Why your next pair of headphones will look very different - and your speakers, too

At CES 2026, personal audio and home entertainment trends centered on three themes: the rise of open-ear earbuds (with improved mic quality and AI-assisted noise filtering), the shift toward modular home theater ecosystems from brands like Sonos, Samsung, and LG, and the ubiquity of spatial audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos across devices and services; collectively, these trends show manufacturers pushing beyond mature core features to drive upgrades through flexibility, interoperability, and immersive sound.