I tested the Sonos Ace Ultra and they fix the one issue I had with the original model — so they’re easily among my favorite headphones of the year

22 Sep 2026, 13:30 by https://www.techradar.com/author/harry-padoan · TechRadar

TechRadar Verdict

With a significant improvement in musicality, excellent Dolby Atmos performance, and a more fleshed-out feature set, the Sonos Ace Ultra feel like a landmark achievement for Sonos, which has finally entered the headphone game with confidence. Incremental additions to battery life, ANC, and Sonos ecosystem interactivity only help these stylish cans to stand-out more than the original model, and while the Ace Ultra may still get edged out by a few rivals in terms of sonic detail and travel convenience, they’re still easy to recommend.

Pros

+Far more musical than the Ace
+Excellent Dolby Atmos for movies
+Fantastic feature-suite with enhanced ANC and detailed EQ options
+Stunning design; responsive controls

Cons

-Some rivals still offer more detail
-Case doesn’t mirror the headphones’ premium look and feel
-Not fully foldable

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Sonos Ace Ultra: two-minute review

Sonos is making a real statement of intent with its new wireless headphones, the Sonos Ace Ultra.

The multi-room master has made a whole host of improvements to this upgraded wireless over-ear model, which has arrived two years after the original Ace came to market. The Sonos Ace Ultra have enhanced custom 40mm drivers, a new headphone engine, better battery life, better noise-cancelling, and more detailed EQ to name a few things. So can they finally compete with flagship rivals from the likes of Sony and Bose to become some of the best noise-cancelling headphones we've tested? Here’s what I think after weeks of testing.

Let’s start by addressing the most important area of all: sound quality. We felt that the original Ace fell short of the best headphones around due to one main issue: their middling musicality. But the Ace Ultra have remedied that, and then some.

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When listening to the Sonos Ace Ultra beside the original model, the differences were stark. Where the standard Sonos Ace sounded confined, overstretched, and unrefined, the Ace Ultra offered openness, intricate detailing, and a broader, more organized soundstage. What’s more, they provide better balance across the frequency range, with deep yet controlled bass, rich but less overzealous mids, and tight, articulate treble.

While I still consider some similarly priced competitors, like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 to supply slightly more premium, detailed sound (for music, that is), the Ace Ultra are really not far behind. Sonos listened to the critics, and proved that it's up to the task of going toe-to-toe with the titans of the headphone world.

We already loved the original Ace for movies, though, finding that they offered immersive Dolby Atmos audio with effective head-tracking to boot. And that’s much the same on the Ace Ultra. They whip up wonderful width, strong command over height effects, and never neglect the fundamentals like clear dialogue and cinematic, pounding bass.

But what’s new on the Ace Ultra? Although music got a seismic upgrade, other alterations feel a bit more incremental — but that’s by no means a bad thing. Two more microphones have been added to the Ultra, bringing the total to ten, and ANC is great here. Wherever I was, my soundings were subdued to great effect, almost creating a bubble of silence. ANC is adaptive this time around and adjusts nicely, and the transparency mode works a treat. Call quality is strong too, as you may expect.

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