Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: which noise-cancellers should you buy?

This year we have a new kid in the wireless headphones town, and you may well have heard of them. Over the last two decades, Sonos has remained the undisputed king of multi-room speakers, and now it has branched out into the world of headphones with the Sonos Ace. But it can't expect to just waltz in and take charge – the established players will see to that.

Bose is one such established rival. The US company invented noise-cancelling headphones and currently leads the pack with its flagship QuietComfort Ultra Headphones.

If Sonos wants to make an impression, it has its work cut out. Let's see how the Ace fare against Bose's similarly priced competitor.

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: price

• Very similar launch prices
• Boses are older and more regularly available for less

The Sonos Ace went on sale on 5th June 2024 for £449 / $449 / AU$699. That's not cheap by any means, especially from a brand with no track record in the highly competitive headphones space. It's certainly an ambitious statement and puts the Ace in the firing line of Bose and Apple's AirPods Max. The Ace haven't been out a year yet and already we have seen generous price drops up to 30 per cent during the Black Friday sales period.

Meanwhile, Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Headphones launched at the end of 2023 for a very similar price tag – £450 / $429 / AU$649. They too have received similarly heavy discounts during sales periods since, and, not surprising considering their age, are frequently reduced to below the Ace's asking price.

You can see today's best prices for both pairs below.

** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: design

• Both pairs sport smart aesthetics and premium build quality
• Boses fold up more
• Larger ears may find the Sonos earpads too small

Overall, we like the design of the Sonos Ace. Like other Sonos speakers and soundbars, they're minimalist – black and white, with no visible hinges – but with some nice touches that prevent them from looking bland. The Sonos logo is nice and subtle but shimmers when it catches the light. Memory foam (wrapped in vegan leather) cushions the earpads and headband, while they're lightweight with nicely judged ear clamping pressure. The stainless steel yokes that make the headphones slide along the headband during adjustment really add to the premium feel.

Not all of our team members were enamoured with their fit, however. Some found the earcups too small; without enough room for their ears to breathe, they soon heated up. But those with ears on the smaller side had no complaints.

The earcups swivel flat like most pairs today, but they don't fold up like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones so will take up comparatively more space in a pocket or bag. Sonos has opted for physical button controls, whereas the Bose sport two buttons alongside a capacitive touch strip. Which you prefer will depend on personal preference, but we do enjoy the reliability of a button press.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are also a premium offering, featuring metal yokes and pleather headband and earcups that also satisfy on the aesthetic and build quality fronts. Like the Ace, they come in a black or white finish, though since their launch that has been bolstered by two additional colourways – dark blue (Lunar Blue) and a creamy white (Diamond 60th Edition).

Again, the grip pressure is just right, and the capacitive strip is intuitive and responsive for adjusting the volume.

** Winner: Draw **

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: features

• Both have spatial audio
• Both have Bluetooth Multipoint and high-quality aptX support
• Ace have a better battery life and USB-C wired listening
• Ace sport two Sonos-centric features

The Ace are bursting with features. Bluetooth 5.4 and are onboard, as is support for the theoretically highest-quality Bluetooth codecs, Snapdragon Sound’s aptX Lossless, as well as Apple’s ALAC. You also get Multipoint Bluetooth for connecting the Ace wirelessly to two sources simultaneously and then seamlessly switching between them.

The Ace don't support next-gen Bluetooth technologies like Auracast and LE Audio, but not many pairs do yet and Sonos hasn't ruled them out in future headphones. The same goes for wi-fi – one of the most rumoured features is conspicuous by its absence, but Sonos is keeping an open mind. Sadly that means they can't integrate into your Sonos multi-room system, though there are some neat home cinema features involving a Sonos soundbar that we'll get to.

The 30-hour battery life (with Bluetooth and ANC activated) is six hours more than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones' 24. What's worse is that the Bose's battery life drops to 18 hours with the Bose Immersive Audio (spatial audio) feature enabled. So it's a win for Sonos there.

Wear detection pauses/resumes playback when you take the Ace headphones off/put them back on respectively, while spatial audio with dynamic head tracking plays nice with the Dolby Atmos format, with Atmos and 360 Reality Audio tracks available from Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer. The Sonos app lets you toggle playback settings like spatial audio (and dynamic head tracking separately), and tweak the equaliser.

Now for the Ace's home cinema features. TV Audio Swap plays the sound from your Sonos soundbar through the headphones at one touch for private viewing – in our demo, this was seamless and instant, though we did have some issues with lip-syncing and crackling. Hopefully this will be fixed soon via a firmware update.

Then there's TrueCinema calibration, which analyses your room and adjusts the headphones' audio to be more spatial and immersive so that it sounds like you're listening through a home cinema system instead of headphones. It certainly sounds neat, but this feature hasn't been rolled out yet.

The Ace's battery will drain faster when connected to a Sonos soundbar, but they should still last two nights of movie watching in a row.

Bose's Immersive Audio technology launched with the Ultra Headphones – it's essentially Bose's take on spatial audio. There are two modes – Still and Motion, depending on whether you're stationary or moving.

Like the Ace, the Ultra include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Technology suite, giving them aptX Adaptive support (one codec 'down' from the Ace's aptX Lossless) and the latency and stability benefits the codec brings. Bluetooth Multipoint is also onboard.

Unlike the Sonos, however, there's no wired listening over USB-C.

On paper, the Ace play a good features game, which could only get better when TrueCinema lands. With slightly better Bluetooth codec support and a loinger battery life, this round goes to Sonos.

** Winner: Sonos Ace **

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: sound

• Ace are uncompetitive and safe sounding
• Boses have much more energy and insight
• Spatial audio effect is hit and miss with both pairs

We'll get straight to the point: sonically, the Sonos Ace just aren't up to it. The premium over-ear headphones market is fiercely competitive and the Ace leave a lot to be desired in terms of sound quality.

It's pleasant enough to listen to, but ultimately far too conservative for our liking. Sonos has played it safe, and that's not to its credit. It's all a bit congested too, with a lack of spaciousness and distinction between each element that too often merges into a blurry, confused mess.

Detail levels aren't bad, but they are still trounced by the Bose. The QC Ultras are a lot bolder and more powerful, especially in the low end, and while the Ace does dig up some pretty deep low frequencies, it's at the expense of the other parts of the frequency range. As a result, it misses out on some finer details.

They're a little better with TV and movie content, and spatial audio does widen the soundscape. Fingers crossed that this gets even better when the TrueCinema feature finally rolls out.

The Bose QuietComfort UltraHeadphones might sound a bit uptight at first, but once they've had time to bed in they loosen up considerably, providing a wonderfully entertaining sound. Their enthusiasm for their source material spans genres, with a precise, punchy delivery that will get your toes tapping.

Highs and lows alike sound rich and refined, while there's a real sense of dynamism. We're not wholly sold on Bose's Immersive Audio, especially as it drains the battery quicker – the general feeling in our testing was it works well for some tracks but can also sound off with others.

** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: noise cancellation

• Ace's noise cancellation is good, not great
• Boses set the benchmark, offer more customisation

You simply toggle between the Ace's noise-cancelling and Aware (transparency) modes by pressing the button on the right earcup. There are no other levels of ANC. And while the noise-cancelling effect certainly does dampen down general background noise, we did find that some frequencies get through. Good but not great, then.

It's nowhere near as advanced as Bose's ANC technology. CustomTune calibration automatically optimises the ANC depending on your surroundings, while Bose Aware Mode with ActiveSense automatically adjusts the amount of ANC you’re hearing, so your music isn’t drowned out by particularly loud noises. You can also set your own ANC presets and adjust the amount of ambient noise that comes through.

It's probably the best ANC performance available on the headphones market, reducing train rumbles and other loud sounds to a mere murmur. And with all these customisation options at hand, it's up to you how much noise you want to block out.

** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **

Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: verdict

We had high hopes for the Sonos Ace, but quite frankly they don't live up to the hype, predominantly due to their sound quality and ANC not being competitive enough. Neither is bad exactly, they just can't match the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones' talents.

We like the Boses enormously. Their sound has a lot more energy and personality than the Sonos, they're well-designed and fold down to fit in a pocket or bag, and the noise cancellation is still the best around. Overall, it's not much of a contest.

** Winner: Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones **

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