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Headphone Linking in Early Access for Ace Ultra

Requirements

Ace Ultra setup in the Sonos App and connected to an iOS or Android device
At least one supported product:
- Amp*
- Arc
- Arc SL
- Arc Ultra
- Beam (Gen 1)
- Beam (Gen 2)
- Beam Ultra
- Era 100*
- Era 100 SL*
- Era 100 Pro*
- Era 300*
- Five*
- Play*
- Ray
- Roam
- Roam SL
- Roam 2
- Move
- Move 2*

* Not being used as a rear surround for a home theater setup

Setup

Once you’ve set up your Ace Ultra, go to Settings and select Headphones, tap Link to your System, and follow the prompts. Super simple, and it will also set up TV Audio Swap if a compatible Home Theater product is detected.

Swapping Audio

This is the cool part. In the Sonos App, go to the room playing music and use the output selector to pull audio to your Ace Ultra. Don’t have anything playing on a speaker and just want to play to your headphones? Simple: go to the System tab in the Sonos App, select your Ace Ultra, then find and play content the way you normally do.

You can also perform the swap without opening the Sonos App: once music is playing on one of your Sonos products, simply press and hold the Content Key on the right earcup until you hear the swap tone, then let go, and it will pull the audio from the nearest compatible product onto your Ace Ultra. That same press and hold will also send the audio back to whichever product is closest when you’re ready - and it doesn’t need to be the same product that you pulled the audio from in the first place. Note that you’ll need to be pretty close - within about an arm’s length - to the speaker for it to push the audio back. This was an intentional design to avoid unintentional out-loud playback that might startle someone, wake a napping baby, etc.

Content Options

Headphone linking works with Music Service content that’s initiated in the Sonos App or Sonos Voice Control, line-in, and your local Music Library (and TV Audio Swap adds Home Theater content, too). If you’re playing something to a speaker using Bluetooth, Airplay or a Music Service’s direct control option, you won’t be able to utilize headphone linking to pull the music to Ace Ultra.

Keep in Mind

The hardware and software required to make this work — what we're calling Headphone Engine 2 — is all new and exclusive to Ace Ultra.
Headphone linking happens over Wi-Fi, so this won’t work on-the-go, and weak Wi-Fi coverage in parts of your home can interfere with playback.
Setup uses a BLE connection to the headphones, which only supports one connection. You won’t be able to actively listen on more than one Ace Ultra at a time (though you can link multiple sets of headphones to a system).
Headphone link sessions use a high-quality compressed stereo audio stream. This means that lossless or Spatial Audio quality is not supported via headphone linking right now.
Headphone linking will work with content started via Sonos Voice Control, but not via Alexa or Google Assistant.
Today, MCP cannot see or initiate playback to Ace Ultra.
Audio plays in one place at a time; linking moves it, it doesn’t duplicate or group it. If you link from a speaker that’s playing in a group, the group will disband and stop playing.
iOS Live Activity won’t show anything during a link session.

Cameron MacLeod, who leads audio systems for our Wearables/Headphones team, explained the thinking behind some of these tradeoffs:

"This is just the beginning for headphone linking. Our priority for this Early Access release was nailing the fundamentals: clean, reliable, high-quality audio streaming with Ace Ultra as part of the system. We built a dedicated WiFi connection for this exact purpose and put it through extensive listening evaluations to make sure it meets the standard people expect from Sonos. I'm proud of what we've achieved on the sound experience so far, and excited for where we take it next."

My Take

I’m fortunate that my job here means that I get to test out new products and features before they’re broadly available, and headphone swapping with Ace Ultra was no exception. Jen McDevitt, one of the Principal Product Managers behind Ace Ultra, put it very well:

"I think, more than ever, we all live in lively, busy homes, full of other people with other schedules and preferences. Headphone linking lets us all keep the music going without disturbing someone else who maybe needs quiet focus time or just is tired of my favorite jams."

My favorite use-case so far is being able to listen to records on my turntable, which is connected via Line-In on a Five, wirelessly through headphones (that sound really, really good, by the way). I personally really enjoy melancholy (see also: sad) music in the mornings while I drink my coffee and start my day, but I’ve learned that sometimes it bums my wife out. Headphone linking is kinda perfect in that I can drink my coffee and listen to Elliott Smith or Nick Drake while she plays something more upbeat. Once she leaves for work, it’s just a button press-and-hold to push the turntable audio back to the speakers.

My own turntable setup, with Ace Ultra and Five

Once you get your hands on Ace Ultra I highly recommend spending some time with this feature. I think that you’ll find it pretty seamless, and it really connects your at-home headphone experience with the rest of your Sonos system in a way that’s quintessentially Sonos.

Remember, this is Early Access. We’re still working to harden the feature, fill gaps in the experience, and ensure that it works the way that it should and that you all want it to. Drop questions and feedback here and I’ll get it back to the team. Happy swapping!

Show previous replies

G

GC3

Headliner I

We'll find out next week....

SarahN

Local Superstar

Pretty happy with how this is working so far with the Ace Ultra. I have only tried it streaming straight from the App although I did test it swapping music from my Move 2. I think I will mostly stream from the App and only really swap from a speaker when I want to listen to my record player (and Fives) from time to time.

Can you have too many Sonos speakers? 🤔 😆

G

GC3

Headliner I

We'll find out next week....

At least the linking process and setup worked flawlessly....

K

kap1

Lyricist I

For me the linking feature doesn't work at all. I'm constantly getting either "Unable to connect. Try again later." when I try to select the music from the app to the headphones or 4-5 pulsing sounds and one empty error click sound when using Content Key on headphones to transfer music from other speaker (tried on Era 100s pair and Roam 2). I've just spent 2h on the chat support and unfortunately no resolution yet. Kind of a bittersweet first day with new headphones.

Smilja

@kap1, Read Known limitations with headphone linking. Does any of this apply?

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

J

Julien2

Lyricist III

Sad to see Port not on the supported list.

K

kap1

Lyricist I

@kap1, Read Known limitations with headphone linking. Does any of this apply?

Unfortunately no, I do everything by the books.

Smilja

@kap1, There are hidden hardware faults that diagnostics fail to uncover. Your best option might be to contact support and request a warranty replacement. If the replacement headphones have the same bug(?), it's probably a firmware issue and you'll just have to wait for a patch.

»And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space, Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.« (›Windmills Of Your Mind‹ [1967]. Music by Michel Legrand ; English lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman)

Schlumpf

Virtuoso

I need to clarify how supported products fit into this list. Does it mean that headphone linking will only be able to pull audio initiated on supported products? What if an unsupported product is grouped with a supported one?

for example, my turntable is connected to a Play 5 via line in which is not on your supported list, but if I group it with my era 100, will I be able to pull the audio?

This is in the OP:

Audio plays in one place at a time; linking moves it, it doesn’t duplicate or group it. If you link from a speaker that’s playing in a group, the group will disband and stop playing.

So the group will be disbanded and stop playing. What about if you played your Play:5 line-in on the Era 100 and then pulled from the Era 100. That should work. Also line-in is listed as a valid source for Ace Ultra. You might be able to select it directly in the controller. But there won’t be line-in audio on the Play:5 or the Era 100. But it should work (I think).

I think the question is still valid. Line in is listed as a valid source for Ace Ultra, but the implication is that’s a line in on the device Ace Ultra is linked to, not a different speaker in your system.

We know that headphone linking requires that the Ace Ultra to use resources on the speaker it’s linked to in order to function properly. We know that the speaker cannot be grouped with others, which is presumably a technical limitation. The speaker can’t send audio to the Ace Ultra while receiving/sending audio from a different speaker in your system...as that’s what’s required in grouping. In my mind, it stands to reason therefore, the speaker cannot receive line-in audio from another speaker and send that audio to the Ace Ultra.

But...a counterpoint to this may be that grouping requires precise timing with other speakers. Just receiving audio from another speaker’s line-in...maybe not so much? Also, we know that the speaker feeding audio to Ace Ultra can play audio from a separate source concurrently, which seems resource intensive.

Yeah this is really a question around how much assistance the ace ultra’s need from other speakers and if that assistance can indirectly happen. My suspicion is no which would be disappointing but it’s still in early access.

I can speak to this! As long as you have one supported device on your system, headphone linking will work. So in your example - an unsupported Play:5 with a turntable connected via line-in - headphone swapping will work as long as you have a supported device (Era 100 in your example) as a part of your system, whether or not it’s grouped with the Play:5.

To add to that, and I know this isn’t exactly what you were asking: You can see in my post that I have a similar setup, albeit with a supported Five instead of Play:5. I was able to start the turntable audio on the Five, and then pull the turntable audio to Ace Ultra. I then went back to the Sonos App and reinitiated line-in audio on the Five, and even grouped it with other rooms - and Ace Ultra kept playing! Now, Ace Ultra wasn’t playing in sync with the group in this example, but it didn’t bother me because with the headphones on, I couldn’t hear the speakers - and with the headphones off, I could only hear the speakers.

I hope this helps to clear up the use-case you described!

Yes it does thanks and it makes all the difference.

An addendum to this would be would I be able to also pull audio from my playbase (which is unsupported) as long as I have a supported speaker somewhere in my network? I guess that would fall under TV audio swap which only supports specific sound bars, but I wonder if headphone linking would allow me to at least pull some audio

My understanding is that only TV audio falls under the ‘TV audio swap’ requirements. If you are streaming audio with the playbaase, then the supported speaker somewhere in your network has the hardware to handle the headphone swap.

Hi Danny and all other people discussing this before…

My result after testing for two days is that a direct headphone linking with an unsupported device doesn’t work even if there’s one or more supported device in your system. I tested with Sonos One and Play5 Gen2. No chance to get the audio playing on one of them to Ace Ultra via headphone linking.

So in case you like to hear the line in source from a Play5 Gen2 on your Ace Ultra via headphone linking, you will have to select the P5 line in as source on a supported device. Then you will be able to do the headphone link with the supported device.

Via Sonos app you will be able to select the P5 line in directly as source for Ace Ultra.

With a supported device and its line in you are able to use both alternatives. Choosing the line in as source for Ace Ultra via app, or doing a headphone linking.

Ralf

Schlumpf

Virtuoso

@kap1

Though headphone linking mostly for me works fine, sometimes I also have problems to get a headphone link working. There are situations I have to try a second time, and also there are situations I pulled audio from a speaker but can’t push it back to another speaker or even not to the same speaker.
My suspicion is, that this happens where several speakers are located nearby to each other.