I test headphones for a living — these are my No. 1 travel pick for watching movies on the go
When I go on longer trips, I want something extra to pass the time — and that means something that can give me the best movie sound possible. Whether that's on a lengthy ferry trip, a road trip that's going to last for hours and hours on end or a long-haul intercontinental flight, there's something extra that I want.
The Sonos Ace and their Dolby Atmos sound for movies on the go are my weapon of choice for getting through lengthier travel.
The Sonos Ace are a valiant first effort from Sonos, with excellent sound and good noise canceling. They're a comfortable fit as well, and feature a reasonable 30 hours of battery life. It's the Dolby Atmos for music and movies that really set them apart — there is no other pair of headphones capable of such excellent spatial audio.
When a trip lasts longer than normal, I like to have a range of content to keep me entertained. I generally bring my iPad, so that I can do some light reading, but also to watch movies on a screen that's much bigger than my phone.
But no-one else wants to hear the sounds of the post-apocolyptia in Akira or the whining of Anakin Skywalker as the plot of Star Wars Episode II unfolds, just as no-one else wants to hear it when I crank Crowbar. Neither do I want to listen to my movies over the speakers built into my iPad. Clearly, something must be done to remedy the situation.
Enter the Sonos Ace from the top rope. They still block out the noise of the Greyhound bus/Boeing 787/Honda Prelude that I might be riding in, but they make sure that my movies sound their absolute best as I enter hour 11 of a long trip.
"Oh, but the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones have that Immersive Audio feature, why not use that?" For one, it's because the feature is designed for music rather than movies.
It takes the track you're listening to and uses some clever audio algorithms to stretch out the frequencies and make your music sound 'bigger' and more spacious. I'm still not entirely convinced about its musical abilities, even then, let alone if I were to use it to watch my favorite movies.
Any surround mix, be that an older PCM mix or a new Dolby Atmos one, has specific places that sounds should be coming from. The mix of the film tells your audio system where to place those sounds, whether you're using one of the best soundbars, best home cinema receivers, or, in this case, the best headphones.
That means things need to be more exact when you're watching movies or you'll find dialogue coming from somewhere that's less than ideal, or a car chase that jumps from ear to ear.
That's why you need headphones like the Sonos Ace, or even Apple's Dolby Atmos-certified AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 or AirPods Max.
They're built from the ground up to be good for Dolby Atmos and surround mixes, giving you spatial audio from specially mixed Atmos music tracks on the likes of Apple Music, but also when you watch movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
So we've established why I want headphones like the Sonos Ace, but why the Sonos Ace in particular? There are other headphones that support the Dolby Atmos standard, like the AirPods mentioned above, so why have I opted for the Sonos Ace and their specific application?
It's all down to the standard of their Dolby Atmos playback. The AirPods line are very good at playing back spatial audio mixes, placing sounds well in the virtual space around you. You can use them with an Apple TV as well, which is always a bonus, giving you Dolby Atmos playback if you don't have a capable soundbar or if you want to make sure you don't wake anyone up if you watch movies at 3am.
They're good, but thanks to Sonos' experience with spatial audio in its smart speaker and soundbar line, the Ace are just better. The sound feels bigger and more immersive, with better placement and more natural head tracking to make it feel like you're in your own home theater — whether you're in a coach seat on a flight or the back of your mom's station wagon.
So, every time I go on a longer trip (unless I'm driving, then everyone has to listen to my 24-hour death metal playlist — not sorry, I make the rules) I grab my Sonos Ace so that I can enjoy watching movies and make the journey go just that bit quicker.
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