Here’s what happens when a tech company actually listens to its harshest critics.
Sonos had always positioned the Ace headphones as a premium extension of its ecosystem. But when they launched, many features felt missing or delayed.
Now, a year later, the company is finally delivering on some of those long-promised features. More importantly, it’s also adding entirely new ones that came directly from customer feedback.
What the Update Is All About
The free software update that began rolling out globally on June 10, 2025, feels like an apology wrapped in code. It tackles the exact pain points that made early adopters question whether they’d overpaid for a nice, but seemingly unfinished product.
Here’s a closer look at the four headline upgrades that are turning the Ace into the headphones fans hoped they would be.
- TrueCinema Spatial Audio
- TV Audio Swap for Two
- Smarter Active Noise Cancellation
- SideTone for Natural Phone Calls
TrueCinema Spatial Audio
TrueCinema is the most ambitious addition to the Ace so far. When paired with compatible Sonos soundbars, the technology analyzes the dynamics of your room and acoustically treats the space to simulate a 3D speaker system.
The result? Spatial audio that mimics an open-air home theater setup without taking the headphones off.
Sonos describes it as “a beautifully tuned 3D audio system right in your headphones.” The feature works with several soundbar models: the Arc, Arc Ultra, Beam, and Ray.
TV Audio Swap for Two
TV Audio Swap has been a core feature of the Ace since launch, letting users wirelessly stream TV audio from a Sonos soundbar directly to their headphones. But until now, it was strictly a solo experience.
With the new update, that limitation is gone. You can now pair two sets of Ace headphones to the same soundbar simultaneously. This allows two people to enjoy private, synchronized listening without disturbing anyone else in the room.
This was one of the most-requested features after launch, and it finally delivers on the Ace’s promise of seamless home theater integration.
Smarter Active Noise Cancellation
The Ace already featured effective noise cancellation, but this update makes it smarter. Using onboard sensors, the headphones now detect variables like hair, hats, or glasses—factors that affect how well the earcups seal against your head. Based on what they sense, the headphones make real-time adjustments to optimize ANC performance.
This kind of adaptive tuning ensures more consistent noise blocking, no matter how you’re wearing the headphones. It’s a subtle but meaningful improvement, especially for people who previously found the ANC less effective due to fit issues.
SideTone for Natural Phone Calls
Anyone who’s taken a phone call with noise-cancelling headphones on knows the awkward vacuum-like sensation that can throw off your speech. That’s where SideTone comes in.
The new feature feeds a small portion of your own voice back through the headphones during calls. It helps you stay grounded in the conversation and avoids the disconnected, unnatural feel that full ANC can create.
It’s a small change, but one that makes a big difference if you regularly use your Ace for work or calls on the go.
Is This Enough to Redeem the Ace?
While the Ace headphones received positive reviews and even landed as one of Time’s Best Inventions of 2024, most people remember their launch for the wrong reasons.
In the months since, Sonos has made some clear changes.
According to Jason White, Head of Software at Sonos, the company now takes a more measured approach to feature development. That includes digging into user data, running more specific tests before launch, and leaving room in the product’s software “back end” to allow for user-requested upgrades.
“We have our own forward-looking roadmap for software features for literally all of our products. But at the same time, we don’t want to be so restrictive that we can’t respond to customer feedback,” he told Independent.
“I think that’s a lesson that was even more particularly highlighted in the last year.”
That change is already visible in this update.
TrueCinema was originally promised at launch but pulled back after early feedback suggested it wasn’t ready. The dual-user TV Audio Swap wasn’t even on the original roadmap, but Sonos built enough flexibility into the product to support it later.
What’s Still Missing
Even with these big improvements, the Ace headphones still aren’t fully integrated into the broader Sonos ecosystem.
Right now, you can’t use them as a standalone Sonos speaker inside the app. That means you can’t group them with other speakers, set them as their own audio zone, or stream music from the Sonos multi-room system directly to the headphones.
Another common request is the ability to stream vinyl playback from Sonos-connected turntables to the Ace. For users who’ve built an entire Sonos setup around analog gear, this kind of support would be a natural next step, but it’s still not possible.
There’s also the question of full wireless lossless support. While the Ace can stream over WiFi in home theater mode, that’s limited to 345 kbps, which is not quite the lossless quality some audiophiles were expecting.
Still, there’s reason to believe more is on the way.
For one, Sonos said that full integration with the multi-room platform may be technically possible in the future. That doesn’t guarantee it’s coming, but it shows the door isn’t closed.