Following years of rumours, Sonos has finally announced its long-awaited headphones. The Sonos Ace over-ears sit at the premium end of the market, competing with the likes of Apple's AirPods Max, and costing quite a bit more than some of the market leaders, including the Sony WF-1000XM5s.
Still, that won't come as a huge surprise to Sonos fans, or indeed anyone that has ever considered investing in the company's speaker range. Just like its other devices, particularly the more recent Era 100, Era 300 and Move 2, the Sonos Ace headphones have a distinctive design and some clever features too.
The ear cups are smooth and relatively flat compared to other over-ear options and they have a matte finish. They are also very lightweight at 319g. The ear cushions meanwhile, are removable, very soft and comfortable - we tried the Sonos Ace headphones before the announcement - and the memory foam is covered in Vegan leather. There are also contrasting colours inside to help you figure out left and right quickly.
The headband also has memory foam, though it's firmer than the ear cushions to help with weight distribution. A stainless steel frame holds everything together, like AirPods Max, but the hinge holding the ear cups and allowing them to swivel is hidden on the Sonos Ace headphones, making for a seamless finish.
The Sonos logo on the outside of the right ear cup of the Sonos Ace cleverly highlights the Content Key slider on the edge, which moves both up and down and can be pressed for various controls. You can adjust volume by pushing it up and down, pause or resume playback by pressing once, take and end calls, as well as skip tracks by pressing twice and go back a track by pressing three times. It also allows for the one feature that ties these headphones to an existing Sonos system (apart from the Sonos app of course).
You'll need to have a Sonos Arc soundbar in the first instance to take advantage of the TV Audio Swap feature, but if you do, you can - as the name suggests - move your audio from your TV to your Sonos Ace headphones and vice versa with the Content Key button.
Picture yourself watching Top Gun, the kids or your partner have gone to bed and you get to the main mission. Push the Content Key and the sound will move instantly from your Sonos Arc to the Sonos Ace on your head, with dynamic head tracking making you feel like you're in Maverick's jet and spatial audio with Dolby Atmos support putting the sound all around you. We've tried it (though with Barbie as that was the demo film) and it's impressive. You can also make the switch through the Sonos app, where you will then have the option to turn spatial audio on or off.
Below the Content Key is a smaller button that switches between Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Aware mode. Active Noise Cancellation was also impressive from our initial demo, with less of the suction feeling you can get from some over-ear ANC headphones.
There are custom 40mm drivers on board and when it comes to sound delivery, the Sonos Ace headphones offer exactly what Sonos fans expect, based on our experience so far. There's a decent amount of bass along with great detail and clarity, though we'll wait to review them in full before we say too much more here.
Our verdict on the battery life will come with the full review too, though Sonos claims 30 hours with Active Noise Cancellation turned on for the Sonos Ace, with fast charging on board for up to 3 hours battery from a 3-minute charge. For reference, the AirPods Max offer 20 hours on one charge.
The Sonos Ace headphones come in Black and Soft White colour options and they will be available from 5 June for £449. A number of features are also in the pipeline, including the TV Audio Swap feature coming to other Sonos soundbars including Beam (Gen 2) and Ray. There's also a TrueCinema technology coming that will map your space and adjust the sound experience from the Sonos Ace headphones, similar to what Sonos Trueplay does for the company's speakers.