When it comes to wireless headphones, there’s a new kid in town. Over the last two decades Sonos has remained the undisputed kind of multi-room audio, and now it’s branched out into the world of wireless headphones with the Sonos Ace. But it can’t just waltz into town and take charge – the established players are going to put up a fight.
Bose is one such rival. The US company invented noise cancelling headphones, and currently leads the pack with its QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.
We haven’t reviewed the Sonos Ace yet – we’re going off our hands-on review – so we’ll be basing our judgements on their specs and on our brief experience of using them.
Let’s see how they stack up.
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: price
The Sonos Ace go on sale on 5th June for £449 / $449 / AU$699. That’s not cheap, especially for a brand with no track record in the highly competitive headphones space.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones launched at the end of last year for a very similar £450 / $429 / AU$649. They have seen some discounts though – at time of writing they’re £370 at Amazon. The Ace aren’t likely to see such a deal anytime soon, and possibly never in their lifetime (Sonos discounts are about as rare and miserly as Apple ones).
** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: design
We have a rather large disclaimer to make – we’ve only gone hands-on with the Sonos Ace in a demo. As they haven’t undergone our rigorous reviews process (involving time in our test room and out in everyday life), these are only first impressions. But rest assured, we’re working on a full review as we speak.
As first impressions go, they’re pretty great. Like other Sonos devices, they’re minimalist (with no visible hinges) but with some nice touches that stop them looking bland. The Sonos logo is nice and subtle, but shimmers when it catches the light. Memory foam (coated in vegan leather) cushions the earpads and headband, while they’re lightweight with nicely judged ear clamping pressure. The stainless steel yokes that make the headphones slide along the headband when adjusting really add to the premium feel.
Despite our worries that the earcups might be too small, they fit our ears just fine, without grazing our earrings or the edges of our ears.
The earcups swivel flat, but they don’t fold up like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, so they’ll take up more space in a pocket or bag than Bose’s model. Sonos has opted for physical button controls, whereas the Bose have two buttons alongside a capacitive touch strip – which you will prefer will depend on personal preference, but we do enjoy the reliability of a button press.
Two finishes are available – black or soft white – and both feature differing shades of earcup mesh to distinguish between left and right.
The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are also a premium offering, featuring metal yokes and pleather headband and earcups. They come in a Black or White Smoke finish.
Again, the grip pressure is just right, and the capacitive strip is intuitive and responsive for adjusting the volume. Unlike the Sonos, there’s no wired listening over USB-C.
** Winner: Sonos Ace **
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: features
The Ace are bursting with features. Bluetooth 5.4 is onboard, and they’re compatible with lossless audio from Snapdragon Sound’s aptX Lossless and Apple’s ALAC codecs. They don’t support next-gen codecs like Auracast and LE Audio, but Sonos hasn’t ruled them out in future headphones. The same goes for wi-fi – one of the most rumoured features is conspicuous by its absence, but Sonos is keeping an open mind. Sadly that means they can’t integrate to your Sonos multi-room system, though there are some neat home cinema features involving a Sonos soundbar that we’ll come on to.
The 30-hour battery life (with Bluetooth and ANC activated) is six more than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones’ 24. What’s worse is that the Bose’s battery life drops to 18 hours with the Bose Immersive Audio feature enabled.
Wear detection pauses/resumes playback when you take the headphones off/put them back on respectively, while spatial audio with dynamic head tracking plays nice with the Dolby Atmos format, including that and and 360 Reality Audio tracks from Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer. The Sonos app lets you toggle playback settings like spatial audio (and dynamic headtracking separately), and tweak the equaliser.
Now the home cinema features. TV Audio Swap plays the sound from your Sonos Arc soundbar through your headphones at one touch for private viewing – in our demo, this was seamless and instant. It will come to other Sonos soundbars – Beam Gen 2, Beam Gen 1, Ray – in due course, but older products like the Playbar won’t be supported.
TrueCinema calibration analyses your room and adjusts the headphones’ audio to be more spatial and immersive, so it sounds like you’re listening through a home cinema system instead of cans. This feature will roll out later in the year.
The Ace’s battery will drain faster when connected to a Sonos soundbar, but they should still last two nights of movie watching in a row.
Bose’s Immersive Audio tech launched with the Ultra Headphones – it’s essentially Bose’s take on spatial audio. There are two modes – Still and Motion, depending on whether you’re stationary or moving. Like the Ace, the Ultra include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Technology suite which gives them aptX Adaptive support and the latency and stability benefits the tech brings. Multipoint Bluetooth is also part of the package, for connecting wirelessly to two sources simultaneously and then seamlessly switching between them.
** Winner: Sonos Ace **
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: sound
We know we’ve said it earlier in this feature, but it bears repeating: we haven’t fully tested the Sonos Ace yet, so we’re only going on first impressions from a demo session.
Sonos’ focus is on clarity. And this is borne out during our first listen, with a clean, open sound that’s full of detail. Basslines are taut, while an orchestral piece shows off the headphones’ sense of space. But we’re reserving judgement for now.
No such caveats are needed with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra. While they sound a bit uptight at first, once they’ve had time to bed in they loosen up considerably, providing a wonderfully entertaining sound. Their enthusiasm for their source material spans genres, with a precise, punchy delivery that will get your toes tapping.
Highs and lows alike sound rich and refined, while there’s a real sense of dynamism. We’re not wholly sold on Bose’s Immersive Audio, especially as it drains the battery quicker. But you can always leave it off.
** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: noise cancellation
The same disclaimer goes for the Sonos Ace’s active noise cancellation (ANC) – we’ve heard it, but it was something shown to us rather than something we really experienced for ourselves.
You toggle between ANC and Aware (transparency) mode by pressing the button on the right earcup. We haven’t seen the finished version of the app, so don’t know at this point whether there are levels of ANC, or just on, off and Aware.
We know plenty about Bose’s ANC tech, including just how effective it is. CustomTune calibration automatically optimises the ANC depending on your surroundings, while Bose Aware Mode with ActiveSense automatically adjusts the amount of ANC you’re hearing, so your music isn’t drowned out by particularly loud noises. You can also set your own ANC presets and adjust the amount of ambient noise that comes through.
It’s probably the best ANC performance available, reducing train rumbles and other loud sounds to a mere murmur. And with all these customisation options at hand, it’s up to you how much noise you want to block out.
** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: early verdict
The Sonos Ace certainly look impressive. From our brief experience they could have the edge on the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones in terms of design and features, but the Bose are that bit cheaper.
Of course it all comes down to performance, and we won’t know about that until we’ve given the Ace a thorough review. We’ll update this article once we have. For now, we’re feeling cautiously optimistic.
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Read our Sonos Ace hands-on review
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