The Sonos Ace is a great product that arrived at the wrong time. The company’s app woes largely overshadowed their debut in 2024, which is a shame because they’re a beautiful pair of over-ear headphones with powerful, detailed sound and a comfortable design that lets you easily change ear pads. Sound-wise, you can expect something on par with what you’d get from a pair of Bose or Apple headphones, with a natural-sounding transparency mode that’s actually second only to the original AirPods Max (no word on the Max 2).
The biggest downside to the Ace is that you can’t play music over Wi-Fi or group them with the company’s in-home speakers (though they do support wired audio over USB-C). However, for me, the fact that they can take advantage of Sonos’ TV Audio Swap feature is what makes them exceptional. The unique tool allows you to instantly transfer sound from a Sonos soundbar, including the Sonos Arc, the entry-level Sonos Ray, and both iterations of the Sonos Beam, to one or two pairs of Aces with the simple press of a button. You can also trigger the feature within the Sonos app, which lets you enable spatial audio and head tracking for a fuller, more cinematic experience.
Supposedly, the TV Audio Swap will only appeal to those already in the Sonos ecosystem. That said, I regularly use this feature for listening while watching movies and gaming (with minimal lag!), mostly so I don’t disturb people sleeping in my house. Sonos’ new TrueCinema mode lets me fine-tune virtual surround sound, similar to the company’s speaker-based TruePlay feature, making sure the headphones reflect the acoustics of my space.
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