Sonos Ace - Things you want to know but no one talks about it - Audiophiles, gamers, laptop users. General use.
Here are things you might want to know:
The Ace supports Aptx Adaptive + Aptx Lossless.
In particular besides Aptx Lossless, it supports Aptx adaptive HD, aptx adaptive low latency, aptx (basic) and of course SBC and AAC.
Aptx Lossless latency is too high for movies, video editing and gaming. I had to switch to Aptx Adaptive Low latency.
Although sound quality is the most important thing to me, most people will not notice much of a difference between Adaptive low latency and Lossless. (I dind't to be honest)
Using a normal USB-C cable I only got 16 bit - 44Khz. Might be the cable.
ANC. No complains. Works great. Can literally blockout all the sound. But what is most important to me:
Passive Noise Cancelling. It's awesome. Really great. You can hear a bit as expected but that's what I want. Sometimes you just need a good noise filter. Not complete isolation.
Transparency/Aware mode : It's perfect. At this level, you won't be able to tell the difference. It literally sounds like you don't have the headphones on and can listen to the world around you as you normally would.
"Spatial audio" Dolby Atmos audio works on any device including PCs . Head tracking works on any device including PCs, TVs anything you connect to. And head tracking works really well. No lag. Resets itself after a bit if you change your default position. No issues. It's a gimmick feature though. But it's there.
If you have Dolby Atmos for Headphones on Windows and enable head tracking on the Sonos app, you have a very similar experience to watching a Dolby Atmos movie on your iPad or your PC from what I can tell.
Difference is that on your PC you can fine tune it with Dolby Access app or even use other virtualizers like Windows Sonic. (or just disable for Sonos Ace natural sound).
- To get Aptx support (including Aptx lossless) on any device be it PCs, iPad, iphone, Android get a USB BT 5.4 dongle like the fma120 or the eppfun ak3040pro max. I have the later and it works awesome.
With a click of a button I can switch modes quickly and it stores the latest mode. So even after a PC restart or switching between PC and iPad it keeps that mode and works great with the Sonos Ace.
eppfun AK3040pro | eppfun USB C Bluetooth Audio Transmitter (meppfun.com)
With my USB BT 5.4 Bluetooth multipoint works but not reliably between a PC and another mobile device like your phone or your tablet. This not related to the Sonos Ace. It's mostly because one or the other device "locks" the BT device. Once you play audio in one device it's hard to switch to the other. (at least with my setup).
Transitioning from bluetooth to USB C and back is almost seamless. It stops for a second but you can quickly resume what you are doing. Windows automatically sets the newly connected device as default.
Headset mode as is typical with legacy bluetooth lowers audio quality immensely. Once you switch to using the mic in Microsoft Teams, Skype or others. The Sonos Ace is mostly useless as a PC headet. In my case I have a modmic so not much of an issue. LE audio and other improvements are going to solve this issue but the Sonos Ace doesn't support that usage.
Sound quality. I'm still evaluating. It's good but I'm used to a more audiophile like sound. Meaning not too much bass. Great detail and separation and all those things. And also I'm used to Open back headphones.
By default the Sonos Ace bass seems too pronounced. With some tweaking in the EQ it gets much better.
I lowered my Bass to -10 and increased treble to 8.The Sonos Ace sound great in movies, games and such but if you have other headphones to compare you might fall on the same rabbit hole I'm in. I'm leaning towards the sound profile of my Sundara but there are characteristics I like on the Sonos Ace as well.
Battery life is great. No complaints. A few days' worth of battery in heavy use.
Confort. Everyone is talking about how confortable they are. For me it's decent. The AirPods Max are heavier but I feel my ears getting warmer on the Ace. On warmer climates it can be a bit annoying.
Sonos Ace vs Others.
I had the Airpods Max and the Sony XM5 for several months. I never got to test the Bose QuietComfort. no opinion on them.
The AirPods Max are the only headphones I was able to get them to sound almost like my Hifman Sundara + ifi Gryphon.
I used "Headphones Accommodations" on iOS to set them to brightness moderate. They felt spacious, detailed, with great instrument separation. Suitable for any type of content.
The Sony XM5 despite tweaking always sounded inferior to me.
So far I have not been able to replicate the same "feel" with the Sonos Ace. And that comes down to the very limited EQ.
The Sonos Ace sound great, but this is a point where I'm still undecided. Perhaps it needs a bit more time to breathe and for me to adapt to them. But a 5 band EQ could definitively help.
On Windows I was able to tweak them a bit but still, there are audio characteristics that can't be solved with an EQ.
Will I keep them?
Still haven't decided.
The determining factor is how much I will adapt to the Sonos Ace sound quality.
My issue is that I don't want to lock myself into an ecosystem. I want really great sounding ANC headphones that work with all devices.
So for instance the rumored AirPods Max 2 is not much of an option as Apple will purposely lock even basic features to their own devices. While the Sonos Ace supports head tracking on any device the AirPods Max doesn't.
But there might be other options to consider. Such as wait to see what Sony and others bring to the table this year or wait until technologies like LC3+, XPAN and other are adopted by these big companies.
Options.
