Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sonos Ace Headphones First Look: An AirPods Max Competitor?”.
Hey there, folks, I’m here at the Sonos launch event for its new ace headphones. These are much anticipated headphones from Sonos. They come in this white color here as well as black. They cost $ 449. This is really a first look, video cuz I I did try them, but I can’t talk in depth about their sound or anything like that. So just going to go through some of their highlights and then we’ll have a full review on CET later when they come out in few weeks. So what’s a little bit surprising about these, is they really are first and foremost, Bluetooth headphones? They do have a little bit of a Wi-Fi component, but these are not going to be a wi-fi speaker on your Sonos Network.
They really are designed for Mobile use. They do tie into your Sonos soundbar. They do have an audio swap feature that allows that turns them into um, a home theater headphone with spatial audio. So that’s pretty cool, but they do not stream over Wi-Fi your music over Wi-Fi, at least from your Sonos Network. These are noise cancelling headphones and they also have a transparency mode and they have Bluetooth 5.4. They have eight microphones, so you can use them for calls.
The microphones are used for both the noise cancelling and then for calls when you’re you’re out and about or in your home. As far as the USBC connection goes, you can use it for charging. It also does USBC audio with a direct uh USBC to USBC cable. So you can connect it to your iPhone 15, for example, or an Android phone with USBC, and the headphones also come with a USBC to 3.5 mm headphone jack.
So you can use them on the plane, so they’re two ways to connect from a wired standpoint. The buttons on the headphones are really nicely done: there’s kind of a slider button for volume, it’s a universal control button to control both volume and then playback, and then there’s a button that toggles between noise, cancelling and transparency mode and then an onoff button on the The left deer cup, the ear pads themselves, are nice and cushiony they’re made of vegan leather. The earpiece is removable so that it is replaceable. So it’s magnetic and it clearly delineates, which is the right and left ear cup, which is nice and the headband of cell feels pretty durable.
They are comfortable wear, they don’t clamp too much, which is nice and this. They call it a Yol here and it does extend out. It’S got um. This is stainless steel and plastic sign the headphones weigh 11 oz, 312 G so they’re a little bit heavier than something like the Sony wh1000x Mark 5, but they are considerably lighter than the airpods max.
These do have multi-point, bluetooth, pairing and there are sensors inside the ear cups. So these are from a feature standpoint. They really are full featured Bluetooth headphones. The microphones do have a kind of this.
This mesh, covering for um anti-wind noise. I haven’t tried them yet for calls, but hopefully they’ll be pretty good and the battery life is rated at 30 hours, uh with A and C on always canceling on, and then you get from just a 3-minute charge. You’Ll get 3 hours of battery life. So there’s a quick charge feature as far as the drivers go.
These have 40 mm Dynamic drivers um and there is head tracking for that spatial audio. It works with the Dolby spatial audio, so you any devices that do Dolby spatial audio will will work with these and initially the spatial audio that TV, audio swap feature will be available for the only the high-end Arc Soundbar and then later it will come to son’s. Other Soundbars the theme and the rain I’ll finish by saying that these do come with a nice carrying case as you’d expect a pair of $ 449 headphones to come with a nice caring case and as far as he competing in that higher end Market.
I do think the build quality is there. These are really nice headphones. They do, I think, have what it takes to compete with the airpods max as far as people’s expectations go in terms of these being a Sonos headphone and working on your Wi-Fi network. These are not really designed so much to to be a Wi-Fi, audio headphone uh. They really are a Bluetooth, headphone, first to use in your home and also on the go, and they do have that audio swap feature for watching TV and getting a home theater experience.
A faux suround experience from these headphones and that’s really it a nutshell, as I said, we’ll have a full review when they come out um, but that’s it for now. I’M d car for cet.com, thanks for watching .