Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones – 30 hours battery life – Over Ear style – Optimised for Alexa and the Google Assistant – with built-in mic for phone calls – Black
Carry case with cableThe supplied carry case is durable and includes a cable for wired listening.
” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />How they compare with other Sony noise-cancelling headphones
 WH-1000XM4 |  WH-1000XM5 |  WH-XB910N |  WH-CH710N | |
| Noise Cancelling | Digital Noise Cancellation | Industry-leading NC | Digital Noise Cancellation | Digital Noise Cancellation |
| Battery life (NC ON) | 30 hours | 30 hours | 30 hours | 35 hours |
| Quick charging | Yes, 10 minutes = 5 hours | 3 mins = 3 hours (with USB PD) | 10 minutes = 4.5 hours | 10 minutes = 1 hour |
| Hi-Res Audio | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Touch control | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ |
| Speak-to-Chat | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Wearing detection | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Built-in voice assistant | Yes | Yes (Wake words available) | Yes | No |
| Hands-free calling | Yes (2 beamforming mics) | Yes (4 beamforming mics) | Yes | Yes |
| Carrying case | Yes | Yes (Collapsible) | Yes | No |
| Weight: | 254 g |
| Size: | One Size |
| Dimensions: | 25.3 x 18.5 x 7.7 cm; 254 Grams |
| Model: | WH1000XM4 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 25.3 x 18.5 x 7.7 cm; 254 Grams |
| Size: | One Size |
The main reasons I upgraded to this was because you can now have two different Bluetooth (BT) connections at once, meaning you don’t need to fiddle with settings when switching from iPhone to iPad. Noise cancellation is in my humble opinion superior to that of the Bose NC700 and the bass is punchy yet not too overpowering (some will say is too strong but I don’t). The second reason is USB-C, although the XM3 also have USB-C, paired with the dual connection, these two features made me upgrade.
Sony offers a bunch more options but the majority of them I find are simply gimmicks nevertheless you can try them and if you enjoy them have them on. I will keep them off though. Touch sensitive pad on the right ear cup serves as volume up/down, next/previous and play button, very nicely done. Another thing I like is that the headphones will stop playing when you take them off your [left] ear, you can also cover the right ear cup with your hand and the headphones will turn on the mics to let in audio from the outside, I just take them off when I need to talk to someone but again try it ad decide.
Travelling, now this is possible the main reason you want these headphones, and they are fantastic at it. In my last flight I had a crying baby a few rows down mine and having these with me made it a much more bearable experience. Little tip hear, optimise the headphones overtime you change your environment by pressing and holding the CUSTOM button, and pair it with some white noise (20%) from your iPhone (I like rain) and you’ll be in for a perfect flight.
Overall these headphones would be my choice if I had to buy a new pair in 2022/2023 since the new XM5 are about 100 more and I don’t believe they offer you that much improvement over the XM4s (value for money). Peace.
These do exactly what they say on the tin, cancel noise, with great sound quality.
Very happy with my purchase!
Can work without distraction of the conversations around me, whilst easily jumping into a conversation by holding on of the ears to quieten the music and pass through voices if need-be.
Never had an issue with battery life.
Never had an issue with connection range.
Only wish it it could pair to more than 2 devices at once (phone, work machine, home machine), but this is a limitation of Bluetooth 5.
Near perfect sound quality. Noise cancellation is great but there’s definitely room for improvement, loud environmental noises still come through, and it’s not particularly good at eliminating distinct sounds like speech.
These are the best headphones I have ever had. They are really easy to carry about with the included case, they stop most of the sound of saws and drills in my workshop (protecting my hearing better than passive ear protectors) and the sound quality is fantastic too.
Highly recommend.
Outstanding noise cancellation and sound quality, ease of use via the app and very comfortable. My only “gripe” (that could be applied to any headphones) is if you wear them at the gym the headband and the ear cups can feel very hot and sweaty. I’d happily put up with this though for the above positive points. Buy them, they’re great!!!
Love these headphones, only got a few issues. When changing the volume using the touch controls each swipe changes the volume by extremely small increments, wish it could be increased. I also wear my headphones outside alot and whenever it starts to rain I have to take them off and put them away, wish they were a bit water resistant atleast.
brilliant sound quality and dynamic range; with maybe a little bit too much bass for my liking but they are sony so to be expected, the noise cancelling on them is just insanely good with great transparency mode. great quality of life features like the ability to put your palm on the left ear cup to move into transparency mode which is so responsive and lets in sound, the speak to chat feature is great aswell, had a few issues with volume control as the gestures are intuitive when sitting in an upright position but if you’re walking or lying down it can be a pain to accurately move the controls.
With my old headphones they had to be at at least 80% to block out noise and im talking basic sound like tv, cars and peoples conversations. With these i can use them and 50% and i cant hear a thing. Plus i like how within the app you can customise how you hear everything so that is lovely. Also, i hate how in some headphones the sound leaks a lot and with these i have found that that doesn’t happen unless you use it over around 70%. And even then whats leaking if its music is usually the bass but not the lyrics so its still a step up from most. And with phone calls the voices have never leaked for me so people wont be able to be up in your business 🙂
Watched you tube videos, read multiple top headphone reviews and the XM4s are consistently in the top three. Often ahead of their successors the XM5s. I had Bose QC25 but have misplaced them. I’m almost glad I did. The sound with 360 reality audio, Hi res audio and 8D audio is on another level. Don’t think these are in anyway inferior to similarly priced premium Bose headphones, they’re not. These are top end headphones. Sony make at many price ranges and these are worth the money. They are that good. Bluetooth connects effortlessly and battery life is amazing.
I have been using the headphones for a couple of weeks now, and I can not fault them, the battery life is solid and the sound quality is very good. The noise cancelling is also excellent, on a recent flight the engine noise was barely audible, overall, I am very impressed
The volume control is a bit unresponsive but overall, good experience
All the positive reviews are right about these headphones. The sound quality is fantastic and the noise cancelling is equally great. The battery lasts as long as stated and the they are incredible comfortable when wearing for periods of time.
Although these headphones have an app for total control, I don’t find it has full control
“You get me” especially when listening to jah shaka Dub style. There ok they will do for now still think some other makes and brands sound better for less.
Took a deep breath when buying these as expensive. But so glad I did, really comfy to point where I can sleep in them and sleep next to my husband for the first time in years as I cant hear him snore or if it does breach the noise cancelling it is a distant noise. Can now go away and visit friends and family without worry or no sleep! Sounds quality for general listening is excellent and great for going back into the office and using on the laptop for Teams meetings, I find the little headsets really uncomfortable. So solve 2 problems and are fantastic for just chilling and listening to music.
Brilliant sound quality once you apply a custom EQ as the base settings are too muddy for my liking. Noise cancelling is top notch and they’re super comfortable.
I’ve had some time with this now and after having the wf1000xm3 buds, these headphones are spectacular.
Not to say that the xm3 buds were bad it’s just that everything in these xm4 cans is superior.
The audio quality is crisp and clean from an iPhone and even better on an android due to the limitations imposed by Apple on their own devices.
The multipoint audio source is a great feature for me to work from my computer and connect to both my phone and pc simultaneously.
The controls are extremely easy to use, even with gloves when I’m at the gym or on my mountain bike.
I wear glasses and the comfortability is exquisite.
Noise cancelling is amazingly effective in all situations, even with the wind on my bike!
Best option for wireless headphones if you can’t justify the exorbitant prices on the lesser AirPods Max.
Fantastic for the discount price. We had bose noice cancelling 35’s and sennheiser momentum 3. This is far better both noise cancelling comfort and overall use. Quality seems top notch.
Sound is great, possibly more bass oriented than sennheiser. If you are a true hi fi enthusiast buy beyer dynamic with cable but these are a great overall pair for the money
Audio Quality – Really good out-of-the-box audio quality, with a good amount of base, while keeping clear midtones and high frequencies. LDAC support also provides a nice boost to quality on devices that support it.
Noise Cancelling – Just amazing. Turn it on and it’ll silence a room of talking people or make a noisy bus engine almost unnoticable behind some music. Turn it off and the audio passthrough makes conversation clear even over loud music.
Fit and Weight – Much lighter than my previous headphones, and a good range of size settings, allowing for good clamping pressure even on my fairly small head. This ensures good passive noise isolation and bass response.
Controls – I didn’t expect to like the touch controls, thinking they’d be unresponsive compared to physical buttons, but they actually work surprisingly well across devices.
Cons:
Price – They’re expensive. No getting around that sadly. Though, it’s worth keeping an eye out for sales now that the new version has released.
Activity Detection – The app’s activity detection likes to switch to transparency mode when you move, which can be frustrating when listening to music around the house.
Interference – You can get Audio Interference when you’re on the edge of a WiFi network, especially when connected to a phone, although normally switching off LDAC solves this problem. Turning off WiFi temporarily can also help, if you’re playing downloaded audio tracks.
The noise cancelling is really good. The sound quality is far from perfect for me. There’s enough bass but it’s not punchy, no matter what I do with the equaliser. I had earbuds for half the price that delivered much better bass. The battery life is really good, Bluetooth is ok, touch controls work but half of the times I’m not able to do the right gesture so it’s often very annoying.
Some great noise cancelling and useful features such as being able to touch the side and cut the noise cancelling to hear stewards or airline announcements. Music sounded good as do movies. Not too heavy either the only drawback as other reviewers have said is that for ling periods the earphone make your ears hotter than some alternatives with more breathable ear pads. However compared to headsets such as the Bose or Apple for example, the value is great. I don’t feel I have compromised any quality by buying this Sony model.
Comfortable, great noise cancellation and with a little tweaking great sound. Just set sound to LDAC if you can and customise the EQ to your taste. Call quality is fine too.
Definitely not for exercising in though as even walking on a hot day leaves them soaked in sweat. But that’s not what they’re for. Best all round earphones I’ve owned and that’s more than I should!
Great build quality, microphone is good enough for my Teams audio calls. Great battery life and sits comfortably on my head for hours on end.
Sound quality is good, app and functions are easy to control. Very sturdy
Cons:
When you wear it the cups feel somewhat air pressurised over your ears. A strange feeling to get used to I guess. Ears get warm and sweat on hot days, would be no issue winter time.
Overall, would definitely recommend
I’ve had these for over a year now and I’m really impressed. They’re lightweight with excellent battery life, making them excellent headphones for those commuting and travelling. Noise cancellation is good and works well on the London Underground. I prefer Sony’s sound signature to Bose and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these.
The only negative is that my ears can get pretty sweaty wearing these in hot weather.
Class looks with the gold lettering, matt black finish. Had to fiddle around with the matching app to find a sound I liked….. Plenty of Bass. Good clear sound, hearing instruments I don’t usually hear or notice. I like them. But if I had paid 350 for these I’d be disappointed.
Pros:
Amazing sound quality
Long battery life
Easy to use controls
Great connectivity
App has lots of great extra control
Noise cancelling is good
Pass through is great
Cons:
Doesn’t work great with Apple’s Dolby Atmos
Slide a bit while in use
Not great for hot weather
Scared to use them in rain
Double tap to play/pause needs to be precise
My family can mess with me by using the touch controls!
Overall these are a great set of headphones. I wanted AirPod Pros but they kept falling out. Beats fit pros hurt. So I went over ear and I’m very happy with the results. The sound quality beats the AirPods and the Beats, but I do miss the Dolby Atmos. Regardless, listening to music on these is a hell of an experience and puts most in ears to shame. I wish they could be a bit less obvious, but it’s a trade off for the sound quality.
If music is your main focus you can’t go wrong with these. Download the app to get fine tuning on the EQ settings and you’re sure to find a setting that works for your taste. I also use them with the plug to take work calls on Teams, google and Zoom as well as editing videos.
They’re not as convenient for all day use as a pair of in ears, but they’re comfortable enough to wear for 8 hours or more for me. I’ve turned talk to ambient feature off, but it works really well to pass through ambient noise.
Highly recommend!
I previously purchased the wireless ear buds from Sony and then received a free pair of Samsung ear buds. But … if you travel on the London underground or plane, you’ll know that the degree of noise cancellation and volume from ear buds is poor. Why didn’t I buy there before? They seamlessly connect to my Samsung S22 Ultra, my LG TV and my Dell laptop and the sound is stunning! Like all headphones, you are aware of wearing these as the pressure on the side of the head is there but … not the discomfort of something in your ear. And – the noise cancellation is amazing and so it should be with headphones. The bases and volume is amazing! Having a hard wire phono lead alternative is great and, like most products, the USB-C charger is helpful. I would never use ear buds again … what was I thinking!
These are great headphones, no wonder that they are leading most consumer level charts. Altho, they are not ideal for everyone. My previous headphones were Marshall Major 3 and damn Sony headphones were heavy.
Oh, also, major issue for me was that you can’t charge them from high power brick (eg your 65W fast charger wouldn’t work). Only regular slow charger and/or old cable.
I’ve returned them in the end because of few issues: 1) too heavy; 2) too much clamping force; 3) when noise control is on – feels like you are under water or have pressure in your ears; 4) limited charging options; 5) apparently I don’t really need NC that often so usually I sat in the ambient sound mode which beats the purpose of these headphones.
This is a limitation of Bluetooth in general, but you can’t have stereo audio and the microphone working over a single connection, so if you pair these headphones with a PC, your PC may opt to connect to the ‘Hands Free’ interface which sounds like absolute rubbish. The solution is to manually pick the original headphone interface and choose a different microphone. Only improvement here would just be to make this more clear to the user.
These are the first over ear bluetooth headphones I’ve used and I love them. Firstly, they are extremely comfortable, with everything sufficiently padded that they don’t apply pressure anywhere, even with long periods of use. The noise cancelling is fantastic, making for a very calm experience anywhere. The sound quality is also excellent with when of bass when required. Finally, the battery life has been great. I use these for hours at a time and very rarely find myself needing to charge them. I have nothing to compare them too, but can thoroughly recommend them. After several months of use, they’re showing no signs of wear at all.
Positives
+ Fantastic sound quality – EQ can also be adjusted in the accompanying app.
+ Noise cancellation – the outside world genuinely disappears.
+ Comfortable – positions perfectly over the ears with great cushioning.
+ Speech override – recognises when you’ve begun talking and pauses your music and disables the noise cancellation. Wait for it to start again automatically or double tap the ear cup to resume.
Negatives
– 360 live sound feature only works on certain apps which I don’t have so can’t review that feature.
– You can’t go back to using other earphones/headphones after these.
SIDE NOTE: For whatever reason, my box didn’t include the USB charger (I’m sure this was a one-off manufacturer’s error) but I contacted Amazon and they gave me credit for a new one and that has worked perfectly.
After watching several reviews I chose XM4s’ over the newer XM5s’ – music oriented reviewers gave the XM4s’ the edge over the newer model and as listening to music was my main reason for purchase I decided to save some money.
Sound quality is truly awesome in comparison to the Sony CH510s’ I owned before. And the noise cancelling impressively silences passing traffic.
Besides music I regularly enjoy my XM4s’ while watching television.
Ear cups are comfortable and easily large enough to accommodate pensioner size ears.
Pairing with two devices is convenient but a minor inconvenience is, occasionally, some reluctance to work seamlessly with incoming telephone calls. A quick tap of iPhone screen soon sorts this.
Pros:
– ANC: The noise cancelling on these is fantastic. I’ve used a wide variety of wireless in-ears (from airpods to galaxy buds) but I noticed the anc in these the most. I wasn’t even playing any music but it took turning off the headphones to realise that my huge fan right next to me was on, and on the highest setting at that.
– Sound Quality: I like how it sounds. It feels like I don’t have to dial up the volume (I’m a big fan of louder is better) in order to get the same experience. The bass is good and you can change your eq settings with the app.
– Fit: This was important for me. I have what I feel like is a large head (many standard hats don’t fit me, and a pair of cans I DID buy in the past were immediately sent back because they hurt) and these fit me perfectly. No discomfort, comfortable around my ears, no pressure on my skull. No complications when I put my glasses on either. An overall pleasant experience.
– Controls: I’m in love with them. They seem very disingenuous, but the combination of swiping and tapping is so common sense that I have yet to mix any up or mistep even once. It’s a blessing after constantly fumbling with things like fast forwarding or rewinding on some wireless in-ears.
Cons:
– Material: The material the cups are made of seems to be some sort of faux leather. If you live in a hot or humid country, they’re going to make your ears sweat like crazy. I received mine in the middle of the British heatwave and noticed this immediately. It’s not much of a problem for me as the heat here is temporary, but people in more humid climates might want to consider buying replacement cups that are made of another material like foam.
– Software: I hate the app. I’m not sure if I’m just stupid but there are several things I couldn’t figure out while trying to use it. Feels cluttered and disorganised, plus puts a permanent notification on whenever you’re using your headphones.
– Price: These are undoubtedly expensive. To the point of being intimidating. Unless you were in the position to buy them twice, I wouldn’t bother.
ANC is excellent, although when engaged there is a very quiet sound akin to a very distant waterfall which I did not notice on my airpods pro. Now, this is no big deal as you only notice this sound when no audio is playing and if you switch to ambient mode the sound goes completely. I suppose it’s part of the ANC and why it’s so good with these headphones.
As has been stated in some of the reviews, these headphones are awful with windows. The dropouts are constant. I put this down to windows rather than Sony as I’ve experienced no other issues on any other devices.
All in all these are excellent headphones. Excellent sound(when eq’d), excellent ANC, quite compact and at 250 well worth the money, but I can only give 4 stars as Amazon sent me on obvious return pair as the app was showing a connection to someone’s iPhone. There was also no cellophane around the box which there should be with a new pair of these headphones. Come on now, Amazon.
I am happy with the NC and the sound. Not without caveats tho! For example, the NC doesn’t do very well with high-pitch noises like bird chirps or alarm systems. Sometimes it lets through the occasional small plane, but blocks helicopters – go figure!
The headphones are quite comfortable to wear for under 2h, but because of the width issue I described in the beginning, I wasn’t enjoying wearing them when laying down as they’d slip back off my head. It’s a real downer as I’d have loved to listen to them going to sleep.
The controls are convenient, but they could’ve enabled the left side too! Sometimes after listening for some time, the ear proximity sensor will stop working and although they’re on you and still playing, you can’t use the tactile controls. The fix for this is to power cycle the headphones.
My experience is mainly connecting to Apple devices and there is a bug with MacOS Monterey, when the headphones’ battery drops under 50% the audio will de-sync / fall behind by a second. I found a workaround to this, but not a permanent fix and it was very infuriating when watching a movie for example.
Overall, I quite enjoyed using these headphones, but I haven’t really had much experience with others, only comparing with Bose’s, which I didn’t like as much. I’ll try some other brands and the new xm5 model before I decide if it’s worth another investment.
I find the phone app a bit useless tbh, as after the first time you set up the settings, I never needed to open it again, but if I had Bluetooth disabled on my iPhone, I’d constantly get notifications that the app needs it enabled to function, even though I had notifications turned off for it! In the end I just deleted it.
Ohh also, word of caution – the ear pads do deflate after a year or so and they no longer make as snug of a contact as in the beginning, hence sound insulation is not as good. I believe the latter to be the biggest contributor to Noise Cancelling performance. Haven’t found if the ear pads can be replaced yet, but would be worth doing this if not too costly.
Hope this helps you with your choice and thanks for reading my novel!
The pros:
The sound is incredible, I cannot stress this enough, they have depth, clarity, space, separation. I am hearing new things in music I’ve known for years. Put simply, they are a joy to listen to.
The noise cancelling is scarily effective and makes light work of traffic, trains, annoying people.
It comes with a decent case and the way they fold makes them very portable.
They don’t look particularly expensive. Other headphones by Apple, Bose, B&O look very expensive and might attract unwanted attention. These don’t at all.
They have a lot of features, loads of eq options so you can really tailor the sound, they have GPS which can automatically switch EQ and noise cancelling when you enter a different environment, and you can save different locations and set their individual EQ and noise cancelling settings. The ambient setting is great with no change to the sound quality of the music.
You can connect to two different devices simultaneously so if you want to connect them to say, a phone and a laptop you can without having to disconnent and reconnect.
The touch controls are great, very simple and they have worked without fault.
The battery life is excellent. I’ve had well over 10hrs on a single charge.
Did I mention that they sound incredible?
The cons.
The app is not particularly intuitive. There are options buried in menus, or dropdowns that aren’t particularly clear. EQ is changed by swiping left and right, but noise cancelling and bass boost is on a slider. The EQ is in a dropdown menu. You will learn where things are but it’s not “obvious”, to me, anyway.
Connection isn’t great. They’ve dropped out a few times now and have taken a while to reconnect. They’ve needed to be repeatedly turned on and off, with bluetooth turned on and off on the device to get them to reconnect. This has happened too many times in a month for a pair of 250 headphones when my 70 in ears don’t have any issues like it. This has happened more since I connected them to two devices.
Some of the features are very glitchy. There is a feature where they pause when you take them off, only they don’t. I noticed that this function didn’t work, checked the app and the feature was turned on in the settings, I turned it on and off and the feature worked, then it didn’t again. I’ve stopped bothering with it as it can’t be relied upon and pause them before I take them off.
Settings reset for no reason. Sometimes you’ll put them on and they don’t sound as good, check the EQ and it’s reset it to flat and turned off the bass boost. It’s done this while they were playing. Some settings will change when the GPS senses that you’ve gone between two different locations but they sometimes change when you haven’t moved.
There is a tone that sounds when you move between different locations (and rolls down the volume of your music for a couple of seconds) and it is astonishingly annoying. Luckily you can turn it off (the user-guide tells you how) but the default setting is on and it is so irritating.
The charging cable is stupidly short. I know this saves Sony a few pence but these are 250+ so a decent length charging cable isn’t much to ask at that price. Even Apple include one with their products.
They don’t look expensive comapred to…. this might bother you if you want them to look expensive.
In summary, they’re worth it for the sound alone which is so much clearer and more powerful than all of the simarly priced competition and you’ll pay a lot more for headphones that sound better. I can live with the glitches. There’s nothing deal-breaking, just annoying.
I’m no audiophile: apart from anything else, I’m partially deaf in my left ear due to an episode with a car battery and a starter motor. Long story.
My dear wife bought me a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones many years ago and I was amazed at the noise cancelling feature. They served me well over the years, and when the ear cushions disintegrated I fitted new ones and carried on using them.
More recently the old Bose ‘phones started to fall apart again and I thought that I’d see if I could find a modern wireless equivalent. Obviously, I wanted Bose headphones again. Stick with what you know to be good.
When I started Googling I found that these Sony headphones were getting rave reviews, appear to be discounted in advance of the anticipated launch of the next model, and are significantly cheaper than comparable Bose ‘phones. I decided to take the plunge, and I’m really pleased that I did.
I’ve had two problems with them: my ears are very big and asymmetrical. If I am not really careful about putting them on, my left ear starts to ache after about 25 minutes. I think this is more the fault of my parents and ancestors than Sony. If I position the left cup carefully, the pain goes away.
The second issue is that I tend to sing along to my favourite tracks… and that activates the feature which pauses music while you’re in a conversation. It stopped being a problem when I learnt how to deactivate and reactivate this by touching the headphones.
The sound is simply amazing. I’m not really fond of modern music, I’m more of a Stones / Dylan / Classical / Blondie sort of chap, but I’ve been listening to some of it to see how the dynamic range behaves and I have to say that I’m coming round to Dua Lipa. She sounds *so* good on these headphones.
One really excellent feature is that the headphones will pair with my ‘phone and my laptop simultaneously. For train journeys, this could be invaluable. Especially since the noise cancelling feature will block out all of the ridiculous announcements that Avanti seem to feel obliged to make these days.
Another splendid aspect is that when one sets up the headphones, the app (everything has an app these days) runs a hearing test. I compared the results of the test to my last audiograms (remember, I’m partially deaf in one ear) and they were pretty much spot-on. As a result, I now get a very good stereo experience despite my partial deafness.
One of the great advantages of being a stick-in-the-mud conservative is that when one finally decides to buy the latsest gadget, the difference between the old and the new technology is really exciting.
If you are swithering about whether to buy these or not, my advice would be to do it. I am so pleased that I did.
You need to download the app (Android and iOS versions) to get the best out of these, it allows you to set up various functions such as speak to chat, equaliser settings, optimise noise cancelling, etc., plus the DSEE Extreme function that upscales low quality MP3 audio (it doesn’t make much difference to streaming audio services as they are reasonably high quality anyway). For control there’s two buttons (on/off and custom) plus the right ear cup back has a touch surface which allows you to pause audio, answer phone calls, turn the volume up and down and skip to previous / next track, it works well even with gloves on.
I tend not to use equaliser settings as the mastering engineer has gone to a lot of bother to make the track sound just right, however these settings (which I found online) really ramp up the clarity: 400: 1; 1K: 3; 2.5K: 7; 6.3K: 8; 16K: 5; Clear Bass: +5. You can set custom EQ and Clear Bass presets for various scenarios, however these setting seem to work for just about all music and film / video.
I like that they can be used with a wired connection (you can leave them switched off or switch them on for noise cancelling, etc.), which will be useful on aircraft where Bluetooth isn’t usually allowed (they also come with an airline two prong adapter).
It’s worth while taking a bit of time to read the online manual (forget about the massive sheet of folded paper instructions that come with them). I kept hearing a bell chime which I thought was notifications but turns out it was the adaptive sound control changing mode. It’s not obvious where to find the setting to disable the chime but after a quick search of the manual the chime has gone.
The speak to chat function is useful, with noise cancelling on you still can’t hear someone speaking to you even with the music paused. Only downside is that it kicks in if you start singing along to a song so I only have it on when out with the dog. The custom button by default changes the ambient sound control to on – off – noise cancelling, or you can set it up for Alexa or Google Assistant (Google Assistant only works on Android devices). You can access Siri from the touch surface so I just left the ambient sound control on the custom button.
Altogether delighted with these and would recommend if you’re looking for high quality wireless headphones. I can’t comment on battery life as I’ve only had them for two days, but a short press on the power button will announce the remaining battery – even after a couple of days of use she stills says fully charged!
This is where these headphones have come in. The noise cancelling kills off about 80% of the background noise and then your music covers the remaining 20%+ of noise so you hear practically nothing. It is a godsend.
As much as I would like to listen or interact with my fellow man, most are just annoying or loud or obnoxious, these headphones let you get to work in a much more pleasant mood, not biting down on your teeth for the whole journey, ready to get through the day.
I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Volume control is frustratingly slow, just a small increment with one swipe, some room for improvement here, as previous reviewers have said before. Noise cancelling is impressive, but voices creep in at lower volume levels.
The headphones pause automatically when removed which I love, but if you have sweaty ears after hours of even sedentary listening, the sensors get steamed up and the unit doesn’t switch off. Heat does build up a lot when wearing these.
Sound quality and staging is awesome, bass is great- just need to play around with the brilliantly customisable equaliser to fully experience the capabilities of these. I like loud music and these are more than enough. I’m no expert but spent hours comparing these to my wired AKG550s and its a really tough call- I think the Sonys just have the edge for sound quality. Voice assistant is cool, speak to chat is annoyingly disrupting the experience- so just switched off completely thus it’s a redundant feature- better to just cup the right speaker or take off to talk. But these are minor annoyances, I really like them and have no hesitation recommending them at this price.
This was an upgrade from an old pair of Bose QC15s which had got a lot of use and were getting a bit worn despite having gone through a couple of ear pad replacements.
The main advantages of the MX4s is the wireless bluetooth that allow me to get up from my laptop without taking them off and interrupting what I’m listening to, or turning around to grab something and snagging the wire on something or other. Unfortunately the bluetooth functionality is also one of the biggest pain points as switching devices is quite troublesome. I’ve frequently had to unpair devices and set them up again to get the headphones connected. I believe there is some extra software to help with this if you download the app, but I’m not a fan of needing an app for everything.
The second pain point is with the controls, especially the volume control. It’s slow and awkward to make anything but minor adjustments and there’s an annoying pinging noise every time you do.
The ability to pause / play and skip forward / backward is a nice addition, but this also seems a little fickle and doesn’t always seem to work for whatever reason. Whether that’s a problem with the headphones or something on the other end I can’t be sure so maybe give Sony the benefit of the doubt there.
I do like the convenience of the USB-C rechargable batteries (the cable allows adaption to USB-A) which charge pretty quick. Always keeping a spare AAA on me wasn’t a big deal but that’s definitely another improvement.
I have a bit of a thin head and find that, even with the headband as small as it will go, that the fit is still a little lose. There’s also a bit of a pressure point at the top which is uncomfortable after long hours of use. I suspect they’d be fine for most people.
Covid has meant that I can’t really compare the noise cancelling just yet as I’ve not been on any trains or planes recently, but my intuition is that they are an improvement (as you’d expect to a much older product). There’s also no complaints about the sound quality, except if you want to use the built in microphone. You would then need to switch from the “High Fidelity Playback (A2DP Sink)” to “Headset Unit (HSP/HFS).
The super clever way the headphones fold up into the case doesn’t actually seem to make much of a difference in the case size, although they are a bit more compact, and the QC15 case would also keep my mouse snuggled up and warm.
Given that the main advantages of the MX4s over the QC15s would also apply to newer Bose models it’s not clear that I made the right choice. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a high quality product, but there’s a few too many little disappointments for me to be overjoyed with the cost of upgrading.
These headphones are amazing. As someone with autism I very easily get overstimulated by sounds so I decided to treat myself to some good quality noise cancelling headphones. After reading reviews these seemed to be the most recommended and I can see why. With the iOS app they switch between different noise cancelling modes depending what you’re doing which helps if you’re in an environment you do need to hear your surroundings. I love them when I’m doing the vacuuming and can listen to an audiobook and still hear every word perfectly. The built in alexa is a great feature as a bonus.
I bought this product as in ‘Like New’ condition from Amazon Warehouse. They were much cheaper than usual, so it seemed like a no brainer considering that these headphones have received excellent reviews.
The connection to my S21 Ultra was seamless and the options available from the Sony headphone app is astounding. Listening to Apple Music for about an hour made me realise these headphones are not just amazing sound wise, but they are very comfortable as well. I could easily go to sleep with them. The noise cancellation is amazing, although not perfect. It drowns out most noise (I have two loud children and also happen to live right next to a main road) it drowned out about 90% of the noise though I could still hear cars.
I previously owned the XM3’s and whilst they were also pretty good, the way the bass was handled in those was far too muddy. I felt the bass was way too ‘clippy’ and destroyed a lot of my music library. Listening to metal was a no go as the over the top bass just drowned out the rest of the instruments. The kick drums felt like you were being hit in the head with a baseball bat.
However, fast forward to these XM4’s and I am happy to announce not only did they pair back the bass, it now sounds a lot more refined, there is better instrumental/voice separation which ends up giving you musical bliss. Listening to the same songs which the XM3 could not handle I just can’t believe the difference.
The only niggles at the moment is that these headphones came scuffed inside the cups and the left cup keeps giving me static noise. I presume the returns team have not tested these properly before selling them again so I take nothing away from the actual headphones and presume this is a fault. One more niggle is that although they fit well, I feel as though they are not clamping properly on my head and feel lose. I do think that maybe is my headshape or the fact that I do not have a big head.
I will be looking to get them brand new as I am very pleased with them.
If you, like me, prefer to be very selective as to the apps and data sharing you have on your mobile, rest assured that with a Samsung Galaxy S class device these headphones work well, with features such as volume up/down, skip tracks and even pause when you remove the headphones all working without ever installing the Sony app.
I had the headphones crash on me once, and doing a soft reset (power+customize buttons together for a few seconds while on charge) sorted that quickly.
There are different noise cancellation modes, and it seems to default to off each time I power them up. Not a problem since the voice prompts when you press the customize button make it obvious what you have done.
The noise cancellation is excellent for background noises such as road noise, engine noise, washing machines, exercise equipment, creaking or similar. It works less well against the human voice.
Since I don’t have the app installed I cannot say how well that works with these headphones.
Like with many over-ear devices, my ears do get hot after a while, and can even start to sweat. This is the biggest concern, as I don’t know how well the very comfortable padding will last, especially when exposed to sweat.
I was a bit worried about spending so much money on headphones but decided to treat myself and I am so glad I did. I wanted them to listen to music on my phone but after trying them with the TV I use it now mainly for that. With other headphones and soundbars I have always had problems syncing the sound and video but these worked perfectly straight away and the sound quality adds so much to watching movies and concerts on TV. One tip I would give is that I have noticed the price changes quite regularly on these. In one day they started at 249, went up to 299 then dropped to 234. So keep an eye on that and try to buy them on the cheap end of the scale.
Comparing to my other headphones which are the Corsair Virtuoso;
So far, the feel of my Corsairs are much more premium in terms of build quality though they fall pretty far when comparing the audio quality and atmosphere. The XM4’s wacks the virtuoso’s in all frequency ranges out of the box meaning that I don’t have to download trashy software (although you still do to pair the headphones with additional features like multiple device connectivity which I love).
Focusing on the headphones themselves; as mentioned, they don’t compete as well in terms of build quality due to the plastic-like construction though it does feel like quality. They’re also somewhat comfy to wear so not too bothered either way. The features that is present on this model compared to the XM3’s in my opinion doesn’t really justify the 50 delta however I got them on sale so it’s a neat bonus that I have access to.
I personally wouldn’t recommend these if you’re just looking into headphones for home use but outside of the house, these are perfect with the addition of ANC which from what I’ve known, they’re one of the best on the market and I can support that as I’ve used this on my travels and it blocks out a bunch of annoying noises making travel more enjoyable.
The only downfall is the somewhat unreliable volume control that you change through touching the right-sided earphone though I typically change the audio through my phone anyways.
These are very impressive. They are more expensive now than when I purchased them but I would still happily buy them now. They are really comfortable to wear for long periods of time for big heads and if you wear glasses. They are lightweight and nicely designed. Ear cups are really nice. The noise cancelling is strange but incredible it’s hard to explain. I can have it 2ways, one where its cuts off sound when it detects my wife and kids talking to me so I can hear them or full on noise cancelling. Not only does it not leak any sound but I can literally hear nothing around me either it’s weird. My wife could shout scream and tell me she’s leaving and I wouldn’t have a clue . The sound is brilliant for gaming, music and films I am impressed and the app you can download is a great addition for setting up exactly to what u like and want. There are some helpful vids on YouTube in regards to the app which I’d recommend if your finding it confusing at first. I was. But understand it all now and definitely makes the headphones better in my opinion but is not needed still great without.
Headphones are incredible, the noise cancellation does a supreme job, you can’t hear a single thing once the music comes on. It’s like a whole new world, the more you wear it, the more you hear certain notes, beats and instruments you’ve never noticed before. The treble is out of this world, its almost like you’re at the studio listening to the artist sing as you can head the smallest of details. Really recommend these headphones, only minor comment is that it can be a bit tight, wish is could be loosened a bit for when i sit them at my neck
-Excellent noise cancellation. Completely blocks out all low bass sounds like bus/train engines or traffic, and even manages to lessen the volume of mids like voices, but not completely block them.
-Ambient pass through mode when covering the right ear cup works really well. Turns on with almost no delay after covering the ear cup, and makes it easy to quickly talk to someone without having to take the headphones off.
-Great sound quality once EQed (read The Bad section for more detail).
-Great battery life. the 30h advertised seems accurate, and means that you rarely have to worry about if they have enough charge. They also give a really accurate charge percentage on android, so you know exactly how much charge you have left.
-Very good build quality. Although they are entirely plastic, they feel really sturdy. The ear pads are very nice memory foam, and the padding on the headband is good too, so they are comfortable for long listening sessions.
-Really good hard carry case included. Has space for all the accessories that come with the headphones too which is handy.
-Companion app that comes with these headphones is pretty good. It has a lot of options to customize, and even has a equalizer, which is mandatory with these headphones in my opinion.
The Bad:
-The sound of these out of the box isn’t particularly great. The are very bass heavy, and end up just sounding extremely muddy when compared to my previous bluetooth headphones (Audio Techinca M50xBT). Thankfully the app that comes with these headphones has an equalizer that works well enough to solve this problem. After equalization (The setting I used was the 1k slider at +4 and the 2.5k at +6) these sound about as good as the M50xBT. It’s just a shame that they don’t come better tuned out of the box.
-The touch sensitive pad on the side doesn’t work as well as I hoped. It can be quite hard to get it to do what you want it to do. Many times I have tried to get a song to pause or resume playing, and have been completely unable to do so. Some times it does work fine, but the times it doesn’t work well have led to a lot of frustration. The touch pad can also be prone to accidental inputs from time to time. This has mostly happened when wearing the headphones around my neck when not listening to music, and I find that they have started playing by themselves after pausing them.
-The wear detection on these doesn’t work as well as I hoped either. I have found many times that after taking them off my head and putting them around my neck that the music will resume playing after about 20 seconds. I’ve found that it works for very short periods, but if you are going to take them off for an extended period you are better off just pausing the music yourself.
-The last thing is very minor, but I found the adaptive sound control function included with the app no good. It tracks what you are doing, and adjusts the noise cancellation appropriately, so if you are waking it turns off ANC and lets sound sound through so you can hear your surroundings, but if you are standing still it turns the ANC back on. It’s cool in practice, but I’ve found that because it uses the location service on your phone the whole time you are using the headphones to determine if you are walking or not, it ends up just draining your phones battery. I’ve ended up just using the custom button on the headphones and switching between the modes myself and not using the adaptive sound control at all.
Overall I would 100% recommend these, even with the few problem I have encountered with them. With how good the ANC works on these, they are a dream for anyone who had to do a daily commute on public transport. Wearing them really feels like you are in your own bubble and completely isolated from the outside world.
The good:
-Excellent noise cancellation. Completely blocks out all low bass sounds like bus/train engines or traffic, and even manages to lessen the volume of mids like voices, but not completely block them.
-Ambient pass through mode when covering the right ear cup works really well. Turns on with almost no delay after covering the ear cup, and makes it easy to quickly talk to someone without having to take the headphones off.
-Great sound quality once EQed (read The Bad section for more detail).
-Great battery life. the 30h advertised seems accurate, and means that you rarely have to worry about if they have enough charge. They also give a really accurate charge percentage on android, so you know exactly how much charge you have left.
-Very good build quality. Although they are entirely plastic, they feel really sturdy. The ear pads are very nice memory foam, and the padding on the headband is good too, so they are comfortable for long listening sessions.
-Really good hard carry case included. Has space for all the accessories that come with the headphones too which is handy.
-Companion app that comes with these headphones is pretty good. It has a lot of options to customize, and even has a equalizer, which is mandatory with these headphones in my opinion.
The Bad:
-The sound of these out of the box isn’t particularly great. The are very bass heavy, and end up just sounding extremely muddy when compared to my previous bluetooth headphones (Audio Techinca M50xBT). Thankfully the app that comes with these headphones has an equalizer that works well enough to solve this problem. After equalization (The setting I used was the 1k slider at +4 and the 2.5k at +6) these sound about as good as the M50xBT. It’s just a shame that they don’t come better tuned out of the box.
-The touch sensitive pad on the side doesn’t work as well as I hoped. It can be quite hard to get it to do what you want it to do. Many times I have tried to get a song to pause or resume playing, and have been completely unable to do so. Some times it does work fine, but the times it doesn’t work well have led to a lot of frustration. The touch pad can also be prone to accidental inputs from time to time. This has mostly happened when wearing the headphones around my neck when not listening to music, and I find that they have started playing by themselves after pausing them.
-The wear detection on these doesn’t work as well as I hoped either. I have found many times that after taking them off my head and putting them around my neck that the music will resume playing after about 20 seconds. I’ve found that it works for very short periods, but if you are going to take them off for an extended period you are better off just pausing the music yourself.
-The last thing is very minor, but I found the adaptive sound control function included with the app no good. It tracks what you are doing, and adjusts the noise cancellation appropriately, so if you are waking it turns off ANC and lets sound sound through so you can hear your surroundings, but if you are standing still it turns the ANC back on. It’s cool in practice, but I’ve found that because it uses the location service on your phone the whole time you are using the headphones to determine if you are walking or not, it ends up just draining your phones battery. I’ve ended up just using the custom button on the headphones and switching between the modes myself and not using the adaptive sound control at all.
Overall I would 100% recommend these, even with the few problem I have encountered with them. With how good the ANC works on these, they are a dream for anyone who had to do a daily commute on public transport. Wearing them really feels like you are in your own bubble and completely isolated from the outside world.
These are just amazing. I’m not an audiophile by any stretch, but compared to other products I’ve had everything is a big step up. Noise cancelling is dramatic. It has lots of features that I probably won’t use much, but it’s nice they are there, like automatically switching to a different mode when you are speaking. They are not cheap, but compared to other high end headphones their price is reasonable. The only thing I’d say negative is that they are very plasticy and don’t look like anything specially, although actual build quality is good.
Firrst thoughts out of the box is the high quality, subtle branding, very soft, comfortable and lightweight, as well as plenty of adjustment to suit any shape or size of head. Connecting up to my iPhone and HP Laptop was really simple, and I have discovered I can stay connected to both and listen to music from the iPhone, and drop the music to take a Teams call from the laptop instantly, with no unpairing or repairing, which is really useful when working from home. The sound is absolutely superb, very immersive, and its full range sound is fantastic picking up every single instrument, in fact music now sounds terrible on everything else. 360 sound is excellent, I have hooked up to Deezer but a shame that the music list isn’t so great so will probably ditch it when the free 3 months expires. Smart controls are too many to list, and take a bit of remembering, and when you remove them they automatically pause which is great for the office. I have downloaded the Alexa app, but they are also Google and Siri compatible. Make sure you download the Sony Connect app because that enables you to make a number of adjustments to the overall sound, noise cancelling, ambient sound, as well as activate and deactivate speak to chat. The battery life is amazing, they claim 30 hours and this seems to be about right from my use to date. The carry case is a nice touch, it is designed to hold the headphones and leads very neatly. I am still learning new things as I have only been using for a week. Very pleased with these to date and highly recommended.
Not a bad pair of headphones battery seems good, the sound seems good, quality ok.
Noise-canceling is not as great as the claimed wind seems to get under the earpiece which makes it hard to hear but in a quiet location, they are good.
On a train, I could still hear people talk but not loud enough to disturb and I was listening to spoken word otherwise may have drowned them out this was with the ambient sound fully blocked.
They are convenient though, fold nicely battery lasts longer than my mobile. Easy to connect would be great if they improved the issue with wind and maybe added some weather sealing.
Worth the price, I am not sure but I do like them all the same.
I’d always be a bit dubious of aligning Sony with “high quality audio” (I know they used to be many years ago but their brand has dropped down a lot quality-wise over the years). But actually these really do sound very good indeed. Decent but not overpowered bass and a lot of subtlety to the mid/treble.
You have the option of Bluetooth and wired but either way they’re pretty effective. I’ve got a Sony Xperia work phone that establishes a higher quality bluetooth connection and it’s not far off wired. Noise cancelling is superb and they are really comfortable. I’ve got quite a big head and have found headphones from B&W and B&O press too tightly and give me a headache. These are fine. Only downside is that they look pretty dull and are quite plasticy for the price (although the case is nice). But performance-wise they rock.
Definitely happy with the sound quality, better then I could ever have expected.
As a first time experience of noise cancellation, they work wonderfully at silencing external noises, no complaints from me. Really like the feature of cuffing my hand over the right ear piece to allow noise through, incredibly ‘handy’. Perhaps a slight downside is they don’t always feel like they get loud but I guess this is due to the fact they might be expecting you to use the noise cancellation feature so you don’t actually need to have them deafening!
tl;dr initially 10/10 from me! Now I am hoping these last for some time at this price.
The only reason for giving 4 stars on noise cancellation is if I leave the radio in the car on, I can hear the radio. But I cannot hear any noises outside the car.
Perhaps, I need to play around with the app a bit more to sort that out. But simply turning the radio off does the trick for me.
The sound quality is very good. I have listened to both, classical music as well as usual dance music. I have taken calls while on walk. And both, incoming and outgoing sound quality is very good.
I have nothing else to compare this with apart from some cheaper earphones or headphones. I don’t own any other headphones. And I don’t think that I will settle for anything less that what these headphones offer me.
I would recommend them based on my use and experience with them.
Yes, they are a bit expensive. But if you are looking for active noise cancelling headphones with great sound quality, you will love these.
Im happy with this purchase.
Noise canceling is great.Better than I expected actually , wind noise, traffic noise, voices all gone.
Battery life is very good, easily lasts 2 days of my usage with all the features on. Although the battery is good, the battery percentage displayed in the app isn’t such accurate, it goes from 100% to 90% and not like 100% to 99%
They look absolutely stunning and impressive.
Most people can tell that they’re expensive.
The touch pad gestures work every time and they make sense as well. They’re super easy to learn and very useful.
The android app isn’t missing anything but I don’t like the fact that requires some much time spending on customisation of things that should already be done, like the the settings for listening to music, podcasts or watching movies.
Comes with a case that I don’t like. It provides protection and all that but takes time to put the headphones inside the correct way. It should be easier. And it doesn’t save any space, it still huge.
It comes with a charging cable but not a charger.
All in all I think I made the right choice. Super happy buyer. I’d appreciate if amazon didn’t drop the price 20pounds a minute later of my payment.
It was a toss up between these and the apple pro max Sony always built a good headphone but was tempted by the hype on the apple ones ,so looked at all the reviews on you tube and all the other websites they all tended to say that there wasn’t much difference between the two , apart from the price , and you can tweak the Sony’s more than apples so i went for the Sony’s glad that I did really ,great sound esp with 360 reality audio no problem connecting with my apple phone and iPad although I would like to try the apples out but all in all really pleased with the Sony’s
Pros: top noise cancelling, sturdy construction, good accessories, easy set up
Cons: app definitely could be better, headphones are not light, ear cups can be painful after a while
Overall: these products are expensive, there is no way around that. Are they good? Yes. Can you get something similar for cheaper? Yes. For me I wanted the noise cancelling for travel so newer was better. If it’s not that important there isn’t much difference between this and the M3 which are now significantly cheaper. I’d think carefully about how important the newest model is to you.
They do feel warm around one’s ears, but it’s tolerable. I have had a couple of miniscule gaps in the sound, however I suspect that’s to do with faults elsewhere. Of course, it would make a difference to study all the manual before launching into the music. Any way these have my full and unreserved recommendation.
I noticed the the xm3’s was still around 230 and when these went on sale for 280 I took the leap and hit buy-now.
(after watching youtube) I knew I probably wouldn’t use the few extra features that these have over the xm3’s like the duel connect bluetooth (as it reverts to a lower codec) but figured it was only 50 more so I bought them anyway.
After charging them up downloading the phone app and powering them on I was immediately impressed with the active noise cancellation, I have experience with ANC and I’m fully aware they tend to block out lower/bass(y) sounds however these were also managing to block out some (not all) of the vocals on the film I had playing on the TV through a soundbar, Much better then the other headphones I have owned previously.
* A bit of background about me, I’ve always struggled blocking out background noise and it is amplified when I get stressed (harder to deal with) Social anxiety, At 30 years old I was diagnosed as being on the spectrum (high functioning autism), I was introduced to active noise cancelling soon after and 11 years later I have owned so many headsets its hard to count on both hands. ANC helps me function ‘normally’ in environments that people take for granted, supermarkets, park(s) etc. I have never been good around people or unpredictable sounds ANC literally improved my life in so many ways (probably sounds silly to you I know).
Anyway I digress (sorry). They are very comfortable I consider myself to have a large adult head and these don’t clamp down to hard, The material around the cups are super soft (just wish they were user changeable when they inevitably degrade/split). I do find my ears get a little warm after a while but that’s the case with most of my cans,
They sound very good, I used the EQ setting in the APP and set it to a default called ‘bright’ and that improved them a even more (that’s going to be subjective though everyone has different tastes).
The APP also has a optimize ANC mode apparently it calculates air pressure, hair style if your wearing glasses and a few other things I can’t remember of the top of my head, Its plays some test tones in your ears, sprinkles a little magic dust and tweaks the cans, It recommends you do this if you change your hairstyle or playing environment. I thought it to be a bit gimmicky however we have just come out of months of lockdown and I went to get my haircut before walking around (a) park, I had a few minutes walk before I remembered the feature (with just ANC on). Not sure if it was a placebo effect but I felt it did a little more (marginal) sound cancelling after the optimize.
Battery life is fantastic. I’ve not tested it from full to dead but I did have a really active day out (well over 12 hours) and still had 70% battery remaining, I’ve not charged them since buying them last month (although I have been mainly using my WF-1000xm3 lately).
In all fairness I prefer to be out with earbuds over cans if I have a choice, The noise cancelling isn’t as good with the (WF)xm3’s but that’s the nature of the beast, “cans” are always going to do a better job than earbuds in regards to ANC.
The houses around me love to party in the garden, loud music, karaoke etc and that’s where the xm4’s shine, It blocks out all that and allows me to blank all that out and get lost in a bubble of quietness / uninterrupted tunes / movies on my tablet whatever I feel like doing..
The touch controls work as intended I find placing my thumb on the side of the can before I swipe helps limit accidental swipes (skipping instead of turning up etc).
I took a call indoors and was told it was clear, no issues there. I’m yet to try it outside/in public so I cannot comment regarding that.
The case is a hard-shell it’s pretty compact and fits nicely in my rucksack (in the pouch next to my tablet pouch), It has a net pocket for wires on the reverse side it doesn’t really stretch enough in my opinion to be useful and the charge cable has a compartment inside the case anyway.
All in all it feels like a quality/premium product and fulfills my needs in every way.
July 2021 edit:
These also pair up fine to my Philips Ambilight Smart TV (50pus9005/12), with no issues, I’ve not used them to listen to live TV as I rarely watch it, I have however watched a lot of Netflix, Plex, Amazon prime etc with no sync issues.
I hope this review helps you in some way. Stay safe!
Read all the reviews for the similar (and noticeably cheaper) 1000XM3 which still get great reviews, but although I’m not an audiophile I was sold on the extra features including the dual Bluetooth connection, automatic pausing, etc. I couldn’t say if the sound quality is any better but wish I’d bought sooner.
Took a little getting used to the over ear style, which I’d avoided before as I wear glasses, but despite my worries that they wouldn’t be comfortable the pads are really soft and after a short while not noticeable.
The only minor issues causing a little annoyance until I get used to them are, switching between the two Bluetooth connected devices which I’ve still not quite perfected, sometimes having to actually disconnect one via the app to get the right one connected (as it automatically connects with previously paired devices as soon as they are put on) and the volume control which does work but seems (for me) to require getting the touch and movements just right sometimes so not always quick and easy as expected.
Would still recommend as the sound quality and noise cancelling are the best I’ve experienced before.
Bose 700
1. Excellent sound quality? – 5 Sound quality is a bit lifeless, a bit flat and not exciting enough.
2. Volume with headroom? – 3 these are absolutely useless if you want headroom too quiet.
3. Enough bass? – 3 struggle to get any bass out of these last place.
4. Active noise cancelling? 8 very good and in second place, quality active noise canceling
5. Good controls? 10 best of the bunch touch controls are easy to use and find, very responsive
6. build? 10 best of the bunch, rock solid quality feel. very confortable, best case of the bunch
7. Bluetooth? 4 Multipoint yes but disconnects randomly, call quality very good
8. App? 3 not good at all at this price
9. Price? 3 worst of the bunch at this price i would expect a lot more for the money.
wh-1000xm4
1. Excellent sound quality? 9 good lively sound rounded and just right.
2. Volume with headroom? 7 decent volume could be a bit more headroom tho.
3. Enough bass? 8 yep base is right there if you need more the app is excellent
4. Active noise cancelling? 9 the daddy is still on top, these will take some beating excellent
5. Good controls? 9 excellent responsive touch controls up there with the bose
6. Build? 7 not up to bose levels but good none the less very confortable. good case.
7. Bluetooth? 9 multipoint yes and a solid connection with fast switching, call quality good
8. App? 10 best of the bunch, superb app with lots of adjustments
9. Price? 7 expensive for what you get but an excellent all round headphone
Soundcore by Anker Life Q30
1. Excellent sound quality? 8 Good lively punchy sound best for music if you like to rock.
2. Volume with headroom? 10 Just WOW! sony and bose need to up their game, these are LOUD! great for movies and music, plenty of headroom so it gives you the choice to have whatever volume you like.
3. Enough bass? 10 Again WOW bass out of these is epic or you can adjust it up or down, gives you the choice to choose love that, well done Anker.
4. Active noise cancelling? 7 very good for the money but 3rd place
5. Good controls? 5 good controls but not touch, except for passthrough
6. Build? 6 decent solid build with a good case
7. Bluetooth? 7 multipoint yes, good soilid connection, muffled call quality tho.
8. App? 8 great app with plenty of adjustments
9. Price? 10 for what your getting these are a steal
Summary The Wh-1000xm4 are awesome i use them for movies and quiet easy listening music, active noise cancelling is perfect when im on the plane, and the call quality great, but when i want to rock out and have some fun? well my go to headphones are the Anker soundcore life q30s is where the 80s rock is at, the Bose i use to pack up and send back, sounds brutal but at this price not good enough Bose! only gripe is that i carry 2 sets of headphones because i need decent call quality of the sonys and the rocking volume of the Q30s.
However, I had to return the first set of MX4 headphones that Amazon supplied (not a marketplace supplier) because the box wasn’t sealed and someone had replaced the correct headphones with an older pair of MX3 headphones in the new packaging. As usual, Amazon customer service is great and they collected and refunded them.
I already had the Bose QC earbuds for walking and they are just excellent.
One reviewer wrote “for the best sound and noise cancelling go for Sony, for other functionality and phone calls go for Bose”.
I want the best music sound I can get and am not bothered about the gadgety stuff e.g. changing the noise cancelling when you walk around or speak to chat etc. I just turn it all off. I do need to speak on the phone as well.
I read the reviews about the Sony microphone but didn’t really believe that Sony would release a product where part of it doesn’t actually work!
So I bought the Sonys.
I was really pleased to start with.
Superb sound and excellent noise cancelling. People were calling me in the room or knocking at the front door and I couldn’t hear them.
The sound is extremely good with noticeable bass that was pleasing at first but when I later did back to back tests with the Bose NC700 the Sony bass seems to add noise in places where the Bose gives superb clarity.
The Sony app has an Equaliser to play with and includes some preset options. I think I found a better setting (+0, +7, +10, +7, +0) with no extra Clear Bass.
After a couple of weeks people started complaining that my voice was cutting out during phone calls. This became worse and worse until people were saying they couldn’t hear me at all and I had to give up using the headphones for phone calls.
I couldn’t help wondering if the Bose would have sounded even better so when the Sony microphone started playing up I ordered the Bose as well.
The Bose’s music reproduction is stunning and sometimes, in certain parts of certain songs, makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up. That guitar cord or that piano note. Bass, voice, treble and drums crystal clear all the time. The clarity makes you believe you are in the recording studio with the band / singer or back at Wembley Stadium.
Back to back testing of the two showed the sound is either the same or just that bit clearer and nicer through the Bose.
As I said before the Sonys have a bit more bass but in my opinion it’s at the expense of less clarity and a bit more mid range noise.
I haven’t felt the need to try the Bose equaliser..
Noise Cancelling is nearly as good as the Sonys, but lets a bit more external noise through. It blocks out most surrounding noises but it’s not quite as complete as the Sony NC.
Microphone – excellent phone call quality, never any issues.
Bluetooth – well it’s bluetooth isn’t it. It gets a bit more confused than the Sonys when I’m swapping devices but for the benefit of the best music quality and a microphone that actually works I’m very very happy and working my way through my old music collection enjoying it all over again but hearing things I’ve never noticed in the last 40 years.
I contacted Amazon who wouldn’t let me return the Sonys without going through Technical support and advised resetting them by holding down the power button for 7 seconds etc. It didn’t help.
When I called back they put me through to Sony customer support who wanted me to send them to their repair centre. I didn’t want to get involved in that so Amazon then let me return them for a refund.
These were a pressie for myself which I bought in December. I use my headphones mainly on long boring flights and holidays. I’ve found them to be excellent quality with plenty of base and control via the equaliser. They seem a lot louder than my previous Bose headphones. If I have one complaint about them it would be although they are comfortable to wear you soon get very warm around the ear cushions. How this will be when in the heat of Egypt etc I dread to think.
I can see me taking my Bose headphones along with me when in hotter climates, just incase as I suspect they get too sweaty to swear, which would be a shame. All in all though I am happy with the product.
You can link them to your PC and phone, and they work great. Noise cancellation does a really good job, but the effect is strong and if you’re in a subway, you might feel a change in air pressure when noise cancellation in turned ON. I have sensitive ears, so it might be just me. It’s like you’re near a loud speaker and your eardrum twitches from the loud sound, but ni this case you don’t hear the sound.
Battery life is ridiculously long. I don’t even remember when did I charge them last time, 1, 2, 3 weeks ago?
You can use gestures on the side of the headset to turn volume up and down, play pause, skip etc. but it’s not great. If you swipe too fast, you gestures won’t be recognized or misinterpreted. It’s cool that they have the gesture feature but I wish it was just a bit better.
I’ve had the Bose QC35 II and Sony XM3’s back and was convinced that I would never be able to find a headphone that I was comfortable with.
Bose QC35 II – Extremely comfortable, large earpads and light. I wasn’t too impressed with the lack of bass and lack of equalisation to manipulate the bass. I’m not saying these are poor sounding headphones, they are not they are fantastic but I like punchy bass or the option to adjust the bass through the app so these were a no for me.
Sony XM3 – Not comfortable. I have slightly larger ears than most and found the MX3’s to touch my ears too much which means if I was eating or moved my jaw (talking) I would hear a rustle inside which was driving me absolutely mad, it sounds silly but trust me it was very off putting! This was due to the size and depth of the ear cups. The sound quality in my opinion was absolutely incredible. The bass, mids and treble were off the scale, particularly the bass, very punch and hard hitting with an option of playing around with custom settings on the Sony Headphone Connect app to adjust to your liking BUT due to the comfort issue they were also a no!
Sony XM4 – Perfect!, absolutely perfect. 10% increase in earcup size / depth on the MX4’s means that my ears did not touch or rustle inside. Sound in my opinion was just as good, if not slightly better than the MX3’s. I’ve read some reviews to say that the bass is not as punchy as they were on the MX3’s. Rubbish! Put the Eq settings to ‘Excited’ and you have excellent punchy bass that EDM and techno / ravers will love or if you crave more then go onto the excellent Sony app to adjust to three custom eq settings.
Would I buy if already had the XM3’s? If they are really comfy on you and you are not to ‘gimmicky’ about the upgrades such as ‘speak to talk’ ect then probably not but I can tell you one thing, after two years of looking for my perfect NC headphones…..I finally found them and they are staying put for a long time!!
Well done Sony!
The Bose sound quality is fantastic and the features they boast are also quality. The app worked great, the music sounded great and I felt like they could be much more expensive.
The reason I am giving the Bose 700s a good review on the purchase of the XM4s is that I ordered both and spent a day trialing them both. The XM4’s, although more expensive, are worth every penny.
I had the predecessor to these when they originally came out in this shape maybe 6 years ago, they were great then and they are great now. The features on these are far superior to the Bose, as is the sound.
You can take these off your ears and put them around your neck and they stop playing music, they then resume when you put them back on. They stop music play when you talk and the app and noise cancelation are like nothing I’ve ever known.
For me though, the best thing about music is being able to blast out whatever you love at full volume when you need that release from reality, although the Bose 700s are a fantastic sound, they sound like good headphones. I am the proud owner of a full Sonos surround sound system, I haver two stereo 5s, the latest sound bar and sub and they are the most amazing thing I ever had. I recently moved house and can’t crank it up (even past a quarter). These Sony XM4s are the only other sound quality that gives me the shivers.
So if the features and design don’t sway it for you, just know, these are the only headphones on the market that even make a dent in a studio grade surround sound. If you’re missing cream fields this year (as I am), then these are for you.
For a cheaper alternative and quality feel, the Bose would probably be for you, it really depends on whether you want style or to have your socks knocked off.
My first impression was that they were ok, light comfortable and had a nice case to keep them in.
The sound quality was pretty good until I downloaded the Sony app and changed the EQ to one of the presets. This is when the quality of sound became phenomenal.
The base is rich and powerful, the mids are dynamic and the high end is clear without a trace of tinniness.
The touch controls are smooth and work well.
The noise cancellation is excellent. Easily as good as if not better than Bose.
As with all noise canceling headphones it will not give you total silence everywhere you go. That said the M4s do an amazing job of cutting out some of the most annoying sounds that you would otherwise have to drown out by pushing the volume up such as wind and engine noise.
Battery length is good as well though I would have liked the on/off feature to have been incorporated in to the swivel of the ear-cup rather than a button to press.
I wouldn’t recommend these for exorcise as the are not sweat or water resistant. You’d be better off with the AirPods Pro or similar.
I am not an audio expert, however headphones have been part of my daily life for 30 years. I have owned multiple ANC headphones and I would say for noise cancelling and sound quality these are the best I’ve ever had.
If your going to invest in a top end set of over-ear headphones these are the ones.
I Recommend watching some YouTube video guides on how the headphones function and how to best navigate the app.
Pros: Sound quality is out of this world thanks to analog drivers especially when listening to WAV files or even plugged into a DAW.
Tight bass, pronounced mids and crisp highs,
While connected to the app you can also change the EQ profile as you please if you are unhappy with too much low end etc.
Even for Sony’s the low end is very controlled and everything punches through, I have even used these headphones to mix.
Not the loudest headphones but still pretty loud, with NC on you don’t need them loud anyway, unless you want tinitus..
Amazing battery life that lasts for days of use.
Comfortable, can wear for hours even with NC on the “pressure” effect isn’t noticeable.
Cons:
Not water resistant at all, if you get it wet the NC will be ruined.
Cold weather is not reccomended either, and avoid any wet weather at all costs as moisture can build up in the NC mics and cause even more of a hissing sound.
Noise cancelling is great at blocking lower frequencies but not so much high pitched ones like keys dropping on a table, can slightly hear talking etc. The slight “hissing” sound while NC is activated may be irritating for some who notice such things although this is not due to the product design, this is a fault with noise cancelling technology in general (moisture buildup in microphones).
Overall the headphones are definatly worth the money and compared to the XM3s the bass is way more tight and less mushy.
Sound 9/10
Noise cancelling 7/10
Battery life 10/10
*Get a warranty with these! It’s worth it, hopefully you are smart enough not to get them wet but if you do it’s an expensive repair.
So good that during the Christmas period at work, it was quiet so I turned my seat and put my feet up and listened to music and enjoying my time until a friendly fireman patted my shoulder and told me my building had a major water leak upstairs and the roof had started collapsing with a torrent of water running in… I was the only one in the building downstairs and a neighbour reported it. 30 minutes of flooding raging into the building and there I am listening to music reading BBC news.
I didn’t hear anything at all.
Sound quality is great.
Price is high but worth it.
Sound cancelling apparently works really well.
I loved the XM3s although they were a little finicky on no the controls, swiping up and down for volume and left to right to change tracks, that said you do kind of get used to it eventually!
Sometimes I could be listening to music late at night and would swipe the right ear cup to change tracks and next minute I’m ringing someone by mistake, not good at 1am and I’m sorry about that, you know who you are!
So if you are listing to music via Bluetooth on your phone you needed to be very careful of which way to swipe.
Thankfully the XM4s seem to have overcome that problem so am thinking Sony were aware of it happening to others.
The sound quality is truly great with plenty of punch and without losing any quality to detail.
I’m not so sure if they are any better than the XM3s tho as those were damn good and would take some beating, I would say that if they aren’t better then they are certainly as good.
The noise cancelling mode is really really good on both pairs, I feel the XM4s have the edge but I’m no expert as I wouldn’t really ever use it but when it’s turned on I appreciate how good it is and how quiet everything around me is.
The build quality is great and you know when you are holding them that they are a quality made product.
The comfort was noticeably better than the XM3s in my option, the ear cups felt slightly firmer but more comfortable.
The charging lead on both models is annoying short and can be difficult to make it serve its purpose without balancing the headphones on something near the plug unless they dangle which I can’t see being good for them and at that price I want them to last!
Should you buy?
Well they ain’t the cheapest but they are probably the best at that price and both models have won back to back awards.
Since the release of the XM4 the older model has gotten a lot cheaper so you could always consider buying those for awhile as there isn’t a major difference between the two other than the hefty price.
I only upgraded as my XM3 developed a fault in the left ear so returned them and bought these.
Overall great Cans and if you think you will use them a lot them yes perhaps worth the money but maybe wait til they are on offer!
Until then the XM3s are the true bargain and well worth your consideration…
But if you don’t need this feature, then these headphones are a great buy.
Bluetooth codecs have come a long way it seems. I’m very impressed with the wireless quality. (I’m using the Sony zx507 to output with LDAC). Can compare to wired more later but don’t think anything significant is missing.
Never had noise cancelling before. Not sure if I even need the feature. Is a bit eerie. Seems to work well though.
Listening to ultra HD and 3d via Amazon sounds pretty robust to me. Quality and sound stage is good. Not as 3d as I expected but perhaps that is an integration issue (the app lists Tidal and others but not Amazon). Still sounds great though.
Update- found some spatial audio on YouTube Music which sounded amazing. Hope to find more 3d stuff like that.
Comfort is as good as my old Bose. My ear is inside the cup. No crazy clamping (I wear glasses) and soft enough on my (bald) head.
I’m happy with them.
Setting up the headphones via the app was seamless, not to mention the numerous features that the app offers that leave you spoilt for choice regarding personalising settings and sound. The app features an equaliser to adapt the sound to the specific type of music you’re listening to, and this works brilliantly, with presets like “bright”, “mellow” and “bass booster”. You also have the opportunity to create your own custom equaliser settings too. Other flagship features of the app also include adaptive sound control, DSEE Extreme and the opportunity to change the function of the custom button to suit your needs, i.e. personal assistant or turning off ambient sound control (noise cancelling.) Something that I found very interesting was the “Speak-to-Chat” function which momentarily lets the outside world’s sounds in upon detecting your voice. However, this I decided to disable – with singing along with the music being a guilty pleasure of mine.
Using the headphones themselves is fantastic, and this brings me on to the controls that they offer. Examples are swiping up on the right ear cup to increase the volume or holding your hand on the right ear cup to momentarily let in ambient sound. I expected a few hiccups with the controls, and thought they’d be very temperamental. However I was wrong, they are very efficient and are a pleasure to use. This was a huge relief and a surprise, to be brutally honest, for me personally.
The noise cancelling is second to none. No other words. It is exactly as described. Traffic noise becomes non existent and I feel totally immersed in my music. This is the reason why I decided to purchase these headphones. They offer total immersion into your music, using this noise cancellation, that other headphones don’t. The immersive experience is why I always go for these types of headphones and not others out of personal preference.
The sound quality is nothing but a sheer compliment to the noise cancellation, it’s phenomenal. I can hear all the details in the music I listen to, and with my eclectic taste in music, they thrive with all genres, I find.
The 30-hour battery life, I find, is not the case for these headphones and an overestimation. Why this is the case I’m not sure – some day it’s having DSEE enabled, others say it’s the noise cancellation, and then others say it is the speak-to-chat function. With noise cancellation and DSEE enabled, I only managed to get about 15 hours of playback from the headphones – 20 at MOST. This is slightly disappointing, of course, as I’m sure these 2 very strong features are the reasons people buy these headphones instead of other products. One would assume you can use these features without compromising the battery life to an extent that is – in my opinion – quite significant. I have had to come back to this review and amend it as I feel it is grossly inaccurate to assert that these headphones can last up to 30 hours – when in my experience this is only achieved when abandoning the use of the features that make these headphones so expensive and advanced. So personally, I feel that not using the unique features of the Sony XM4s is defeating the object of the device itself. So please, don’t expect these to last 30 hours most of the time! However if you’d want to listen to these headphones with a cable in all of the time, no noise cancellation, no DSEE, no adaptive sound control, a lower-end volume and no speak-to-chat function, then go ahead – and you’ll get your 30 hours…
I personally don’t experience any discomfort after wearing these headphones for a while. I find them extremely comfortable and can wear them for very long periods of time. Regarding wearing the headphones, they can be adjusted to fit different sized heads (big or small).
I really cannot fault the headphones at all. I’m planning on using them for the next few years to come, and so far I can’t see me having any troubles along the way. I use them more in a formal sense (studying, relaxing) instead of exercise as they don’t offer any form of water resistance, and judging by my last pair of Bose QC35s that didn’t take well to humidity, these may not either. And after spending over 300 I won’t be taking the risk, either! For people who love music and enjoy it, these can become your pride and joy – they certainly have for me. Although they come at a high cost, through using the headphones for the past few days I can see the reasons why: particularly the noise cancelling, audio quality and battery life, which I believe are superior to many other headphones on the market. The only feature I would say is lacking with these headphones is microphone quality when making phone calls. They let in a lot of background noise and may not be very useful when used for softwares like Zoom. This is the only thing I can specifically point out that needs improving.
I don’t regret buying the headphones. I’m very much looking forward to using them in the years ahead and feel that they’re the best wireless headphones on the market currently. With exceptional noise cancellation, what more could you ask for? Like a lot of people, I was sceptical about paying a price such as this for merely headphones but they are a lot better than I thought they would be.
However, I also ordered a Bose NC700 as comparison and had to realize how extremely bad the microphone of this headset is. If you just walk in a room, you already have wind noise, if you are outside it is often close to impossible for people on a call to understand you, and even when using it with zoom/discord/… the quality is overall bad and uncomfortable for others to listen to you. So if you only listen to music and travel a lot, this is the absolutely best headset. If you have to do a lot of calls and video conferences… consider the Bose instead.
Coming from using QC35s for 4 years that were my favourite headphones, I really wanted to upgrade, I held off the XM3s as I was aware the mark 4s were due around the corner. In between this time, I wanted a smaller form factor and brought the Airpod Pro’s I was absolutely blown away with how much noise cancellation these offer. Primarily the most important thing to me was ANC, the Airpod pro’s were blocking out 80 % of noise reduction and my over ear 35s were 90%. For me I couldn’t justify my Bose anymore, especially for something I could slip into my jeans.
Then the Mark 4s were announced, I loved my QC35s so much I just had to try them with the reviews on YouTube claiming these were the king of noise cancelling. These were set up very straight forward. Out of the box. My Bose sounded a lot cleaner with far more clarity. Adjusting the EQ with a bright setting, I got them sounding lovely possibly a little to much base but this can be tamed down.
For me the noise cancelling is identical to the Bose, possibly a 5% improvement. I switched my Airpod Pro’s on, the same train journey, the Pros were blocking out 10% less! I couldn’t believe how good the Airpods were performing. I had no sweaty airs with the leather and they were tiny. Another issue I had the with the Mark 4s, the noice cancelling on these unlike the QC35s and the airpod Pro’s would pop when you were going over a bump, I’ve read this before but it was driving me mad after a while. This does not happen on my Airpod Pro’s.
In conclusion, the Sony’s are probally the best ANC headphones out there. But for me personally last you give me something which blocks out 10% less in tiny buds with has still very very good sound. I’m taking my Pro’s everywhere. The QC35s are now on EBay and my mark 4s are going back.
I think the winners are going to be the Bose Quetcomfort earbuds. (Yet to try)
Be aware that the USB cable that is shipped with ease is about a foot long, so he’s pretty much useless! These are USPC, so you might be as well investing in a longer cable when you buy them. They come very well packaged, die haven’t decided to keep the storage box.
These are best suited for home use, as they are quite big and quite heavy. Yes they fold up, but at the best part of 400 quid, not sure I’ll be taking on the train any time soon. If you want to be able to enjoy music without being hassled, have a good excuse to ignore your Mrs, and have a few hundred quid to buy yourself something that is a pure luxury, these are for you. I used to own a pair of Sennheiser HD 650s, which were the best pair of corded headphones I’ve ever heard. These come very very close to those.
Have you got a spare bit of cash for a pair of headphones ?……BUY THEM ! Don’t let the cost put you off.
Unbelievable. The sound quality is awesome. I was worried the full volume wouldn’t be adequate as I found with a pair of expensive Beats wireless ones I once owned. Sometimes you need a bit of power when you’re a metal guy like me….No probs, had to turn them down !
Noise cancellation is awesome, I can’t hear Coronation Street now when I’ve got them on which is worth 350 quid of anyone’s
money !
Comfortable & light, extensive use isn’t an issue, the deep bass which is missing off a lot of cans is there in abundance, and anyway you can alter to suit your taste
Battery life speaks for itself is a no brainier. 30 hrs is ridiculous but a fact
Pro’s…..The whole package. Get them !
Con’s… None
Sound quality is superb and fully adjustable to your taste. Nothing more to add here.
Wearing comfort: they are large headphones, if you have a small head they might feel a bit flimsy and bulky. When I walk they seem to move a little. Bose have a tighter fit.
Noise suppression: have used for about a month now, including at home, on the train, plane and in the street. WH-1000XM4 perform great everywhere apart from the street, which is partially to do with the wind, so not the best device for walking.
Controls: touch controls are super useful and work a treat. Never need to take out my phone any more. Auto pause/resume when you take them off is also wonderful.
Ambient sound mode – works great, but I find people are reluctant to speak to me with headphones on, probably assuming I can’t hear a thing lol
Battery life – great!
iPhone app – quite good, no bugs, fairly simple to use and packed with some very nice perks, like the EQ. You can also change the voice feedback language in your headphones from the app, calibrate the noise cancelling and more.
Voice pickup quality during the calls is… poor, just good enough to give it a “pass”. Compared to Airpods Pro the voice sounds weaker and unnaturally over-processed.
The ANC works if you use the aux cable as well.
I use these in datacentres and server rooms and they’re epic. Very comfortable too and reasonably light weight for what they are.
For those of you wondering if they work in Linux, yes they do and with full LDAC support you just need to adjust your Pulseaudio / Bluetooth configs to enable LDAC.
This alone makes the headphones epic as they are the only headphones that can do high res audio on a desktop OS (though only Linux).
You can use AAC on Mac (if you’re that way inclined) and on Windows you’re stuck with plain old SBC.
The sound quality is exceptional but I wouldn’t say it’s leaps and bounds ahead of cheaper headphones (though I’m no audiophile) but it is damn good…especially for gaming. The sound is very distinct and very crisp. I usually dig the Sennheiser sound profile with its warm setup and dodge Sony with its bass heavy approach but in the case of these headphones the bass is very restrained and doesn’t drown out the mids which is a pleasant surprise for me and the high end is solid…nothing about the sound profile is muddy.
Bottom line, great sound profile, excellent ANC, average battery life, superb comfort.
Same sound quality. Only slightly better ANC, bass and battery life.
Overall, the best ANC headphones on the market, and the best headphones in general.
If you are upgrading from other brands, you won’t be disappointed.
The best 350 you can spend right now.
Personal favourite features:
– The ANC (obviously)
– Comfort; more comfortable than XM3
– Pause when taken off
– Controls that the app gives you
– Battery life
– The case
– Look & feel
– It’s also a great conversation starter – I’ve had strangers come up to me saying how good the headphones are 😉
Some nitpickings:
– Can feel too big to carry around the neck
Sound Quality: I was expecting to be blown away by the quality, but initially this didn’t happen. I found the sound relatively flat and uninteresting, but somehow over the course of the past week, I’ve come to absolutely love the sound from these headphones. With some EQ changes, I can feel the bass in my head and distinguish between different types in various songs, rather than every note below a certain threshold merging into one generic ‘bass sound’ like with the AirPods. They’ve got a rather generous sound stage, and I’ve enjoyed relistening to my favourite songs on these headphones just to hear the subtleties added which you can’t discern in cheaper headphones.
Active Noise Cancellation: By far the very best I’ve ever tried. People hailed Apple for removing the ‘pressure’ feeling in the AirPods Pro ANC, but there was still a very audible background hiss from the system and also a gigantic EQ change which boosted the mids way too high. With these Sony’s, I don’t have to decide between quality or ANC, because I can have both. They have excellent passive isolation as is, but with ANC on it’s amazing. There is no pressure, no EQ change, just near silence. We all know ANC struggles with unpredictable sounds such as talking, but the Sony’s handle this in such a way that it’s still pleasing, unlike the AirPods which turn the talking into a horrible hiss that actually accentuates the sound.
Comfort: I don’t particularly like wearing headphones (especially as a glasses wearer), but these are really quite comfortable. My ears don’t get anywhere as hot as with other headphones I’ve tried, and there’s a good balance between the clamping force on the ears, and pressure on the headband on the top of the head. My only complaint is that I think they’re marginally too big for my head. I feel like if the ear cups were about 5mm higher up, the headband would provide more support on my head, and I would feel less like the ear cup cushioning is too low on my ears. Just something to watch out for if you know you have a smaller head.
Other Features: Sony has introduced some extra features into the XM4’s over the previous version. Speak to chat works well, where you can start talking and have the headphones quieten the music and let you hear outside sounds. Doesn’t sound as good as with Transparency mode on the AirPods Pro, but still useable. I don’t like how it’s on a timer before they go back to regular listening mode though, as you either have to wait for this or toggle the play/pause for your music for it to disengage. I actually prefer cupping my hand over the right touchpad to instantly start this feature and have full control over when it starts and ends, the only problem being that you have to keep your hand there for the duration of the time you want to hear the outside world. Taking the headphones off and having it pause works perfectly with no issue, as is resuming play when you put them back on.
Battery: Used these every day for around 2-3 hours for the past week, and still not any lower than 50% charge. Absolutely amazing and shouldn’t be an issue for anyone. USB-C charging is a godsend too for futureproofing.
Overall: I love these headphones. It was a rocky start with not initially liking the sound, but I’ve really come to love them. I just wish they fit better on my head, as this would make it 100% worth the money for me. Is it worth 100 over the XM3?? I’m not sure. I haven’t tried the XM3’s out but without those extra smart features in the XM4’s, I think it would be even harder to justify the 250 price tag of the XM3’s when compared to the AirPods Pro. Being used to the convenience of quickly putting AirPods in and out has made wearing headphones a bigger deal for me to be using every day, so I will only be using the XM4’s for longer listening or relaxing, and keep using my Gen 1 AirPods for more casual everyday listening.
The Sony trumps the Bose QC35 easily in terms of sound quality: the bass is more defined, more dynamic, and sub-bass levels are much higher quality than my Bose QC35s. The treble sounds much more natural and airy, whereas the Bose QC35s sound very synthetic in this regard – this is coming from a guy who’s had the QC35 for 4+years and listened to hundreds if not thousands of hours of music on the QC35s.
If I had to rate the sound quality:
Bose QC35 (6.5/10)
Sony WH-1000XM4 (9/10)
You will not be disappointed by the sound of the Sonys, this I can guarantee.
In terms of noise cancelling, the Sony’s NC is probably even better than the Bose. It feels natural and not “aggressive” like the Bose’s noise cancelling, and mid to high frequency noises are much better attenuated. Whilst I have not been on airplane travel (for obvious reasons), currently I feel like the noise cancelling performance of the Sony’s is slightly better than the Bose.
Rating of noise cancellation:
Bose QC35 (9/10)
Sony WH-1000XM4 (9.5/10)
Features and flexibility. Sony win this easy. With the dedicated Sony headphone app (available on iOS and Android), the amount of settings and flexibility the WH-1000XM4s can offer is astounding. You can calibrate the Sonys for your head shape, equalise the sound, and many more features to adjust within the app.
Bose, on the other hand, keeps it real simple, with no real way to customise your headphones. Simplicity is good, but the way Sony allows the user to adjust the settings of their headphones without overloading you with options is far superior.
Features/app:
Bose QC35 (2/10)
Sony WH-1000XM4 (9/10)
Now clearly I haven’t included the newer Bose NC700s (because I don’t own them nor do I plan to based on user reviews), but I have spent countless hours and years enjoying music with the Bose QC35s. I can safely say that Sony has overtaken Bose in the wireless noise cancelling headphone department.
If you are looking for a new pair of noise cancelling headphones, go for the Sony WH-1000XM4s. You will be extremely impressed and will not regret your purchase.
+ Incredible sound quality
+ Best-in-class noise cancelling
+ Seamless experience
+ Customisation features
+ Long battery life
– Some Bluetooth connectivity issues but it’s just about figuring out how to make it as seamless for your set up
I just know that I’ll be wearing these for years and years to come, and should they ever get damaged, I’ll be straight back to buy another pair. Can’t wait to see how another tech company can better these. Best consumer headphones IMO, by a mile!