The Noise Cancelling and Transparency Modes of the Ace Audio-on-Demand Headphones (It’s a Heavy, Light, Hard)

The main thing you’ll use to control the headphones, apart from the app and your smartphone, is the volume slider on the right ear cup, which allows you to play and pause music with a press; you can slide it up or down for volume control. On the bottom of the left cup is the power button, and there is a similarly sized button on the bottom of the right that adjusts active noise canceling between on and transparency mode (which pipes in sound from the outside world). The option to turn off ANC and transparency completely isn’t the default option inside the app.

Are they comfortable? The headphones are 0.69 pounds, which doesn’t match the airy feel of Bose’s QuietComfort Headphones (0.52 pounds) but is noticeably lighter than the AirPods Max (0.85 pounds), especially the longer you wear them. My glasses are not put under too much pressure by the clamping force. However, the Ace lack any water resistance rating, so work out with them at your own risk.

I was amazed at how good the noise canceling is with a press of a button, it’s really what the Ace has to offer. ANC mode makes it feel like the volume of the world is going to go from a 9 to a 1. Exhaust system noises disappear, cars on roads are worthless, and my mechanical keyboard is like a light tap of a pen on a pad. The noise reduction is easily on par with the top brass, with Bose still narrowly edging out the competition on high frequencies.

The headphones have physical controls, which I favor over touchpads and swipe gestures. On the right ear cup is the Content Key, which can slide up or down to adjust volume. You press it once to play or pause, twice to skip behind a track, and three times to go back. The Content Key is being held down. The round button is used to switch between active noise cancellation and the awareness transparency mode. There is a power button in the left ear cup. The Ace support multipoint Bluetooth, so they can be paired with two devices at the same time. They’ve also got on-head detection and automatically pause your music if you remove them. The battery lasts for 30 hours.

How Many Times Have You to Sign the Agreements to Set-it and-Forget-it Audio Agreements (Extended Abstract)?

The design is simple, professional, and timeless. It’s a design language that was inspired by the styling of its speakers and can be found in modern cans. They come in either white or black.

The same can be said about its first pair of headphones, the $450 Sonos Ace. They might ride the high-water mark of the price set by Apple’s AirPods Max, but they also work seamlessly within Sonos’ ecosystem, albeit over Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi.

As soon as you want to hear the same music in multiple rooms, you understand why so many people love Sonos. When it comes to set-it and-forget-it multiroom audio, the company makes the hardware and software experience easier than anyone. From speakers to soundbars (and even turntables and networked amps), Sonos has taken over the homes of everyone who doesn’t want to drop oodles of cash on a “real” custom-installed system with wires running through walls. In a roundabout way it makes the system feel more affordable.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. We cannot analyze or read every single one of the agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

Activating TV Audio Swap with the Sonos Ace: A Low Latency Audio Player for Casual Pass-the-Time Glitches

It’s been inconsistent for me. A few times when holding down the Content Key, I’ve heard a “thunk” sound and nothing happens. The headphones showing as connected still do not do anything when this happens, and the TV Audio swap button also does nothing. Turning them off and on again is usually enough to get the feature working smoothly again. In general, I’ve had more luck activating TV Audio Swap with the Content Key instead of the app. Should I chalk this up to the new Sonos app’s general bugginess? Probably, but it’s worth mentioning and something I’ll keep an eye on. Sonos spokesperson Julia Fasano described it as “a rare bug that our team is currently aware of and working to address in a future release.”

The dynamic head tracking can be taken or left right now. When Sonos adds a feature called TrueCinema that calibrates the surround effect for your specific viewing environment, it could change that and make you think you have lots of speakers around you. TrueCinema is also in the coming later column.

The headphones can play any audio that would normally come through your soundbar — and that includes games. The latency is impressively low: it was imperceptible to me when playing a few games of MLB The Show on PS5, where the crack of the bat seemed right on target. I’m not a shooter guy, but the gunplay audio in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and GTA V kept up with what I was seeing on-screen. Competitive gamers might feel differently, but for casual pass-the-time gaming, the Ace are more than up for the job.

The hardware makes a good first impression. The felt-covered case that the Ace headphones are in is made from recycled plastic. I worry about the bag space taking up, but the case of the Ace is flat, which helps make it easy to take on the go. The included cables can be kept in the pouch that is magnetically attached to the case. With either cable, wired listening is possible.

These headphones don’t have any innovative wireless capabilities; everything happens over the radio. Apple gives the standard AAC format for the iPhone while some phones are able to use the AptX adaptive technology to play music up to lossless quality. Your mileage may vary because theGalaxy S24 Ultra is not capable of this. I would have liked for Sony’s LDAC to have been included for those who really care. It is easy to get wrapped up in this stuff even though tuning is more important. But it’s fair to want all the things when you’re paying $450.