Sonos Ace Ultra: doubled ANC, 35-hour battery, and a £399 price tag
Sonos has announced the Ace Ultra, its new over-ear wireless headphones, priced at £399 in the UK and $449 in the US — shipping September 29. That's £50 less than the original Ace cost at launch in 2024, yet the spec sheet is meaningfully upgraded across the board. For anyone who looked at gen-one and walked away, this is a different product.
The hardware
The Ace Ultra looks nearly identical to its predecessor, but Sonos has rebuilt much of what's inside. New 40mm drivers sit behind deeper ear cups, and a ten-microphone array powers the active noise cancellation. Sonos claims ANC is now twice as effective as the original — particularly in low-frequency ranges like aircraft cabin hum and HVAC noise. Battery life stretches to 35 hours with ANC on, up from 30, and a three-minute charge buys three more hours of playback.
Sonos Ace Ultra features new 40mm drivers and a ten-microphone ANC system inside a familiar over-ear design.
On the audio side, the Ace Ultra supports aptX Adaptive Lossless over Bluetooth and plays back up to 16-bit / 48 kHz audio via USB-C. An adaptive EQ adjusts the sound profile based on how the headphones sit on your head. Sonos says the tuning was done in collaboration with Grammy and Oscar-winning engineers — take that as you will.
The Ace Ultra supports aptX Adaptive Lossless and adaptive EQ tuned by award-winning audio engineers.
The ecosystem play
The bigger story is Headphone Linking, a one-button feature that instantly shifts audio from a compatible Sonos speaker to the Ace Ultra without touching your phone. It directly addresses the ecosystem weakness that hurt the first Ace, which launched alongside a disastrous app overhaul in May 2024. The feature arrives as part of Sonos 27 OS, which also brings an updated app and opt-in AI functions. One catch: Headphone Linking is marked Early Access at launch, per Gear Patrol, so its full rollout timeline remains unclear.
The headphones also support replaceable ear pads and a replaceable battery — a practical advantage over Sony and Bose flagships that currently offer neither.
Availability
Pre-orders open September 1 via Sonos official. The Ace Ultra ships September 29 in four colors: Black, White, Sand, and Agave. At £399, it sits at or below the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QC Ultra — making the pricing competitive on paper. Whether the app and the Early Access ecosystem features hold up at launch is the open question, given what happened last time.