The Sonos Ace headphones are the firm's first venture into the headphone market – and it looks like that venture hasn't been very successful. The ongoing woes around the Sonos app have done real damage to the brand, and Sonos itself says that the drama overshadowed the launch of the Sonos Ace.
Sonos has reportedly slashed its manufacturing targets for the Ace by almost 90%, and now a new report says it's considering a price cut to boost the profile of the ailing Aces.
That's according to Bloomberg, which says that Sonos has a two-pronged strategy. Prong one is to release a higher-spec version of the Ace for the same price; prong two is to then cut $50 off the current Ace headphones, bringing the price down to $400.
Is $50 off the Ace enough?
Bloomberg says that the plans are still being discussed, and that some Sonos insiders don't think the current plan is a good one. I'm inclined to agree, because as we said in our Sonos Ace review its performance in music and with noise cancelling isn't as good as the competition, notably Bose. And at $400, the Ace headphones would still be more expensive than most of their rivals.
If you look at the best headphones right now, lots of great models are much cheaper than the Sonos. Sony's WH-1000XM5 had an launch price of $399 and are now available for under $300 during deals events.
When it comes to noise cancellation, the best in class are Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, and these also sound better than the Sonos Ace. Their official price is higher at $429, but we've seen them discounted to $329 and with Black Friday looming they'll fall again soon enough. $400 for the Sonos Ace is not going to compete with this.
The Sonos Ace headphones are in a tough place right now because they're priced as premium products from a premium brand – a strategy that worked really well for Apple's AirPods Max, which benefit both from the headphones being fashionable and from the loyalty of Apple fans. But Apple hasn't had months of furious customers and bad publicity around its audio products, and Sonos has.
If the Ace has any chance of being a hit, Sonos can't rely on its die-hard fans; it needs to meet buyers where they are, and to be a better buy than the competition. With Bose delivering better sound and noise cancellation, that leaves one thing: price. A $50 drop may not be big enough.
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