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Sonos Ace review: A lot of good things on the first try

Sonos Ace Featured Image
Picture: TechnikNews
(Post picture: © 2024 TechnikNews)

Just a rumor for a long time, now finally on the market: Sonos' first over-ear headphones, the Sonos Ace. I found out for you whether these are already worth it or whether you should wait for the next generation.

tl; dr: Sonos has done a lot of things really well with the Ace right from the start. The design and comfort are great, the sound quality is impressive and the noise cancellation and transparency mode work perfectly. The same can be said for TV Audio Swap, the key feature of the new headphones, which allows the sound from a Sonos Arc to be sent to the headphones. I think there is room for improvement in the case and the battery life, as it could be a bit longer.

Sounds good so far, but I can't recommend the Ace for everyone. One disadvantage is that TV Audio Swap currently only works with iOS and Sonos' most expensive soundbar, the Arc. Furthermore, the Ace has no real advantage if you don't own a Sonos product at all. They are also rather superfluous if you already own an Apple TV and AirPods Max, as they have a similar function to TV Audio Swap. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that the current price of 499 euros is very steep.

Unboxing and initial setup

The Ace packaging is made of cardboard and shows an image of the headphones along with some logos and other inscriptions. The packaging contains the over-ears, a double-sided USB-C cable for charging and a USB-C to jack cable.

For the initial setup, the headphones must be switched on using the button on the left. They will then immediately appear in the Bluetooth settings of a playback device, after which they will also appear in the Sonos app for further management. Pairing can also be done via the Sonos app. In the app, there is also an area in the system settings for setting up TV Audio Swap with a compatible soundbar.

Design, workmanship and comfort

With their flat ear cups and thin hinges, the Sonos Ace have a certain visual similarity to the AirPods Max. The manufacturer offers them in black and white.

Sonos One

Picture: TechnikNews

The controls are entirely via buttons, and they all have a different shape, making them easy to tell apart. They also all have a very soft pressure point. The only connection in the case is a USB-C port for charging and transmitting audio.

The ear pads are magnetic and can therefore be easily replaced if necessary. The magnet is still so strong that they should not fall off under any circumstances during everyday use. In general, the entire workmanship is flawless, from the headband to the metal hinge to the plastic of the ear cups. I could not find any scratches after my test.

The case for the Sonos Ace is made of fabric on the outside and comes in the same color as the headphones. It offers good protection and a small sleeve for cables that is held magnetically inside. The Ace cannot be folded up, but I no longer expect that from over-ear headphones, even if it would be practical to save space in a backpack, for example. My only concern with the case is that the fabric will get dirty over time. I also found it annoying that the zipper often gets stuck.

I found the headphones very comfortable to wear. They don't press too hard against the head because the cups aren't that wide. The padding also contributes to the comfort.

Battery life

According to Sonos, the battery life is 30 hours with ANC or transparency mode activated. I can confirm this; in everyday life, I managed almost an entire work week without charging. However, I would have liked the battery life to be a little longer, as they do need to be charged more quickly when watching a few films with TV Audio Swap.

The Sonos Ace charges quickly. After just three minutes of charging, they will run for three hours, although a full charge takes three hours.

sound experience

The Sonos Ace has a 40-millimeter driver on each side. Audio is transmitted either via Bluetooth 5.4 or via one of the included cables. The headphones also support lossless playback when using the USB-C cable or when connected to an Android smartphone with aptX Lossless. The Sonos Ace also has Dolby Atmos with 3D audio and head tracking, as well as the ability to connect to up to two devices at the same time. Switching between devices is even as fast as with AirPods.

In short, the sound is what you would expect for this price. The Sonos Ace have a detailed and wide sound and are very controlled and balanced in the bass as well as in the mids and highs. Overall, I liked the sound quality a little better than that of the Sony WH-1000XM5.

The active noise cancellation is very strong. So strong that, among other things, the noise of my vacuum cleaner is completely muted. Here, too, I feel that the Sony WH-1000XM5 perform a little worse. The transparency mode also impressed me a lot. You hear your surroundings almost as they really sound. Sudden and short noises are, however, somewhat attenuated at first.

TV Audio Swap

As already mentioned at the beginning, TV Audio Swap is the feature for transferring the sound from a compatible Sonos soundbar to the Ace. After the initial activation in the app as described, the function can be used by long pressing the media button or via the app. The change takes barely more than a second and is confirmed by a short information tone.

Sonos Ace Media Key

Picture: TechnikNews

The consumer experience is then at least as good as with a soundbar, thanks to the good sound and Dolby Atmos with head tracking. The latter reacted very well even to small movements.

There are two disadvantages, however. The first is that TV Audio Swap can currently only be set up with an iOS device and is only compatible with the Arc and Arc SL. A corresponding update for Android is due to follow soon, as is support for other products. Sonos has not revealed an exact timetable for this, however. Another disadvantage is that playback cannot be controlled via the headphones.

App

The Sonos Controller app is available for managing the Ace. It is available free of charge in the Play Store and the App Store.

About two months ago, this received a major redesign. I find the new look very appealing and I was able to find my way around quickly at first. Another plus point is that there is now a web version of the app, which is intended to replace the old desktop software. However, as many people have probably noticed, the app was not well received by many users. Because it had to be ready for the launch of the Ace, some features are missing, as well as accessibility for people with disabilities. Furthermore, it is by no means free of errors; for example, Pocket Casts is very difficult to work with for me, and the app crashed my entire system for a few days just because I unplugged another product.

Since I already explained the new look in the article linked above, I want to focus here on the functions specific to the Sonos Ace.

The settings for the product can be found by selecting the Sonos Ace in the system settings. There you can see things like the Bluetooth device name or the current battery level as well as settings for noise control, sound, TV audio swap, multipoint Bluetooth and wear detection. Another view can be found by clicking on the over-ear headphones in the overview of all playbacks. From there you can change the TV sources or regulate the noise control.

Sonos Ace

Picture: TechnikNews

Sonos Ace: Prices and availability

The RRP of the Sonos Ace is 499 euros. They are available here:

We would like to thank Sonos for providing the Sonos Ace!

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David Haydl

David lives in Graz and has been there for around half a decade TechnikNews, also editor-in-chief for some time. He regularly provides the site with news, test reports and the like TechnikNews Weekly, which was his idea to launch. He likes to spend his free time outdoors, listening to a lot of music (and clearly too loud) and some podcasts on all kinds of topics, and also likes to go running. He enjoys the time that remains with his charming girlfriend or in front of the TV.

David has already written 1273 articles and left 117 comments.

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Duden

Biggest disadvantage, no WiFi. Why Sonos? That would have been a good idea.

FloHH

This is probably because Wi-Fi requires too much energy. Many people would have complained about poor battery life.

I am rather surprised that the soundproproblems (interference) that were noticed during the test on golem.de were discussed.

https://www.golem.de/news/sonos-ace-im-vergleichstest-dieser-anc-kopfhoerer-ist-nicht-einmal-etwas-fuer-sonos-fans-2406-185609.html