Design & Construction

What seems to be one of the longest-awaited products in Sonos' timeline is finally here. This is the Sonos Ace, Sonos's first foray into the world of wireless over-the-ear active noise-cancelling headphones. Though it is their first time, Sonos did a pretty good job, creating the unofficial successor to the AirPods Max. How so, you may ask? Let's dive into the design. Firstly, the Sonos Ace has matte recycled plastic cups that features a revolutionary mechanism that allows each cup to rotate independently and balance pressure. Combined with the telescoping arms that smoothly extend and stay where you set them for a consistent fit and seal. The stainless steel frame is wrapped with soft-to-the-touch leather for a durable yet flexible fit. Next, the plastic headband is designed to distribute weight, reducing on-head pressure. However, I do have to admit that the Sonos Ace is a tad bit heavy at 312g, but with some very well-done ergonomics. The weight is seemingly well-distributed and spread across the entire headband. Still, it is quite hard to forget that the headphones are on your head, but it is manageable without any wearing fatigue for long listening sessions. The depth of the ear cups is very spacious too, and will fit all ear sizes. The ear cups are wrapped with plush memory foam and soft vegan leather, and it certainly create enough space between your ears and the drivers such that your ears never touch the insides. Just like the AirPods Max, the ear cushions are magnetically attached so replacing them is a breeze. Aesthetically, it seems rather luxurious with monotone colour options and silver accents and the headphones do not pick up fingerprint smudges and facial oils in day-to-day use. It is important to note that the headphones will only fold flat, but not upwards, so the footprint of the headphones is quite large. Yes, there is nothing wrong with a design like this since it has been the go-to method for the Apple AirPods Max and the Bowers & Wilkins Px8. With a larger footprint comes a large case, and yes. the hardshell carrying case included is on the wider side, though I have to say it is relatively slim in side profile. Inside the case, we have a detachable magnetic case pouch to store our 1.2mm USB-C to 3.5mm cable for wired use and the 0.75m USB-C to USB-C cable for charging with no airplane adapter included this time. Now for controls, there are no touch-sensitive touch pads here, just trusty physical buttons that are highly preferred. Sonos' innovative silver-finish content key allows for play/pause with a single press, a double press skips forward and a triple press skips backwards. Pushing the dial upwards will increase the volume, and downwards will decrease the volume. For ANC controls, there is a more conventional button just located below the content key where a single press will cycle through Active Noise-Cancelling and Aware Mode as well as a long press to bring up your customised voice assistant of Alexa or Siri. Under the left earcup, you will find the an LED indicator, the USB-C port and the power/Bluetooth pairing button. No 3.5mm port here since Sonos is a wireless-first audio company, but if you want to go wired, you can use the included USB-C to 3.5mm cable.

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Sound Quality

Exciting and energetic is how I would describe the sound of the Sonos Ace. So let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is deep, punchy, and tight. The 40m drivers use a ported acoustic architecture that never manages to distort at loud and maximum volumes and does not bleeds into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The bass depth, however, doesn't rattle the headphones much and is far from what you can expect from the bass-heavy Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless. However, the bass is stronger than the AirPods Max or Bose QuietComfort Ultra. The highs sound bright and are filled with plenty of details and the mids do sound crisp, especially with the help of the equaliser tuning that is found in the Sonos app that really helps to configure the sound to your ears. The soundstage isn't quite as wide as the mind-blowing AirPods Max's Spatial Audio but definitely on par with Bose QuietComfort Ultra and better than the Sony WH-1000XM5. The instrument separation is excellent with distinct left and right channels being heard clearly. If you are not so much of an EDM or Hip-Hop fan, I am glad to report that the Ace works perfectly with all other genres ranging from Pop to Jazz after you fiddle with the customisable sound settings in the Sonos App available for download from the App & Play Store. In the app, you are first greeted with the status of the headphones' battery with its current Noise Control setting. There are three presets of Active Noise Cancellation, Aware Mode and Off. Oddly enough, you cannot customise any of the modes to your preference so you are stuck with whatever that is out of the box. Based on my testing and usage, the Ace performance is not too bad when compared to the best of the best. I would rank it behind the top 3: Sony WH-1000XM5, Apple AirPods Max and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra. From the hum of the airplane cabin, traffic sirens and horns, strong winds, and even high-frequency screams or baby cryings, the Ace blocks all of that with no cabin pressure. You may also switch to Aware Mode, where you can utilise the microphones to take in surrounding noises for safety but as mentioned, you cannot customise the levels of transparency to let in. Comparing the Aware Mode with the AirPods Max, I would give the edge to Apple's Transparency Mode as it is simply the most natural-sounding transparency that seems to know what to filter out and take in. Tapping into it, we can see more settings in the sound tab, where the EQ can be adjusted. However, there is no dedicated 6-band equaliser like its competitors; you can only adjust the basic bass and treble levels from -10 to +10 levels as well as the Left and Right balance and loudness settings. Quite disappointing for a premium headphone of this price point. Next, you can enable Head Tracking, which enables Sonos Intelligent Motion Processing with Dolby Head Tracking for Spatial Audio. Personally, this setting works well when watching movies in a stationary position to improve the overall soundstage. In day-to-day music listening, I usually leave it off. Now, loyal Sonos users can rejoice since they can now connect their compatible Sonos Arc, Beam and Ray soundbars to TV swap audio for personal listening, unlocking Dolby Atmos content for maximum impact. However, many were speculating the master of smart home audio is finally going to launch the Ace as the world-first Wi-Fi-enabled headphone. Unfortunately, Sonos has yet to find a viable way to do so without draining the headphones' battery rapidly or maintaining a stable connection. With multipoint Bluetooth connection available, the Ace can connect up to 2 devices at once so you can take calls on your phone and listen to music on your laptop. Onto hardware controls, you can customise the Noise Control button settings to cycle between all 3 modes of ANC, Aware and Off or just two modes of ANC and Aware mode. You may also enable or disable the wear detection proximity sensor to auto-pause your music automatically when removing your headphones from your head, as well as auto-accept calls upon putting on the headphones. In other settings, you can update your headphones software and learn about the controls if you forget them. At the bottom, you can see your current song playing and adjust the volume slider or skip songs in the built-in player. Call quality is decent, the caller on the other end feedback that the 8 beamforming microphones pick up minimal surrounding noises, but my voice sounds a little robotic even when I speak up. Wind noise reduction was okay, as hardly any wind noise could get though even if it was quite strong outdoors. However, when put against the AirPods Max's superior call quality, it sadly fails to beat the competition.

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Connectivity & Portability

The Sonos Ace supports the latest and greatest AptX LL, AptX Adaptive AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.4. The battery life peaks at 30 hours per use with ANC. It is worth noting that the headphones have rapid charge which only requires 3 minutes of charging for 3 hours of playback. It takes a total of 3 hours to charge the headphones from a dead battery. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect, as it is able to detect my headphones when its already connected via Bluetooth all the time. If you try to watch videos or movies with these, they do not have any latency in audio transmission. The package comes with a 1.2mm USB-C to 3.5mm cable for wired use and 0.75m USB-C to USB-C cable for charging,

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PROS

• Energetic Sound Signature

• Snug & Comfortable

• Long Battery Life

• Easy Controls For Music Play & Calls

• AptX LL Codecs Supported

• Bluetooth 5.4

• Spatial Audio with Head Tracking

• Dolby Atmos Support

• TV Audio Swap with Sonos Soundbars

• Multi-device Connection

• Hardshell Carrying Case

• USB-C Fast Charging

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CONS​​​​

• Bulky Storage Method

• No Customisable Noise-Cancelling

• No Customisable Aware Mode

• No Dedicated 6-Band Equaliser

• No Airplane Adaptor

• Large Case Footprint

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The Bottom Line

In all, the Sonos Ace is a good first attempt for Sonos to put up a strong contender for a premium noise-cancelling option. However, Sonos has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to stay on top of the minds of discerning consumers. For now, its compelling features include Dolby Atmos support, modern design, strong noise-cancelling, an energetic sound signature, and TV Aduo Swap with Sonos soundbars help it appeal to loyal Sonos users. It is highly recommended for daily commutes and long flights. Two colours of Black and Soft White are available to fit users of different genders and styles.