Big Sonos Ace update improves its excellent home theatre mode

We loved the Sonos Ace headphones when they arrived last year. In a competitive wireless headphone category, Sonos’ over-ear debut stood out thanks to its incredible sound quality and excellent physical controls lacking on many other headphones. Now, some of the Sonos Ace’s shortcomings are being addressed via a new software update.

In Alice Clarke’s review of Sonos’ headphones, she found the noise cancellation a bit lacking. It did a serviceable job, albeit not up to the high standard established by Sony’s lauded XM range. As part of a software update available today, Sonos claims the Ace’s active noise cancellation better uses its sensors to adapt to wearers’ hair, glasses, and hats to limit the impact of sound leakage.

Another complaint at launch was poor call quality. Sonos has addressed this too, improving call clarity and adding a foldback feature called “SideTone”. It means you hear some of your voice while using active noise cancellation, which is a nice touch.

The Sonos Ace update is available now via the brand’s mobile app. Image: Sonos.

When it launched last year, the Sonos Ace excelled as a pair of home theatre headphones. Its TV Audio Swap feature lets you connect to a Sonos speaker so you get the audio directly into the headphones instead. However, this presented a problem when two people wanted to watch TV at the same time.

Another wrinkle to the Sonos Ace update enables two people to use TV Audio Swap simultaneously. Granted, that means you need two $699 sets of headphones and a compatible Sonos speaker, but it’s a welcome addition to households embedded in the Sonos ecosystem.

Is Sonos turning a corner with the Ace update?

This latest update follows a sustained effort from Sonos to update its devices after a tough 2024. A much-maligned software update didn’t go down well, leaving the company scrambling to earn back customer trust.

Last month, Sonos rolled out a Speech Enhancement feature to its Arc Ultra soundbar, providing a way to improve dialogue clarity. That update, combined with the much-requested additions to the Sonos Ace headphones, gives the impression that the premium audio company is not only listening but also taking action.

An interesting insight into the company’s mindset came from Jason White, Head of Software at Sonos, via a recent blog post.

“Our goal has always been to create products that earn their place in people’s lives for years,” White said. “It proves that your best tech investment doesn’t need to be your newest, it just has to be built right.”

It suggests that the Sonos Ace has plenty of life left in it, which is encouraging considering its premium price tag. No one wants to invest in an expensive bit of gear, only for it to not go the distance.

Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come. Competition is always good, and Sonos brings it right up to the likes of Sony, Bose, and Apple when it’s at its best.

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