As I've written about a few times in the last couple of months, I recently managed to upgrade my home surround sound system with a far superior Sonos setup to what I enjoyed before. Even more latterly, though, Sonos lent me a pair of the Sonos Ace headphones to see how they integrate with things, and I have to say I've been impressed.
I'd tried on the Ace a couple of times before, so I knew how outstandingly comfortable they can be to wear, but without a pair at home, I'd never been able to test their biggest USP – sound swapping.
This feature lets you swap the audio from your Sonos soundbar to the headphones and back, really quickly, meaning you can enjoy personal audio rather than forcing bystanders to listen to whatever you're doing on your TV. I wasn't sure if this was a good enough differentiator compared to other top headphones I've got access to (like the Sony WH-1000XM6), but I've been very impressed in the last couple of weeks.
The headphones can be set up like any other Bluetooth pair, simply by pairing them to your phone and getting on with things. In the Sonos app, though, you'll see the option to set up TV Audio Swap if you have the Ace connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your TV audio system.
It took me about a minute to complete the setup, and I can now swap audio to my headphones anytime I like by powering them up and holding down the rocker button that controls volume on the headphones. It's a simple and handy system, and the same long-press of the button can swap the audio back to the soundbar and surrounds when I need to.
Obviously, nothing here is new, but I'd never used the feature until recently, and it has indeed come in handy. I often game with friends in the evenings, and my long-suffering girlfriend hasn't had much of a buffer against my side of in-game conversations until now. She's been using the Ace to watch movies and TV in a much more cocooned sound environment, and she's also been gaming with it in the same way.
From my own use, it's handiest when I want to watch football, which I often do. Again, this can be a bit of a bore sound-wise for other people, so the Ace lets me watch matches I really care about without having to worry about the crowd noise or commentary being obnoxious.
It's basically exactly as slick as Sonos indicated it would be – albeit after a series of updates to widen how many soundbars the feature works with. It basically now stands as the cherry on top of my living room system, which I can't see myself upgrading any time soon (even if a Beam Gen 3 is surely around the corner at some point).
Whether audio swapping is a good enough reason to buy the Ace over another set of headphones is down to individual taste, but I can certainly say it's a nice feature to have if you also have a Sonos soundbar.
