The Sonos Ace headphones aren’t perfect, but they’ve transformed how I watch TV

Sonos’s first headphones are expensive rivals to the flagship cans from Bose and Sony, but with one unique edge: interoperability with other Sonos speakers, allowing you to transfer audio from a speaker to the Ace headphones with the push of a button.

When Sonos first told me about the feature, I figured it made sense for their walled ecosystem, but it never struck me as something I’d use much myself. Why would I sit on the couch and watch TV over my headphones when I have a Sonos sound system sitting right there?

Then I tried it. Pairing the Ace to my Sonos Arc was a few seconds’ work, and then one long press on the headphones’ play button and it instantly pulled my TV audio to the cans. Thanks to a little Sonos Trueplay magic, this includes support for Dolby Atmos and head-tracking — a feature I loathe with music, but which comes into its own with a static audio source like a TV.

I started off only using the Ace in front of the TV because I needed to test them out, but before long I found myself reaching for them instinctively. When I wanted to carry on a Netflix binge late into the night, it felt natural to grab the headphones and spare my neighbors. If my girlfriend was working beside me, I could move my soccer game’s commentary over to the headset and avoid an argument about it. Even more helpfully, when she insisted on her perverse habit of watching TV from her phone with the volume up, I could watch my own in peace. I’ve long learned she won’t remember to grab headphones, but now I can do it instead.

It’s been an experience a bit like the revelation of the Nintendo Switch’s portable mode, or the new wave of portable Android and PC handhelds: not just for gaming on-the-go, but for gaming at home, in a shared space, without having to dominate it. Just like the Switch lets me play on a portable screen while my partner’s around, the Sonos Ace let me watch the TV without forcing her to listen. Since I started testing the Ace a few weeks ago, I’ve probably used them about as often as I do my soundbar itself, and I never saw that coming.

Of course, pairing headphones to a TV isn’t exactly unheard of. But every time I’ve tried it before I gave up because the experience just sort of… sucked.

A better TV-over-headphones experience

Other methods aren’t so seamless

I used to keep a pair of earbuds handy near the couch, but found even good headphones lagged, the audio running distractingly out of sync with the picture. I suspect my cheap TV’s bad Bluetooth chip was to blame, but I won’t be the only person who’s had that problem. And unless you can spare a dedicated set of headphones for the living room, I guarantee it’ll take more than a single button-press to connect them to the TV every time.

For a while, I used my PS5 headset for TV and movies too. That works well if you use your console to stream, but it’s a lot less power-efficient, not everyone owns a console, and if you want to streamline your setup then having to boot up an Xbox along with your TV every time gets old fast.

Where the Sonos wins is in its sheer simplicity. I grab the Ace headphones, turn them on, and hold down that button until the latest Disney+ series is beamed into my ears. It couldn’t be much easier.

If there’s a problem for the Ace, it’s that this killer app is still a little half-baked. Right now it only works with the Arc, Sonos’s most expensive soundbar, though the company says support for the Ray and Beam is on the way. Similarly, you need an iOS device to get it set up, with Android support due “soon.”

The bigger issue is that support for other Sonos speakers like the Era 100 or 300 isn’t on the roadmap at all. The company’s explanation is that it doesn’t want users to move music from a speaker to the Ace and then get confused when they leave the house and the connection drops — less of a worry when you can only use it for TV audio. I have a record player hooked up to an Era 300, and would love to pull that sound to my headphones too, or even just to move my day-to-day digital audio from a speaker to the Ace without missing a beat.

With all those caveats and the substantial price tag, I don’t know that most people should take the plunge and drop $450 on the Ace. But if you already own the right Sonos soundbar, and like me live with a partner who doesn’t always share your taste in TV, you might just find you get some use out of them.