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Following years of speculation, Sonos' long-awaited headphones have arrived. They're called the Sonos Ace ($449), and they're an impressive pair of flagship Bluetooth headphones. But the keyword there is Bluetooth.
Many fans hoped the popular audio brand's first headphones would work like its portable Roam and Move speakers. Those devices use Bluetooth on the go but also support WiFi to stream music at home and group with other Sonos products. However, WiFi streaming on the Ace turned out to be wishful thinking.
Don't get us wrong, the Ace still stack up well against the best over-ear headphones from Bose, Sony, and Apple. But they don't do a lot to stand out from the pack. The biggest difference is the Ace's ability to pair with select Sonos soundbars for private listening, but while cool, this feature doesn't apply to all buyers.
Ultimately, the Ace's biggest selling point might actually be their comfy fit, which wowed us during our testing. Buyers on the hunt for high-end Bluetooth headphones should certainly consider the Ace, but there is a sense that Sonos could have done something a bit more unique in this space.
Editor's note: This review has been updated after further testing with new firmware to reevaluate issues we initially ran into with the headphones' TV Swap and transparency modes. Updated by Steven Cohen.
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The Ace's setup experience is as slick and smooth as you'd expect from a brand of Sonos' pedigree.
Opening the box reveals a fuzzy gray case made from 75% recycled plastic bottles. Unzip it, and you'll find a minimalist pair of matte headphones in black or Soft White wrapped around a bean-shaped pouch. Designed to harbor the Ace's dual USB-C cables for wired playback and charging, the pouch attaches via a strong magnet at the case's center, efficiently utilizing the space. The whole layout feels equally aimed at style and substance.
The headphones themselves borrow aesthetic touches from rivals like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra and Apple AirPods Max but with a Sonos twist, bearing the same elegantly stripped-down design cues found across all Sonos products. From the Ace's sleek rounded ear cups and laser-etched logo to their steel arms and cushy, vegan-leather pads, this is a familiar package that still manages to strike its own chord.
On the right ear cup are dual control buttons, including a multi-function "content key" for playback and volume via a mix of taps and slides. There's also an adjacent key to swap between noise canceling and transparency modes. The two keys are easily distinguishable by touch for error-free control in nearly any setting. On the left cup is the power/pairing key and a USB-C input for charging and wired playback.
Downloading the Sonos app helps you quickly pair the headphones to your mobile device and add them to your list of Sonos devices where you can monitor status and battery life. Tapping the Settings icon lets you adjust features like bass and treble, head tracking for spatial audio effects, and multi-point audio to pair the headphones to a second device like a laptop or tablet.
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Comfort is always subjective, but we can say without hesitation that the Ace are the most comfortable noise-canceling headphones we've encountered, beating out favorites like Bose's QuietComfort Ultra and the Sony WH-1000XM5. After a week of wearing the Ace nearly all day, every day, we rarely experienced an inkling of discomfort.
Frankly, we're not sure how Sonos did it. At 313 grams, the Ace are lighter than Apple's AirPods Max, but still outweigh both Bose and Sony's top models by a good 60 grams. You can definitely feel the heft as you swing your head around, but somehow between their ultra-soft pads and taut yet judicious clamping force, they manage to pull off the proverbial headphone trick of nearly disappearing on your head over time.
The fit is also quite stable, staying put even on light hikes and other semi-rigorous activities. Without an IP certification for water resistance, we wouldn't recommend the Ace for sweaty jogs or gym regimens, but they're excellent companions for nearly any other task.
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The Ace offer a smooth and mellow sound signature. They have a penchant for digging up lush and vivid instrumental timbres, all spread across a deep and expansive soundstage. The overall performance stacks up well with some of the best-sounding headphones in their class.
The Ace do exhibit a darker tonal color than you'll find in rivals like the spritely Bose QuietComfort Ultra. But this doesn't affect the Ace's talent for exposing fine details. Horns are breathy and full. Strings are smooth and lush. Acoustic guitars ring with a golden sheen. The ability to precisely place all these instruments in the mix may be the Ace's most impressive sonic feature, allowing you to explore each instrument independently or simply sit back and let them wash over you.
There's some sparkle in the treble for pristine clarity in high-flying percussion and loads of definition in instruments like buzzy synths and distorted electric guitars. At the other end, bass is full and punchy without being overwhelming. Unlike many headphones we test, the bass is fairly balanced by default, though we still dropped it down a notch or two in the EQ settings to clear up space in the soundstage. We also turned off the Loudness setting, which tended to make things sound a bit boomy.
On occasion, we wished for a bit more presence and clarity in vocals and dialogue, particularly when listening to podcasts, but we never struggled to hear minute details like vocal fry or room echos, allowing us to notice sounds we'd missed in previous listens. Hardwiring the Ace via a USB-C-to-3.5mm cable offers even better definition, including support for lossless audio at up to 16-bit/48Hz resolution.
The Ace also have a head-tracking feature, which keeps the sound anchored when you turn your head to mimic the effect of listening to speakers positioned in a fixed location. This is also supported with Dolby Atmos movies when synced with an Arc, Beam, or Ray soundbar. Head tracking works similarly to rivals, effectively simulating a home theater environment.
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The Ace's incredible noise canceling is a triumph worth celebrating. This is top-tier cancellation that stacks up with some of the best pairs available, seeming to suck the air out of the world and plant you in an isolation chamber of solace.
We tested the feature indoors with studio speakers playing sound effects as well as outdoors on hikes and dog walks, where it was most impressive. Tapping the button can almost extinguish the world, from city din to chirping birds. Even traffic-laden streets glide into a soft whisper.
In head-to-head tests, only Bose's mighty QuietComfort Ultra outpowered them, reducing sounds like keystrokes and drone effects to an even lower murmur. Even so, the Ace's ability to offer such stark silence without a modicum of added white noise makes them a contender for one of the best noise-canceling headphones you can buy.
The Ace also have an excellent transparency mode that's designed to let in environmental sounds to keep you aware. This mode is vividly clear and natural. It's so good that we were able to wear them virtually all day without skipping a beat, similar to Apple's latest AirPods. Though we weren't able to test the Ace directly against the AirPods Max, based on previous listening, we're confident you won't find a more natural-sounding transparency mode on the market.
However, there is one caveat to our praise. With this mode engaged, we occasionally heard mild connection noise in the right earcup during our initial evaluation. For our original testing in June 2024, Sonos sent us two models to try, and this issue was present on both. That said, in the weeks following our review, Sonos sent us another pair to test. With the latest firmware installed (as of August 27, 2024), we didn't hear any signal noise. Other Sonos users report similar findings with the latest firmware in this thread on Sonos' forums, so this issue appears to have been resolved.
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The Ace have many top features you'd expect from flagship noise-canceling headphones, like multi-point pairing, sensors to pause audio when you take them off, and various other settings from within the Sonos app. Their battery life of up to 30 hours per charge is highly competitive, and we could use them all day for multiple days without the need to charge.
However, the Ace's inability to group with other Sonos speakers to stream music over WiFi is something of a letdown, even if it would have been unique among their peers. It's not particularly surprising at this price — we would have expected another $100 or so added in to get seamless support for both WiFi and Bluetooth — but it does put the Ace in a somewhat siloed position within the Sonos ecosystem.
The consolation prize for the Sonos faithful is the ability to wirelessly switch audio between the Ace headphones and a Sonos Arc, Beam, or Ray soundbar. This is handled via a TV Swap function in the Sonos app for iOS and Android. This means you can hear movies and TV shows privately through the headphones without disturbing others. And this mode supports Dolby Atmos, so you can get a surround sound effect with head tracking.
When we originally tested this feature with an iPhone and a Sonos Arc soundbar, we were unable to get it to work. Sonos' support team told us "You've encountered a rare bug that our team is aware of and working to address in a future release." The headphones use a 5GHz connection for this feature (despite their lack of full WiFi support), so it's possible our network played a part.
However, since our initial testing period, we've been able to try the TV Swap feature again — this time using updated firmware, a different WiFi setup, an Android phone, and a Sonos Beam soundbar. With this configuration, the TV Swap function worked without any issues. With the press of a button, audio seamlessly transitioned from the Beam to the headphones and vice versa.
TV Swap is a handy option for watching movies at night when you might not want a full home theater experience booming around your room. That said, it's hard to classify this as a huge selling point since it's exclusive to buyers who have Sonos soundbars.
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The Sonos Ace's many talents, from their fabulous noise canceling and transparency modes to their comfortable fit and sweet sound, instantly put them in the conversation with other top wireless headphones. From that perspective, they're worth considering for those with an ample budget.
That said, their lack of full WiFi compatibility with the Sonos ecosystem may disappoint some of the brand's ardent fans. And while the TV Swap feature is a cool bonus for people who own Sonos soundbars, we don't consider it a huge selling point.
We still recommend putting the Sonos Ace on your shortlist — they're just too damn comfortable and well-armed not to be — but they fail to distinguish themselves much from competing flagship headphones.
