Sonos Ace headphones sound great but weren’t ready to launch

The wait is over. That’s the slogan Sonos is using to tout its Ace headphones. The over-ears are the multi-room pioneer’s first crack at the headphone market. Not solely intended for use on the go, the Ace are designed to integrate into Sonos home systems. The audio’s supposed to switch from your Sonos soundbar to the Sonos Ace at the touch of a button – with surround sound to boot.

Updates are a must before set-up

Sonos’s app overhaul was a veritable trainwreck (website in German). Some features were missing, some no longer did what they were supposed to and others disappeared from the new interface. The community was fuming. My colleague Lorenz doesn’t think the new app is all that bad but on the whole he’s not happy with it either.

Before you even take the headphones out of their box, you should update the Sonos app. I didn’t think to do so, which initially caused me a lot of frustration when pairing the Ace.

After updating the app, you should immediately check for a firmware update for the Ace. It’s only once you run this update that the headphones can be automatically recognised by the app. If that doesn’t work, you have an iOS problem on your hands. When pairing a device manually, a «Log in as system owner» message often appears. Even if you are the system owner. This seems to be a familiar, partially fixed (emphasis on the «partially») bug (website in German). Hopefully Sonos will put the kibosh on it soon.

Even after connecting the Sonos Ace, I still have problems. If I switch off the headphones and lose the Bluetooth connection, I have to close the app completely and restart it when I switch the headphones back on. Otherwise they’re not recognised automatically, despite being paired to my phone.

Don’t bother trying to integrate the headphones into your Sonos system. Unlike the Sonos multi-room system, this doesn’t work with the Ace headphones. Wi-Fi support is only available for the TV Audio Swap feature, another source of criticism for the manufacturer. Too bad.

You can also connect and use the Ace with your smartphone via Bluetooth without the app. But if you do, you’ll miss out on a few things.

Music: subtle and very, very good

The Sonos Ace supports SBC, AAC and AptX Lossless, the latter of course only being available on Android. On top of this, there’s Bluetooth 5.4. Sonos hasn’t (yet?) made the standard available on Auracast, which is a shame. Still, with this multitude of codecs and modern standards, the preconditions for good sound are in place. Sonos has installed a dynamic 40-millimetre driver in each earcup. A dynamic driver, to put it in simple terms, is a membrane on a wire coil. When an audio signal passes through the coil, a magnetic field is created, setting the membrane in motion and generating sound waves.

Light, clear and from all angles

I put on Fool’s Errand by Fleet Foxes. With its choral vocals and drums, the track is ideal for finding out whether the Ace headphones separate the elements well and can reproduce them clearly. They can. Thanks to 3D sound and head tracking, the sound is very expansive. Listening to a track, I often feel like there are buskers playing right beside me.

The bass is beautifully subtle, but still packs a punch

Ghosttown by Yung Lean takes things in a completely different direction. The numerous autotune elements and deep voices of lead artists Yung Lean and Travis Scott accentuate the present but never distorted bass. Again, the drivers clearly reproduce the bass. There’s no distortion, no overemphasis. It’s a very precise reproduction, and somehow nice and intense. I can let myself fall right into the music. Head tracking plays a part in this too. If you activate it, the music «follows» you when you turn your head, seeming to come from all angles.

The sound is also clean, clear and precise when making calls. During my review, I made phone calls with the headphones on, and also called people who were wearing them. Sonos has built four microphones into each earcup, which filter background noise frequencies out of the conversation. It feels like the other person’s voice is coming from inside your own head. As creepy as that sounds, the quality’s fantastic. Equally, if you’re calling someone with an Ace headset on, you’ll also be clearly heard.

Of course, Sonos has also equipped the headphones with noise cancelling. You can switch between the ANC On and Aware modes using a button on the headphones. If you want to turn the whole thing off, you need the app. I’m impressed by how quickly the Ace filter out sudden, one-off noises. This is usually a weak point on ANC headphones. Constant noises at the same frequency aren’t usually a problem. People chatting on the train, for example.

I liked Aware mode even better. Unlike many other models, the Ace don’t amplify the noise from the microphones and there’s no hissing. It’s actually on par with the AirPods Max’s powerful transparency mode.

The app

In addition to the ANC modes, the app boasts a multipoint function to connect two devices to the Ace at the same time. There’s also a reliable autodetection function that recognises whether you’re wearing the headphones and pauses or continues the music. Naturally, there’s also an equaliser for bass, treble, balance and volume.

The thing you can’t do is connect your streaming accounts to the app and use them from there. When you’re listening to music, you can skip tracks, pause them and so on, but you need to open your streaming app separately first. That’s another one of my bugbears with the app, but hopefully that’ll change soon. I haven’t had that problem with other Sonos devices in the past.

One of the features that Sonos is particularly keen to promote is TV Audio Swap. The idea behind it is that if you’re watching a film, you can switch the sound from the soundbar to the Ace at the touch of a button. When you don’t want to disturb your neighbours, for instance. Apparently, doing this doesn’t cause you to lose the surround sound.

Unfortunately, this currently only works with the Sonos Arc. The manufacturer’s other soundbars are still languishing without it. Sonos was kind enough to lend me the right soundbar for my review. Even so, I still end up struggling with the app. It insists that the account I’m logged in with isn’t the system owner. Unlike the Ace, which are recognised after I do the update, the problem with the Arc persists. The Android version works, but the Swap function is currently only available for iOS. After battling with the app, the system integration starts working on my iPad, at which point the bar is also recognised by my iPhone.

TV audio: key feature still to come

The Audio Swap feature now works. Regardless of whether I’m watching a film on the TV or playing games on the PS5, the sound moves seamlessly to the headphones. I never hear any delay. However, I do feel like the battery drains slightly faster when the bar’s transmitting sound to the headphones.

Another feature set to be added is TrueCinema. With the help of new software, the headphones’ acoustics are adapted to the room. As a result, the surround sound produced by the headphones is supposed to equal that of the soundbar. Unfortunately, the feature won’t be released until later this year. If you ask me, the fact that a key product feature hasn’t been made available at launch is more than questionable.

Sturdy, comfortable headset with top-of-the-range controls

Sonos has done just as brilliant a job on the hardware as it has on the music. The Ace headphones feel very high-quality. Although they’re made of various plastics and not aluminium, I don’t hear them make any squeaky, plasticky noises. The ear cushions are made of artificial leather and adhere to the headphones magnetically. This makes them easy to remove and, once they’re worn out, replace. All without having to fork out another 499 francs on a new pair of headphones. The inside of the cushions and earcups are different colours – the former (left) is black, while the latter (right) is a transparent white. As a result, you know immediately which part goes where.

The headband is also comfortable. Sonos has packed memory foam into it so that the padding adapts smoothly to your head. The ear pads are also quite wide, even accommodating larger ears. They don’t create excess pressure in any places. The outer sides are matt and coated, ensuring you’re not constantly having to clean off fingerprints. Nice one. The discreet Sonos logo on the right earcup is the same colour as the headphones, so it can only be seen if you look closely. The external microphones, on the other hand, have a slightly glossy finish.

One of my favourite things about the over-ears is that Sonos hasn’t incorporated touch gestures. Instead, there’s a button for turning them on and off and pairing on the left-hand side. On the right, there’s a slider you can move up and down (for volume) and press (for play/pause). A spring inside the slider makes sure it always goes back to its original position. There’s also a separate button for TV Audio Swap.

Sonos includes a USB-C charging cable with the headphones, as well as a 3.5-millimetre jack cable for Bluetooth haters. There’s also a quick-start guide and a carry case. I’m pretty ambivalent about the latter. It’s made from recycled fabric, which is commendable. The little box stuck magnetically to the inside for storing cables is also a nice idea.

That being said, the whole thing feels tatty – like a piece of cardboard. The zip on the box reminds me of the kind you get on a 7-euro Primark raincoat (including its estimated lifespan).

Speaking of raincoats, just make sure you don’t get the thing wet. The case won’t withstand water. As for the Ace headphones, they don’t have an IPX certification, so be careful when you’re using them outdoors.

The battery performance, however, is impressive, with the manufacturer stating it lasts up to 30 hours. This proved true during day-to-day use i.e. without noise cancellation enabled. Once you switch on ANC, the battery life reduces to 20– 25 hours. I also like the quick-charging function. Though nothing new, Sonos has taken it to the extreme: a three-minute charge gives you three hours of sound. So if you plug in the headphones in the morning then grab a quick coffee, they’ll have enough juice to get you through any commute.

When fast-charging, it’s important you use the cable included as well as a good power supply unit (40 watts minimum). If all you do is connect the Ace to a lacklustre USB port on your laptop using a USB cable, they won’t charge as quickly.