Sonos Ace has almost aced premium headphones

For a company that has pretty much aced home audio and multi-room home audio over the years, Sonos’ attempts to step outside and see the world behind with their first premium headphones. The Sonos Ace, with its ₹34,999 price tag, isn’t short of tough competition. Bose, Sony, Sennheiser, Apple and now even Dyson, all vying for that small but significant niche. Even as the messy smartphone app is being corrected, it is clear Sonos’ product teams haven’t been distracted. The Sonos Ace, at a first glance of feel and finish, is on point for a premium headphone debut.
It is almost astonishing how well built the Sonos Ace feels, with a design and choice of colours (black or white, doesn’t get much simpler) lending to a collective building to restrained sophistication. This is Sonos’ way of saying that if you want flashy colours and the “look at me” sort of persona, you’ve other choices. In fact, they do resemble the Sony WH-1000XM5, particularly in the black colourway. It is becoming increasingly simpler to replace ear cups which get worn out with time, and the Ace joins that trend.
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The only even remotely shiny element would be the engineered mesh (this is in silver colour) behind which sit the microphones. The simplicity of design extends to a minimalism with physical buttons on either earcup, but I’m not entirely sure (even after using this for a significant amount of time) about the Content key deployment — you slide this upwards or downwards to control the volume, and press this to control music playback. This feels akin to an unnecessary learning curve.
If you are familiar with the Sonos sound signature, there’s that familiarity here too. You could of course complain that iPhone users will be using the standard AAC codec while some Android phones will utilize Qualcomm’s AptX Adaptive codec, but the end result of lossless audio is achieved nonetheless (that’s either via Bluetooth or the wired mode via USB-C). No AirPlay support. It is the tuning that matters most, and that’s where you’d expect any Sonos audio product to excel. The Sonos Ace does.
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You’d likely immediately notice an almost neutral position for how it is tuned out of the box. The idea is to deliver fidelity, a sort of precision with sound as how artists envisioned it whilst recording. A complete contrast to the bass-heavy approach of the Sony 1000XM5 headphones. The equal weightage means mid-range frequencies are allowed to deliver the finer elements in a soundstage, well separated and not getting overpowered as they would in a V-shaped EQ. That said, the lack of an outright bass punch may disappoint a few, but that can be corrected with some tuning using the Sonos app on the paired phone — there is very versatile audio hardware in each ear cup.
There are 40mm audio drivers in each ear, and you’ll really enjoy layered music and movies. The Weeknd’s Dancing in the Flames and Struggle Jennings’ Monte Carlo are two examples of tracks that came through rather well on the Sonos Ace. Admittedly, for the up-tempo bass heavy stuff, some amount of tweaking in the companion app is needed to get the lower frequencies lined up as you’d like them. But it can be done.
There are two sides to the ANC, or automatic noise cancellation bit. Noise cancellation in itself is adequate, but perhaps not to the extent that the Dyson OnTrac or the Bose headphones over the years, manage to isolate the wearer from the ambient din. Yet, the Sonos Ace has really aced it with the Aware mode, making it actually possible to have a conversation with another human (or listen to in-aircraft announcements) without having to unseat the headphones.
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The Sonos Ace’s party piece is the seamless TV audio swap, from a connected Sonos soundbar (these would be the Ray, Beam or Arc; they’ll need the latest firmware) to the Ace headphones (this requires the setup to in place using the Sonos app on Android or iOS). It’s convenient, and in my experience, the transition is seamless and smooth. But it is still a limited use-case, for this to be the biggest pitch. Particularly when the Ace headphones cannot be grouped with Sonos’ multi-room speakers, if you already have those.
With this sort of a price tag, most buyers would need some sort of convincing before splashing the cash on any headphones. The Sonos Ace, on its part, builds atop an audio legacy that has withstood the test of time (and an app that went down completely the wrong direction; it’s since being corrected). The Sonos Ace are premium headphones that feel premium, which is always a good way to start. Its sound signature will appeal to the purists from the outset, and there’s enough flexibility to get things in place for the bass enthusiasts too. Pair that with battery life as long as our tested 32 hours of music streaming on a single charge (with ANC on, mind you; those long aeroplane rides), and there’s really very little to hold against the Sonos Ace.