It’s no secret that the Sonos Ace headphones are on the cards (they were actually first rumored in 2019, but they were recently leaked by a Dutch retailer, which has taken things up a notch) and now we have a concrete date from Sonos itself about the launch of its “most requested product”.
Okay, so the email doesn’t explicitly mention the Sonos Ace (the likely name for Sonos’ very first headphones), but the company has took to Instagram and emailed to make the announcement, giving a launch date of May 21 at 6am PT, 9am ET, 2pm BST or 11pm AEST – and if you received an email, have You can even receive a handy countdown timer.
Sonos Ace headphones: what can we expect?
So they will (almost certainly) come tomorrow! At the time of writing this there is just over 19 hours of waiting time.
The news won’t come as a huge surprise to fans who heard about Sonos’ leaked summer release schedule, although the release date for the set of cans was previously thought to be early June rather than May – so it’s quite refreshing to see a brand achieve (rumored) goals in a timely manner.
After writing an opus late last year about four things I want from Sonos headphones (after it became clear that Sonos had invested heavily in a dedicated headphones team despite a challenging 2023), I know what I want: I want Sonos Ace so is something like the world’s first lossless wireless headphones, HED Unity. These arrived in August 2023 from a little-known Swiss audio startup and looked very much like they should have the Sonos logo embossed on the earcup – but no.
In short, in addition to music via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (when I go out), I also hope for advanced audio transmission via the Sonos ecosystem. I want to come home and hear the song playing on the Sonos Ace headphones seamlessly picked up and relayed through the Sonos Five in my kitchen.
This feature actually made its headphone debut with the Bowers & Wilkins PX8, along with the updated Bowers & Wilkins Music app. To explain, B&W’s Music app allows PX8 users who also own Bowers & Wilkins Formation products to easily switch between listening at home (perhaps on their Zeppelin or Formation Wedge speakers) and listening on the go via a mobile device with their B&W headphones.
Considering Sonos’ extensive range of multi-room audio speakers (not to mention the Sonos-compatible Victrola Stream Carbon turntable), this will surely be a feature of the company’s first-ever headphones.
Pricing isn’t officially known, of course, but based on the company’s existing lineup of talented audio products, a budget price tag is unlikely. Back in 2019, a Bloomberg source originally said the first wireless Sonos headphones would likely cost around $300 / £220 / AU$400, but pushed back to 2024 and Bloomberg has revised this figure and said it will actually work out more like $449 (about £355 / AU $690). If true, that would undercut the Apple AirPods Max, which cost around $549 / £549 / AU$899.
Could they simply be the best over-ear headphones of the year? Only time will tell – and it won’t be long to wait…