Sony WH-1000XM5 The Best Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, Made Of Soft Fit Synthetic Leather, Integrated Processor V1, Wi

Okay I have to admit when I first saw these things in Best buy I thought they were the ugliest thing ever but honestly I think it was just the lighting there. They’re actually some really nice looking headphones.Sound- these are absolutely incredible I’m hearing notes and backup singers and different nuances in music I didn’t know existed and I’ve tried four or five different of the top line pairs including the JBLs, the boses, and the studio beats pro.These absolutey beat every other pair I tried and it wasn’t even close. If I had to rate them in order these will be number one, The beats pro would come in at number two, The JBLs were number three and bose would be dead last.Comfort: I can wear these all day with no problem My ears will not be hurting the headphones themselves are very plush and comfortable and I have a smaller head in comparison to a lot of the headphones I’ve tried and the adjustment sizes are really great no matter what your head size is. The only downside is of how insulated I think the inner ear cuffs are because it will make your ear sweat after a while because it keeps your ears pretty toasty.And coming up on the number one reason why I bought these, these by far have the clearest sounding calls of all the headphones I’ve tried people on the other line can hear me clearly I can hear them clearly the Bluetooth syncs pretty effortlessly.Even the custom sound profiles that you can access during the app make it even better.The battery life is pretty good I can go pretty much 3 days 4 days without charging on one use I would have to say you probably can get a solid 24-30 hours runtime out of them.Literally the only thing that could be better on these is since they are made by Sony you would think they would hook up effortlessly to the PS5 and it does not which is really annoying considering it’s the same company. You can still hook them up via audio jack into your controller and it works fine but I just think it’s ridiculous that Sony will not let it be Bluetooth compatible to another Sony product like that.Overall even though it’s pricey I think it’s worth it and you’re not going to do better than these headphones.Yes I actually own this product and I paid full price for them I am not a reviewer In fact I hardly ever come on here to review unless something’s really great or something’s really terrible.

ted a little better if I’m honest. I’m a hobbyist musician and sound engineer of 20 years and also mild audiophile that builds my own speakers. I like to think I know a little bit about sound and what it takes to reproduce sound, but the tricky thing with headphones is that everybody’s’ ears are different. Like, they’re physically slightly different which makes every single person hear the exact same sound slightly different, but there’s also our individual listening preferences too, so keep that in mind as you read this review. Personally, I prefer smooth, balanced, and LOW bass (down to 20Hz), but NOT boomy bass. I also like some sparkle in the highs (8k+).Initial impressions upon arrival and setup:- The packaging looks like it’s a cheap recycled cardboard of some sort. Obviously doesn’t affect the headphone’s performance.- The zipable case the headphones live in also seem kinda cheap and flimsy. Again, it doesn’t affect the headphone’s performance.- Accessories are fairly light as it only comes with a stubby little 8″ long (seriously) USB charging cable (not even a wall adapter, just USB A to USB C) and a generic 1/8″ stereo headphone cable if you want to physically plug them into a headphone jack.- The app was easy to download, install, and update. It did require making a Sony account though, so points off for that.- Pairing the headphones to my phone and also my computer was quick and seamless. I did have to restart my computer to get Windows to send audio over the bluetooth connection, but that was an issue with Windows and not the headphones.- The headphones themselves feel of good quality and are super comfy for my average sized head.- The EQ you set in the app does persist when you connect to a different sound source. For example, the EQ curve I set on my phone was not active when I then paired the headphones to my laptop and listened to the same track.- Really needs more than 6 EQ points. Sony, you can do better than just 5 predefined sliders and a bass slider (basically 6 sliders, so IDK why the bass is separate from the rest).Listening impressions:- Best sounding headset I’ve purchased to date and sound MILES better than my Sennheiser HD 596 (but to be fair, those sounded ridiculously unnatural and just all-around terrible).- Plenty of “thump” by default, but definitely dropping off significantly below 50Hz or so, which is exactly what I like to have present in my mix. You can see I’ve put a HUGE boost in the low lows on my EQ curve to make things like low synths, bass drops, and sub-harmonics sound even with the rest of the sound stage. Even still, the sub-bass that is there still sounds a bit thin and artificial like they’re using some processing trickery to make it sound like it’s playing lower than it is (there are a few ways to do this, but they’re never as authentic as just reproducing the frequency properly).- Little bit “dark” sounding, so a slight bump in the high mids as well as a 10k+ shelf bump really helped brighten up the sound stage.- Imaging is ok but definitely not spectacular. It’s only got a single 30mm driver per ear, so that one driver is covering EVERYTHING from 20Hz to 40kHz. As such, it’s expected that imaging won’t be super detailed, so no surprise there. I was really hoping to see at least 2 drivers per ear. By contrast, my CCA C12 in-ear-monitors (IEM’s) that I use when playing on stage are about $50 and have 6 drivers PER EAR each playing a different frequency range. Needless to say, the imaging, and extension on those IEM’s is a LOT better than these headphones that cost 7x the price. Due to their small form factor, IEM’s can use armature drivers where ‘can’ style headphones like this can’t use armature drivers (not loud enough), but I would still like to see 2 dynamic drivers in these just to allow one driver to focus on the highs and the other to focus on the lows rather than having the one driver trying to play the whole shebang.- Minimal, but still present, “pressure” sensation when noise cancelling is on, but it’s not intrusive like a lot of other ANC headphones I’ve tried and effectively disappears when music is playing. Having a set of ANC headphones with “pressure” that grabs my attention is an absolute deal-breaker for me regardless of price point.Overall, these are going to be my go-to headphone for the office. They sound good enough (especially with some EQ), and are comfy enough, to have some background music playing for hours at a time while also cancelling out loud office talkers.

Cancelling Headphones Yet!. No Doubt these are excellent headphones. Sony has taken an already established series and made them better. Some may not like that they don’t fold down but the case is slim and it should mean better durability in the long run so I have no issues with it at all as far as that goes. My only real complaints are that the wear sensor rarely works, really 1 out of 10 times will the headphones pause when I remove them…I don’t know if it is because of the sensor being set inside the fabric vs. outside like the M4’s, or something else. May be just my unit I suppose. I don’t absolutely need it to work especially since the touch controls work really well so I can live with that. The only other issue is for comfort. Don’t get me wrong, overall they are super light and comfortable but the light padding on the headband does cause some discomfort after awhile. A little adjustment and it is better but could be an issue for some. I also wish that Sony could do something to make the headphones power on and connect more quickly. If you have them connected to two devices it takes about 10 seconds to connect to both. However the connection is strong and I have no issues with that! And the multi point function works flawlessly!Noise Cancelling is no doubt the reason to buy these headphones and it is best in class, but as with all noise cancelling headphones there are limitations. It blocks a lot of noise, no doubt, but if the song playing is quiet or the quiet spots between tracks then noise can get through in those moments. It does not block 100% of noise, but it is probably the best I’ve ever tested.Battery life is as expected, but if you like it loud with max noise canceling as well as the DSEE Extreme and Equalizer enabled the battery life definitely takes a hit, but is still good.Sound quality is really good. It is not as good as some of my other headphones from Bang and Olufsen, Sennheiser or arguably even the AirPods Max, but is up there. For overall features and noise cancelling these cannot be beat! Another great thing is the speak to chat. It works really well but I keep it off most of the time because it’ll be triggered too easily with a cough or a hum but the great thing is you can toggle the feature on or off by pressing two fingers to the touch pad. Game changer! So if I’m entering a store, for example, I can toggle it on when I enter and then toggle it back off on the way out! That is so awesome to me! Makes the feature so much more sensible for me.One last note is on the color: I chose the “platinum silver” because I read the black was a finger-print magnet and I wanted to avoid that. This color is okay but kind of blah. But although the headphones are made of recycled materials it still has a slightly more premium build quality than some but is nowhere the build quality of some others like the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95’s. But they are unbelievably light weight so that is a good reason to go with those materials. I also love the simple packaging they come in with no plastic and no waste. It’s a nice eco-friendly way to go and I applaud them for that! Overall, these are first-rate headphones and I would highly recommend them (even over the M’4’s as I like the new design and the sound quality, to my ears at least, is improved over the old model).Update: September 27, 2022. I had to downgrade these to 4 stars because of the wear sensor. Overall they are great, but the wear sensor not working is really bugging me because I feel it should work, after all the XM4’s had a wear sensor that worked much more reliably and since this is the follow up it should work at least as well, if not better. Curious if anyone else has this issue or if it’s just my unit. Also on several occasions the touch control has become completely non responsive and I’ve had to power them off and on again to get it to work again. A little frustrating (especially when you look like an idiot banging repeatedly on the ear cup trying to get it respond).