Nothing's New Headphones Undercut Sonos on Price, Not Much Else
Half the price of Sonos's Ace Ultra, and while they're not quite half the quality, the gap is a lot closer than that price difference suggests.
Nothing has built its reputation on undercutting established players without feeling like a cut-rate alternative. Its newest noise-cancelling headphones follow the same playbook, this time aimed squarely at Sonos.
The Price Gap
Nothing's new headphones land at roughly half the price of Sonos's Ace Ultra. That's the headline, and it's an aggressive one in a category where flagship pricing has crept steadily upward across every major brand.
What You Actually Give Up
They're not half the quality, which is the more interesting story. There's a real gap between these and the Ace Ultra in sound refinement and noise cancelling strength, but it's nowhere near proportional to the price difference. For anyone who doesn't need the absolute ceiling of performance, that math is hard to argue with.
Spec callout: Roughly 50% of the Sonos Ace Ultra's price point.
By the Numbers
In Australia, Nothing has priced the Headphone (1) at A$549, available in Black or White. Sonos's Ace Ultra carries a local RRP of A$699, so on Australian pricing the gap sits closer to twenty per cent than a flat fifty. The "half the price" framing common in overseas coverage comes from list prices in other markets, but even at the narrower Australian gap, Nothing is still meaningfully undercutting a headphone widely regarded as one of the best-specced options on the market.
Sound and Battery
Nothing worked with British hi-fi brand KEF on the Headphone (1)'s tuning, a co-engineering credit the company has leaned on heavily in its marketing. Battery life is a real strength: Nothing quotes up to 80 hours of playback, well ahead of most rivals in this category, and the headphones run real-time adaptive ANC that adjusts to ambient noise rather than applying one fixed profile.
The Ace Ultra counters with a broader features list. Its 40mm driver is tuned for balanced audio with boosted bass, and it supports native Dolby Atmos and spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. Wear detection pauses playback automatically when the headphones come off, and ten built-in microphones drive an adaptive ANC system Sonos says delivers up to twice the noise cancellation of the standard Ace. Battery life tops out at 35 hours with ANC engaged, though rapid charging adds roughly three hours of listening from a three-minute top-up. Sonos also fits a replaceable battery and swappable ear cushions, and the Ace Ultra connects over both Bluetooth 6.0 and Wi-Fi, feeding into the wider Sonos speaker ecosystem.
Availability
Both headphones are available to order in Australia now. Sonos opened preorders for the Ace Ultra with initial units shipping from late September 2026, in Black, Soft White, Agave and Sand finishes.
Verdict
This is the value pick of the current headphone cycle, not because it beats the flagships outright, but because it gets close enough that the price difference stops making sense for most listeners.
