Editor’s Note: We’ve updated this story with new leaked details from The Verge regarding the Sonos Ace’s audio playback capabilities and availability in white.
The Verge’s Chris Welch, who has now firmly established himself as the internet’s preeminent leaker on Sonos hardware, has just dropped another bomb, and this time, it’s the company’s long-awaited entry into the headphone market.
As outlined in his piece, the new headphones are apparently called the Sonos Ace, which would align nicely with the company’s burgeoning tradition of three-letter word names – Arc, Era, One, Ray, Sub,
Welch’s piece also has a two first-look images of the new hardware, apparently published initially by mistake by one of Sonos’s authorized parts dealers. He’s also received another photo of the headset shown in white.
TwitterBased on these early images, the headphones look like a cross between Sony’s WH-1000XM5 active noise canceling headphones and Apple’s now aging Airpods Max headphones, which makes sense given that these are likely two of the biggest customer bases Sonos will try to win over. The headband stands out in particular as looking especially padded and thick, although we don’t have much to go off of. It would make sense to bias towards comfort if Sonos expects customers to use them – at least in part – as a less disruptive alternative for watching movies at home.
According to additional reporting from Welch, Sonos’s Ace headphones will sport various advanced audio playback capabilities found on rival premium ANC headphones, including lossless audio playback over Bluetooth, head tracking for spatial audio music, and Dolby Atmos TV and Movie content. However, Welch crucially notes that listening to TV audio via the headset will require users to own a Sonos soundbar, which isn’t surprising.
Every pair also appears to have a robust travel case, not something that looks like a purse or bra, as well as USB-C and a headphone cable. As Welch notes, there’s another mysterious object in the accessory lay down image that appears to be wrapped its own smaller case.
Is a charging power brick? A storage case for the headphone’s padded ear covers (the company did officially received a patent for “a headphone ear cushion attachment mechanism” in late December 2022)? And Welch has also confirmed that the Sonos Ace will feature removable ear cups that attach via magnets like the Airpods Pro.
Maybe it’s a also portable headphone amp for wired listening? Or a wireless / BT transmitter of some kind that connects to older legacy audio equipment to let it wirelessly stream to the Ace headset?
