These are my personal opinions.
- The Ace Ultra is a definite upgrade over the original Ace with a few stipulations. The overall sound and some other features are improved; but not to a point that the original Ace is a throw-away.
ANC
- Better; however, I still prefer my Apple AirPods Pro 3. There’s a logical reason why I pick the Apple AirPods Pro 3…which is in-ear (Apple) vs over-the-ear (Ace Utlra).
- The former provides a tighter seal as one would expect.
- Finally, I wear glasses which works against the Ace Ultra providing the same tight seal as my AirPods Pro 3.
- That said, the average non-eye glass wearer should find the ANC on the Ace Ultra comparable to other high-end ANC headsets; if not slightly better.
Transparency/Aware modes
- Unchanged.
TV Audio Swap
- Handled in much the same manner as does the original Ace. So basically, un-remarkable.
Spatial Audio
- Reproduction is excellent and better than the original Ace. I used the scene in movie Sinners where music from past, present and future are merged offering a lot of overhead and sounds off to different sides and areas in the space.
Music
- Listening is improved with better low-end and a wider sound stage.
Audio (Music) Switching
- Is the most compelling reason to upgrade from the original Ace to the Ace Ultra
- This is where the Ace Ultra make the biggest upgrade over the original Ace. Compatible Sonos speakers allow the listener to the move the audio (music) from the speaker to the Ace Ultra and back to the original speaker or another Sonos speaker not in use.
- The most awesome feature is this….Once the music is on the Ace Ultra the listener is free to move about as long as they are in range of their home Wi-Fi.
- The Ace Ultra technically becomes a room on your system.
- However, in doing so the Ace Ultra impacts the max number of Sonos components allowed on a system which is 32.
- By-enlarge only a very few will have to concern themselves with meeting and/or exceeding the 32 max limit.
Audio (Music) Switching Caveats
- When there are multiple rooms in the same space retuning music from the Ace Ultra to the original speaker from whence it came is hit and miss.
- The technology works off a hypersonic sound transmitted by the Sonos speaker to the Ace Ultra. Therefore, multiple speaker rooms in the same space are transmitting the same hypersonic sound.
- That means switching music back to a speaker in the same space as others will occur on a first-come-first-serve basis (so to speak) as intercepted by the Ace Ultra
- The only way to ensure that the music is sent back to the original speaker (or a select speaker of choice) is to select it in the Output Picker via the app.
Other Observations
- The Ace Ultra feels slightly more premium; or it could just be my imagination 😂
- The ear cups can now rotate to lay cup-side up or down versus up only with the original Ace.
