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billiejoe87
Chromatic Producer I
Nov 7, 2026 4:21 AM UTC

Ace Ultra Needs Different Ear Cushion Option

Long story short, I am very much in the Sonos & Apple eco systems. I have around 20 Sonos Speakers at home & all my portable devices are apple.

I recently sold my 5 year old Apple Airpods Max mainly due to wanting to move on from the lightning port and took advantage of a special on the Sonos Ace Ultra. The Sonos Ace Ultra ended up being returned the day after I received them.

Unfortunately, while the Ace Ultra were mostly brilliant and I loved their ANC, transparency mode, sound quality, ARC + Beam Hand Off etc, I just couldn’t believe how hot my ears got in them. For reference I don’t have large ears, so they weren’t touching anything, but the breathability was just so bad. Minutes after putting them on I found myself lifting the ear cups to let some air in. I knew this was unusual as I’d just used the Airpods Max on a 20 hour return flight from Australia to South Korea & Japan with no problems.

I then looked into this further and it appears the mesh ear cups on the Airpods Max are just better in this regard and there were zero 1st or 3rd party options for the Sonos Ace Ultra to help. I ended up having to bite the bullet and spend a bunch more on the Airpods Max 2 for something I feel Sonos could add as an option very easily.

Please Sonos make a different fabric (Like mesh) an option to purchase for the Sonos Ace Ultra. You’ve already done most of the work by having easily removable cushions, there are people like me who’d happily pay more to have something which doesn’t absolutely toast their ears. Outside of that major problem for me, the headphones were brilliant and so lightweight & comfortable overall.

    2 replies

    Audio-Park
    Audio-Park
    Contributor I
    Nov 7, 2026 10:27 PM UTC

    Please Sonos make a different fabric (Like mesh) an option to purchase

    yes, please

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      Schlumpf
      Schlumpf
      Virtuoso
      Nov 8, 2026 7:26 AM UTC

      For me it’s not that hard as you described, but indeed after about having Ace Ultra or also Ace on my head, my ears will feel very warm.

      But I’m not sure if that’s a specific problem with Sonos headphones or more with over ears in general. In the past I also had this problem with other over ear headphones from Dali and also with Apple Airpods Max 1st Generation. 
      I could imagine that some people are more sensitive to rhat issue than others. 
      But in the end I really would appreciate if Sonos at least will offer an additional version of let’s say “sensitive ear cushions”. 
      The competition for Sonos might be to do this without any compromises at sound quality. I think the design of ear cushions has much influence especially on bass sound. 

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      Ralf
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