Preorder the Sonos Ace headphones ahead of June 5th

All-day audio with the Sonos Ace: demo sessions and pre-ordering early February/early June for US$nu_rm LC$

It’s true that “before the pandemic” is a hazy time, an era in which it’s difficult to pin down chronology with any certainty. Who knows how long we have been waiting for Sonos headphones? Rumors of them started before the epidemic. Four years? Ten?

We had only limited time with them during a demo session, but we came away very impressed. The headphones are made of plush material, with vegan leather ear pads and a headband. You can quickly transfer TV audio from the soundbar to the headphones with a push of a button, which lets you experience even more audio in a more authentic way.

In terms of appearance, you get an elegant and slim pair of headphones in either a black or white finish. Thanks to a light 281 grams of weight and the clever accessory arrangement that conceals the hinges on the ear cups, it means all-day comfort.

The Ace are supplied in a slender, nicely tactile travel case that features a magnetically attached pouch for a USB-C and 3.5-mm cable. The case is made from 75 percent recycled plastic bottles.

As far as performance is concerned, you get all the bells and whistles you’d expect. It is possible that the ace can be compatible with ALAC and QualcommSound aptX Lossless, due to the fact that they have SBC and AAC codecs. A pair of 40-mm dynamic drivers deliver the sound. Sonos is characteristically coy about frequency response, but from my brief listen at a recent press event in London, they were full-range enough for real bass. The acoustic architecture allows for extended low-frequency range.

There are many streaming services, including ones that support Sony’s reality audio, that offer spatial audio, along with intelligent motion processing, to make it even better.

We have yet to see how their sound, ANC, and transparency modes compare to Bose,Sony, and Apple over a longer period of time. We are publishing our full review in the coming days, but in the meantime, we want to make sure you are one of the first to get your hands on the headphones.

Pre-order a black or white edition of the Sonos Ace from Best Buy for $449 before their June 5th release date. You can sign up for release updates from either B&H Picture or Amazon if you pre-order them now.