Sonos’ long-rumored and much-anticipated Sonos Ace headphones have finally been unveiled. Although many details about them have leaked over the last several weeks, there are a few surprises.
As CNET reports, for starters, the Ace headphones cost a little more than the rumors suggested: $449 instead of $429. And although they’re equipped with a Wi-Fi chip, they’re not really Wi-Fi headphones. Unlike Sonos’ Roam and Move 2 speakers, which stream music over Wi-Fi on your Sonos multiroom system and double as Bluetooth speakers off your home network, the Sonos Ace are first and foremost noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones. In fact, they use only Wi-Fi to tap into your Sonos soundbar to create a personal home-theater experience.
Sonos Ace design
Yes, $449 is a lot to spend on a pair of headphones (with tax, the price is well over $450, of course). You’d therefore expect the Ace to have a premium design that’s on par with other headphones in this price class, such as Sony’s WH-1000XM5 ($400 list), Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra ($429 list) and Apple’s AirPods Max, which are $549 but currently on sale for $449. And they do.
The Ace headphones weigh in at 11 ounces, or 312 grams. They’re not as light as the Sony (250 grams) or the Bose (253 grams), but they’re considerably lighter than the AirPods Max (385 grams).
Initial reviews state that they are quite comfortable to wear — they have cushy memory foam ear pads covered in high-end faux leather — and their chrome metal yoke allows the headphones to swivel in multiple directions (the hinge is hidden). There is also reportedly a relatively small gap between the headband and your head. The headphones hug your head nicely with just the right amount of clamping for the ear pads to create a good acoustic seal.
Like with the AirPods Max, the ear pads magnetically attach and are replaceable. the main control button is a slider that moves up and down to control volume as well as a universal control button that you press once to pause and play audio and double tap to advance tracks forward, with additional control options available. A smaller button on the right ear cup toggles between noise canceling and transparency modes. (Sonos calls it an Aware mode.)
As far as accessories go, the felt carrying case, which Sonos says is made out 75% recycled plastic bottles, is relatively lightweight yet protective. In the case is a USB-C-to-USB-C cable and a USB-C-to-3.5mm cable.
Sonos Ace features
The Ace headphones are fairly loaded with features. First, they are noise-canceling headphones (Sonos says they have “world-class” noise cancellation) and also feature a transparency mode that allows you to hear the outside world.
They’re equipped with Bluetooth 5.4 and support AAC and Qualcomm’s AptX Adaptive audio codec (there’s support for AptX Lossless if you have a capable device, like certain Android smartphones).
If you want to go the wired route, you can simply connect your USB-C smartphone with the included USB-C cable to get a digital lossless connection. You can also connect to a headphone port using the included USB-C-to-3.5mm cable (that’s the cable you’d use on a plane). Using that 3.5mm cable, you can also listen to lossless music on a device like a computer or music player.
The Ace has wear-detection sensors that automatically pause your music when you take the headphones off your head and resume playback when you put them back on. And there is an equalizer in the Sonos app that allows tweaking the sound profile.
Not to be outdone by the AirPods Max, the Ace has a spatial audio feature that Sonos says delivers a “hyper-realistic three-dimensional sound, including an industry-leading Dolby Atmos experience and dynamic head-tracking, from supported services and devices.”
One of the key selling points for Sonos users will be the TV Audio Swap feature. At launch, Sonos says it will work only with its high-end Arc sound bar, but it’s coming to all its Beam and Ray soundbars. (The Beam 2 will be the first speaker to get it after the Arc.) It’s really designed for folks who want to watch something on their TV at night and don’t want to disturb others in their household who might be asleep. Instead of using your soundbar for sound, you hit a button in the app and the sound is switched from the soundbar to the headphones (the soundbar decodes the Dolby Atmos stream).
The result is similar to watching a movie using Apple’s spatial audio feature, with dialog fixed to the middle of the screen in front of you even when you move your head. The headphones’ home theater experience will get even better with time. “Coming later this year, Sonos’ all-new TrueCinema technology precisely maps your space then renders a complete surround sound system for a listening experience so realistic you’ll forget you’re wearing headphones,” the company says. Finally, the headphones have eight beam-forming microphones for “noise control and voice targeting.”
Sonos Ace sound quality
The headphones have custom-designed 40mm dynamic drivers (Sonos didn’t go into any more detail on the drivers), and reviewers state the Ace’s sound measured up well against those other premium headphones in the same category, expressing good detail and clarity along with punchy bass and a wide sound stage. The same goes for the noise-canceling performance.
Sonos Ace battery life
Sonos says the Ace headphones are rated for up to 30 hours of use on a single charge at moderate volume levels with noise canceling on. That’s solid (the Sony WH-1000XM5 is also rated for 30 hours, while the AirPods Max are rated for up to 20 hours). A quick-charge feature gets you 3 hours of playback time from a 3-minute charge, and the headphones require about 2 hours to fully charge.
Looks (and Sounds) Promising So Far
Initial reviews state that it seems odd that the Ace wasn’t more of a Wi-Fi headphone. Sonos reps have stated that listening to music over Wi-Fi would greatly reduce the headphone’s battery life, so Sonos opted to leave that feature off.
The TV Audio Swap feature does make a lot of sense, and people will appreciate it. But not everyone owns a Sonos Arc soundbar, so it will be interesting to see how the feature goes over with Sonos users at launch.
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