The Valve Index might be outdated in many ways today, but it still holds a special place in my heart for its excellent audio solution: twin speakers that deliver impressive spatial properties without actually touching your ears. The Steam Frame doesn’t take the same approach, sadly, but word from Valve is that it’s working on a first-party accessory that’ll add a set of Index-like speakers to the compact Frame.
The Steam Frame is modular. Three small switches are all it takes to completely remove the core module, containing the chip, RAM, storage, optics and more, from the strap. The strap also includes the battery, SD card slot, and speakers.
“So the battery, the thermals; I think those will be the ultimate limits of the device,” said Jeremy Selan, software engineer at Valve during a pre-launch chat. “We thought of that early. It’s no surprise. So that’s why we were very proud of making a modular design where the core module is separate from the rear.
“And in fact, you might say, ‘Hey, what is Valve going to do with this?’ We’re working on a future first-party accessory where it will plug in and replace the existing [strap]. That head strap will include a hot-swappable battery, and then premium Index-style off-ear audio.”
When pushed for a date as to when this accessory might be available, Selan joked that he was one of the people who was confident that the Steam Frame would land in early ’26, and no longer felt like a credible source on these things. Fair enough. He ended up saying, “we’re working to make it available as soon as we can.”
“The Valve Index audio is, I mean, it’s awesome, and so we wanted to give people the opportunity to have that,” says Joy Lyons, hardware engineer and audio expert at Valve. “And so it’s a modular design. You just snap in, like Jeremy mentioned. That’s not available at launch, but it’s coming soon, and we’ll have pricing and details on that.”
The Valve Index with its excellent off-ear speakers. (Image credit: Future)
The Steam Frame’s speaker system is totally serviceable, anyways. I’ve been using the headset for three weeks and I’ve no complaints in that specific department. Lyons explained how this solution ended up being implemented.
“One of the design principles for the headset is being lightweight and also being portable, so you can collapse it. And so having any additional structure in the headband, that was something where early on it was clear, hey, that’s going to interfere with our ability to collapse it and take it with you. And so we elected to put the audio into the head strap.”
(Image credit: Future)
Lyons explained how they decided on two drivers on either side of the headset, but that these ended up pretty close to the core module. The core module contains all the camera and sensors for the Frame’s inside-out tracking, which makes it very sensitive to vibration.
“The vibration caused the screen to jump with the bass, which is not as exciting as it sounds,” Lyons said.
“So we were able to, with that early architecture, flip one of the drivers, and so the sound’s coming out in phase. So you’re getting your double sound output per side, but the vibration’s been cancelled. And so we wanted to have this open-ear experience, so that really gives you that sense of immersion; you’re not closed in, you’re not hot, and it just builds a very natural sound.”
