Sonos Ace review: brilliant sound and design – but they just miss the target review

Excellent, sound quality and detail; Epic noise cancellation; Beautifully designed; Quality controls;

No TrueCinema at launch; Awkward app integration; Rivals are well-embedded; TV Audio Swap doesn’t yet work for all soundbars;

I tried Sonos Ace headphones, and they might convert me to loving over-ears

From our time with the so far, the Sonos Ace are premium-feeling headphones with glorious sound quality – and their trick of switching instantly to work with the Sonos Arc instead of Bluetooth is very nice… if you have that soundbar. The lack of support for the Sonos ecosystem otherwise feels like unrealized potential, but they're hard to fault for the overall feature list.

Plush, high-end design; Dolby Atmos spatial audio from phones or TVs; Hi-res wired and wireless support

Maybe not as comfortable with glasses; Noise cancellation weaker than Bose; Using with Sonos Arc reduces battery life

Sonos Ace review: amazing Dolby Atmos movie headphones, but not such a slam with music

The Sonos Ace are more complicated than we expected. They're my favorite headphones to date for movies, and their integration with Sonos Arc (and more soundbars to come) really pushes that forward. But they're a step behind the premium competition when it comes to music, even though they're still detailed, fun and energetic. We also found that some testers had comfort issues with them – but they're beautiful, well-specced, and have some smart design features that will win over a lot of people.

Fantastic Dolby Atmos movie sound; Hi-res wired and wireless support; Sonos soundbar connectivity is great

Music isn't as good equivalent competition; Not as comfortable with glasses; Noise cancellation weaker than Bose