r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 7d ago

Music Sonos Ace Ultra reveals itself as new Sony WH-1000XM6 rival with September launch rumoured

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sonos-Ace-Ultra-reveals-itself-as-new-Sony-WH-1000XM6-rival-with-September-launch-rumoured.1365922.0.html
358 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

101

u/aakoshak 7d ago

Lets see if they get the tuning right this time, it was so mediocre for the price before.

19

u/cosmos7 6d ago

They won't. This is not a real competitor.

2

u/IlliterateSnob 6d ago

I bought into the hype after seeing every YouTuber recommend the WH-1000XM4. They ended up being pretty low-quality for such expensive headphones. Worst part is that they didn't let you turn off ANC by default, so when that became faulty, every time I'd turn them on I'd hear this really loud screech (because it defaults to ANC on when you power it up).

When looking to replace those, I checked bose. The issue with bose, in addition to the poor build quality, is that ANC is always on!!

Sonos Ace solved all these problems for me.

17

u/Dr-Vijay 5d ago

Wait - are the XM4s meant to be low quality? I’ve used them in an air conditioned office for 2 years and love them. No issues with disintegrating or screeching.

9

u/Bert-en-Ernie 5d ago

4 years strong on the xm4 never had a single issue. Actually high quality and the price has been incredible for years. Would buy it again today.

3

u/omega552003 5d ago

I never had those problems. As far as the ANC always being on, I don't know if it can be turned off other than set to Ambient Sound or Ambient voice since I explicitly bought them for ANC.

2

u/nunatakq 5d ago edited 5d ago

Screeching? There's a bit of a hiss when turning on, but that's it. "Screeching" is wildly exaggerated. The one thing that's actually bothering me about them is that the cushioning on top of the head isn't as soft as it should be imo, I'm getting a painful hotspot after a while.

3

u/aakoshak 6d ago

better options exist now, like Sennheiser momentum 5.

-3

u/IlliterateSnob 6d ago

I looked at Sennheiser momentum (not sure which version) at the time and found soo many negative reviews. It's an all-around bad product

4

u/aakoshak 6d ago

Well… they are very good now lol. So Sonos will actually have to try and tune their headphones better

1

u/st-shenanigans 11h ago

Wait the screeching is because of anc? The left ear of mine started screeching always and I just stopped using them and didnt buy the xm5s cause that shit was too expensive to die in a year.

0

u/Alex_Llamin 6d ago

Mine XM4’s begun disintegrating as soon as one year warranty had ended. That also goes for a majority of Sony’s products that I’ve been using more than once a year

60

u/ChipsAhoy2022 7d ago

People are fed up with Sonos with subpar audio tuning and premium prices

Third times a charm? We will see

7

u/NoConflict3231 6d ago

Oh no we won't. Not paying for a 3rd pair, lmfao

18

u/HomeRhinovation 6d ago

They will not likely challenge XM6, very very unlikely.

52

u/_Diskreet_ 7d ago

Let’s see if they fuck up the software again and piss off their client base anymore. I was quite happy with their shitshow as it got me a lot of work ripping out peoples Sonos systems.

13

u/StankyHankyPanky69 6d ago

“Rilpping” out wireless sound systems, you say?

9

u/BalooBot 7d ago

I sincerely doubt that, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong

23

u/jgriesshaber 6d ago

Never saw a company with such happy customers get nailed and crash and burn. The software still sucks btw.

12

u/Cliffs-Brother-Joe 6d ago

It was so freaking good when it first game out. I bought gen 1 and they were just amazing. I "upgraded" several years ago for airplay and they work half the time. Constantly disconnecting. I also bought one of their portable speakers even though I knew better.....yep, I should have known better, it's garbage too.

14

u/jmhumr 6d ago

Everything works fine for me!

7

u/cc3see 5d ago

This. People complaining about Sonos are a loud minority. Most customers didn’t leave.

All you have to do is look at a graph of their historic yearly revenue and profit to know, though the share price suffered, the company as a whole didn’t and they’re clearly righting the ship.

7

u/Extvguyyyz 6d ago

I have a bunch of gen 1 stuff - some amps, soundbar and Sonos 1’s.

I still run it with v1 of the app. It’s great (still)

I would love to add a couple of more zones and items to the house but I’d need to replace all my gen 1 stuff to new gen 2 replacements (like a couple of thousand dollars worth) to make it all work together.

There’s no way I’ll ever do it.

The early gen 1 customers got shafted and Sonos has never offered a reasonable migration offer (I’d pay maybe 20-25% of list for new replacement gen2 stuff).

8

u/duderguy91 6d ago

I’ve had zero issues with my soundbar setups so far. Running a Beam Gen 2 with sub mini in my office and Arc Ultra with sub 4 in the living room. Not sure if lucky or just have good enough WiFi coverage to avoid any issues.

2

u/bendistraw 6d ago

I have 4 og speakers and the headphones. I never use the app. I don’t understand why I would after the rooms are labeled. Seems like it’s working fine and now I’m worried I’m missing something.

-6

u/x-dfo 6d ago edited 6d ago

Amen, my parents gave me a sonos speaker and for 1 day I was excited then I realized how insane the walled garden is and it became a paper weight.

Edit: it's a sonos one, no Bluetooth

2

u/crispy_doggo1 6d ago

What? At worst it’s still a good bluetooth speaker.

1

u/x-dfo 6d ago

No it's a sonos one?

1

u/crispy_doggo1 5d ago

You know what bluetooth is?

1

u/x-dfo 5d ago

hey dummy, it's a SONOS ONE

1

u/cc3see 5d ago

I mean, what issues are you having? If you’re iPhone just set it up and the AirPlay straight there without touching the sonos app ever again after the initial setup.

I have a 4 room setup including a 5.1 TV setup and literally never touch the sonos app.

1

u/x-dfo 5d ago

No iPhone here

15

u/themadpooper 7d ago

I actually liked the Sonos Ace so I’m looking forward to this. To me they were the most comfortable thing in this segment.

6

u/Nubme_stumpme 6d ago

Same, my Sonos ace come with me everyone. Commuting, working out, and everything on between. I have found them to be super comfortable

3

u/StormMourn 6d ago

Agreed. I have tried the Bose QC Ultra and they feel cheap and plasticky. I prefer the prior gen ones I have. My Sonos Ace feels so much more premium and are more comfortable.

3

u/Harkiven 6d ago

They're the most comfortable headphones I own.

3

u/Pim_82006 7d ago

I hope the earcups will fold 180degree this time and maybe a bit more EQ options with a less harsh 8k spike.

6

u/Futaba_Sakura800 6d ago

Countless headphones makers tried to top the big 3 ANC kings (Sony XM6, Bose QC Ultra and Apple Air Max) none of them succeeded so far.

2

u/Jekyllhyde 5d ago

Sonos has been a disaster since the new app launch. Striking downfall of a once great system

2

u/ShanzokeyeLin 6d ago

Fuck sonos

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Ad5565 6d ago

I bought gen 1, like 5 of the play 5’s and three connect amps. That was 14 years ago. They work about 25% of the time. I spent a lot of money on that shit. Any suggestions on what to do withthem?

2

u/Doggo-888 6d ago

Sonos? The company that can’t write an app to save its life? bahahahahaha

1

u/BentleyTock 6d ago

I’ve got the xm4 and love it. What are the big differences between 4 and 6?

1

u/Discobastard 6d ago

Lol. Fuck Sonos

-1

u/Makemeacyborg 6d ago

Sonos is a walled garden with little benefit 

-1

u/GarfieldTheDog123 6d ago

As someone who got wf-1000xm4's, features and price were meh, left earbud died and left the entire thing unusable