The long-awaited first headphones: Sonos Ace

The reason the others are so expensive has very little to do with any kind of technology in them, it’s the liberal coating of snake oil on them - and (lack of) scale of production.

Power usage and hence battery and speaker requirements for a ROAM type speaker are bigger by an order of magnitude to those required by headphones.  The battery and speakers will form a huge part of the weight of ROAM.  Similarly, the ‘power’ and CPU requirements are not too great either.  I would not expect a typical user of these expect to be able to turn them on and be available as a zone almost immediately like all the other speakers that need to be drawing power constantly to achieve such functionality.  Like the use of ANC affects battery life, so would WiFi usage obviously - but I would guess the battery in Ace weighs little more than 40g or so - so there’s room for increase if required and still come in with weight no more than Airpod Maxes.

I’d be almost certain to see such integration into the Sonos ecosystem included in Ace2 - if it’s not even added at some point in the future for the existing model.  They do include WiFi hardware but I don’t think it’s clear yet how that can be developed further.

Of course, not everyone would need this ability but it was so assumed by many - and massively more than ever said they wanted to be able to switch sound from expensive soundbars.

Hi

When is the Sonos Ace app available for Android and can they be linked to my Playbar?

Lastly, can I try them on anywhere ?

Interestingly, this Youtube reviewer appears to have had a response from Sonos regarding the omission of full system connectivity via Wifi - if you skip to 14:50 

It seems that battery life was their major concern.

I just have some basic musings with no claim to any in-depth technology knowledge.

While I see the need for direct Wifi connection when connected to a soundbar such as Arc to synchronise audio to the images on the TV, I do wonder if it is necessarily required for music integration with other speakers?

If we wanted to ‘swap’ audio playing on a Sonos speaker to Ace headphones, could this be done relatively smoothly via bluetooth? I would guess the audio playing from the speaker you’re wanting to swap audio from to would be stopped (as it does when using the current TV Audio Swap with Arc) and transferred to the Ace headphones with noise cancelling - so audio synchronisation over Wifi wouldn’t really be needed. Whether the swap could be done via some bluetooth connection wizardry direct from the chosen speaker? Or whether it would require a phone with the Sonos app nearby? Which you’d need anyway if leaving the Wifi area. (I’ve never used a Sonos Roam, so not sure how those work when leaving the system Wifi area)

Anyway, I’m sure the tech bods at Sonos have looked at the options available to them but hopefully there will be updates along the way that allow some kind of fluid integration with the Sonos system, as so many have asked for it.

I don’t think there’s any surprise that battery life was the concern.

Regarding connecting to other speakers via bluetooth, I’d say that’s pretty much impossible for a few reasons.  Firstly, not all speakers have bluetooth (especially of the later bluetooth versions) - but mainly that the way all speakers remain in sync is due to a clever and patented system based on mesh communication (over WiFi) for sonosnet or timing to and from users’ routers.  I can’t imagine users would want to be in the position where playing to the Ace precludes use of the rest of the system.

In my mind, once the song has been selected to play on Ace, it doesn't matter what the rest if the system is doing because you're then in an ANC headphone 'bubble', so audio sync to make sure it's perfectly is in time with other speakers wouldn't really be necessary.

So what is really needed is a way to easily swap (or at least start playing the same song) onto Ace as the rest of the system. If this can be possible over bluetooth, then it not only saves battery but also allows the user to leave the wifi area - which is probably what many headphone users intend to do.

ANC doesn’t completely nullify external sound. Unless your speakers were playing at an extremely low volume, you would still be able to hear them.

My new Sonos Ace Headphones arrived yesterday… Look and sound amazing but the app states that they require an update. Everytime I go through the update process it gets to 100 and then fails to update stating to Try Again. Is there a problem or a fix.

Yes the speakers in that room would have to be stopped - as happens with the Arc in the current TV audio swap feature. 

I can imagine few scenarios where someone would choose to have speakers playing in the same room as they are wearing headphones.

But where are you suggesting 5he Ace gets its Bluetooth ‘feed’ from?

The system doesn't care if they're physically in the same room, someone may well want to play something different in a different room - hence why you could be wearing them in the first place.

Wanted to give a quick review of the Sonos Ace as I got them last night. A few quick things:

• Huge Sonos fan, over 20+ in my house right now and have had just about everything they ever sold at one point or another. Also, have had no issues with new app (quirks but not issues). I am an Apple ecosystem guy so it was hard to hold out buying Max but was intent on waiting for for these.
• Never had high end headphones, AirPod Pros were the best I have had. So this is from a newbie perspective.
• Don’t consider myself an audiophile by any means, just someone who loves all kinds of music. Kind of techie but not a super nerdy techie.

My thoughts:

• Design, feel, controls on the headphones etc. are absolutely awesome. Controls easy to navigate, adjusts easy. Fit really nice on my head and don’t feel overly heavy-9/10
• Set up and control. Was very easy to set up in the Sonos app and in general. Controls are easy to understand and the guide made sense. I am still getting used to having to use separate apps with them (more just below). I am very much pro one app to use them all which is why I love the Sonos app at home. I am on the wifi bandwagon but for one very specific issue-control. When I am at home I want to run my music from the Sonos app. Don’t need to group speakers with headphones, I just want to search and access everything in one place. Also, like Roam/Move outside of the home I can’t access Sonos HD Radio on these at all! I pay $9 a month for the service which I use 80% of the time at home so not having that is disappointing. Wish there was a way to somehow use audio swap with an Arc to choose it on that and swap it to Ace or use in app. This is my number one gripe.-7/10
• How does it sound? I think for music it sounded fantastic. I played with the Loudness, EQ and my music services and found them great and easy to access and use. Will play more to find my sweet spots. I understand some people complaining of odd sounds, I did not hear it but just played for an hour or so. Apple Music, Pandora (free), Sirius XM, worked fine although Sirius did take a moment to connect.-9/10
• The audio swap was easy. Tried it with John Wick on my ARC and found the sound rather mediocre. Had to really turn it up (2/3) and it really sounded flat. Hoping that the TrueCinema and additional tweaks will fix this. My brother has same setup and he said he barely heard any volume so hoping they work on this.-6/10 but potential is there.
• One side note is the stand, which is fabulous. Just wish I had a 6 ft black USB C cord that came with it to plug it in because the one that comes with Sonos is too short.-8/10

Overall 7.5/10 now with potential to get to a 9/10 easily. I am happy with them, I think they definitely have some work to do as far as sound and control but I believe they will get there. Taking them on a one week trip so we will see how they do.