Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: what are the differences?
The Sonos Ace headphones have got to be some of the most rumoured, most anticipated headphones in the history of personal audio. It has taken years, but finally they are here and we know everything about them – we have even managed to get our hands on them for a first listen.
However, such a long-awaited product doesn’t come without a fair amount of pressure on its shoulders, particularly from a brand such as Sonos, which has quite the reputation to uphold. The competition here is huge, and they are going to need to deliver in every area to uphold those expectations.
Of course, there will be comparisons, and one that’s impossible to avoid is the Apple AirPods Max. From the similarly slick design to the eye-watering price point, they seem to be very much in the Sonos Ace’s sights – but how do they compare? Before our full review, we have taken a look at the two on paper to see how they stack up.
Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: price
The Sonos Ace go on sale on 5th June for a reassuringly expensive £449 / $449 / AU$699. It’s around what we expected, to be honest, but it’s still an undoubtedly premium price for a pair of headphones – particularly when Sonos kit rarely budges from RRP.
The Apple AirPods Max launched a while back, in December 2020, and at the time, they were the most expensive wireless headphones we had tested at £549 / $549 / AU$899. They’re getting on a bit now – in fact we are sort of expecting their successors at some point soon – so the more recent price drop in some territories seems fair. You can now pick them up for around £500 / $500, but Australia is currently holding strong at RRP.
That means that while they are more expensive than most wireless headphones, Sonos has still carefully undercut one of its biggest competitors despite being considerably newer.
Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: design
Take one look at the Sonos Ace and you can’t help but be a little reminded of the Apple AirPods Max. The seamless and minimalist over-ear cup design of the Ace may well be a touch smaller and more rounded than those on the Max, and a little less shiny too, but it’s not worlds apart.
We had worried initially that the Sonos Ace’s smaller earcups might be a touch too small, but we needn’t have. They fit over our ears with plenty of room to spare, using chunky (and replaceable) memory foam for the earpads, just like the AirPods Max, to keep things comfy.
There is a slight difference here though – the AirPods Max go for fabric on their earpads, while Sonos has opted for vegan leather on the Ace. Only time will tell whether the latter can remain cool over longer wears, but certainly our initial impressions are that they feel great.
They are lighter than the AirPods Max, at 312g vs 385g, which will help for extended listening. But both sit really nicely on our heads with a low clamping force that we don’t find at all fatiguing.
Just like the AirPods Max, the earcups on the Ace swivel to sit flat to make them easier for traveling, while keeping hinges very much hidden – an appealing design choice for anyone who has ever caught their hair in a pesky exposed hinge before.
As with most other Sonos devices, the Ace come in a choice of Black or Soft White – a matte finish – while AirPods Max have a few other, more shiny options, including Silver, Space Grey, Sky Blue, Pink or Green.
With the Sonos Ace you get a matching travel case with a smaller travel pouch that can hold all necessary cables, with a USB-C charging cable and USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable included in the box.
The Apple AirPods Max come with a pretty flimsy protective cover for the earpads only but there’s no audio cable included – you will need to buy the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter separately, as the AirPods Max don't use USB-C, unlike the most recent iPhones.
Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: features
Sonos has decided to take a similar route as the AirPods Max when it comes to controlling playback and noise cancellation, and has swerved touch controls.
While the Max really do keep things minimal with just a button and a dial for controlling volume, the Sonos Ace use a couple more – there is a button for power and Bluetooth pairing on the left cup, and a button to cycle through the noise cancelling and aware modes on the right, plus a multi-functional slider (or “elongated content key”, according to Sonos) for volume and playback that works brilliantly.
Just like the Max, the Sonos Ace are purely Bluetooth headphones and don’t feature wi-fi as once predicted – that may come in a later version, according to Sonos, but not just yet.
Instead, they use the latest Bluetooth 5.4, and are capable of playing lossless audio from compatible sources thanks to Snapdragon Sound’s aptX Lossless and Apple’s ALAC codecs support.
The AirPods Max, on the other hand, don’t support lossless playback, and feature only Bluetooth 5.0, since they are that little bit older.
Both do, however, support spatial audio with dynamic head tracking across music and movies that use Dolby Atmos or 360 Reality Audio. They both also feature a wear sensor, so should pause music when you take them off your head or remove an ear cup; and, of course, both offer active noise cancellation.
The Sonos Ace will manage 30 hours of playback from a full charge, plus three hours of juice from a three-minute boost. The AirPods Max, on the other hand, can manage only 20 hours from a single charge, with 1.5 hours of extra playback from five minutes plugged in.
If you have a Sonos Arc soundbar, the Ace headphones have one more trick up their sleeve for you that the AirPods Max do not: TV Audio Swap. That means you can play the sound from your soundbar through your headphones with a single button press. The TrueCinema calibration feature will even adjust the audio to sound like it did in your room, in an attempt to make it feel as though you aren't listening through headphones.
Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: sound
We have had only a very brief hands-on session with the Sonos Ace, during which time we had no control over the listening environment or the sources used for music playback, so it’s impossible to compare them properly with a pair of headphones we have had more than three years of in-depth testing experience with.
However, one of our key takeaways of our time with the Sonos Ace was that they are focused on delivering a clean, clear and open sound, along with snappy basslines, lots of space and enough detail to pick out finer details in a mix.
It will be interesting to see how they hold up against the sound of the AirPods Max, which we describe as “super-crisp” and “spacious” in our review. We also praise them for the clarity and energy, as well as their engaging and precise character – add that to the fact that both use their own custom-design 40mm drivers and it looks like these two could well be a close match for one another when they are placed head to head.
Sonos Ace vs AirPods Max: early verdict
It's impossible to pick a winner between these two premium noise-cancelling headphones just yet – we simply haven't had the time with the Sonos Ace to make a fair judgement against a pair of headphones we have known for some time.
They do look promising though, and with the AirPods Max starting to look a little long in the tooth after almost four years on the market, they can also pip them on a few things, such as hi-res audio support and battery life – not to mention some unique features for those with an existing Sonos home cinema setup.
Throw into that an attractive and comfortable design, plus promising early impressions from a sound perspective, and these could give Apple's five-star flagship over-ear headphones a fair run for their money.
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