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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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CHvy56

Contributor I

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.

I was thinking from a sonos speaker that has Bluetooth functionality and/or a phone with the sonos app for when wanting to leave the area the speaker is in. A Bluetooth link could maybe let the system know the Ace are nearby and wanting to swap audio? I know this likely wouldn't be as instant as a wifi connection, but keeps the headphones portable and avoids the battery drain of a wifi connection. If someone is playing something else in another room/area then they won't mind if the audio then stops in the room you're in.

These are all just wild suggestions and I'm sure the guys their R&D department will be best placed to know what works best. There's been some criticism that the Ace cannot be fully integrated to the sonos system on wifi, and it seems battery drain was the main reason they haven't included this function so far. I just wanted to suggest a Bluetooth connection within a Sonos system, however possible, as a possible solution. I'd personally be willing to put up with a slightly less seamless transfer of audio if it meant Sonos allowed some kind of system integration/connection.

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Soulful Mechagodzilla

Lyricist I

I’m sorry if I can’t find this but, is the connection to Arc available and actually work? I received my headphones and there are no instructions on how to swap to the Arc or connect to it. This is one of the main reasons I bout the Ace, late night gaming.

Bumper

I’m sorry if I can’t find this but, is the connection to Arc available and actually work? I received my headphones and there are no instructions on how to swap to the Arc or connect to it. This is one of the main reasons I bout the Ace, late night gaming.

It is. You need an iOS device, no android.

More here: https://support.sonos.com/en-ca/article/listen-to-home-theater-audio-on-sonos-ace-with-tv-audio-swap

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Soulful Mechagodzilla

Lyricist I

Thank you. Just found that instruction online! I do have Android and nothing shows in that Sonos app so I was quite puzzled. I’ll fire up an iOS device and try my luck. Appreciate the response.

melvimbe

FWIW the link below is for the only dedicated home wifi headphones I could find. With this type of price tag and battery life I would not have bought the ACE as a SONOS zone player.

https://www.getunity.com/?shop#specs

That’s very cool but OMG the price… wow, and I thought Sonos’s was premium. But it clearly demonstrates such tech is possible in a headset form factor.

As I stated early, the tech is possible. Although the price suggests you wouldn’t be able to get the parts in for under $500...unless this company has a huge margin. Then you have to factor that these headphones are not part of a multiroom audio system, so there is no audio sync or communication with other devices needed, just your phone. It also can’t get TV audio via WiFi from your playbar, or any other TV/soundbar. Doesn’t look like it can handle atmos audio.

Again, your statement that Sonos didn’t know what customers wanted, and/or could have just figured out how to make the tech work, isn’t holding up.

Danny

melvimbe

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.

I was thinking from a sonos speaker that has Bluetooth functionality and/or a phone with the sonos app for when wanting to leave the area the speaker is in. A Bluetooth link could maybe let the system know the Ace are nearby and wanting to swap audio? I know this likely wouldn't be as instant as a wifi connection, but keeps the headphones portable and avoids the battery drain of a wifi connection. If someone is playing something else in another room/area then they won't mind if the audio then stops in the room you're in.

There are bluetooth receivers and bluetooth transceivers. The Sonos speakers that are bluetooth enabled can receive bluetooth audio from a source, but I’m not sure they can also transmit bluetooth audio.

The Sons app is just a controlller, it doesn’t play music at all and therefore, can’t send audio to your headphones. And as you mentioned, tying Ace to a Sonos room over bluetooth limts the physical range of where the headphones can be used. You can’t just walk to another room on the other side of your home as can be done with a Move or Roam. If you’re thinking that the speakers in the room you happen to be in would just know that headphones are in the room and start sending it audio...that sounds like rather complicated process.

One thing that I don’t think is talked about enough is that there does not exist any Sonos device that can bet setup as a member device in more than one room at a time. You can’t share a sub across two rooms without reconfiguring. You can’t share surround speakers. It stands to reason that you also would not be able to bond headphones to a home theatre room and have it be it’s own room without reconfiguring. I’m not surprised that the introduction of Ace didn’t resolve that problem.

Honestly what I’d like to see is for the Sonos Ace to be get more than just TV Audio from an Arc, and other soundbars later, but any audio. While the 5Ghz range is limiting, it would be good for the home theatre room and probably adjuacent rooms. I say that, but do wonder if after actually using Ace, I find that I’m content to just switch to a bluetooth connection from my phone and be unconcerned about range.

Danny

B

blyndlynx

Lyricist III

Love that the Ace gets 30 hours of play time on a charge. Great for traveling. However, I work from home (as do a historically high percentage of others, since the pandemic). The primary use-case for me personally is home use. And there’s no way I would ever wear headphones for more than a few hours at a time anyway. My point is I don’t need the 30 hours of play on one charge for most of what I’d use them for. I can easily charge as needed.

I’ve heard it stated that battery drain is a big reason why Sonos opted not to connect it via wifi. But that seems like a non-reason to me. Couldn’t the Ace accommodate both bluetooth and wifi? And get 30 hours on a charge using bluetooth, and less on wifi? That way, the Ace could act as a zone over wifi and get less battery life while you’re at home and can easily recharge, and get the full 30 hours whenever simply connecting to your phone via bluetooth, like any other bluetooth headphones.

If the Ace would get less battery life on wifi, how much less? If less than a couple hours, I see how that could be a problem. But as long as it still gets at least 3 to 5 hours of play time, that would be plenty for me. I’d just drop them on their charger between uses and never notice an issue.

So I reject battery life as a legitimate reason for not allowing the Ace to act as its own zone (unless it actually gets less than 3 hours on wifi).

Others have mentioned cost as the reason, pointing to that other pair of wifi headphones with the eye-popping price. I doubt that’s the problem though, considering what Sonos is able to sell the Roam for, which already works on both wifi and bluetooth.

Perhaps weight is the reason? I’m not familiar with the components required but others on this thread have indicated it shouldn’t weigh that much. I’ve also heard that the Ace may already have wifi capability -- just not enabled.

I want headphones that integrate with the Sonos ecosystem, allowing me to listen to queues that seamlessly blend my local files with streaming sources. When that’s available, I’ll buy it in a heartbeat. Until then, I don’t need another pair of bluetooth headphones, no matter how fancy.

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Silverthorn

Prodigy II

Love that the Ace gets 30 hours of play time on a charge. Great for traveling. However, I work from home (as do a historically high percentage of others, since the pandemic). The primary use-case for me personally is home use. And there’s no way I would ever wear headphones for more than a few hours at a time anyway. My point is I don’t need the 30 hours of play on one charge for most of what I’d use them for. I can easily charge as needed.

I’ve heard it stated that battery drain is a big reason why Sonos opted not to connect it via wifi. But that seems like a non-reason to me. Couldn’t the Ace accommodate both bluetooth and wifi? And get 30 hours on a charge using bluetooth, and less on wifi? That way, the Ace could act as a zone over wifi and get less battery life while you’re at home and can easily recharge, and get the full 30 hours whenever simply connecting to your phone via bluetooth, like any other bluetooth headphones.

If the Ace would get less battery life on wifi, how much less? If less than a couple hours, I see how that could be a problem. But as long as it still gets at least 3 to 5 hours of play time, that would be plenty for me. I’d just drop them on their charger between uses and never notice an issue.

So I reject battery life as a legitimate reason for not allowing the Ace to act as its own zone (unless it actually gets less than 3 hours on wifi).

Others have mentioned cost as the reason, pointing to that other pair of wifi headphones with the eye-popping price. I doubt that’s the problem though, considering what Sonos is able to sell the Roam for, which already works on both wifi and bluetooth.

Perhaps weight is the reason? I’m not familiar with the components required but others on this thread have indicated it shouldn’t weigh that much. I’ve also heard that the Ace may already have wifi capability -- just not enabled.

I want headphones that integrate with the Sonos ecosystem, allowing me to listen to queues that seamlessly blend my local files with streaming sources. When that’s available, I’ll buy it in a heartbeat. Until then, I don’t need another pair of bluetooth headphones, no matter how fancy.

I do have a possible future use for them as I gather they have a wired option included but I don't need top quality for it and I already have a cheaper option in mind for next year possibly. If it worked as many were hoping I might have considered forking out the extra money as it's a bit noisy where I am but I don't want overears for general use.

"I saw the Stooges and the MC5"

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iainholmes81

Trending Lyricist I

@Corry P - Do we have an ETA for TV Audio swap Anbdroid compatibility yet? Sonos seem to have been dreadfully quiet on the issue.