Sonos Enters the Headphones Market (wired.com) 11
After being rumored for years, Sonos has officially entered the headphones market with its new Ace headphones. "The Sonos Ace wireless over-ear active noise-canceling headphones are specified to go toe-to-toe with the established market leaders from the likes of Apple and Bose, and they're priced to match at $449," reports Wired. From the report: Visually, you get an elegant and notably slim pair of over-ear headphones in either a black or "soft" white matte finish. Thanks to a light 312-gram weight, and with some very well-judged clamping force and a clever hanger arrangement that conceals the hinged yoke inside the body of the ear cups, it means all-day comfort. The combination of memory foam, vegan leather, and stainless steel is equally beneficial where comfort and aesthetics are concerned. Branding is restricted to one ear cup, and it's laser-etched, so it manages to be understated while still catching the eye. Where the Apple AirPods Max shout "look at ME!," the Sonos Ace enunciate it quietly and precisely.
As far as performance is concerned, you get all the bells and whistles you'd expect. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.4, and they have SBC and AAC codecs, allowing the Ace to be compatible with ALAC and Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound aptX Lossless. Sound is delivered by a pair of custom-designed 40-mm dynamic drivers. Sonos is characteristically coy about frequency response, but from my brief listen at a recent press event in London, they were full-range enough for real bass. Ported acoustic architecture allows for optimum low-frequency extension. Spatial audio is available via those streaming services that support Dolby Atmos and/or Sony 360 Reality Audio, and Sonos' Intelligent Motion Processing with Dolby Head Tracking dynamically follows your head movement to provide an even greater sensation of immersion and envelopment.
There are other cool features that most other headphones can't offer, by virtue of Sonos' ubiquity in many homes. At launch, the Ace will interact seamlessly with the Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar to swap TV sound between bar and phones at the touch of a button. Sonos suggests that compatibility with its other soundbars (Beam, Beam Gen 2, and Ray) is coming soon, along with a new TrueCinema technology that will map your listening space to reproduce your room's characteristics in the sound of the Ace. [...]
As far as performance is concerned, you get all the bells and whistles you'd expect. Wireless connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.4, and they have SBC and AAC codecs, allowing the Ace to be compatible with ALAC and Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound aptX Lossless. Sound is delivered by a pair of custom-designed 40-mm dynamic drivers. Sonos is characteristically coy about frequency response, but from my brief listen at a recent press event in London, they were full-range enough for real bass. Ported acoustic architecture allows for optimum low-frequency extension. Spatial audio is available via those streaming services that support Dolby Atmos and/or Sony 360 Reality Audio, and Sonos' Intelligent Motion Processing with Dolby Head Tracking dynamically follows your head movement to provide an even greater sensation of immersion and envelopment.
There are other cool features that most other headphones can't offer, by virtue of Sonos' ubiquity in many homes. At launch, the Ace will interact seamlessly with the Sonos Arc Dolby Atmos soundbar to swap TV sound between bar and phones at the touch of a button. Sonos suggests that compatibility with its other soundbars (Beam, Beam Gen 2, and Ray) is coming soon, along with a new TrueCinema technology that will map your listening space to reproduce your room's characteristics in the sound of the Ace. [...]
So we have Slashvertisements... (Score:5, Interesting)
This qualifies as a Wiredvertisement, I guess. The writer hasn't spent much - if any - time with the headphones yet (see the end of the Wiredvertisement), but is happily throwing around phrases like "all day comfort". He seems to be copying-and-pasting from a press release ("disruptive", seriously?), but maybe he's just a Sonos fanboi.
I'm sure they're very nice headphones. But for $449, they'd better be.
Re: (Score:2)
It seems like the only reason anyone would want them is because they already have other Sonos gear to integrate with, i.e. vendor lock-in. Otherwise they are considerably more expensive than the market leaders like Sony.
Re: (Score:1)
over-priced dogshit (Score:2)
You don't need this over-priced and out-of-your-control dogshit. Just get a good pair of traditional headphones. You can get professional studio headphones for less.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You can get professional studio headphones for less.
For less functionality sure. Look I get you hate everything that doesn't have a cable dangling from the bottom, but there's a time and place for everything. My DT990s are beloved at home, they are on their 9th (10th) set of pads now. But they stay in the studio. They don't join me on planes, or public transport where I want noise cancellation. They don't join me at work where I take Teams calls through a headset. I don't wear them while painting or gardening where they'll get dirty. I sure as hell don't run
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> The word "professional" doesn't make something correct. People who insist on only getting a professional studio headphone are literally *not* using the right tool for the right job.
My point is not to "insist" on anything. The point is that you can get very good sounding headphones at a reasonable price, yes they come in all shapes and sizes, with and without microphones. You do not need $450 third-party-app-controlled headphones. Its okay if you like that but don't be fooled, listen for yourself.
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> The word "professional" doesn't make something correct. People who insist on only getting a professional studio headphone are literally *not* using the right tool for the right job.
My point is not to "insist" on anything. The point is that you can get very good sounding headphones at a reasonable price, yes they come in all shapes and sizes, with and without microphones. You do not need $450 third-party-app-controlled headphones. Its okay if you like that but don't be fooled, listen for yourself.
The goal is not to have a good sounding headphone. The goal is to have a good sounding wireless headphone with headset capabilities connectable to multiple devices at once with the capability to auto switch your AV system. That is what is being marketed here. That is what is being sold. You can't start a conversation comparing the price when you don't even consider asking what feature set is required.
High quality sound isn't the only goal.
Competing with Apple and Bose (Score:3)
In other words, trying to rely mostly on brand recognition and hoping people would pay twice the price the quality warrants?
That may work for Apple and Bose, but for Soros, or whatever it's called...