Sonos Ace headphones in action. Photo: Sonos
Sonos offerings frequently come with the tag of quality products that understand spatial needs, from surround sound to now, Dolby Atmos-prepped music, movies and more.
A recent addition to the catalog is the Sonos Ace over ear wireless headphones, which launched in India in September 2024. It ticks that essential box that Sonos products aim for – to have an exceptional understanding of space. At first glance, the Sonos Ace is a great, well-designed pair that, as we later found out, can be used wirelessly via Bluetooth as well as through a wire (be it USB-C or a headphone jack ports).
Available in black and white variations, we got the white one, which weren’t as much of a dirt magnet as one would imagine. It comes in a great off-white case (made from recycled materials) that seems to be coarse for feel but indicates it’s ready for wear and tear. There’s also a magnet embedded into the case so that all that minimal design doesn’t leave you clueless about where things go.
There’s a sliding hinge around the headband of the Sonos Ace to fit different head sizes, but it does seem like it needs a little bit of effort to slide around, not always a smooth motion. That’s a minor grouse once you get these headphones on and the best part is there really isn’t a reliance on touch sensors and gestures to navigate your way through. Wrapped in plush memory foam and soft vegan leather, the cushion really ensures that the Sonos Ace becomes a comfortable fit and less like a clamp on your head.
Sonos Ace in white. Photo: Sonos
The buttons on each side guide you to power up/down, toggle noise cancelation modes and pause/play songs or pick up/drop calls. This is certainly less complicated and won’t have you fumbling around with touch functionality. The Sonos Ace, by virtue of being well-designed over ear headphones themselves, is great with active noise cancelation. It would rarely be bad, so the added feature that the Sonos Ace has is dynamic head tracking, which once again ties in with its understanding of space.
It’s a great feature for the lively music listeners who like to dance, move around and headbang without ever losing the right balance of sound. At the same time, the Sonos Ace is geared towards surround sound, Dolby Atmos and spatial audio streaming (offered by the likes of Apple Music), so you know you’re getting great quality.
While connecting to Android devices, there’s no issue, upon connecting to a laptop via USB-C, it did take a touch longer to work out the kinks – a strange static popped up briefly. That said, the sound quality while hearing lossless audio was as good as can be. It does great across genres and the calls are seamless.
Sonos Ace in black. Photo: Sonos
Battery-wise, there’s good conservation measures, like when the headphones go off after a while if not in use or actively paired. A rapid charge provides three hours listening time in reportedly three minutes from 0 percent charge. A complete charge from zero battery on the Sonos Ace, however, requires up to three hours.
All in all, the Sonos Ace gives up to 30 hours of listening time or 24 hours of call time with Active Noise Cancellation or Aware mode enabled.
Is the Sonos Ace a great competitor to the Apple AirPods Max? One would argue that it can be a great alternatively given the price difference (₹39,999 for the Sonos Ace and ₹59,900 for the Apple AirPods Max).
A key factor we didn’t get to test out is the Sonos Ace’s apparently seamless connectivity with other Sonos products, from soundbars to the home theater systems and portable speakers. If you’re a devoted Sonos fanboy/fangirl, the Sonos Ace would be a no-brainer purchase. If, however, you’re looking for a high-end pair of wireless headphones, it might be worth comparing these to offerings by Bose, Sony or JBL for your value for money.
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