Rumours that Sonos was coming out with a headphone have been circling for a long time. In fact, we first heard about it in 2021, but it’s finally here: Sonos has made a headphone, and its name is Ace. And it will hit stores in early June.
In addition to serving as noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones with Bluetooh (also lossless via AptX Lossless), Sonos Ace is designed with home cinema experiences in mind – alongside Sonos’ own home cinema systems. We’ll get back to how that works.
‘Sonos Ace utilises everything we’ve learned over two decades as an audio leader to bring great sound, sleek design, and long-lasting comfort to one of the largest and most popular audio categories in the world,’ says Sonos CEO Patrick Spence.
The design is understated, bordering on restrained, but also quite stylish. The Sonos Ace has oval ear cups and a softly padded headband. All in the same colour, which is either matte white or matte black. The headband is metal. The only visual highlight is inside the ear cups, where a colour shows the difference between right and left.
Sonos' best soundbar, Arc, gets even better with wireless rear speakers and subwoofer. Here you get real home theater sound.
The memory foam and coastal leather ear cushions are interchangeable and held in place with magnets. That’s a nice touch. Sonos also gets points for choosing real, physical controls over touch.
Move the sound at the touch of a button
What immediately sets Sonos Ace apart from the crowd of luxury wireless ANC headphones is an extra button on the right ear cup that switches between home cinema sound and personal listening. The idea is that with the push of a button, you can ‘’transfer‘’ the sound from the speakers to the headphones. So you can, for example, continue watching your film or series without disturbing your neighbours, children or significant other. Using head tracking and spatial sound via Dolby Atmos, the sound image stays in the same place in the room as it did on the home cinema system.
We got a sneak peek at the feature at a recent press demonstration in Copenhagen. How Sonos Ace sounds and feels in detail, we’ll get back to in a review. But the head tracking and simulation of listening over speakers seemed pretty convincing at the demo.
Battery life is rated at 30 hours, and in a pinch, you can get three hours of battery life on a three-minute charge. Enough to watch all of Dune 2.
Availability and price
Sonos Ace will be available from 6 June. It is available in white and black and is priced at €499.