Retired Sonos Staff

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The long-awaited first headphones: Sonos Ace

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Today we are announcing the launch of our first-ever headphones, Sonos Ace, marking the brand’s long-awaited entry into the personal listening category. As a leading innovator in sound, Sonos is now using its renowned audio and design expertise to transform the way we listen on headphones.

The premium over-the-ear Bluetooth® headphones feature breathtaking lossless and spatial audio, world-class Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Aware Mode, as well as the most precise and immersive home theater experience possible using Sonos’ new TrueCinema technology. Sonos Ace will be available globally in both Black and Soft White.

Superior Sound on a Personal Level

Artfully crafted and masterfully tuned, Sonos Ace defies expectations with a range of features that bring the best of Sonos to headphones.

Indulge in high-fidelity sound: Savor every second of your favorite song, podcast or friend’s phone call thanks to Sonos Ace’s two custom-designed drivers that render each frequency with impeccable precision and clarity.
Your own private cinema: Sonos Ace lets you enjoy a surround sound home theater experience while giving your household the gift of quiet. Instantly swap the TV audio from a compatible Sonos soundbar to Sonos Ace with just the tap of a button. Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos envelops you in dramatically detailed sound from all directions and dynamic head tracking keeps you centered in the action even if you need to grab a blanket or reach for the snack bowl. Coming later this year, Sonos’ all-new TrueCinema technology precisely maps your space then renders a complete surround sound system for a listening experience so realistic you’ll forget you’re wearing headphones.
Turn the world on or off: Make personal listening even more personal with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), or activate Aware mode when you want more awareness of your surroundings - be it walking on a busy street or working in the office.

Day-long battery life and ultra-fast charge: Listen or talk for up to 30 hours with an extended, energy-efficient battery life. Ultra fast charging ensures you’ll never miss a beat - get 3 hours of battery life with a quick 3-minute charge using the included USB-C cable.

Elegant Design and Long-Lasting Comfort

Sonos Ace was made to look and feel as good as it sounds. Its distinctive, slim profile beautifully blends metal accents with a sleek matte finish, complementing any style no matter how fast trends move.

Endless Comfort: Sonos Ace uses lightweight, premium materials for an airy fit that gently hugs your head. Its pillowy soft memory foam interior is wrapped in vegan leather, while a custom headband and ear cups that hide the hinge create the perfect acoustic seal without catching on hair.
Intuitive Design: Wearing and storing Sonos Ace is a breeze - contrasting colors inside the ear cups subtly signal which way to put the headphones on and beautifully-tactile buttons make controls easy to use while wearing them. When you’re done listening, put Sonos Ace away effortlessly thanks to its fold flat design that fits snugly in its lightweight travel case.
Responsibly Made: Sonos Ace is built to last and made for daily wear. The headphones feature replaceable ear cushions, circular materials that allow us to use 17% less virgin plastic, and a 75% recycled felt travel case made from plastic bottles. Engineered to drive energy efficiency, wear detection pauses your music when you remove Sonos Ace from your ears, minimizing the need for charging.

Sonos Ace will be available on June 5 for $449 USD (499 EUR, 449 GBP, 699 AUD). For more information, visit sonos.com, and follow along on @sonos.

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Ken_Griffiths

I’m thinking 🤔 what could really be handy in my own use-case, is this Ace SoundSwap feature. Just to explain…

At the moment if I want to connect my Sony, or other branded, Bluetooth headphones to my main LG Television, I have to go into the TV settings and switch off Simplink (CEC protocol) to be able to switch the TV output to anything other than a HDMI-ARC/eARC connection and when that’s done, I can then BT pair my current headphones to listen to the TV audio sources and built in Apps.

Now it appears that the ‘messing with my TV’ will become a thing of the past and I can leave the TV settings alone and use the Sonos SoundSwap feature instead. The documentation says, that it can all be done with a long press on the Ace ‘Content’ button to play the TV audio on the Ace Headphones - so just that feature alone, has already made me want to get my hands on the Ace to use with my LG TV and it’s connected Arc soundbar.

It also sounds like this type of TV connection is an ad-hoc 5Ghz wireless connection in a ‘similar’ manner to the way that ‘bonded’ Surrounds and Sub currently work with Sonos soundbars. That surely can only mean …that the TV audio will be crystal clear and in perfect lip-sync. That’s If my thinking is correct here, I just can’t wait to see/hear the headphones in action with my TV.

Spatial Audio and Head-Tracking aswell - what’s not to like? - and that’s all in addition to what’s available with Apt-X music audio.

P

PerA

Collaborator I

Spatial Audio and Head-Tracking aswell - what’s not to like? - and that’s all in addition to what’s available with Apt-X music audio.

Well, if the product was branded Noson we could at least enjoy that Sonos executives have some humor. And we could enjoy the product as a competitive Bluetooth headphone alternative. But a Sonos without the zone ability? Nah. What a disappointment.

M

MrWhite22

@Ken_Griffiths - I’d interpreted the same too with switching between soundbar and headphones. I wonder though how many users would use this feature versus wanting to switch audio as @carswell mentioned?

I’m keen to see the reviews of this though as even for TV viewing, I’d be interested to know if you had two Arcs, how would the Ace know which one to switch to and if they are selling the headphones in pairs too, a great feature would be to have both paired to the Arc - just think, kids sleeping and parents watching TV with with cinema-like audio on the headphones.

Ken_Griffiths

@Ken_Griffiths - I’d interpreted the same too with switching between soundbar and headphones. I wonder though how many users would use this feature versus wanting to switch audio as @carswell mentioned?

I’m keen to see the reviews of this though as even for TV viewing, I’d be interested to know if you had two Arcs, how would the Ace know which one to switch too and if they are selling the headphones in pairs too, a great feature would be to have both paired to the Arc - just think, kids sleeping and parents watching TV with with cinema-like audio on the headphones.

My Kids have long flown the nest, but you’ve made some really good points here and we will have to wait and see the detail you mention. 👍

Ken_Griffiths

Spatial Audio and Head-Tracking aswell - what’s not to like? - and that’s all in addition to what’s available with Apt-X music audio.

Well, if the product was branded Noson we could at least enjoy that Sonos executives have some humor. And we could enjoy the product as a competitive Bluetooth headphone alternative. But a Sonos without the zone ability? Nah. What a disappointment.

I ‘may’, very occasionally, want to group two Ace Headphones ‘perhaps’ for the Wife and myself to listen to the same music, or TV audio late at night and to not disturb others, but I’m not bothered about grouping my Sonos speakers with Ace, as I can’t think of a valid reason why I might want to do that, either for TV, or music, audio - If audio is playing on my speakers, I’d just listen without headphones… I have portable speakers too to move about the Home to continue listening, plus there’s the Sonos button-grouping option to play audio in other rooms etc.

melvimbe

The Sonos App is a ‘controller’ App, not a player - it has never been a player. The audio source plays direct to the connected Sonos products. At the moment that’s been over a wireless connection, I don’t know if that’s going to happen over a Bluetooth connection, we will have to wait and see.

Always having been a controller up to now doesn’t mean the app can’t or won’t gain new functionality in relation to new products

I suspect there are licensing/contract issues with the Sonos mobile app acting as a music player. For example, Spotify probably wants users to use their app, with all the features these built into it, when playing music from your phone. They don’t want users to experience it through a 3rd party app. So if the Sonos app were to ever become a player as well as controller, or Sonos just made a separately player app, I am thinking it would exclude any music service. That means it would be for Sonos radio, aux sources in your system, TV audio, and local libraries.

Sonos radio makes sense, and I’m a little surprised that it hasn’t been done yet, since radio is a source of revenue for Sonos.

I don’t know that aux and TV audio makes sense. You really need to be at home to control these sources, so what would be the benefit of playing the audio away from home. It would also likely require cloud resources, possible something Sonos would want to charge a subscription fee for. I’m sure someone has a need for it, but probably not a big priority for a lot of people.

That leaves local libraries. Sonos isn’t doing great with local libraries right now, and it’s not exactly a growing market. Besides, Plex already offers this service and works at home through Sonos or away from home.

I agree that it would be great to have a single app that plays any streaming music source as well as any other source you have whether you are home or away, but I just don’t think things will line up that way as things currently stand.

Danny

melvimbe

@Ken_Griffiths - I’d interpreted the same too with switching between soundbar and headphones. I wonder though how many users would use this feature versus wanting to switch audio as @carswell mentioned?

I’m keen to see the reviews of this though as even for TV viewing, I’d be interested to know if you had two Arcs, how would the Ace know which one to switch to and if they are selling the headphones in pairs too, a great feature would be to have both paired to the Arc - just think, kids sleeping and parents watching TV with with cinema-like audio on the headphones.

I suspect that you have to actually setup Ace to ‘bond’ to a specific Arc in a similar way that you bond surround sound speakers and a sub to your Arc. So if you have 2 Arcs, I don’t think you could just switch Ace to play audio from one Arc or the other that easily. You need to go through the setup process again, the same way you do from surrounds and subs.

As far as being able to use 2 pairs of Ace headphones with a single Arc, I asked that question earlier in the thread. You can’t do that, only one at a time. Sonos stated that research shows that people really only want one, but I think it’s a technical limitation that’s really the reason right now. Even if people typically only want one, there would likely be enough people who want 2 Aces, or the capability of 2 whether they use it or not, to warrant the feature if it could be done with existing hardware on the Arc.

Danny

H

huntaaar

Avid Contributor I

Hi @Bumper

Will they work with Sonos amp like they do with Soundbars?

No, they will not be able to play audio from Amps.

probably a better question is will I even be able to add them to my system or will I be stuck due to one of the many bugs. Not risking it until the app is fixed.

They will work without setting up first - they will connect via Bluetooth straight out of the box, so no app needed! Setting up in the app allows EQ adjustment and Home Theatre audio playback with supported Sonos sound-bars, plus other features.

Cant even use them with the amp 😂😂😂🤪🤪🤪🤪

M

Marco.BAuthor

Retired Sonos Staff

Hi everyone,

Went through the conversation here and will answer some of the questions I saw:

@Corry P are there any new SVC voice commands specific for Ace?

It looks like there is no voice control built into Ace at all, looking at the specs.

Eventually SVC will be supported with the Sonos Ace, but not at launch. It will be added with a future update.

Hi Kumar

The question is will these work directly with an Apple TV or an Amazon Fire Cube, or is the presence of a Sonos soundbar a prerequisite, and if so, only some models? Will someone that has just a TV being supplied by a video streamer be able to use these for surround sound? I suspect not.

A compatible Sonos soundbar will be a prerequisite, yes.

That doesn’t make any sense - I can connect any of my bluetooth headphones directly to my FireCube and take over the audio - why would these be different?

The main difference here is the lower quality of BT audio and that it wouldn't submit Atmos sound from your TV to the headphones. Also if connecting a BT headphone directly to the TV latency could become an issue.

It’s even more confusing that the disaster with the app initially seems to have been driven by this product, but the app isn’t even required. The people most likely to benefit from the spatial audio are exactly the same population as have been throroughly alienated over the past few weeks, for no obvious benefit.

The app absolutely *is* required for Arc connectivity. It states (rather ambiguously) in the Ace features that this feature is currently only supported via iOS, with Android support following 'soon'.

I find it extremely troubling that Sonos do not already have Android functionality implemented for the headphones' most unique selling point, and the fact that there is no date for this functionality to be introduced even more so.

I will not even be considering purchasing these headphones until Android compatibility is implemented.

Android compatibility for the TV Swap feature won't be implemented at launch. But we are determined to add Android compatibility asap.

Could someone from Sonos say something about battery replacement?

I assume the battery won’t be user replaceable, but will there be a battery replacement service whereby Sonos would replace the battery for a fee? Or in a few years time once you are no longer happy with battery life will the only option be to buy a new unit?

Currently it is not possible to replace the battery in a Sonos Ace. If that becomes an option with a replacement service in the future I can't say at this point.

Is there a technical reason why the audio swap feature can only work with soundbars, or is it technically possible that support could come to other Sonos speakers in the future (even if no commitment could be made now)? I noticed speculation earlier in the thread that it might relate to the method by which soundbars link to surround speakers and subs, which other speakers don’t possess. But would be nice if someone from Sonos could comment.

As others have mentioned it would be good if we could audio swap other speakers in order to pipe system aux input into the headphones.

The Sonos Ace connects to the soundbar in the same way as a surround speaker using 5Ghz WiFi. This won't work with other Sonos speakers than a soundbar.

Is the audio from the Arc that can be sent to the Ace headphones only limited to TV audio? If I were to send line-in audio from a turntable or play a song from my music library from the Sonos app to the Arc, can it be sent to the Ace headphones too?

Yes, it is limited to TV audio. Only TV audio (via HDMI or optical) can stream to Sonos Ace.

Greetings,

Marco

melvimbe

I ‘may’, very occasionally, want to group two Ace Headphones ‘perhaps’ for the Wife and myself to listen to the same music, or TV audio late at night and to not disturb others, but I’m not bothered about grouping my Sonos speakers with Ace, as I can’t think of a valid reason why I might want to do that, either for TV, or music, audio - If audio is playing on my speakers, I’d just listen without headphones… I have portable speakers too to move about the Home to continue listening, plus there’s the Sonos button-grouping option to play audio in other rooms etc.

I don’t have a need to have speakers playing audio while I have headphones on, but my primary use case for headphones, besides use away from home, would be in my home office. That room doubles as a game room, so it has a Beam+sub mini+ surrounds in it, which are primarily used for music. Since my desk isn’t in the sweet spot for the setup (that’s where the couch is) it’s not ideal. It would be nice if I can put on headphones for music, I don’t really care about TV audio in this scenario Obviously, if Ace was their own Sonos room, that would work just fine. I am also still ok if the bonding to Arc (in a different room) allowed playing streaming music to Ace as well as TV audio. Still waiting to hear about that. I would also like to easily switch between the Sonos audio and bluetooth connections to phone and PC...but not sure how well that would work.

If I can’t stream music via Arc at all with the Ace, then it would just be a bluetooth speaker. That still has a lot of value to me, but I would need to compare it to other BT only options.

I am also glad that Ace has the Aware tech, which makes it useful when working out in the garage. However, I don’t think Ace has the dust protection I would want, and don’t want to risk damaging these at that high cost.

Danny

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