Review of the Sonos ACE: Falling for High-End Bluetooth Earphones with Unmatched Sound Quality

Key Takeaways

Sonos Ace headphones offer exceptional sound quality and comfort, perfect for music and movies.
The headphones prioritize ease of use with physical buttons and intuitive controls.
Despite a high price, Sonos Ace headphones excel in design and performance, making them a strong contender in the premium headphone market.

The Sonos Ace headphones join a deluge of other premium Bluetooth options from Bose, Sony, and Apple. For most people, unconcerned about the price, these might be the best travel headphones on the market, but they also unfortunately don’t give current Sonos owners much tie-in to their home speakers.

Sonos Ace

8/ 10

Maximize your immersion with lossless streaming, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, and world-class Active Noise Cancellation. Hear what’s going around you with Aware mode. Enjoy up to 30 hours of battery life, exceptional comfort, and flawlessly clear calls. Connect to your devices wirelessly via Bluetooth, or use the included USB-C and 3.5 mm cables.

Pros

Extremely comfortable
Fantastic sound quality for music and movies
Travel case is slim
Control buttons are well thought out

Cons

Sonos? app is in rough shape currently
ANC and transparency work well but aren?t the undisputed best

$449 at Sonos $449 at Best Buy

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Price and Availability

The Sonos Ace headphones go on sale June 4th and retail for $449. They’re available to pre-order now and come in black and soft white colors.

At launch, the Ace headphones connect with the Sonos Arc soundbar for TV Audio Swap, but the company says compatibility with all of its current soundbars will come in the future.

Specifications

Battery Life

30 hours

Microphones

8 mics

Connection Type

Wireless, 3.5 to USB-C, USB-C to USB-C

Weight

0.69lbs (312.97g)

Noise Cancellation

Yes

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

IP rating

N/A

Charging type

USB-C

Sensors

Ear detection

Driver size

40mm

Expand

The Ace Headphones Blend Right In

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The first thing you’ll notice about the Ace headphones is how unremarkable they appear. They’re sleek and attractive, but I’m not sure the average person could pick them out of a lineup against the competition.

They look like nice Bluetooth headphones because that’s exactly what they are. There’s no fancy Wi-Fi grouping with Sonos’ music speakers, at least none for now. The connection to the company’s ecosystem of other products is extremely limited.

So what’s the point? The company told me its goal with this product is to deliver excellent sound quality, long-term comfort, and top-notch noise cancellation.

In my initial two weeks with the headphones they nailed those easy targets. The Ace headphones sound fantastic, they’re wonderfully comfortable, and they offer competitive ANC.

The Ace headphones could be the ones I reach for when I leave my house or want to block out the noise at home when things get too crazy. But I could just as easily reach for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Those do the same things and can also link with Bose’s soundbar or even group to its other home speakers.

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The Sonos Ace have some nice details to them, however, which some consumers may prefer.

The first is having only physical buttons. There are no controls that require swiping or touch recognition. I liked this a lot. The primary Content Key shifts up and down to raise or lower the volume. It had a nice motion to it that never felt wobbly or cheap.

A press of that button will pause or play your music. The Content Key also toggles the TV Audio Swap when pressed and held, but if you don’t have a Sonos soundbar then that functionality doesn’t get in the way or distract.

I appreciated that the ANC and transparency feature got a dedicated button because I found myself reaching for it frequently. A third button for power rounds out all the buttons. I didn’t have to spend mental energy trying to remember where the buttons were or what they did.

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The Ace headphones come with a double-ended USB-C cable and a 3.5 to USB-C cord. Both of those can be used for lossless listening, in addition to using the first for charging. Those accessories tuck nicely into a magnetic pod inside a slim travel case.

The padded ear cups are magnetically attached and can easily be popped off if they end up wearing out and need to be replaced. The inner ear cups are also different colors for a visual cue as to their orientation.

The total package is elegant and hard to find fault with. The price may be hard to swallow, but the design and execution are solid.

The Sound Quality Is Top-Notch

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

The reason you pay top dollar for premium headphones is because you want the absolute best audio experience. The Sonos Ace perform spectacularly in this regard.

The songs I listened to sounded rich and authentic like I was peering right into the studio while the music was being recorded. Audio gear is supposed to be a magical looking-glass for your ears. The better the speaker or headphones, the clearer you can see the room, the instruments, and even the expression on a singer’s face.

I found the Ace headphones to do an excellent job of transporting me into the space with the artists where the songs were recorded. I could hear tiny inflections in singers’ voices. I could hear minute reverberations from acoustic guitar strings. Bass guitars and kick drums were always tight and potent. All the music I listened to sounded clear with airy separation, but the instruments still blended and were impactful.

If you need one reason to be tempted by Sonos Ace, it should be their excellent sound.

The best part was that I rarely felt like I was wearing headphones. Despite their overall slim exterior, my ears tucked nicely inside the ear cups and they felt invisible. The headphones clamp on snuggly, but are wonderfully comfortable, even for long stretches.

Using the headphones to watch movies was equally compelling. I love using “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as a test movie because it starts with dynamic orchestral music followed by focused dialog and then introduces lasers, explosions, and other intense elements. It has it all in the first several minutes. It’s always fun to hear how an audio device handles Kylo Ren’s voice through his apparatus.

The Ace did great with that movie and others. “No Time To Die” also sounded riveting. I have nothing to complain about in this department. Simply, movies sounded incredible while watching with Sonos Ace.

TV Audio Swap is the feature that takes whatever is playing through the Sonos soundbar and moves it to the Ace headphones. Ace will only work with the Arc at launch, but I was able to test the headphones with a second soundbar too.

Once I registered both soundbars in the Sonos app, I could swap audio with whichever one I was closest to just by pressing and holding the Content Key button.

When I was upstairs, the headphones knew to swap audio with that one. When I was downstairs, it was smart enough to know I wanted to link to that Arc.

It’s a neat feature. I was extremely impressed by how well it worked too. Is it enough though? Some people will need the feature for nighttime listening, but if that’s not you, I worry the TV Audio Swap feature won’t get used much.

Sonos Ace Vs. Competitors

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

I did a little mini-shootout between some top consumer headphones. I listened to them using the same songs and simulated noisy environments to get a sense of how they fared with ANC.

I played the sounds of an airplane cabin, vacuum cleaner, city street, and cars revving their engines through speakers while I switched between the Sony WH-1000XM5, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones , and Sonos Ace headphones.

In terms of raw noise-canceling ability, I thought the QC Ultra Headphones did the best and blocked the most unwanted sounds from those different types of noise. The Sonos Ace did a good job overall too and were very comparable to Sony’s pair.

The headphones performed well at removing more ambient sounds. I suspect these will be a great travel device for this reason. Unfortunately, there isn’t any level of control over ANC in the app. It’s all or nothing.

The transparency mode on the Sonos Ace highly amplified sounds around me, which is the goal. It worked extremely well. But I’d argue that the eight mics across the device might be tuned too sensitively. When nothing was playing, I could hear a very faint hiss when activating the aware mode that completely disappeared when ANC was on.

Audio quality is more subjective, but I liked the sound of the Sonos Ace the most, with the QC Ultra Headphones coming in a close second. Bose seems to have a more noticeable depth to its sound that extends deep into low-end frequencies, while the Sonos Ace has more thump and presence around the bass instruments themselves. (A fine distinction for sure.)

Both the Bose and Sony headphones felt the lightest because they were. The QC Ultra Headphones come in at 254 grams, while the 1000XM5 are 249 grams. The Ace is more than 50 grams heavier at 312 grams. Sonos’ headphones don’t feel heavy, but they do feel tighter than the other two.

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

All three are tremendously comfortable, but with a lighter frame and a slightly looser clamp, I think the Bose QC Ultra Headphones were the most comfortable in my tests. The Sonos Ace was a very close second in wearability. Sony’s WH-1000XM5 are hardly uncomfortable, but my ear touched the inner foam in those.

The Sonos Ace felt the sturdiest of the three and I liked the headphones’ media controls the best. The other two relied on touch controls for at least some of the interactions.

Given that all three options retail within $50 of each other, I would argue the price isn’t much of a factor if there’s something else you like about one of these three.

I didn’t have Apple’s AirPods Max available during this direct comparison, but I have used them extensively for several years. To me, the Max’s 384.8-gram weight overshadows their solid sound and great controls. More importantly, I would avoid the AirPods Max for now simply because of their age. They could desperately use USB-C charging and a few other enhancements to make them more modern compared to the other headphone options.

Sonos Ace for Work

I had no complaints about using the Sonos Ace for work. Because they’re regular Bluetooth headphones, they connected to my Mac the same as all other ones. I had no problems using them for video calls and thought my audio sounded great. People said I sounded good too, but you can listen to some audio samples for yourself.

The Sonos App Finds Itself in a Rough Spot

I would be remiss not to mention the Sonos app because it finds itself in a rough spot at the moment. The app got completely overhauled in May, seemingly rushed for the sake of these headphones. A lot of dedicated, high-spending, Sonos fans have rightly been disappointed by disrupting long-time features and introducing instability with only a promise from the company that it’ll all be smoothed over in the future.

While the Ace headphones won’t group with other products from the company, you still need to use the app because their settings reside in the app. There are varying levels of frustration with the Sonos app currently. For one, you can’t even edit a play queue or alter Wi-Fi configurations of speakers—two core functions.

Newcomers only interested in the headphones shouldn’t encounter these issues and luckily, you don’t need to use the app much for the headphones. The available options for Ace are mostly minor things like access to a three-band EQ or configuring whether the ANC button toggles off both transparency and noise-canceling.

Having been in the Sonos ecosystem for more than a decade, I can see the big picture here. The new app is frustrating, full stop. It sucks to be going through these growing pains. But I also don’t think the issues will last forever. I wouldn’t let any app concerns stop you from at least considering the Ace.

Should You Buy the Sonos Ace Headphones?

Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

Ultimately, Sonos knocked it out of the park with its Ace headphones. It did a tremendous job entering a crowded headphone market and proving it could play ball with one massive swing of the bat.

That said, from a consumer standpoint, it’s kind of hard to see why it muscled its way into the current headphone market just to do what others were already doing well. The obvious conclusion is that the company is aiming for its Ace headphones to become a halo product, much in the way that Apple, for a while, was known as the company that made the iPod. A lot of the same people who didn’t know about Macs or scoffed at them, lined up for an iPod.

Eventually, iPods led some people to consider Apple’s computers creating a halo effect. It seems that’s what Sonos is hoping for here. People who don’t know or care about home Wi-Fi speakers may be introduced to them by way of Bluetooth headphones.

The biggest shame is that Sonos Ace don’t bring much to existing Sonos owners at launch. If you want the best Bluetooth headphones right now, these are certainly in the mix. If you’re looking for something beyond that, however, these aren’t that quite yet.

Sonos Ace

8/ 10

$449 at Sonos $449 at Best Buy

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Review of the Sonos ACE: Falling for High-End Bluetooth Earphones with Unmatched Sound Quality