Sonos Ace Review: Hard to Recommend at This Price
Our full Sonos Ace review after two weeks of testing: measured performance, battery figures, and whether it is worth £449.
Maya Okonkwo
The short version
The Sonos Ace is Sonos's 2024 entry in a crowded audio market, and at £449 it is competing against some of the strongest hardware we have tested. After a fortnight of daily use, the headline is straightforward: it delivers the best raw sound quality in the category.
The one-line answer: Buy it for the best raw sound quality in the category. Think twice if this would bother you daily: minimal integration with a Sonos system.
In the hand
There is nothing experimental here, which is mostly to the Sonos Ace's credit. The detail worth calling out is that grouping with Sonos speakers does not work at all yet. Against the rest of the audio category it feels considered rather than novel.
Performance
Our testing runs the same suite on every device so figures stay comparable across years. The figure worth quoting is Weight: 312g. That places it mid-table at best for its price bracket.
| Specification | Sonos Ace |
|---|---|
| Type | Over-ear, closed |
| Codecs | SBC, AAC, aptX Lossless |
| Battery | 27h with ANC |
| Weight | 312g |
How we tested
Every figure quoted above comes from the same protocol, run on every unit in this category. This one spent two weeks of daily listening, including commutes, calls and at least one flight. A blind A/B panel of four listeners, level-matched to within 0.5dB, using the same eleven-track reference playlist across every pair.
| What we measure | How |
|---|---|
| Battery life | Continuous playback at a metered 75dB with noise cancelling on, run to cut-off. |
| Noise cancelling | Attenuation measured against a recorded cabin-noise loop, reported by frequency band rather than as one number. |
| Call quality | Recordings made on a busy street and in a quiet room, judged by the same panel blind. |
| Comfort | Clamping force measured, then a three-hour wear session logged for hot spots. |
| Latency | Audio-to-video offset measured on a fixed test clip over each supported codec. |
We deliberately do not report frequency-response graphs presented without listening notes — they describe a tone, not an experience.
The honest caveat: Fit dominates both isolation and bass response. Our panel has four head shapes; yours is not one of them.
What we liked
- The best raw sound quality in the category
- AptX Lossless support
- Stainless steel construction
Taken together, those strengths make it a natural fit for listeners who care about sound quality above features.
Where it falls short
- Minimal integration with a Sonos system
- Heavy at 312g
- Expensive for what it currently does
None of these are dealbreakers on their own. Whether they matter depends entirely on how you intend to use it, which is why the section below matters more than the score.
How it compares
The closest alternatives on price are Sonos Era 300 and Sony WH-1000XM6. All three have been through the same tests, so the figures below are directly comparable rather than collected from different reviews.
| Model | Price | Our score | Standout | Weak point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonos Ace (this review) | £449 | 3 / 5 | The best raw sound quality in the category | Minimal integration with a Sonos system |
| Sonos Era 300 | £449 | 4 / 5 | Genuinely convincing spatial audio from one box | Expensive for a single speaker |
| Sony WH-1000XM6 | £399 | 5 / 5 | The strongest noise cancellation on low-frequency rumble | Expensive |
The Sonos Era 300 scores higher at £449, so the Sonos Ace has to win on the best raw sound quality in the category rather than on the total.
Is it worth the money?
At £449 the Sonos Ace asks £111 more than the category average of £338, against an average score of 3.9 out of 5 across the audio we have tested. Its own 3 works out at roughly £150 per point. Paying above average for a below-average score only makes sense if listeners who care about sound quality above features describes you precisely.
If the budget is the binding constraint, the Nothing Ear (3) at £129 is the floor we would still recommend — below that the compromises stop being ones you can live with.
Daily use
Two weeks in, the figure that stopped mattering was type — Over-ear, closed is more than adequate and you forget about it by the third day. What kept surfacing instead was that minimal integration with a Sonos system, which is easy to shrug off in a spec comparison and harder to ignore at 6pm on a Friday. On the other side, grouping with Sonos speakers does not work at all yet turns out to be the sort of detail you only appreciate after living with the alternative.
Who should buy it
Buy the Sonos Ace if you are listeners who care about sound quality above features. Skip it if this is something you would notice every day: minimal integration with a Sonos system.
Buy it if:
- Listeners who care about sound quality above features
- You want the best raw sound quality in the category
- You value aptX Lossless support
Skip it if:
- You need minimal integration with a Sonos system to be a solved problem
- The Sonos Era 300 at £449 already covers what you need
- You upgraded within the last two years — the gap is not worth the outlay
Verdict
Buy it for the best raw sound quality in the category. Think twice if this would bother you daily: minimal integration with a Sonos system.
Score: 3 / 5 · £449 at the time of writing.
Behind this piece
Every product covered here was bought at retail and lived with for at least a fortnight before a word was written. Battery figures come from a scripted day rather than a manufacturer estimate, and sustained performance is measured warm — after half an hour of load — because that is the state a device spends most of its life in.
Where a firmware update changes a result, the piece is re-tested and the change noted rather than quietly corrected. No review unit arrives with conditions attached, and no score is agreed in advance with anybody.
Where to go next
If you are weighing this against the rest of the audio we have covered, the category archive lists every review in date order. The closest comparisons we have published are Sonos Ace: Battery Draining Faster Than It Should and Sonos Ace: Bluetooth Keeps Disconnecting.
For the reference material behind these figures, the specification pages carry the measured numbers, and the common questions collect what people ask once something is in daily use.
