Sonos, a leading name in home audio, has finally introduced its highly anticipated headphones, the Sonos Ace. While the release of the Sonos Ace may not come as a surprise, the company’s approach to these headphones is certainly noteworthy. Unlike its previous products, the Sonos Ace does not require the Sonos app to function as a basic audio playback device. This decision by Sonos demonstrates a shift in strategy, prioritizing the user experience and acknowledging the limitations of the Sonos app, which has faced criticism for its occasional unreliability.Despite this departure from the traditional Sonos ecosystem, the Sonos Ace still offers a unique feature: the ability to pair with the Sonos Arc soundbar for TV audio swapping. This feature enhances the user experience for those who already own a Sonos Arc, providing a seamless transition between TV audio and headphone listening.Overall, the Sonos Ace headphones represent a significant step forward for the company, blending innovative features with a focus on simplicity and user convenience.
Sonos products have always leveraged Wi-Fi in ways that few (if any) companies did in that space before. They aggregated multiple music services in a single app and made pairing speakers in multiple rooms as easy as it could be. Yes, other platforms — like (ahem) Google, and of course Apple — have joined in. But the Sonos experience still feels different from those other platforms.
So how, exactly, would the Sonos Ace headphones fit the Sonos paradigm? It turns out they mostly don’t. At least not at first. At launch the most Sonos thing about the Ace is that they’ll pair with the Sonos Arc soundbar for some “TV audio swapping,” which is great if you have an Arc but want to use your Ace headphones to listen to whatever’s on TV. But headphones can’t be at their best only when they’re tied to another not-inexpensive product. (The Sonos Arc costs $900.) Headphones — even high-end headphones — are meant to be simple. They should work with any device, and they shouldn’t require an app to do so (apart from a music streaming service app, of course). In a lot of ways they’re meant to be relatively dumb accessories.
And given the state of the Sonos app in mid-2024, that’s maybe the best thing about the Sonos Ace, at least in these early days. The Sonos app just got a major rebuild that appears to need some major rebuilding already. That’s not great. And if the Sonos Ace were required to use the Sonos app to merely work as a way to get sound into your ears, that’d be as close to a death sentence as the headphones could get.
Fortunately, that’s not the case. As it stands today it’s very much like any other set of headphones in that they’ll work just fine on their own, but you’ll need the app to do things like tweak EQ and set up spatial audio and head tracking. (And presumably firmware updates.) But the really important stuff — music and audio playback — so far can be left in control of the music apps that do it best.
Sonos did the right thing in worrying about the hardware and not trying to do too much with the Ace right out of the gate and having full Sonos-like integration with the app. And we probably should be thankful for that.
