Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sonos Ace review: nearly perfect”.
My friends Sonos has been going through it lately. The company’s new redesigned app has made a lot of people very mad because of bugs and a long list of missing features. Now I’ve been covering this company for many years now, and I’ve never seen its Reddit Community. This upset about anything there’s a widespread perception that I think is reasonable. That Sonos released this app before it was ready just so that the company could ship its first headphones on time.
Hopefully, the app situation looks a lot better in the next month or two we’re going to have to see, but the $ 450 Sonos Ace noise. Cancelling headphones are here right now they look great they’re super comfortable on your head. The sound quality doesn’t disappoint and there’s one trick that sets the ace apart from all competitors. So, let’s jump into the review.
The ace headphones come in this nice felt covered case once you’re inside that case, there’s a little pouch that stores both of the cables there’s USBC and USBC to 3.5 mm head phone jack cables. You can listen wide with either one I’d advise using some caution with the zipper, though I already had one snag and break before I was able to get it reattached that might have been just a fluke, but not the best. First impression then come the actual headphones and my first impressions still hold up. Sonos has nailed their design the fit and the comfort so well that I keep forgetting.
These are its first set of headphones. The ace are like a mish smash of the Sony, 1000x m5s and the Apple airpods Max the embossed Sonos logo on the right, earcup doesn’t call much attention, and I like that, and the stainless steel slider arms allow for very precise, fit adjustments, though, as usual, my Giant head needs full extension, these magnetic memory, foam ear, cushions just pull right off whenever you have to replace them. I’M curious how the pleather headband is going to hold up after several months of usage, but in most respects the ace are a fantastically made pair of headphones, that balance subtlety and sophistication and damn are they comfortable? Now the ace weigh 312 G, which is kind of a halfway point between the Sony and Bose headphones and Apple’s noticeably heavier airpods Maxs. Now I wear glasses, as you can see, and the clamping Force never put too much pressure on my frames or anything like that. I’Ve used these headphones for hours at a time with no real complaints. Maybe just one see I much prefer Apple’s fabric ear cussions, especially as it gets warmer outside over the spring and summer. They just breathe better. You know what doesn’t breathe pleather.
We love buttons here at The Verge and I’m so glad that Sonos has gone with physical controls, which I’ll take any day over touch pads and swipe gestures. Sorry Sony on the right ear cup is the content key which can slide up or down to adjust volume. You press it once to play pause twice, to skip forward to track or three times to go back, hold down the content key and you trigger the big headline feature of these headphones TV, audio swap, but we’ll get to that now below the slider is a round Button that toggles between active noise cancellation and the aware transparency mode on the left, your cup is the USBC Port, along with the powered and Bluetooth pairing button, the ace support multipoint Bluetooth, so you can pair them with two devices. At the same time, they’ve also got onhe head detection and will pause your music. If you remove them battery life lasts for up to 30 hours, which is more than enough. So I know there are a lot of you out there who are pretty disappointed, how the ace aren’t some groundbreaking pair of wi-fi headphones, that can group with your other Sono speakers when it comes to music. These are just regular, Bluetooth, headphones sure they support Apex adaptive for lossless streaming, but that only applies to a small list of Android smarton phones, this Galaxy s24 Ultra can’t do it. Neither can my pixel fold at home if you really care about the highest audio Fidelity.
The best option, as always, is just a plugin, but why aren’t these more tied into the Sonos ecosystem? It’S a fair question and it turns out we’re just not there yet from a tech standpoint last week, Sonos addressed this very subject and pointed out that the ace have a fraction of the CPU power compared to its regular speakers. Even something like the tiny Rome there would also be substantial battery tradeoffs. So in the company’s own words we prototyped it. We built that headphone. It was not the right headphone. Could that change in the future? I sure hope so. I’D love to listen to vinyl on these things or have them automatically transfer music to my speakers as soon as I arrive home, maybe someday so for now, let’s focus on the ace headphones we have today and how they sound to my ears.
The answer – it’s pretty great look, this all gets so so subjective. I prefer the overall tonality and the balance of the ace compared to both the airpods Max and the Sony’s, but you might not they’re all pretty close in the same ballpark, and often this comes down to what genre of music people like the most. The ace are detailed, they’re Punchy when they need to be they’re consistent and the Sound Stage is about as wide as it gets for closed back headphones.
You can fine-tune the trouble and base EQ from within the Sonos app if the default profile isn’t quite to your liking. They’Re consistent I’ve been listening to Casey Musgraves and The Black Keys, so they can go from chill to rock without any problems at all. Sonos claims. These have worldclass noise cancellation and it is very good, but not quite Bose’s level. The quiet, Comfort Ultra headphones still have the crown. If you need to escape reality and find some peace with the ace.
I can still hear some traffic noise cutting through when I’m walking around the city and it can’t fully bring down the ambient noise at my local coffee shop, but it chops off enough to do the trick and the mics do a good job at combating wind noise. I’Ve been satisfied by the ANC, but I’ve been blown away by the transparency mode. Apple’S airpods Macs do this feature so well that sometimes you forget you’re wearing headphones in the first place, and now Sonos has come the closest to matching that same sensation. It sounds so natural so crisp that it’s easy to have full conversations with people or just maintain awareness of your surroundings without any real downsides.
Then we come to the headline feature: TV audio, swap you just long press the content key and instantly the sound transfers over from a son Arc soundbar to the ace headphones Sonos says both generations of its beam Soundbars and the much cheaper Ray will pick up support For TV audio swap soon, but for now you need the much more expensive Arc it all takes about a second, you hear a short tone and Bam. The audio from your TV just starts coming through the headphones. Do the same thing again and the audio beams back to the Soundbar, but at a safe volume to avoid loud bursts now get this TV audio swap does use Wi-Fi to make this connection between the ace and the r. So there is a Wi-Fi chip in these headphones, but it’s only used for this one special trick. There are two ways to activate TV audio swap one’s by holding the button, but the other is from right inside the Sonos app. That’S where you’re going to enable spatial, audio and headtracking as well. Spatial audio as usual just gives everything a more cinematic feel when watching content that has a 5.1 or Atmos surround sound mix. Even for stereo content, Sonos will virtualize a spatial audio mix fake it.
Essentially, you can always just turn this feature off. If you want plain old, stereo, IAL audio worked wonders during top gun Maverick and often makes action. Sequences just feel bigger and more captivating, but I didn’t find myself using it for TV shows or cable keep in mind. The ace can play any audio that would normally come out of your Soundbar, and that includes games.
I’Ve tested TV, audio swop for hours with a PS5 and if there’s been any latency, I haven’t noticed it plus you’re, getting a multi- channel spatial audio mix. While gaming. That’S made MLB the show and Ratchet and Clank just sound that much more immersive. Yes, you can listen to an Apple TV with airpods, that’s great, but it only works with the Apple TV here you’re getting everything, and I can’t overstate how convenient that versatility really.
Is that is what sets TV audio swap apart from every other private listening mode we’ve seen today, but I’ve got bad news for anyone with an Android phone TV, audio swap just isn’t available yet you’ll need an iPhone or an iPad to set it up. Sonos claims Android support is coming soon and there are lot of coming soones with these headphones. In case you hadn’t noticed on a handful of occasions. It’S also proven a little buggy and fail to do the handoff like it should when it’s seamless, it’s awesome when it’s not, it can be frustrating, but Sonos tells me a software update du in the near future should make TV audio swap more consistent, and so there We have it the Sonos Ace. Look.
I like these headphones a whole lot, even if you only use them for music. Are they my favorite new wireless headphones? It’S close, the design, the comfort and the sound all prove that Sonos belongs in the same conversation as Apple Bose and Sony, but buying. The ace today for $ 450 takes a little faith faith that Sonos will make good on its promises to bring TV audio swap to Android faith that the beam and Ray Soundbars will be supported sooner than later, and most of all faith that Sonos will clean up.
This mess it made with the new app. I genuinely think that it will will but there’s no harm in waiting a few months to see for yourself. These headphones were rushed out the door, but you shouldn’t feel any rush to go out and buy them yourself.
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