These headphones have (almost) replaced my soundbar

Sonos' track record for 2024 is something of a mixed bag. On one hand, you’ve got an app launch so disastrous that CEO Patrick Spence went so far as to issue a public apology for it. On the other, you’ve got a pretty nifty set of over-ear headphones called the Sonos Ace.

Back when I first reviewed them, I came away pretty impressed with Sonos' first foray outside of speakers and soundbars on everything but the asking price.

In the months since, I’ve gotten a ton of mileage out of the Sonos Ace in a way I didn't expect. That's right, I'm talking about TrueCinema. When paired with a Sonos soundbar, this feature lets you seamlessly pull an audio stream from your TV to your headphones at the press of a button.

More than just crossing the streams, Sonos even uses acoustic data collected by your soundbar to mix the stream to sound closer to the experience offered by your home theater setup. As far as these things go, it's a cool inclusion that plays to Sonos' strengths and promises to make the Sonos Ace as compelling inside your home as outside it. 

Recently, TrueCinema has become one of my favorite ways to watch TV at home. My Sonos Arc soundbar sounds great but my living room setup doesn’t include a subwoofer, so the bass leaves something to be desired. In addition, my proximity to the main street of my suburb often means dealing with lots of ambient noise.

When I put on my Sonos Ace, I get more than just the baseline benefits of noise cancellation. I get dodge having to choose between having my windows open and enjoying a nice breeze through the apartment and having audio that I can properly hear.

TrueCinema is also perfect for those Sunday mornings where I wake up a few hours earlier than my partner but still want to make use of that time to play games on the PS5 or catch up on The Rings of Power.

That said, this setup isn’t ideal for the shows that me and my partner watch together. For now anyway, there's no way to set up TrueCinema for two headsets at once. Hopefully it's something the company considers eventually adding support via software update.

Still, TrueCinema is quickly becoming an fast-favorite for me. Here’s hoping that Sonos (or someone else) makes a version of the tech that’s a little more couple-friendly sooner rather than later though.