I tested Sonos Ace Ultra's new audio handover feature – here's how it works

The beginning of September was huge for Sonos, which revealed a new Sonos 27 app architecture, new Sonos Beam Ultra soundbar, and new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones.

It's the last of those that I got to try in Berlin, at an event running adjacent to the IFA tech expo's calendar. These new headphones play nice with other Sonos products, able to handover audio with ease – which is what I was keenest to test out.

The feature is thanks to the new Headphones Engine 2, which sees the Ace Ultra act, in part, like other Wi-Fi-capable Sonos speakers to connect to the wider Sonos system – something that previous Ace product couldn't deliver.

I had many questions about how the feature would function, however, so have broken down in Q&A style below to explain how it all works.

What is Headphone Linking?

If you have a variety of Sonos speakers in your home, whether setup individually or as groups, then you're able to pass over what you're listening to on the Sonos Ace Ultra to those – it's called Headphone Linking.

There's no restriction on the product, so long as it's a Wi-Fi-capable Sonos – the Bluetooth-only products, like Roam, won't function in this way (just as they don't function in the same way in Sonos' overall setup).

To action this is simple: you simply press-and-hold the physical action button on the Ace Ultra, wait until it beeps, then it'll ping over to your nearest Sonos system. It's really simple to use.

What if I've got multiple groupings?

But what if you've got multiple groupings in your home? Say one kitchen setup, one bedroom, and another larger home cinema system in the lounge?

This is where the new Sonos 27 app will identify through your Wi-Fi network the nearest signal to you.

Can you fool it or can it mess up? I asked a Sonos engineer and the answer was only if you were perfectly equidistant would the system need to make a 'choice', but the company spent a long time testing to deliver the most fluid result.

Can you play on headphones and speakers?

As Ace Ultra have the hardware on board to act like a speaker, can you listen on the headphones whilst other Sonos speakers output audio – in a separate room in the house, for example?

While this could theoretically be possible, Sonos took the decision to disable such functionality. The Ace Ultra are either playing your source audio, or you hand it over to another system – you can't run the headphones in tandem with a speaker grouping.

What about the original Ace headphones?

Will this functionality be coming to the original Sonos Ace headphones? The short answer here is 'no'.

That's because the Headphones Engine 2 is part software, part hardware solution. And the chip required to run the calculations and Wi-Fi operability isn't in the original headphones.

If you want the most functionality, you'll therefore want the Ultra headphones, not the original product.

Has the TV Audio Swap feature changed at all?

One thing that the original Ace did do – and while niche, it's a feature that many love – is TV Audio Swap. This enables you to nab the audio from your soundbar and deliver it straight to the headphones.

It's also activated by a press-and-hold of the action button on the Ace Ultra (just as it is on the original Ace), but rather than functioning Headphone Linking and passing the audio over to another Sonos grouping, the app will know that audio is via an HDMI signal.

It's that HDMI hard-wiring that overrules the usual functionality, enabling the Ace Ultra to run TV Audio swap in the same way as the original Ace. As the majority processing is done on the soundbar, not the headphones, there's no disparity between Ace and Ace Ultra here.

Should I buy the Ace Ultra?

I'm not going into detail about how the Ace Ultra sound in this feature – a quick listen and I think they're superior to the original product thanks to a new driver and new tuning – but should you consider buying the latest headphones?

Absolutely. If you're a Sonos power user then the new Headphone Linking feature will expand your usability considerably. TV Audio Swap remains in tact and is still great. And the comfort of these headphones is second to none.

I'll be reviewing the new headphones in the coming weeks ahead of their 29 September on-sale date, digging into the design differences, long-term wear functionality, sound quality and ANC in minutiae detail.