Looking to treat your ears to a new pair of headphones? Then you may be considering the Sonos Ace, which has had a tempting price drop across a few major retailers.
Launched at £449, it can now be found for £299 at Sevenoaks, John Lewis and Richer Sounds, with Sonos' own store reducing them to £349. But despite these appealing discounts, we think there's a more compelling option available right now for discerning listeners.
Enter the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, which are currently available for £371.07 at Amazon, down from their £450 RRP. Yes, they're still pricier, even on offer, but here's why you might want to consider forking out a little extra...
In our Sonos Ace review, we found that the headphones delivered a simplistic and safe sound that felt a little congested, with a lack of spaciousness. In contrast, we found that the QuietComfort Ultra offered a hugely entertaining, enthusiastic, and refined sound, with punchy, precise and dynamic delivery.
Testing with film soundtracks like Inception's Time, for example, the Ace struggled to stir emotions and missed finer sonic details. The QuietComfort Ultra, however, demonstrated excellent timing and emotional expressiveness, particularly evident in tracks like U2's With Or Without You, where it captured both the intimacy of Bono's vocals, and the subtle atmospheric elements with impressive refinement."
The QuietComfort Ultra also pulls ahead in noise cancellation. While the Ace's ANC is merely adequate, with ambient frequencies still creeping in that better headphones keep out, the Bose offers class-leading, customisable ANC that dramatically reduces background noise.
Even call quality shows a marked difference – the Ace demonstrated muffled voice quality with notable variation in background noise, while the Bose performed admirably – though it's worth noting performance was still slightly behind Sony's WH-1000XM5 in this particular battle.
With all that said, the Sonos Ace still has plenty to offer. Its streamlined, stylish design is paired with intuitive physical controls, and it still serves up some appealing features, particularly for existing Sonos users – the TV Audio Swap feature lets you seamlessly transfer audio between the headphones and a Sonos soundbar, adding unique functionality that could be very appealing for late-night viewing sessions.
Unless you’re after that specific Sonos ecosystem feature though, we reckon most people would currently be better off paying a bit more for the Bose QuietComfort Ultra at its current discounted price.
MORE:
Sonos Ace vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones: which noise-cancellers should you buy?
Read our full Sonos Ace review
