This is a short measurement focused review of the new Sonos Ace headphones. I was lent a pair by the company for a few weeks and they are going back today. They currently cost $449 directly from Sonos. For my more subjective opinions and lots of photos and details on the software / hardware features of the ace please check out my Blog.
Overall, though they are expensive, Sonos did a nice job with the premium feel, selecting materials which meant it is lighter and more comfortable than the AirPods Max, I thought the ANC was especially good and it does support High-res bluetooth codecs like AptX-HD and supports lossless audio via usb-c.
But how does it measure!
Sonos Ace Measurements
*Note: These measurements were made with my clone KB501X soft ear pinna with a 711 clone coupler using REW.
For comparison, I have added the 2018 Harman Target, but you can see the mid-bass hump and especially that treble peak which is way beyond what it should be in a headphone at this price.
The balance is reasonable good for a headphone so useful for some EQ which I will present later.
Because of the massive treble peak, I initially thought this might just be some unit variations, where I might have received an early version of a product, but then I spotted the Headphones.com teams measurements:
You can clearly see the same mid bass bump and that treble peak their measurements.
As you can see at lower volumes you get considerable more bass but about the same treble.
You can see a distortion peak exactly in line with that Treble peak. Of course when I ‘fix’ the treble using some PEQ and when I remeasured I get no distortion:
But I also measured the distortion at louder volumes:
Showing the distortion as a percentage shows it is very significant at loud volumes:
This does get a messy around 8K / 10K so for my EQ I could still tackle the 5K/6K treble peak.
So from a sound perspective, as you can see from the graph Airpods Max have a massive sub-bass boost but otherwise are fairly neutral until the treble region. The Sonos Ace on the other hand as a ‘mid-bass’ boost and an uneven midrange and its that most disturbing treble peak that I mentioned earlier. The HD600 lacks bass (without EQ) but otherwise is mostly a reference ’neutral’ headphone and why it is a good benchmark to compare other headphones, especially ones which have built in DSP capabilities as they could be tuned to match the profile of the HD600.
Note: While I did send some comments back to Sonos about using the DSP capabilities of the QCC5181 chipset that they are using.
Preamp: 0 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 120 Hz Gain -6 dB Q 1.41
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 360 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 2.61
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1200 Hz Gain -3.56 dB Q 1.41
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1500 Hz Gain 4.43 dB Q 3.19
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3700 Hz Gain 8.42 dB Q 3.19
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain -9.27 dB Q 2.87
I could have added more filters and smoothen out other aspects but the 711 may not be in low frequencies or in the upper treble so I mostly focused on where I felt would be most beneficial.
Using these EQ I then compared the Ace with some other headphones in my collection you can see it is suddenly very competitive:
Conclusions
For a first headphone from Sonos I think they did a nice job with the build quality, weight and subjectively the ANC is great (equal to the AirPods Max) but I do think they have currently missed the opportunity to use internal DSP / EQ to provide an out of the box "reference" sound signature before allowing users to fine tune the Bass and Treble to their liking within the Sonos App.
Overall, though they are expensive, Sonos did a nice job with the premium feel, selecting materials which meant it is lighter and more comfortable than the AirPods Max, I thought the ANC was especially good and it does support High-res bluetooth codecs like AptX-HD and supports lossless audio via usb-c.
But how does it measure!
Sonos Ace Measurements
*Note: These measurements were made with my clone KB501X soft ear pinna with a 711 clone coupler using REW.
Frequency Response
For comparison, I have added the 2018 Harman Target, but you can see the mid-bass hump and especially that treble peak which is way beyond what it should be in a headphone at this price.
The balance is reasonable good for a headphone so useful for some EQ which I will present later.
Because of the massive treble peak, I initially thought this might just be some unit variations, where I might have received an early version of a product, but then I spotted the Headphones.com teams measurements:
You can clearly see the same mid bass bump and that treble peak their measurements.
Sonos App ‘EQ’ ranges
Since there is currently only Bass and Treble EQ configuration within the Sonos App I thought I would measure the difference it makes:Loudness compensation
Since it is a feature of the App I thought I would measure the differences you get with Loudness compensation turned on:As you can see at lower volumes you get considerable more bass but about the same treble.
Distortion
So, I measured distortion at various volumes, let start with a more normal volume:You can see a distortion peak exactly in line with that Treble peak. Of course when I ‘fix’ the treble using some PEQ and when I remeasured I get no distortion:
But I also measured the distortion at louder volumes:
Showing the distortion as a percentage shows it is very significant at loud volumes:
Group Delay
This does get a messy around 8K / 10K so for my EQ I could still tackle the 5K/6K treble peak.
Frequency Response Comparisons
For the purposes of this review I have been comparing the Ace with my Airpods Max but also with some of my more traditional headphones in this price range, for example the Sennheiser HD600:So from a sound perspective, as you can see from the graph Airpods Max have a massive sub-bass boost but otherwise are fairly neutral until the treble region. The Sonos Ace on the other hand as a ‘mid-bass’ boost and an uneven midrange and its that most disturbing treble peak that I mentioned earlier. The HD600 lacks bass (without EQ) but otherwise is mostly a reference ’neutral’ headphone and why it is a good benchmark to compare other headphones, especially ones which have built in DSP capabilities as they could be tuned to match the profile of the HD600.
Note: While I did send some comments back to Sonos about using the DSP capabilities of the QCC5181 chipset that they are using.
Some EQ Recommendations
Because of what I learned with the internals of the Ace, I felt, i should use just a few relatively simple filters which you can obviously apply on the Windows / Mac or Android App of EQ App of choice (though I do hope eventually within the Sonos App itself).Preamp: 0 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 120 Hz Gain -6 dB Q 1.41
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 360 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 2.61
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1200 Hz Gain -3.56 dB Q 1.41
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1500 Hz Gain 4.43 dB Q 3.19
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3700 Hz Gain 8.42 dB Q 3.19
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5000 Hz Gain -9.27 dB Q 2.87
I could have added more filters and smoothen out other aspects but the 711 may not be in low frequencies or in the upper treble so I mostly focused on where I felt would be most beneficial.
Using these EQ I then compared the Ace with some other headphones in my collection you can see it is suddenly very competitive:
Conclusions
For a first headphone from Sonos I think they did a nice job with the build quality, weight and subjectively the ANC is great (equal to the AirPods Max) but I do think they have currently missed the opportunity to use internal DSP / EQ to provide an out of the box "reference" sound signature before allowing users to fine tune the Bass and Treble to their liking within the Sonos App.
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