Sonos Ace review

Right out of the gate, I’ll say it: Sonos has absolutely nailed the design of the Ace. These are quite possibly my favourite-looking and feeling headphones on the market. In a world of fussy touch controls and confusing button layouts, the Ace is a breath of fresh, minimalist air. It’s the perfect marriage of the clean, understated aesthetic Sonos is renowned for and a genuinely practical, no-nonsense approach.

Unlike the Sony WH-1000XM5’s swipe-sensitive earcups, which have a nasty habit of skipping a track every time you dare to rest your head on a neck pillow during a flight, the Ace relies on good old-fashioned buttons. There’s a satisfyingly tactile ‘Content Key’ that slides for volume and presses for playback, a dedicated power/pairing button, and another for noise-cancelling modes. It’s all wonderfully intuitive and a darn sight less confusing than the Apple AirPods Max's Digital Crown, which can feel a bit like trying to solve a Rubik's Cube with your ear.

Then there's the weight. The Apple AirPods Max, bless their metallic cotton socks, are seriously hefty at 384.8g. They feel premium, sure, but wear them on a long-haul flight and you’ll start to feel like you’ve got a small anvil clamped to your head. The Sonos Ace, at a more svelte 312g, are noticeably lighter and less fatiguing over long listening sessions.

The crown for lightweight comfort, however, must go to the Sony WH-1000XM5, which tip the scales at a feather-light 249g. They are supremely comfortable, but as mentioned, those touch controls can be a frequent flyer’s nightmare. The Ace’s physical buttons, therefore, make them a more appealing travel companion for those of us who just want to drift off without inadvertently blasting the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack at full volume.

The build is top-notch, with a stainless steel headband and plush memory foam earpads that are magnetically attached. This is copied from Apple and we’re not complaining. It not only makes them easy to clean, but it also opens the door for future customisation. The inside of the right earcup even has a contrasting colour, so you’re not fumbling about trying to figure out left from right in a dimly lit cabin. If there’s one minor grumble, it’s that the vegan leatherette pads can get a tad steamy during a marathon session compared to the fabric on the AirPods Max, but it’s a small price to pay for this level of comfort and class.

Although I really love the slim shape and aesthetic of the travel case, the fabric material on it picks up dirt very quickly. Especially the white variant we got for review. Just after a single flight it become offwhite, or brown, or something in the middle of sorts. You get the point. The airport security trays are dirtier than a football and the case suffers the same fate. It’s very upsetting because the case and the fabric material on it feels really good! 

When it comes to sound, the Sonos Ace are a bit of a conundrum. For movies, they are, without a shadow of a doubt, spectacular. But for music? Well, let's just say they're more of a polite nod than a mosh pit.

Under the hood, the Ace packs custom-designed 40mm dynamic drivers and a suite of impressive tech. They support standard SBC and AAC codecs, but for those with a compatible Android phone, they also boast Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform, unlocking aptX Adaptive and, crucially, aptX Lossless for true CD-quality wireless audio.

It’s when you feed the Ace a diet of Dolby Atmos content that they truly sing. The spatial audio implementation is simply amazing. Fire up Godzilla Minus One on Netflix, and the soundstage becomes this vast, dynamic entity. Every earth-shattering rumble, the screech of twisting metal, and the frantic dialogue is given its own space to breathe, creating a layered, detailed, and utterly immersive experience that no other headphone I've tested can quite match. It’s clear that Sonos’ decade-plus of experience crafting soundbars has been poured directly into these headphones. A prime example is the prison escape scene in the original Kung Fu Panda; the Ace handles the positioning of audio with a presentational flair that puts you right in the middle of Tai Lung’s rampage.

Sonos is doubling down on this cinematic prowess with some nifty new software tricks. Their innovative TrueCinema technology, designed specifically for the Ace, uses sensors to map the acoustics of your room and then recreates a virtual surround sound system inside your headphones, making it feel like you’ve got a full 7.1.4 setup strapped to your head. And for those late-night movie sessions, an update to the TV Audio Swap feature now lets two people connect their own Ace headphones to a single Sonos soundbar, for a shared, perfectly synced private cinema. We didn’t get to test this because we didn’t have a soundbar with us during the review, but I shall update this review when we get one.

But now for the music. The Ace’s sound signature is, to put it politely, neutral. It’s incredibly balanced and clean, almost like a pair of professional studio monitors. While that might sound good on paper, in practice, it often strips the life and soul out of tracks. Listening to Float On by Modest Mouse, the presentation is balanced, but it’s just not fun. It lacks the energy and drive that makes you want to tap your feet.

Switch to the Sony XM5s, and the same track comes alive with texture and detail in every drumbeat that the Ace simply glosses over. There's a character and rhythm that the Sonos just can't seem to find. This became painfully obvious when listening to Yurei Zanmai by TEKE TEKE; the complex, instrument-heavy final minute became a congested mess on the Ace, losing much of its character because the headphones struggled to reproduce the tonality of the different instruments. Similarly, rock anthems like Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll sound too compressed, lacking the instrument separation and clarity that both the Sony and Apple cans deliver with ease. The Ace seems to process the music to within an inch of its life, and in doing so, it vacuums out the emotion. Robert Plant's iconic raspy vocals on Black Dog, which are so full of character on the Sonys, sound neutered on the Ace. Even the deep, resonant bass in Billie Eilish’s "CHIHIRO" is handled with more punch and fullness on the XM5s.

The Active Noise Cancellation on the Sonos Ace is, for the most part, excellent. It’ll happily gobble up the drone of a jet engine or the general hubbub of a busy office. While the Sony and Apple headphones still have a slight edge in outright silence, Sonos isn’t far behind at all, and recent software updates have improved performance, particularly with squashing lower frequencies. A clever new feature even allows the ANC to adapt in real-time to things like your hair, glasses, or a hat, using sensors to compensate for any sound leaks.

When it’s time to take a call, the Ace performs admirably. The beamforming microphones do a great job of isolating your voice, which comes across clearly and naturally even in noisy environments. A new feature called SideTone lets you hear a little of your own voice during calls when ANC is active, which helps prevent you from shouting. Apple still probably takes the crown for the best microphone quality in a pair of headphones, but the Sonys can sometimes struggle in very loud situations, making the Ace a very solid all-rounder for calls.

Battery life is one of the Ace’s biggest trump cards. You’ll get a solid 30 hours of listening with ANC on, which is on par with the Sony WH-1000XM5 and comfortably beats the Apple AirPods Max’s 20 hours. Even better, the Ace supports fast charging; a ridiculously quick 3-minute juice-up will give you 3 hours of playback, which is perfect for a last-minute dash to the airport.

The Sonos app is your gateway to tweaking the Ace's settings. Here you can turn on dynamic head tracking for that immersive movie experience and fiddle with the EQ. However, the EQ options are disappointingly basic. You get sliders for bass, treble, and loudness, and that’s your lot. In a world where Sony’s companion app offers a full-blown equaliser to fine-tune the sound to your exact preference, this feels like a missed opportunity. Still, as some might point out, it's better than the zero EQ customisation offered by Apple for the AirPods Max.

The Ace does have a few other tricks up its sleeve. It supports Bluetooth 5.4 with multipoint pairing, allowing you to connect to two devices at once and seamlessly switch between, say, a film on your tablet and a call on your phone. There's also wear detection, which handily pauses your music when you take the headphones off and resumes when you put them back on.

So, where does that leave the Sonos Ace? They are a fantastic first foray into the world of headphones, but they come with a very specific recommendation. If you’re a movie lover, a frequent flyer, or someone already embedded in the Sonos ecosystem, these are a good choice. The design is superb, they’re comfortable for hours on end, and the cinematic audio experience is second to none. The TV Audio Swap and new TrueCinema features are genuinely innovative and add a huge amount of value for home cinema buffs.

However, if your primary use for headphones is listening to music, the Ace might leave you wanting. Their incredibly neutral, almost sterile sound signature just doesn’t do justice to the energy and dynamics of many genres. They lack the verve and soul of the Sony WH-1000XM5, which remain our top pick for the music purist.

The Sonos Ace are a beautifully designed, feature-rich, and capable pair of headphones that excel at what Sonos does best: creating incredible sound experiences for the screen.