Sonos announces its first headphones, with noise cancellation and Dolby Atmos – but not the feature we most expected
Sonos has announced its first headphones, and they are called Sonos Ace. They are over-ear Bluetooth headphones, with support for Snapdragon Sound and aptX Lossless, Dolby Atmos spatial audio, active noise cancellation, USB-C lossless audio… and not with support for the Sonos multi-room system.
We expected the Sonos headphones to have a feature like the Sonos Roam, where the music automatically switches to Sonos Ace when you leave, and automatically switches back to your Sonos speakers when you return – and that you could choose them as a Wi-Fi music source from the Sonos app – but that’s not the case. Mostly they work like most of the best Bluetooth noise canceling headphones, albeit on the premium side of things… they do have one big Sonos trick though.
They do have built-in Wi-Fi, and Sonos headphones can use this to connect to a Sonos soundbar, playing all the sound from your TV from it, in head-tracked spatial audio. You activate this directly with a button on the back, so that you can watch TV silently, but in a virtual home theater, so that you don’t disturb anyone else in the house. This feature only works with Sonos Arc at launch, but will also come to the Sonos Beam, Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Sonos Ray in the future.
They’ll cost $449 / £449 / AU$599 and be available on June 5, 2024. That price is clearly quite premium, but puts them in line with the likes of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones or AirPods Max – and this is what the Sonos Ace is really in direct competition with, based on their entire specifications and features. So let’s see what they are.
What do the Sonos Ace offer?
As I mentioned above, these are over-ear Bluetooth headphones, with 40mm dynamic drivers (mounted at an angle to ensure they’re parallel to your ears) in some impressively slim earcups. This is the same size driver as the older generation Sony WH-1000XM4, but not the Sony WH-1000XM5, which has a smaller 30mm driver in each earpiece.
The Sonos Ace are much less noticeable when you wear them than much of the competition, and feel extremely well made. I got to try them out and they were generally very comfortable, although I did notice that the area around my ears started to feel warm after one listening session, so we’ll have to wait for a full review to see if that’s common. At 312 grams, they’re not super light (the Sony XM5 weighs 250 grams), but they’re far from heavy for well-equipped headphones. The ear cushions are replaceable if they become worn over time.
They come with a hard case made largely from recycled materials, and are also impressively slim – potentially looking like good travel headphones. There is also a small pocket for your cables.
For connections, you’ve got Bluetooth 5.4 with multi-point pairing for two devices, plus Snapdragon Sound with aptX Lossless support and USB-C for lossless audio (including support for Apple Lossless files from an iPhone/iPad/Mac when wired). There’s no 3.5mm port, but a USB-C to 3.5mm cable is included in the box. Oh, and there’s WiFi, but it’s only used for the soundbar connection.
They support Dolby Atmos, and not just when connected to a Sonos soundbar – they play Dolby Atmos spatial audio from any Bluetooth device that supports it, including iPhones. And they will create head-tracked Dolby Atmos spatial audio from those devices, using a tracking system developed by Dolby.
They promise that they will last 30 hours with ANC on, and claim that they will give you three hours of use from a three-minute charge. If the claim is true, that’s good staying power with active noise cancellation, and would be one of the best over-ear headphones we’ve tested for battery life.
They’re controlled using a ‘Content Key’ button/slider combination on the right earcup – slide it up and down to change volume and click it to play/pause/skip tracks. A button below switches to TV audio or back to Bluetooth.
You don’t need the Sonos app to set them up or use them, but you do need the companion app for the head-tracked spatial audio setup or to change the EQ. Sonos also promises that there will be a ‘TrueCinema’ mode. This will, Sonos says, actually adjust the spatial audio sound in TV mode so that it sounds more like a home theater system, specifically in the room of your living room, making it more convincing to the brain, instead of sounding like it’s coming from a generic giant room. But that won’t be available at launch.
The headphones have an auto-pause feature when you remove them, but there’s no Find My support listed, which is a bit of a shame for a pair of headphones you Real wouldn’t want to lose.
Their feature set is very similar to both the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and the AirPods Max, but the Sonos Ace offers support for key features missing from each. They have the longer battery life, broad aptX support, lossless USB-C connection and true Dolby Atmos spatial audio that we wish the Bose had. They have the lossless Bluetooth and USB-C options, a softer fit, and Android support that we wish the AirPods Max had.
From my early time with them, the sound quality certainly seemed worth the price, and the noise cancellation seemed solid, so perhaps they can keep the Bose Ultra from my personal choice among the best wireless headphones.
However, there are some disappointments, especially for Apple users, or anyone who has delved very deep into the Sonos ecosystem. There is no wireless lossless audio support from the iPhone – aptX is not supported there. If Sonos had made the headphones work with Wi-Fi streaming, you could listen to them from Apple Music losslessly that way.
And if you’ve invested in getting one of the best turntables in your Sonos system (using a Sonos Amp or Sonos Port, or by connecting one to the Sonos Era 100, or by getting a Sonos-ready turntable, such as the Victrola Stream Carbon ) you’d expect to be able to listen to it through your Sonos headphones… but again, without support for the standard Sonos multi-room Wi-Fi system, that’s not the case.
Sonos said it will listen to customer feedback on this (although it already has a lot of customer feedback on the latest app update), and that it is possible that the option to use the Sonos Ace with its multi-room system will come in the future – but it is not currently planned.
Still, beyond Sonos hardcore, the Sonos Ace could have major appeal for those not put off by the high price tag – we’ll bring you a full review as soon as we’re able to.
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