Sonos, the world renowned connected-audio company, has finally unveiled its long-awaited over-ear headphones, named Ace.
“They’re here! Fans have asked us for years to bring the Sonos experience to headphones – and we knew our first foray into the category needed to champion the type of innovation and sound experience Sonos has become synonymous with,” said Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos. “Sonos Ace leverages everything we’ve learned over two decades as an audio leader to bring stunning sound, sleek design and long-standing comfort to one of the largest and most popular audio categories worldwide.”
Following on from a less-than-perfect rollout for its redesigned app, Sonos has a lot to prove. Not only is the personal audio segment high saturated and fiercely competitive, but each of the big-name brands also have their own band of hyper-loyal customers, making this a particularly challenging launch for the company.
From a design perspective, the Sonos Ace sport all the hallmarks of a high-end, premium, pair of headphones – metal accents, minimalistic design, recycled materials, vegan leather and memory foam for the magnetic ear cups – that you’d expect. During a briefing, Sonos said that the aim was to blend timelessness and comfort.
Available in either Black or Soft White, it’s the latter colourway that exudes the more sophisticated look.
The main drawcard of any Sonos device is how well it fits into your audio ecosystem and with the Ace it’s unfortunately not as straightforward as adding in a new Move or Roam – both portable audio devices from within the Sonos lineup. According to the press release sent out to media you can “Instantly swap the TV audio from a compatible Sonos soundbar to Sonos Ace with just the tap of a button.” However, at launch, this feature, called TrueCinema, only works with one Sonos soundbar, the Arc. According to Sonos, support for the Beam (Gen 1 and Gen 2) as well as the Sonos Ray, as well as Android support, will only be available later this year. Having just been lambasted by loyal users for a particularly terrible series of decisions which resulted in the removal of various features and functionality from the redesigned app, one would’ve assumed that Sonos would’ve been keen to avoid similar pitfalls by launching the Ace with wider device compatibility. According to Sonos, 80% of people they surveyed said that they’d prefer to use headphones when watching TV.
To be clear, the Ace will pair with your device, whether it be iOS or Android via Bluetooth but in order to connect your Ace headphones to the Arc (only one Ace can connect to one Arc) you’ll need an iPhone. If you’re using an Android device or a non-Arc Sonos soundbar, you’ll need to wait until Sonos releases the relevant update. While there is clearly a focus on the premium segment of the market, and the higher priced products within their own product line, Sonos risks alienating existing customers by excluding certain devices and operating systems at launch.
On the technical front, the Ace has two custom-designed 40 mm dynamic drivers (one in each earcup), eight beamforming microphones for noise control and voice targeting which should provide excellent active noise cancellation (ANC) and supports lossless and spatial audio on compatible devices.
Powering the headphones is a 1060mAh battery which, according to Sonos, provides up to 30 hours battery life and, thanks to fast charging technology, can provide up to 3 hours usage with just 3 minutes of charging when using the included USB-C cable.
The company has also included a USB-C to 3.5mm cable so that you can plug your Ace into a laptop or any other device with a 3.5mm headphone port.
Unlike other premium headphones, Sonos has eschewed touch controls in favour of physical buttons. While tactile buttons are a nice to have they need to be intuitive and with the two buttons on the right earcup performing multiple functions – the slider button controls volume, play/pause/skip tracks, answer/decline calls, while the circular button switches between ANC and Aware mode – and the button on the left earcup performing double duty as the power button and the pairing button (in order to pair, you need to continue holding the button even after you hear the power off chime), it seems like there’s going to be quite a learning curve for users.
“Sonos Ace represents our ambition to create moving sound experiences that are equal to the moment we live in. It is an exciting new chapter as we embark on what it means to design for personal listening,” said Maxime Bouvat-Merlin, Sonos Chief Product Officer. “True to Sonos’ heritage of premium products, each individual detail of Sonos Ace has been expertly crafted, custom designed, and tuned by the world’s leading sound experts to give you a listening experience unlike any other.”
While Sonos appears to have nailed the minimalistic, quiet luxury, styling that is all the rage at the moment, and very much a signature of the company’s overall design aesthetic, usability and functionality appear to be up in the air, and when you’re going up against brands like Apple, Sony and Bose, you can’t miss a single step if you want to be taken seriously and compete in the big personal audio leagues.
R12 999.00
Global availability from 05 June 2024.
