I’ve been waiting for the long-rumoured Sonos headset for many, many years, and the company has finally delivered in the form of Sonos Ace, a super stylish headset that for the most part seamlessly integrates into your Sonos system, but is also just a really great standalone headset as well.
Sony and Bose have absolutely owned the over-ear noise cancelling headset space over the last decade with Apple recently joining the fray, but I’m happy to announce that the Sonos Ace more than hold their own when it comes to being a fantastic option in the noise cancelling space.
When it comes to design, the Sonos Ace might just be the nicest over-ear headset to come to market, taking the flatness of the AirPods Max design, but in a more rounded design that both the Bose and Sony have, which results in a really slick high-end headset that comes in either a matte black or matte white. The earcups magnetically pop off which is great for replacing them down the track as well.
The main event in the control space is a nice chrome metal content key which can be slid up or down to adjust volume or pressed any number of times to play/pause and skip. It can also be held to take advantage of the TV swap feature (more on that soon). There’s also a circular button that can be used to go between active noise cancellation and aware mode or held to activate the assistant connected to your Bluetooth device. It’s a super simple control system that provides each access to all of the features.
In the box, you also get a really nice hardshell case, as well as a little magnetic cord holder that sticks inside the case. You also get a USB-C to USB-C cord to get lossless audio quality, and there’s also a USB-C to 3.5mm cord included as well for plane usage.
People have always loved Sonos systems because they use a seperate Wi-Fi network that does away with Bluetooth, and this was always going to be tricky for Sonos to manage with a headset. These do primarily use Bluetooth, so you can connect to them without ever using the Sonos App, or owning a Sonos speaker.
You can still connect them to the app to display what you’re playing, update the headset, adjust EQ settings and control your noise cancellation mode, but as far as playing audio, you need to do this from your phone. I fully understand why Sonos has done this, but it did surprise me a little bit to see minimal app integration, and I’d still love for them to connect more with both the new Sonos app as well as your existing Sonos system.
This is especially true because it’s clearly able to tap into the Wi-Fi system to utilise TV Swap. Hopefully more app integration comes down the track, and there were times where the headset wouldn’t show in-app, as well, but I’m sure that’ll be ironed out.
The TV Swap feature allows you to connect your Sonos Ace headset to your Sonos Arc soundbar (Beam/Ray support coming later), and then with a simple hold of the key button (or doing so in-app), your TV audio is instantly sent to your headset, and can be sent back using the same button. It’s quite magical how well this works, and it’s great for me because I frequently game between a PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch, so to be able to use the Sonos Ace with all its noise-cancelling features is a big win.
You can also utilise Spatial Audio from your TV when in this mode too, with an even more customised room-mapping technology coming at a later date, and whilst spatial audio can be hit and miss, Sonos Ace did a really good job of placing audio around my head, and you can also turn on head tracking, so that it better understands where your head is in relation to the TV in front of you.
I recently went on a long-haul international flight, and there’s no better time to test out a high-end noise cancelling headset and the Sonos Ace did extremely well. They did a fantastic job of blocking out the extremely loud hum of the airplane, and they were also really comfortable for the long-haul journey as well.
It won’t be a surprise given Sonos’ fantastic track record when it comes to audio quality, and it’s absolutely the same experience here. The Sonos Ace deliver a fantastic amount of clarity and bass, and out of the box, need no adjusting. I have no doubts that anyone dropping the $700 will be really happy with how these sound.
Similarly to spatial audio when connected to your Sonos Arc, you can also utilise Dolby Atmos for spatial audio with the Sonos Ace and your iPhone or Android device. The best experience for me was using a wire, with me having to force my Dolby Atmos into Always-On (ha) to get it to send wirelessly, and again, I could easily hear the difference with this mode turned on, and the headset did a great job or pulling in the audio from different directions.
Whether you’re deep into the Sonos ecosystem, or just looking for a great noise cancelling headset, the Sonos Ace is a no-brainer, based on design, functionality and audio quality, and I really hope that Sonos continue to expand on compatibility within the app and ecosystem.