Wednesday, January 8, 2025
HomePlaystationPerhaps I had the Sonos Ace headphones all incorrect

Perhaps I had the Sonos Ace headphones all incorrect


Phil Nickinson wearing the Sonos Ace headphones.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Tendencies

We speak so much about headphones right here internally. Typically it’s fairly easy, only a matter of placing them by means of their paces and placing what we expect into phrases. Different instances there’s much more backwards and forwards. What does a selected set of cans or buds imply? The place does it fall when it comes to the massive image for a selected firm?

That final half has been the crux of our dialog concerning the Sonos Ace headphones. We’ve been speaking about this stuff for years. That’s how far again the rumors and leaks go — and likelihood is Sonos has been engaged on them even longer than that.

The Sonos Ace have created a kind of chicken-or-egg paradox for us. As somebody who already has a reasonably respectable Sonos setup — however certainly not complete — are the Sonos Ace a must-buy? And if not, does that imply they’re a failed product? In spite of everything (and up to date software program woes however), Sonos followers are a fairly passionate bunch, to say the least. And I’ve been amongst these singing the praises of the wi-fi speaker ecosystem as a result of, till the previous few months, it’s been about as easy — and pretty much as good — as it might get. (Sure, Sonos additionally is a reasonably costly ecosystem. That reality isn’t misplaced me.)

However the extra I’ve used the Sonos Ace headphones, the extra I’m satisfied I’ve been them backward. Positive, Sonos will likely be completely blissful promoting a pair to somebody already within the Sonos ecosystem.

However that’s not who they’re actually for. And Sonos truly mentioned as a lot.

The Sonos Ace headphones sitting atop the Sonos Move 2 portable speaker.
You don’t must have already got a Sonos speaker or two (or three or 4) to benefit from the Sonos Ace headphones. Phil Nickinson / Digital Tendencies

Right here’s CEO Patrick Spence within the firm’s second-quarter 2024 earnings name: “We’ve been making wholesome investments in innovation. Our investments stay centered on two issues. The primary is attracting new prospects to Sonos, and the second is getting our current prospects so as to add extra Sonos merchandise to their life.”

And that makes excellent sense. In the event you’re not rising, you’re dying. Sonos desires new prospects, and headphones are a brand new class of product for the audio firm that may appeal to new prospects.

Spence continued: “This launch will give us a foothold into a brand new multibillion-dollar class, increasing the variety of classes we play in from 5 to 6 and additional diversifying our enterprise. This has been a multiyear funding and we count on it to repay in spades in Q3 and past. This may also mark the start of recent efforts on the advertising and marketing entrance to evolve the Sonos model and attain new audiences.”

The Sonos Ace are, for all intents and functions, excellent Bluetooth headphones that dwell alongside the likes of the Apple AirPod Max and the top-end choices from Bose and Sony (to call however three opponents). What they don’t seem to be is a specialised set of headphones that requires a bigger Sonos ecosystem to work in any respect, and even to get probably the most out of them. Sure, there’s the “audio swap” characteristic that connects with a Sonos Arc to feed TV content material to the headphones, however that’s actually about it. (And the characteristic at present requires you to have the $900 soundbar along with the $450 headphones.)

So, no. You don’t must produce other Sonos audio system to even think about shopping for the Sonos Ace headphones.

In reality, Sonos may truly want it that means.






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