This is the Sonos Ace, Sonos’ first entry into the high-end headphones market. So how does this compare to the AirPods Max and the Sony XM5 headphones? Is this headphone a successful debut for the brand, or should Sonos just stick to making speakers?

 

Unboxing

In the box, it comes with a felt material-covered case. Compared to the AirPods Max, that is already a huge win. 

Then there’s a small pouch inside the case to put cables in, which has a magnetic placement, so you can take them off from the case or just attach it there if you like. 

At the back, there’s a smaller box. Unfolding that, there are two cables: a USB-C to USB-C cable and a USB-C to a 3.5mm cable. This gives the headphones a wired option, which is really sweet compared to needing to buy this dongle separately both for the AirPods Max and the Sony XM5 as well.

 

Design & Build

What I noticed right away is how simple the design of the headphone is. So is this simple design bad? Well, not really, because if done well, a simple design like this can be really effective. 

But looks aside, when you hold this in your hand, you start to realize that it’s more plastic than premium. For the price that you’re paying, a little more metal would have been nice. 

This comes down to Sonos being more practical than premium because it does reduce the weight of the headphones to the right level, which is very beneficial if you love wearing headphones for a long period of time. This is also applicable for those all-day, everyday types—you know, those certain people that you have seen on the roads who just have headphones on all the time? Yeah, those fellas. 

To compare, it is definitely lighter than the AirPods Max, and the Sony XM5 is lighter since everything on the Sony is pretty much just plastic. Well, at least there are the stainless steel slider arms for the Sonos Ace. 

It has a matte finish and comes in two colors, Black and Soft White. I obviously went with the Soft White option, and thank God it was in white—like proper white. Remember the first-generation Sonos Move, which was leaning towards grey? So, thank you Sonos for giving us a white option, giving me a white option. 

Then there’s a Sonos logo on one side, but it is subtle where it only shines when the light hits just right. It’s not like those big logos you see on certain smartphones like the POCO smartphones or even brands like Superdry, where the brand is right on your face, who would like for you to parade their whole brand and this was not the case.

The earpads use memory foam which is really plush and comfortable. They’re wrapped in vegan leather that feels quite nice, and the ear cups are attached magnetically, just like the AirPods Max. That’s the reason why I got a different color, which I can easily replace.

The ear cups can also swivel around, which is useful if you want to set the headphones down on a table or any flat surface. 

 

The headband adjustment is a bit firmer but still very comfortable enough where I can just simply slide the earcups on the stainless steel links for a better fit. 

I also love the fact that Sonos has come up with three very interesting ways of identifying which is the right side of the headphones. 

First, each inlay of the ear cups is in different colors. Secondly, the Sonos logo is always on the right ear cup. Finally, there’s even a little indentation towards the headbands on each side for your fingers to rest before putting them on so you’ll know which is on the right side. So yes, you can even do this in the dark.

As for controls, there are no touch-sensitive controls—thank God for that—as Sonos has gone with fully physical buttons. Some might say that is a downside, but I think not. I see this as a win because touch controls can be a little tricky to use when you’re not looking, or they can either be just too sensitive or not responsive depending on the weather condition. These physical buttons wouldn’t have such potential issues. 

There are three buttons on the headphones: one on the left ear cup and two on the right ear cup. We’ll get into what the buttons do in a bit. Then there’s a USB-C charging port on the left ear cup.

 

Hardware

Next, let’s talk about the hardware, specifically what’s inside these headphones. It comes with a 40mm dynamic driver on each cup that has been specifically designed by Sonos. It is the same size as the AirPods Max driver but is bigger than Sony’s 30mm driver. 

As for connectivity, it connects with your devices using Bluetooth 5.4. It can also connect the headphones with two different sources of Bluetooth through its Bluetooth Multipoint feature. 

It can play super high-quality uncompressed audio, but as of now, only certain Android devices with the Snapdragon Sound app have aptX support for Bluetooth Lossless audio. Here’s a list of the very few Android devices that support this: https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sFreeText=aptX%20Lossless#google_vignette

So no such thing if you’re using the iPhone or probably even the latest Galaxy flagships from Samsung. But Spatial Music is fine, though no pure lossless audio. 

The saving grace for the iPhone or other Android devices is the fact that Lossless is supported via USB-C through the USB-C to 3.5mm cable dongle. If you want to get that Lossless audio, you’ll have to use that, so keep that in mind.

It also comes with a whopping eight microphones, similar to the Sony XM5, but the AirPods Max has a total of nine microphones. These microphones on the Sonos Ace help with noise control as well as voice targeting for clearer voice during calls. 

[ 🎤 Mic test available in my YouTube video]

The headphones also come with automatic wear detection where it automatically pauses the music when you take them off from your head for something like a quick chat, and then it starts right back up when you put them on again. This automatic wear detection was as good as the AirPods Max or even the XM5. 

However, if you play the music while your headphones are off your ears, it will play the music even though you don’t have the headphones on your head, so keep that in mind. But the wear detection response on this was on par with the other headphones and other premium headphones as well, so that was very sweet. 

Let’s talk about the physical buttons. On the left ear cup, there’s one for turning the headphones on and off. You can use the same button to pair your Bluetooth by pressing and holding the button to pair for the first time. Compared to the AirPods Max, you don’t even have a power button over here, so this is a huge plus. 

On the right ear cup is a single button to switch between the different noise cancellation modes. You can also use it to activate the voice assistant by pressing and holding that button. 

But the real star of these headphones is the Content Key. You can slide the content key to turn the volume up or down while any media is being played, just like how you would do for any slider. 

You can also click it once to play or pause, press it twice to skip a track, and press it three times to go back to the previous track. You can also use this to answer phone calls: just press once to accept the call or long press to decline a call. 

You can even use this content key to swap audio from the headphones to the connected soundbar, which is a Sonos soundbar like the Sonos Arc, and vice versa. Just long press the button to execute this. 

The audio swap feature is compatible with the Sonos Arc and will apparently be available for the Sonos Beam Gen 2, even the Gen 1, and the Sonos Ray. I was extremely blown away by how quick the response was on this audio swap feature. You’ll hear a short tone and it swaps. You will love this feature, especially if you have the Sonos Arc because it is super seamless.

What I would love to see in the future is the audio swap feature available for other speakers too, besides only the soundbar. I have Sonos speakers here in the studio and many at home, like the Sonos Era 100 here in the studio, together with the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Era 300 together with my Sonos Arc back at home. Hopefully, a software update or another new generation update would allow this feature. 

For now, I predict it’s because it has only Bluetooth connectivity and no Wi-Fi connectivity, which has always been one of the biggest strengths for all Sonos speakers when it comes to Wi-Fi connection for audio streaming. Hopefully, this could be done in a software update, we might not know yet. But yeah, as of now, this audio swap feature is really nice to have. 

While this totally beats the Sony XM5, with Apple’s ecosystem using the Apple TV box or even the HomePod, it does a way better job as of now. This is still the first version of the Sonos headphones, so hopefully, we will see some great updated features coming soon.

As for battery life, Sonos officially rates the headphones at about 1060mAh to last about 30 hours. It also supports fast charging and can give you up to 3 hours of juice from just a mere 3 minutes of charge.

 

Experience

Now, before we talk about the audio performance of the headphones, let’s talk about my experience as a whole.

I tend to get migraines very easily, which makes me very picky when it comes to headphones. Smaller ones tend to clamp on my head too hard and cause headaches, and even worse, migraines. 

So, this fits quite well on my head without causing any discomfort for long-term use. However, my ears do get a little hot and a little sweaty too, especially if I’m outside and if the room temperature is a bit warmer, especially here in Malaysia. You might want to use this indoors most of the time, or if you’re on a commute through public transportation, that will be fine based on my use and my overall test. 

But to be honest, even with an air-conditioned room like here in the studio, if you’re listening to this for more than 3 hours of continuous use, your ears will get a little warm, especially if you’re listening to it on higher volumes. So, do keep that in mind.

Here’s where the AirPods Max does a better job since the ear cups are a mesh fabric material instead. If you’re wearing earrings like me, it was fine as it just covers up over the ears. 

If you wear prescription glasses, I did test it out, and yes, it was also very comfortable, even though it did clamp up the frame just a little. I also love how there’s a nice detailed gap between my ears and the inner ear cups. So, if you have small to medium-sized ears like me, you’ll be totally good.

The physical buttons were also quite easy to use, and the functions were quite straightforward. No more touching around blindly with my fingers because each button has a distinctive shape and size that is very easy to differentiate. Imagine trying to remember which gesture does what, like you know, swiping forward how many times to change the track and which side should you swipe, the left or the right. You don’t have to worry about all of that.

As for audio, unlike some headphones that sound trapped in your ears, the Sonos Ace has a huge and wide soundstage. 

It’s like the music flows beyond the headphones themselves, creating this open feel that usually belongs to more high-quality audiophile headphones. They do support Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos with just about any popular streaming music service like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, and more. 

The head tracking was not only great from a feature perspective, but it did perform very well. If you use the audio swap feature, you’ll experience that nicely through the headphones as well. If you’re watching TV, it will immediately follow where the headphones are, which is similar to following your phone too. 

But one caveat is the fact that the audio swap is only available to set up with an iPhone or even an iPad. So, if you use an Android phone, you’ll need to get it set up with an iOS device first, and then only you can use it in the app moving forward.

When it comes to experiencing the sound on the headphones, I had two experiences with it. The first was during the media brief, so that was pre-launch. During the pre-launch time, I found that it was lacking a bit of the mid-range, but thank God for the Sonos app, this allowed me to adjust the mids to bring up the levels to have a better balance of the vocals and the instruments as well. 

The second experience was when I got this retail unit and got the latest software update. By default, it already sounds amazing without touching any EQ. This may vary from user to user, but what I can say is that if you’re a casual music listener who just wants to listen to music at a lower volume or just wants to listen to things like podcasts, it will be totally amazing for you. 

But if you love to crank up the volume when it comes to listening to music, then you might want to tune it based on your preference, which I did. 

Overall, it did sound as good as the AirPods Max and better from a clarity perspective compared to the Sony XM5.

There were some reviewers mentioning how it lacked bass. Personally, for me, the bass was plenty enough because I feel that bass should be a bit more audible, which I feel is more important than vibrating the headphones for some weird extreme reasons. 

But if you want to get that vibrating bass feeling, you can by adjusting the EQ to 9 on the Sonos app, and yes, your eardrums will be bass-happy then. 

So whether or not you’re listening to some EDM, jazz, or even some metal music, the bass was nicely audible at default, which did sound on par with the sound quality for both the AirPods Max and the Sony XM5, as mentioned earlier.

As usual, here’s the exact playlist that I used to test these headphones and the other headphones mentioned: https://music.apple.com/my/playlist/2023-audio-quality-test/pl.u-e98lGp5i2pG1a7

As for movie watching, it performs flawlessly without any complaints at all. 

[🎵  Sound test available in my YouTube video]

Speaking of the Sonos app, here is where you can control things such as the battery status, the noise control toggles are also here as well.

Then there’s also the dedicated EQ controls, a toggle for the head tracking, like Spatial Audio. 

Then there’s also the TV Audio Swap features, the toggle for multi controls, and hardware controls like noise control and wear detection options too. 

Apparently, the app is still in an incomplete state at the moment, according to Sonos, where there will be an update that will unlock all the features, which is set to come out next month. So for now, these are just the basic features, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Battery life is more or less the same as what Sonos claims. It comes with about 30 hours of play with ANC turned off and about 25 hours with ANC turned on. 

As for the performance of the ANC, it was good, but Sony was better at the ANC. The Transparency Mode and the Awareness Mode on the AirPods Max were better. 

For example, when I was trying to use the Awareness Mode on this while I was doing the audio swap on my TV turned on and my balcony sliding doors open, the sounds from the balcony outdoors, like the bikes, were way more audible compared to the talking voice coming out from the TV. It seems to prioritize the background noise more than the actual voice compared to the AirPods Max, which does a way better job at adapting to find out which is better when it comes to the Awareness Mode. 

I guess this is understandable since Sonos has only started their journey with this specific technology compared to the likes of Apple and Sony, so I am very certain and sure that there will be some improvement moving forward.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Sonos Ace has amazing audio with a wide soundstage. They look great, have good ANC, impressive spatial audio, and of course, a TV Audio Swap, which is perfect for those people who already own the latest Sonos soundbar too. 

I would love to see more implementation of the Sonos Ace together with my Sonos ecosystem of speakers since I do own a lot of these speakers. But for now, we’ll just have to stick to what it brings on the Sonos Arc soundbar.

All in all, it almost feels like if the AirPods Max and the Sony XM5 had a baby, then this is it. It is currently priced at RM2,299, which translates to about USD492, where you can get it at TC Acoustic, both offline and in their online store: https://bit.ly/46h5Dkf

So if you ask me if Sonos did well for their very first product in the headphones department, well, I would say a huge YES, they did! 

🛒 Get Sonos Ace at the link below:-

https://bit.ly/46h5Dkf