headphones Connect app, which allows users to optimize sound for their ear shape and listening preferences, it said. Sony and Virtual Sonics developed content creation software, the 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite, to help musicians create content for the platform. The software plug-in, due at month's end, is compatible with popular digital audio workstation software, Sony said. Sony and Music.com, with distribution by The Orchard, are launching a program that will let creators stream content they produce with the 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite. Sony will introduce compatible speakers this spring -- the SRS-RA5000 and SRS-RA3000 -- designed to create an “immersive” 360 Reality Audio sound experience using a Sony audio enhancement algorithm. The speakers are controllable by Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant voice assistants. The company will also license headphone personalization technology that analyzes listeners’ hearing characteristics along with technology that allows smartphones and car audio systems to play 360 Reality Audio, it said.

Lifestyle audio brand Urbanista bowed wireless over-ear headphones with active noise canceling and ambient mode. Battery life is 50 hours, 40 with ANC activated. The Urbanista Miami headphones with Bluetooth 5.0 pause when the sensors detect they have been removed, then restart automatically when they’re put back on. The $149 headphones are bundled with a hard travel case, auxiliary cable, airline adapter and USB Type C charging cable.

Qualcomm introduced SoCs designed to provide flexible and cost-effective options for implementing rich audio over a range of true wireless earbuds, said the company Wednesday. The true wireless earbud category is entering a new era that will bring new use cases and features to products in all tiers, said James Chapman, general manager-voice, music and wearables. Use cases made possible by the new SoC are audio sharing from one smartphone to multiple wireless listeners, voice service support, adaptive active noise cancellation, 96 kHz audio resolution and support for Qualcomm’s aptX Voice and cVc echo cancellation and noise suppression technologies. The QCC305x SoCs will also support the forthcoming Bluetooth Low Energy Audio standard and offer improved connectivity and power optimization, said the company.

Sonos and Legrand announced a multiyear licensing deal to cover Legrand’s Nuvo wireless multiroom audio products, they said Tuesday. Under the contract, Legrand will pay to license Sonos’ patents for all its wireless multiroom audio products. Legrand announced AirPlay 2 support for Nuvo players in July (see 2007070032).

Panasonic Automotive Systems will debut the Panasonic Sound Experience, a podcast series that probes “the emerging innovations of immersive sound design in vehicles, and what it takes to build the perfect audio system,” said the company Monday. The first episode Tuesday features Grammy-winning producer-engineer Elliot Scheiner on methods of “capturing authenticity, artistry and emotion in automotive sound design,” said Panasonic. A future episode will describe how vehicles have become an essential "second space" for consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and “why premium audio can elevate the dimensional sound experience,” it said. It will feature Mark Casavant, Klipsch vice president-sales and business development, and Brett Crockett, Dolby Atmos vice president-R&D.

Vizio announced availability of its new M-Series 5.1 sound bar Friday at Costco, priced at $299. It positioned the nine-speaker sound bar for gaming and Bluetooth streaming. The voice assistant-ready system includes Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive sound, the company emailed.

True wireless designs were 45% of Q3 headphone shipments, but supply side issues with Bluetooth chips inhibited availability of new models, leaving brands to delay product launches until 2021, reported Futuresource. Global headphone shipments grew 19% year on year following two quarters of decline. True wireless featured in most new product launches, covering a range of price points. The $50-$99 segment is “highly competitive and overcrowded,” analyst Adriana Blanco said Tuesday.

After staking a commanding lead in the true wireless earbud category with two versions of in-ear AirPods ($159 and $249), Apple took an old-school turn with Tuesday’s announcement of the $549 AirPods Max over-ear headphones. AirPods Max have an Apple H1 chip built into each ear cup and use “computational audio” from the chips’ 10 audio cores -- capable of 9 billion operations per second -- to provide adaptive equalization, active noise cancellation, a transparency mode and spatial audio, said the company. Adaptive EQ adjusts sound to the fit and seal of the ear cushions by measuring the sound signal delivered to a user and adjusting the low and mid-frequencies in real time, it said. Like competing models, AirPods Max have a transparency mode that allows users to listen to music while hearing the surrounding environment. The spatial audio feature tracks the motion of a user’s head and how the device is paired with the headphones, compares the motion data, and then remaps the sound field so it stays anchored to the device -- even as the user’s head moves, Apple said. It calls the experience “theaterlike” for content recorded in 5.1- and 7.1-channel audio and Dolby Atmos. Automatic switching enables users to take a call when listening to music on a Mac, iPad or iPhone; audio sharing allows two sets of AirPods to share music or content from Apple TV 4K. The headphones can be voice-controlled by Siri. Apple is taking preorders for the headphones, slated for Dec. 15 shipping. It didn’t respond to questions on whether it’s continuing to develop the Beats by Dre headphones line. GlobalData analyst Rupantar Guha said AirPods Max will "substantially tighten [Apple's] grip" on the hearables market and are a direct challenge to audio brands AKG, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Sennheiser and Sony. Previous AirPods benefited from "impressive interoperability" with Apple-branded devices, he said. Apple didn’t respond to questions on whether it’s continuing to develop the company's Beats by Dre headphones line.