Sonos Ace  Headphones Review

The Sonos Ace have an unmistakably premium look reminiscent of the Apple AirPods Max Wireless, thanks to their aluminum hinges, rounded edges, and magnetic, knit ear cup padding. That said, their headband is more typical in design with leatherette padding on the underside. The manufacturer's logo is embossed in a similar color to the rest of the headphones on the ear cup. They come in two color variants: 'Soft White' and 'Black.'

These headphones are pretty comfortable. They're well cushioned all around and feel lightweight, so you don't really notice them on your head. They also have a good amount of clamping force to hold them in place while you move—not enough to feel uncomfortable, though. Unfortunately, the ear cups aren't very deep, so if you have medium-sized ears, they could touch the drivers inside. The material can also feel a bit slick and sweaty over time.

The controls are easy to use and are well laid out. If you're looking for a list of commands, you can find them here. There are physical buttons to handle all major controls (including TV Audio Swap), and they even give immediate tactile feedback when you've made an input. There are also unique feedback chimes for every possible input and a sound to let you know when you've reached the minimum or maximum volume. That said, there aren't a lot of options to modify controls, and the buttons feel slightly mushy.

Like most over-ears, the Sonos Ace aren't very portable. They're pretty bulky and can't fold into a more compact design. The ear cups can swivel inwards, though.

The carrying case is decent. It's mostly made of recycled material, which feels dense with a hint of flex. That said, this material doesn't scream premium quality and can feel a little cheap in the hands. It's also prone to collecting dust and hair over time. There's a zipper to keep the case closed, although it can get caught when you're manipulating it. On the upside, it seems like the case is resistant to liquids and impact damage. Inside the case is a pouch for the cables that magnetically attaches to the case.

The Sonos Ace have a great build quality that's on par with other premium headphones like the Apple AirPods Max Wireless and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Wireless. They're made with a mix of high-quality, recycled material. The aluminum yokes easily slide up and down yet hold their position well, so you don't need to constantly worry about your fit changing over time. Swapping out the ear pads is simple too, since they magnetically clip onto the driver housing. That said, like the AirPods Max, some users have reported condensation building up in the ear cups. The manufacturer does specify that these headphones lack an IP rating for water resistance, but if you notice this happening, you can carefully wipe the condensation away with a dry cloth.

The Sonos Ace have a decently stable fit. They'll stay in place if you're listening to audio at your desk or during your commute. However, they can easily fall off if you want to wear them for more intense headbanging sessions. For a slightly more stable set of high-end headphones, the Dyson OnTrac Wireless stay put a bit better.

• Sonos Ace Wireless headphones
• USB-C to 1/8" (3.5mm) TRS cable
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• Carrying case
• User guide

The Sonos Ace offer a warm, full sound, with a little extra sparkle on top. They're punchy, but the added bass makes mixes a bit cluttered as it carries into the low-mids. Voices, as well as instruments and sibilants caused by cymbals, have some brightness to stand out against the bass. Overall, the sound isn't anything to write home about when it comes to music. If you want to use them for watching movies via TV Audio Swap, you'll find their sound helps bring out sound effects like explosions. Dialogue is fairly clear, although higher-pitched voices lose some articulation. While a lot of premium headphones offer robust sound customizations, Sonos only offers bass and treble sliders to help you adjust their sound. You can also use the Loudness feature in the app to help boost bass and treble if you prefer to keep your volume on the low side of things. It's not an EQ per se, but at low volumes, we perceive less bass and treble than at high volumes, so this feature keeps sound similar while encouraging you to listen to your audio at a lower decibel.

Whether you use a Bluetooth, analog, or USB connection, you won't notice a difference in frequency response. However, ANC on and off can make a slight difference in sound. When ANC is off, there's a bit more bass, adding thump, rumble, and warmth to your audio compared to our results, which reflect the frequency response when the ANC is on. Still, ANC on sounds a bit more neutral in the low end, allowing you to hear the mids better.

These headphones also have a feature called Aware mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without taking off your headphones. Your surroundings sound natural and lifelike. The effect is very similar to that of the AirPods Max.

The Sonos Ace have a fair frequency response consistency. If you have thick hair or wear glasses, you can experience a drop in bass since these kinds of features break the headphones' seal on your head. Treble consistency can also vary depending on the headphones' fit, positioning, and seal, so getting a good fit each time you use them for more consistent sound delivery is important.

These headphones have excellent bass compliance. The response is somewhat tilted, so there's adequate thump and rumble in your mixes, but as you go higher in the frequencies, these cans deliver more punch and boom. It's pleasing if you like to enhance the basslines in genres like EDM and hip-hop or sound effects like the house explosion scene in John Wick 2. However, the extra bass also clutters their overall sound a bit.

The Sonos Ace's mid-range target compliance is great. The response is a bit wiggly in this range, but overall, it's still balanced. A boost in the low-mids muddies up instruments like pianos a touch, but some may find the extra warmth pleasing. A small dip in the high-mids can push vocals to the back of busy mixes.

The Sonos Ace have passable treble compliance. The low-treble is slightly scooped out towards the mid-treble, so vocals and instruments in this range sound a bit veiled and lack articulation as well as clarity. That said, a peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals bright.

The peaks and dips performance of the Sonos Ace is satisfactory. The headphones follow their sound profile somewhat well, although there's a bit of deviation from the high-mids up through the treble range. The uneven high-midrange and low-treble makes instruments alternatingly harsh and weak, while a big peak in the mid-treble makes hi-hats piercing.

The imaging performance is excellent. Although this is the first pair of headphones from Sonos—a brand that largely makes home audio products—they seem to have a good hold on quality control and ergonomics upon debut. It's worth mentioning that imaging varies between units, though. Our unit's left and right drivers are well-matched in group delay, resulting in tight bass and transparent audio reproduction. They're also well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which ensures that sound objects like voices are accurately placed in the stereo image.

They have a poor passive soundstage. Like most casual headphones, they have a closed-back design, which means that although sound can interact with your ear, audio stays within the ear cup and can't bounce off the space around you. As a result, the soundstage feels wide and somewhat natural but not very spacious, as if your audio is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

These headphones have a head-tracking feature available in the Sonos app. It's not continuous tracking, but it can help make audio seem more immersive by applying a digital signal processor (DSP) onto your regular audio content to give you the impression that audio moves with your head. This feature is only available for iOS at the moment.

If you're using Spatial Audio with TV Audio Swap, audio seems digital and unnatural. While the overall soundstage is wider, with a better separation of voices and instruments, this results in a canny sound. There's also audio delay present, which can be annoying as your audio isn't in time with your visuals.

You can also use these headphones with Dolby Atmos, but you'll need a subscription and supported content.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is alright. There are a few peaks in distortion, with the most noticeable in the treble range. That said, it can be hard to hear distortion unless you're an astute audiophile, and we tend to lose sensitivity to the treble range over time as we age.

These are the settings used to test the Sonos Ace. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Sonos Ace have an outstanding noise isolation performance in our full-range test. They can block out the low rumble of bus and plane engines as well as the top-of-the-line Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Wireless, so you can enjoy your commute in relative peace and quiet. They can also effectively isolate you from mid-range sounds, like people chatting, as well as higher-pitched noises like dish clattering.

Their ANC system also does a fantastic job of reducing ambient noise in common scenarios. It can react quickly to sound and is extremely effective at tackling more inconsistent sounds like keyboards clattering at the office or the sharp honk of a car horn.

This test allows you to hear how the ANC system blocks out (or lets you hear) voices. Depending on your needs, you may want to reduce all sounds. However, some people may still want to have conversations without removing the headphones.

Thanks to the Aware mode feature, you can hear your surroundings while keeping these cans in place. Like the Apple AirPods Max Wireless, your environment sounds natural, and any chitchat sounds clear as well as easy to follow.

These headphones don't have a wind reduction feature to tackle the unwanted sound that the ANC creates when wind passes over its microphones. As a result, if you're using these headphones with the ANC on and in a noisy environment, you'll hear a lot of annoying anti-noise.

The Sonos Ace have a good leakage performance. While leakage is spread out across the frequency range, it won't really be noticeable if there's a lot going on around you, even if you're listening at high volumes.

These headphones have an array of eight microphones to help capture your voice. Together, they have a decent recording quality. Your voice sounds natural and clear but lacks depth. You won't have much of an issue being understood clearly, though.

The integrated mic has an okay noise handling performance. Regardless of the noise level around you, there's some noise present, which sounds fuzzy and distorted. In turn, this affects the quality of your voice, which can become muffled. If you're in an especially noisy environment like a busy street, your voice can be almost entirely drowned out, and the overall volume is lowered so that noise doesn't hurt your ears.

These headphones have an excellent battery performance. Sonos advertises a 30-hour continuous battery life, and we measured just over that at nearly 35 and a half hours. It's worth noting that battery life can vary depending on factors such as volume, multi-point pairing, and codec use. If you want a longer period away from the charger, the Dyson OnTrac Wireless boast an even longer battery life.

 Unfortunately, you can't use the Sonos Ace passively, so even if you're using them wired, the headphones still need to be powered on. Luckily, they go into standby mode to help save battery life when you take them off your head.

These headphones are compatible with the Sonos app, which is the same app used to control their soundbars and speakers. You can see a video of it in action. While it offers features like a bass and treble slider for customizing sound, head tracking, channel balance, and TV Audio Swap (which you can read more about below), it's still somewhat barebones in design. The feature TrueCinema (which acts like room correction, measuring your environment's acoustics to adjust sound reproduction) isn't available yet. Sonos says that they're aiming to add this in the coming months. Users have also been vocal about changes to the app before the launch of the Sonos Ace and were disappointed due to its bugginess, the integration of music libraries into the app, and the removal of features like alarms. If you've never used the Sonos app before, these concerns may not be a dealbreaker, but for seasoned Sonos fans, the app's state is a real downside if you want to make the most out of your headphones.

One standout feature of these headphones is TV Audio Swap, which allows you to connect the headphones to your compatible Sonos soundbar and swap audio, basically giving you the ability to use the headphones to listen to your TV. At launch, the only soundbar supported is the Sonos Arc, and you need to have an iOS device, which is a bit limiting. Android users won't be able to take advantage of this feature at launch, though Sonos says they're working on it. To use this feature, both devices need to connect to your iOS device via the app, which connects to your Wi-Fi. Once this is done and the feature turned on, you can easily switch source audio by holding down the 'Content Key' for a few seconds. However, while activating this command is easy, using the feature may be a different story for some. While we didn't experience any issues, and we set it up using a new Sonos system, some users have had trouble establishing a connection or have encountered audio drop out.

When using the TV Audio Swap feature, the Spatial Audio feature makes audio sound unnatural, digital, and canny. While it still gives the impression that your audio is wider, we preferred audio with the feature turned off. However, the audio delay is more glaring; voices may not be properly synced with lip movement. Across different media formats, using Spatial Audio tends to result in a compounded audio delay compared to when the feature is off. The soundbar has a baseline audio latency, and when TV Audio Swap (TVAS) is enabled, additional latency is introduced by the feature. We found this to be different depending on the connected soundbar; you can see the added latency results below with Spatial Audio disabled:

It's possible to get used to the delay, but it's still pretty annoying. We also noticed some audio droppage and chirping, but it occurred very infrequently and for less than a second each time. We noticed that the range isn't very long either, so you need to stay near the soundbar to use it.

You can daisy chain these headphones to get audio from a gaming console connected to your soundbar. However, it's worth remembering that the latency may be high and disruptive. While some users have experienced issues with the right ear cup when using this connection, we didn't encounter this issue, and switching audio sources was fairly seamless. It also seems like firmware 2.9.4 also patched the problem, but if you're still encountering it, please let us know in the forums.

While these headphones come with a 1/8" TRS to USB-C and USB-C to USB-C cable, it's worth noting that the headphones must be on to use these connections. As a result, you'll experience some latency with either connection, and the delay can be a little frustrating if you're working on latency-sensitive content. The USB cable is also way too short at 2.3 ft (0.71m) to use comfortably.

The Sonos Ace have very good Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing, so you can simultaneously connect them to your smartphone and laptop. These headphones also support a variety of codecs, including AAC, aptX, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Lossless, the latter of which is good if you want to stream high-quality audio. Most of these codecs have pretty high latency, so your audio and visuals will be out of sync. Using aptX Adaptive (Low Latency) will help lower delay into a more manageable territory. Some apps and devices compensate for latency, though.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs. You can also connect them to your PC via analog, but you'll only have audio and can't use the mic. You can also use the USB cable for full audio and mic compatibility, but this cable is very short.

You can connect these headphones to your PlayStation console's controller via analog, but you'll only get audio support. You can also connect these headphones to your console via TV Audio Swap if you have a compatible Sonos soundbar.

You can connect the Sonos Arc to your Xbox console by plugging the analog cable into your controller's AUX port. However, you'll only receive audio. If you also have a compatible Sonos soundbar, you can connect these headphones to your Xbox via the soundbar by using the TV Audio Swap feature.