At long last, Sonos has officially entered into the wireless headphone market. After a long-gestating period of rumours and reports, the Sonos Ace is now here. The premium audio company is taking everything it’s learned from developing soundbars, speakers, and subs and distilling it into a compact, yet robust pair of Bluetooth headphones.
In many ways, Sonos Ace reflects what sets the company apart from many other audio solution companies. Engineers at Sonos take every liberty to analyze how music and content are listened to and design a device to supplement that. Over the years, Sonos has refined and reimagined its approach to home theatre soundbars, standalone speakers, etc. However, the Sonos Ace puts the company in an entirely new position.
Sonos Ace folds in cutting-edge audio and noise cancellation technology with an elegant design philosophy. Breaking into the market, Sonos Ace is launching for $599 in Canada, instantly becoming a competitive contemporary amongst AirPods Max, Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra. After spending over a week with the headset, I’ve been impressed by the audio quality and on-board feature sets. With that said, Sonos has some work to do when integrating Sonos Ace into your home theatre setup and its mobile app.
If you’re familiar with recent Sonos products, you’ll know that the company has moved to a minimalist packaging approach. Sonos Ace is no different with very few bells and whistles aside from exactly what the consumer needs. The wireless headphones ship in a narrow protective case, made of 75 percent recycled felt. Inside the case are the Sonos Ace headphones, launching in both ‘Black’ and ‘Soft White’ colour ways. The case complements both colour options. Inside the case is a small pouch, used to store the included USB-C charging cable and 3.5mm audio cord.
Looking at the headset itself, Sonos Ace takes a few visual cues from AirPods Max. The headband is made up of a durable top band that has a little bit of give to it. There’s a nice foam cushioned headband, which feels excellent sitting atop my head. The headband then transitions into short stainless steel hinges hidden in the headband, connecting the individual ear cups. Both ear cups offer onboard buttons, including the ‘Content Key’ button. This is an all-in-one toggle where a single press controls pause and play functions. Sliding it up and down controls the volume. Below it is a button to activate the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and the Aware Mode. Pressing the button swaps between the two depending on preference. Unlike most Sonos devices, it’s great to have physical controls with tactile responses. It’s all laid out simply and effectively.
Sonos Ace offers soft, vegan leather and memory foam-built earcups. These not only provide comfort but also help acoustics and drown out potential noise pollution. Inside each ear cup is an ‘L’ and ‘R’ symbol, signalling the corresponding ear. Sonos is also selling replacement ear pads in case they wear out over time. As someone who wears glasses, the comfort of the earcups is ultimately what determines whether or not I’ll wear a pair of headphones for more than an hour. So far, I’ve not experienced any discomfort while wearing Sonos Ace at my desk or out on my walks through the bustling streets of Toronto. The matte ‘Black’ finish on the Sonos Ace looks sleek and elegant. However, they’re very prone to smudges. Also, it’s unfortunate to see that in only a short time, scuffs and markings have begun to appear on the earcups. If purchasing this colourway, it’s highly suggested to store them in the case after each use.
The packaging also ships with a small booklet with step-by-step instructions on how to set the device up. Set up is done all via the revamped Sonos app. It was here that I experienced my first major pain point in using the Sonos Ace. To be clear, this is more of a gripe towards the app than the headset. The app’s process of linking new products to an account is very unreliable in its current form, from my experience. The Sonos Ace has a small button on the left earcup that controls the Bluetooth capabilities and pairing. Getting the app to recognize Sonos Ace took a little over a half hour. At launch, Sonos Ace can also be paired with an Arc soundbar. Again, this is reliant on the app. Unfortunately, this also caused some hiccups along the way––more on that in a bit.
As a standalone pair of wireless headphones, Sonos Ace is immaculate. Once I had the device paired with my smartphone, I was off to the races. Sonos Ace features a custom-designed 40mm dynamic driver built into each ear cup. They also include ported acoustic architecture to help with bass delivery. Sonos Ace checks off all of the boxes I have when wanting to stream music or podcasts. I’m by no means an audio buff when it comes to music. That being said, there’s such a wide spectrum of audio clarity when using Sonos Ace with Spotify or Apple Music. I began hearing new instrumental cues and notes that otherwise had been drowned out or gone unnoticed. Even subtle breaths or inflections from the artist’s vocals were noticeable. Songs I’ve listened to countless times, like Humble by Kendrick Lamar or Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories sounded brand new because of the soundscape. Hoping for lossless audio? You’ll need to pair Sonos Ace with an Android device featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform, using the aptX Lossless codec. If you want to customize or tailor the EQ settings, the Sonos app allows you to tweak ‘Bass’ and ‘Treble,’ similar to other Sonos products. They’re quite effective but not revolutionary. The additional EQ setting available is ‘Balance’ which lets you adjust the audio to left and right channels per your preference.
Sonos Ace includes a full-fledged spatial audio and head-tracking feature. It’s a phenomenal addition that really goes a long way to immerse listeners. When tuning into music, individual instruments and vocals surrounded me, as if I took a seat right in the middle of the recording studio. Breaking apart the audio, I could pinpoint a guitar over my left shoulder while vocals hovered over my head to my right. If you’re obsessed over the way music should sound and want to be immersed in your favourite song, Sonos Ace does a remarkable job in assisting. When listening to podcasts, Sonos Ace uses both channels to its fullest, making you feel like you’re in the middle of a conversation. Between the spatial audio and head tracking, you do gain a real sense of immersion. The only detractor is if you’re walking or moving around your home. These built-in sensors take a moment to adjust to your head’s position. So, as you’re walking in a straight line down the street, everything is nicely calibrated. However, the moment that you turn the corner, the audio remains calibrated to your original positioning until the sensors catch up a few seconds later. If this sounds off-putting to you, these settings can be turned off.
Sonos Ace also offers a healthy ANC feature. Built into the headphones are eight beamforming microphones that register and calibrate unwanted noises and drown them out. Like other ANC-enabled headphones, you’re left with little to no noise pollution, disrupting your listening. In the heart of Toronto, you can still make out the faintest of sounds. It’s arguably hard to get away from the sirens, construction, and car honks in a metro city. Sonos Ace does its best but it’s slightly bested by Beats Studio Pro. With a press of the onboard button, Aware Mode is activated and I’m able to hear conversations, traffic, or the notice that the southbound subway to Union Station is once again delayed.
A large focus of Sonos Ace is to be a complimentary part of your home theatre experience. Sonos wants to provide a way to have a private listening experience if you have someone sleeping in your home or listening to music on another device. In comes Sonos Ace, which at launch, uses a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection with the Arc soundbar. Later this year, Ray and Beam (Gen 2) will be supported as well. Linking Sonos Ace to the Arc is once again all reliant on the Sonos app, which once again proved to be troublesome. I truly almost gave up trying to sync the two devices one evening before it miraculously connected. Sadly, I’m not even sure what I did differently within the app.
The ‘TV audio swap’ feature between the Arc to the Ace is done via a long press of the Content Key or within the Sonos app. When activated, Arc’s volume is muted and all audio is passed through the headphones. This includes 5.1 channels, 7.1.4 audio, and even full Dolby Atmos. Using the onboard controls, swapping back to the Arc is a breeze if someone comes into the room to watch a movie with you. That being said, I did run into a small issue with the TV audio swap feature. When swapping from Sonos Ace to the Arc and back to the Ace, I noticed that a small audio delay would form. I’m notorious for picking out latency in audio, to an annoying degree at times. Even if it was a millisecond delay, Sonos Ace did struggle at times to render a seamless experience after an audio swap. However, the issue would resolve itself after turning off the headset and turning it back on.
I’ve been quite impressed by the audio experience so far. The sound processing and Dolby Atmos audio were immaculate rewatching Barbie, where I picked up several audio cues I never noticed before. Even in a tense movie like Late Night With the Devil, Sonos Ace was a starring compliment to movie night. Based on creating a personal home theatre experience, Sonos Ace achieves this with top marks. It’s admittedly not the way I’d default to watching a movie but on the odd night that I want to blast Interstellar at 12 AM without waking anyone or disrupting the neighbours, I can see myself leaning on the Ace headset. From an audio perspective, Sonos achieves that simulated, immersive experience all thanks to its new TrueCinema technology. Similar to its Trueplay feature, Sonos Ace speaks to the Arc soundbar, measuring room acoustic, positioning and other factors to replicate the personalized audio experience Arc provides. Sonos Ace also incorporates its head tracking tech in its home entertainment setup. Audio reflects natural positioning if I begin looking down at my phone. What’s great is that the entire experience isn’t disrupted if I get up and quickly run to my fridge for a snack. The head tracking technology has a grace period before recalibrating, similar to the experience I noted above.
Sonos Ace is an undeniably solid first break into the wireless headphone market for the company, offering upwards of 30 hours of battery life. Bringing over decades of experience engineering various audio devices, Sonos Ace encapsulates exactly what the company is known for, which is excellent sound quality and additive features to benefit the listening experience. However, the $599 headphones are held back from true greatness due to connectivity hurdles. Given the current state of the mobile app, Sonos Ace can be finicky to set up and use outside of third-party apps. As the Sonos Ace enters and hopefully becomes a core component of the company’s arsenal, it can continue to evolve the ways we interact with music and home theatre audio. As a first leap into the market, Sonos makes a compelling value proposition, competing with other major brands firmly planted across headphone providers. Despite a few caveats, Sonos Ace is an easy recommendation for audio aficionados.
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