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Sonos Ace: https://amzn.to/4cfC5op
So these are the Sonos Ace and these are a good first try from Sonos, These Headphones have amazing build quality, I really like their case and you can easily use them with different wired connections… However, the Sonos Ace do struggle when it comes to their sound, Active Noise Cancellation, Ambient Mode and Microphone for phone calls. Nonetheless, if you’re thinking about picking up the Sonos Ace, lets see what these are all about.
So first theres pricing, the Sonos Ace retail for $450… pretty typical for there to be a Sonos tax… however for these your are paying for the improved build quality and accessories. I think these headphones are good, but these wouldn’t be my top pick. Nonetheless, if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the case. Now the Sonos ace have a lay flat design to them, meaning that their case has a pretty big foot print to it. However, this case is surprisingly thin. So even though this case has a large foot print to it, its not as big of a hassle to store it in your back pack as like lets say the Sony 1000XM5’s case, or Sennheiser Momentum 4 or Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S2… And honestly, since this case is so thin, I think its comparable to your smaller options like the Bose QC ultra, QC, or Sony 1000XM4’s case. Overall, im pleasantly surprised by the Ace’s case, its thin, but its still very hard so its going to keep your headphones well protected. However, I do worry how this fabric outer shell is going to stand up to wear and tear if youre going to be traveling a lot with these headphones… But something that I do find very interesting is that this case has a removable pocket for your cables which magnaitclly attaches itself back to the case. Over all, Sonos did a great job with their case and they didn’t cheap out like apple did with their AirPods Max.
But with case out of the way lets talk about the headphones themselves. From a material standpoint theres a lot to like here… First off, the ace has plastic on the ear cups and top portion of the headband. However, the plastic on the ear cups has a slight soft touch feel to it where as the plastic on the headband has a smoother feel to it. Now the ear cups on these headphones pivot and swivel a good amount, and the arms in this head band glide out very similarly to the arms on the AirPods Max. And then on the headband like I mentioned, we have plastic on the top and theres very well padded leatherette on the bottom. And overall the leatherette on the Ace feel great, its very soft, supple and it has a slight grain to it. Honestly, the leatherette on the Ace very very similar to Bose’s last gen headphones… cause the leatherette on Bose’s current gen headphones like the QC and QC ultra doesn’t feel as good as its predecessors. But also, the ear pads on the Sonos Ace are easily removable cause they are magnetically attached like the AirPods Max’s ear pads… and this is great either for cleaning or for general replacing. Overall, from a materials standpoint, the Sonos ace do not disappoint and they feel very premium.
But then, when it comes to their design and fit, the Sonos ace have a neutral fit to them… meaning that they aren’t too tight but they aren’t too loose… and I will say that these are big head approved. And even if you like to wear hats, these will have you covered. But from a design standpoint, personally I was shocked at how low profile these headphones look, both their headband and ear cups are very low profile… and even though the headband on these headphones is relatively thin… its just wide enough and has enough padding on it where hot spot are not an issue for these headphones. And even though the ear cups on these headphones are very low profile… these are cups are very spacious, so even if you have very large ears or ear that stick out a lot… these will have you covered as well. However, my main critique about these ear pads is that this padding has a lot of surface area that coming in contact with your skin… plus this padding is very soft and it also seems like the padding likes to collect a lot of heat… meaning that these ear pads can get a little warm a little fast… so if you planning on walking to work with these… you’ll might end up with sweaty ear cups. But the main thing to look out for on these headphones fit wise is going to be their weight. Since the Sonos Ace are using premium materials, that also means that they are going to be a little heavier… the Sonos Ace weigh in at 312 grams… now it nowhere near as bad as the AirPods Max which weigh in at 380 grams… but the Ace are noticeably heavier than your Sony 1000XM4’s which weigh in at 255 grams, the Bose QC Ultra which weigh in at 254 grams, the Sony XM5’s which weigh in at 250 and the Bose QC which weigh in at 235 grams. Now the weight on the Sonos Ace isn’t as big of an issue as the weight on the AirPods Max… however, with the Sonos Ace these are a pair of headphones that you really feel them shifting around on your head when you’re walking around with them on and you never really forget that you’re wearing them when you’re sitting with them while at your desk or while in bed.
Now when it comes to tech specs, these headphones have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their active noise cancellation turned on… which is a little above average for a pair of premium ANC headphones in 2024… and if you were to use these headphones with their ANC turned off you can always extend their battery life that way. However, if you were to use their headphones with their head tracking turned on, that is going to take its toll on the battery life.
Now in order to charge these headphones they charge via a USB C port as they should, and they have pretty typical fast charging numbers as well, if you were to charge these headphones up from a dead battery for 3 minutes they are going to get you 3 hours of playback time.
But also, this USB C port is that only port that you’ll find on these headphones, unfortunately they dont have an audio jack… however you can use this USB C port as a wired connection… and these headphones also come included with a USB C to audio jack cable… so you can still easily use these headphones with a wired connection if you’re on an airplane… and I really appreciate that Sonos included the USB C to audio jack cable… but it does seem that Sonos doesn’t have the same courage as apple to charge you separately for an audio cable… you cowards.
However, with the Sonos Ace even if you want to use them with a wired connection they have to be powered on, unfortunately you cant use these headphones passively… which could be something to be mindful of if you plan on traveling a lot with these headphones.
But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, these headphones can be connected to any two Bluetooth device at the same time regardless of eco system, so you can easily hot swap from one device to another which is great if you’re a power user with lets say an iPhone and a windows PC.
But when it comes to overall performance, these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… however, I have noticed some random disconnections here and there… so hopefully Sonos will fix this through a software update, but when it comes to audio codecs these headphones have support for SBC, AAC and APTX
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Simply said, the Sonos Ace lean towards a very bright sound signature… these things are brighter than Shanon Sharp’s teeth. Now a bright sound signature means that the vocals are going to be very pronounced on these headphones… however, since the vocals are so prominent on these headphones, the details in the instrumentals do take a hit and the bass on these headphones is very flat. First off, the bass on these headphones does not kick all that much so you’re not going to feel your bass all that much… and the bass on these headphones doesn’t resonate all that much either. So due to the lack of instrumentals and bass on these headphones… the Sonos Ace aren’t all that much fun to listen to… and watching movies with these headphones is even less fun due to the lack of bass on these headphones. Now you can go in and adjust the EQ on these headphones… but even if you were to crank the bass all that way up on these headphones you’re not going to get much bass out of them. And even if you were to go really drastic and lower the treble on these headphones, they’re just going to sound super shallow. Now the Sonos Ace also does the whole head tracking thing but I think that just a gimmick so I never use it on any of my headphones. And if you have a Sonos Soundbar you can easily connect these headphones to your sound bar and use them to watch movies… but since like I just said, since the Sonos Ace dont have all that much bass, watching movies with these headphones isn’t all that much fun. Overall, I can only recommend the Sonos Ace to people that think Bose’s headphones have too much bass.
Now when it comes to the media controls, the Ace are using physical buttons, theres a slider that you can press to play and pause and double press to skip through your music and if you slid it up or down you can easily adjust your volume, overall this slider is very easy to use and its a great option for someone that doesn’t want to deal with touch pads.
And the Sonos Ace also has wear sensors, so when you take these headphones off they’ll automatically pause your music, and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. Now personally I dont really care for wear sensors on my headphones so I usually just turn them off, but they’re there if you want them. The important thing is tho, these wear sensors dont randomly play and pause your music.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones. The Sonos Ace block out a lot of noise… however, the Sonos Ace have a lot of cabin pressure… I feel these actually have more cabin pressure than the Bose QC35’s from back in the day. But so that you can see how much noise these headphones block out, we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
ANC Test
So like you may have just seen, the Sonos Ace block out a lot of noise… and if you look at the audio levels, the Sonos Ace was producing the lowest readings… however both the Bose QC Ultra and Sony 1000XM5 did a noticeable better job of blocking out that low frequency hum from the road noise and they both did a better job of surprising the sudden loud spike from the chatter. Overall, the Sonos Ace block out a lot of noise, and if you were to just look at the charts the Ace block out more noise than the Bose and Sony… but if you actually use them in real life, both the Bose and Sony do a better job of mitigating that noise pollution. But regardless, my main issue with the Sonos Ace is the cabin pressure… when the ANC on these headphones is turned on theres a lot of pressure on your ear drums which for me does cause discomfort and it even causes a little disorientation when walking. Where as with both Bose and Sony’s headphones these do a great job of blocking out noise pollution while not having all that much cabin pressure and discomfort. The ANC on the Sonos Ace is more similar to the ANC on older headphones from like 5 years ago that had a whole lot of cabin pressure.
But then theres the ambient mode on these headphones. First off there’s you can’t adjust the ambient mode on these headphones to your liking, but more importantly, this ambient mode sounds very artificial… again, the ambient mode on these headphones sounds like the ambient mode that you would hear on headphones from like 5 years ago. But also, while out and about this ambient mode sounds like you’re under water cause its clear that this ambient mode is trying to focus on people’s voices and its trying to actively block out unwanted loud sounds. The ambient mode on these headphones is usable, but it sounds off compared to headphones in 2024.
Mic Quite Ace
But finally heres the microphone test, now the microphone on the Sonos Ace sounds decent enough to take phone calls with while in a quite room… however clarity here isn’t amazing and there is a little bit of white noise.
Mic Road Acer
Now when it comes to noise pollution, the Sonos Ace does a decent job of dealing with constant low frequency sounds like road noise, cause if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch back over to the Sonos Ace, it is reduced.
Mic Chatter Ace
However, when it comes to blocking out chatter, the Sonos Ace does struggle quit a bit here. So overall the microphone on the Sonos Ace is decent, however I would try to take phone calls with these headphones in a quieter environment.
But with all of that being said, the Sonos Ace are a great first try from Sonos, they have great build quality, they come with a great, thin and hard case, and I really appreciate that they come with both USB C and audio jack cables. However, these headphones sound very bright and they dont have all that much kick in their bass, making them boring to listen to music with or to watch movies. Yes, they block out a lot of noise, but they dont block out as much noise as your staples like the Sony 1000XM5 or Bose QC ultra, and more importantly they have a lot of cabin pressure. Their ambient mode sounds very artificial and under water, their microphone is just decent, and you cant use them passively. Overall these are a great firing try from Sonos, but for me the Sonos Ace are hard to justify.