+15According to this article, Sonos hoped to sell 2500 Ace headphones a day but sales show only 250. The app has really hit Sonos hard and the stockholders. For whatever reason, I can’t paste the article here so if you’re interested in reading it..look it up.
+14
+8Oof this is worse than expected.
As someone who generally likes (or at least did like) the Sonos proposition, I struggle to see what Sonos can add to the headphone world apart from the ability to use them at home as part of the Sonos ecosystem… which is the very thing they don’t do. Over WiFi you could have lossless audio with no cable. Something you can’t do over bluetooth yet (even though the latest specs seem capable of CD quality bitrates) or via Apple’s ecosystem either. So that could have been an actual USP.
So at that point they’re just another pair of wireless noise cancelling headphones in an extremely saturated market with some very big established players.
It’s not like existing Sonos customers won’t have headphones, and they will be the ones most likely to ask why it doesn’t behave like another Sonos speaker at home. People without Sonos will struggle to see a reason to buy.
The hand off from a soundbar seems a bit limited, and the fact that your don’t appear to be able to drive two sets of headphones for quiet listening by more than one person at night also seems like a missed opportunity for another USP…
Discounts are already almost £100 off RRP, £367 at Amazon, sold by Amazon not some shady back street garage, and we’re nowhere near the dreaded Black Friday yet...
+9As standalone headphones the market is already crowded with brands who have a recognised history of producing good headphones. To break into that market will take time and apart from Sonos die-hards the price for a company with zero history of headphones was never going to make them a massive seller.
The USP over other headphones is they do spatial audio for all sources via the soundbar for one person.
So rather than having to pair with an Apple TV, console, tv, pc separately you just pair with the soundbar.
That does have quite a few shortcomings though. Only one pair per soundbar, although I can’t see the appeal of multiple people sat in a room all wearing headphones. They disable the soundbar audio, so where people are using a mix of headphones for hearing issues and soundbar/tv audio for other people at the same time they’re a non-starter.
And the biggest miss, they’re just Bluetooth headphones rather than a Sonos room. The gaming market has low latency WiFi headphones with 20-30hr battery life available, or longer with two batteries supplied and the ability to swap, so I’m not entirely convinced about the battery argument. Yes it would be lower than bluetooth but to then be able to use them as a Sonos room seems a reasonable trade off. 🤷
Only one pair per soundbar, although I can’t see the appeal of multiple people sat in a room all wearing headphones. They disable the soundbar audio, so where people are using a mix of headphones for hearing issues and soundbar/tv audio for other people at the same time they’re a non-starter.
As a couple living in a flat, I can see a case for two people listening to a film late at night together with two sets of headphones, and as you say above, it would be quite handy to allow one pair of headphones to work at the same time as the soundbar for someone with hearing issues… I’m not sure either are mass market killer cases, but would widen the appeal a bit.
For me the more likely more widespread attraction would be lossless audio around the home via WiFi… plugged into the Sonos ecosystem… which isn’t there. 🤷🏼 Maybe it’s supposed to be coming later if they have the WiFi gear inside used for hand-off?
When Sonos releases headphones, the automatic thought is that it will be another item to appear on your Sonos speaker list. That it would allow you to walk around the house and garden listening to music, getting wifi signal to the headphones without needing to be connected to any device other than the router. It would allow you to group your headphones with a Sonos home theatre setup (joining the soundbar’s 5ghz bond when in close proximity, but switching to house wifi when you walk out of its range).
And the killer part is that it also has Bluetooth so you can connect to your phone on a commute or when out for a run.
But the Sonos Ace isn’t that product...
It would need streaming services, streaming players/TV manufacturers and Sonos to work together on this, but it would awesome to be able to have the soundbar playing the audio in one language and the ACE(s) playing in different one(s). As a trilingual family, each one has a different audio language of choice when watching movies here.
Betting the company on a non starter is what this is looking like now, with hindsight for the rest of us.
+9Betting the company on a non starter is what this is looking like now, with hindsight for the rest of us.
Heh, until the rumoured Google TV based STB makes this look like a high selling product. It’s going to need to do far more than just be another Google TV STB to be worth considering against the current offerings. If it’s not going to be a hub for standalone speakers it’ll likely be doa against the existing competition.
+8Who needs a fixed app when there are new limited edition Ace headphones by “ Sporty and Rich” available 🤣🤮
I bought 2 sonos Ace … and returned one because not able to use them together listening to tv from beam soundbar …
just one feature away from all-in or double or nothing
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