Sonos launches Ace, its first pair of headphones

Sonos officially enters a new category by launching its first-ever pair of headphones called Ace. This marks the first time Sonos is venturing beyond speakers and speaker-related accessories to release a wearable product in the form of over-ear Bluetooth wireless headphones. The Ace feature some interesting integration with select Sonos soundbars but are built to compete with the best headphones on the market.

Sonos is offering them in black and soft white to match the current colours of its Era speakers, and hasn’t confirmed if it might launch other colour options at a later time. They will offer support for both wireless and wired playback, including the ability to listen to hi-res audio, spatial audio and additional features coming later in 2024. I got a chance to see these new headphones up close in New York and learned more about what the Ace are all about.

What to expect from the Sonos Ace

Sonos says it built and engineered the Ace headphones from scratch with the intention of making them stand out both in comfort and sound quality. They sport a thinner profile than many other pairs do, featuring vegan leather on the headband and ear cups filled with memory foam Sonos created itself. What’s unique is the ear cups stay on via magnets, which makes them removable and easier to clean or swap out for new ones. They can fold flat and have smooth hinges on both sides to articulate and find the right fit. While I’ll need to test them further, they felt snug and comfortable in the few times I got to wear them.

There are only physical controls, so nothing touch-sensitive here. The right ear cup has a multifunction button that toggles between active noise cancellation (ANC) and Aware ambient mode. You can also access your phone’s voice assistant by holding the button down. A separate switch called the Content Key slides up or down to control volume, playback, and phone calls.

You can either listen wirelessly via Bluetooth or plug in via the USB-C port to listen in a wired connection. To accommodate that, Sonos will include both a USB-C-to-USB-C and USB-C-to-3.5mm cable work with phones, tablets, computers and other playback devices. There are wear sensors on each cup to automatically pause playback when you take them off, and start playing again when putting them back on.

With four microphones on either cup, Sonos says the Ace will offer noise cancellation competitive with the best in the industry. I had minimal time to test it but with fairly loud white noise, the headphones did a great job blocking it out. For phone calls, the mics will work to dampen background noise while elevating voice clarity.

Music and home theatre

You won’t need to set up the Ace headphones through the Sonos app, though you can make certain adjustments in it, like the EQ sliders for bass, treble and loudness. The Ace also support Snapdragon Sound and the aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec for hi-res audio from sources offering it. Wired playback also delivers hi-res audio because of the cable connection, making it possible to hear higher quality tunes if you prefer that. With 40mm dynamic drivers inside, there’s plenty of power in these headphones, and I found volume levels to be fairly high at default levels.

From a home theatre perspective, the Ace support Dolby Atmos and spatial audio from supported services. That includes head tracking as well, which you can toggle on or off as you please when watching content in surround sound. Sonos will eventually release newer technology called TrueCinema later this year that map the space around you to create a virtual surround sound effect for a more spacious sound profile.

As for broader integration, the Ace will first work with the Arc soundbar, letting you swap between them to listen to audio coming from the TV. You would need to set this up in the app but from what I saw, the process is pretty seamless, and once done, you only need to hold down the Content Key to switch between them. This connection works over Wi-Fi Direct, where the Ace connects directly to the Arc to keep video and audio in sync. Sonos will eventually expand compatibility further to its other soundbars, like the Beam, Beam 2 and Ray. It doesn’t appear it will do the same with the rest of the speaker lineup.

Power and storage

Sonos is rating battery life at up to 30 hours per charge but that will depend on volume levels. That figure is based on ANC staying on, so the Ace will last longer if you don’t use it all the time. They will, however, not go as long in the home theater setup because of the Wi-Fi connection. Plug them in to charge for three minutes with the USB-C cable and you can squeeze out up to three hours of playback.

The Ace will come with a felt case made of 75% recycled material derived from plastic bottles to keep it safe from scuffs, along with a small compartment for the cables. It’s not a hard clamshell, but rather a semi-rigid one with a low profile to match how flat the headphones can get.

Coming soon

The Sonos Ace are available for pre-order in either black or soft white, with full availability beginning June 5. Check out all current Sonos products and the latest headphones available now.