The best feature of Sonos Ace headphones now works with Beam and Ray soundbars
Sonos’ Ace headphones have a great feature called TV Audio Swap, which lets users enjoy home theater audio by connecting to a compatible soundbar. Since launch, that compatibility has been exclusive to the Sonos Arc, but that’s changing now.
At its launch in June, the brand promised that support would eventually be expanded roll out to other soundbars sometime in “late summer” [to] early fall.” That date comes earlier than expected, as TV Audio Swap is now working with the brand’s more affordable options, including the first- and second-generation Beam soundbars and the compact Ray.
To get started, you’ll first need to download the latest software update for the Sonos app on your Android or iOS mobile device and make sure your headphones and soundbars are up to date.
Set up TV Swap Audio
According to a support pageUsers will need to go to the Settings menu and then select “Sonos Ace under the Headphones section.” This will connect the pair to the smartphone. Next, navigate to the Home Theater section and tap on “Add TV Audio Switcher.” From there, you can choose the soundbar model you own and follow the prompts to set everything up.
Then you can enjoy your favorite movie or show on your headphones via TV Audio Swap. Once you have set this up, there are two ways to activate the connection. You can either long press the Content Key on the right ear cup or go to the mobile app and tap the Swap button. This will switch the audio sources from one device to the TV.
TV Audio Swap is very useful, especially if you want to watch a movie or TV show on the big screen but don’t want to disturb others. You can have that audio streamed to your Ace headphones, without any loss of quality, and listen to it in full fidelity. The switch only takes a few seconds and if you need to, you can simply send it back to the soundbar.
Better yet, the Ace headphones support Dolby Atmos spatial audio with TV Audio Swap, and you can even turn on active noise cancellation to block out the world around you and get deeper into whatever you’re watching. These more advanced, immersive capabilities work in TV Audio Swap with all compatible soundbars – Arc, Beam (1st and 2nd gen), and Ray included.
The Promise of Sonos
Back to the patch, there’s more to this update than just expanding support for TV Audio Swap. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence published a letter on the company’s official blog last month apologizing for their new app. There was a very controversial update that removed many favorite features, and he laid out a biweekly update schedule that will run through October and consist of several improvements. And that’s exactly what we have here.
The iOS patch notes reveal several performance improvements in the latest update. Group volume controls will experience less latency, speech enhancement will become more reliable, and users will be able to clear the app’s queue, among other things. Future updates will improve the consistency of alarms and restore edit mode to playlists.
Also check out TechRadar’s list of the best soundbars for 2024.
