The Morning After: Our verdict on Sonos’ debut headphones

After years of rumors of Sonos getting into headphones, the $449 Sonos Ace are here. They’re well-designed and have impressive audio quality. Integrating the headphones with its family of speakers isn’t what many expected, but the feature works well, according to Engadget’s Billy Steele. They’re also comfortable to wear.

One thing that may mire an otherwise stellar debut is limited support — with its own speakers. Yes, the ability to transfer TV audio from Sonos speakers to the Ace only works with the Sonos Arc soundbar for now. Sonos says support for both generations of the Beam and the Ray is on the way, but there’s no definitive timeline.

If you’ve used Sonos speakers or read any reviews of them, you’re probably familiar with Trueplay, which maps the acoustics of a room with microphones to fine tune sound. There’s a version for the Ace, called True Cinema, which virtualizes surround sound for the room you’re in, to make it seem like you’re not wearing the Ace at all. But… that wasn’t ready either.

— Mat Smith

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The Family plan will be $20 monthly, up from $17.

Spotify is officially raising its Premium subscription rates in the US come July, following reports of the move in April. The platform is increasing its Individual plan from $11 to $12 monthly and its Duo plan from $15 to $17 monthly — the same jump as last year’s $1 and $2 price hikes, respectively. However, its Family plan is going up by a whopping $3, increasing from $17 to $20 monthly. The only subscribers getting a break are students — also known as the Spotify full-price subscribers of the future — who will continue to pay $6 monthly.

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At last, you’ll be able to play Half Life: Alyx on the headset.

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Already bored of the rings.

Samsung has filed a lawsuit against Oura to try to head off intellectual property disputes as the Galaxy Ring launch draws near. The suit says Oura used its patent portfolio to sue smaller wearable tech competitors in the past and has hinted it may do the same against the much larger Samsung. Samsung says the Galaxy Ring doesn’t infringe on Oura’s patents — of course.

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