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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  A Music Enthusiast's Best Buds

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  These Sony WF-1000M6 (M6) earbuds are my first pair by Sony so I have no reference to older versions. I have owned many other premium buds though. To my ears, the M6 hits the difficult trifecta of audio fidelity, near- impeccable noise cancellation, and effective phone call capabilities. And that’s listening to them using an iPhone 17 Pro Max which doesn’t support the M6’s hi res codec. My guess is, if you use an Android phone that supports LDAC your ears are in for an even more satisfying treat. If you are only interested in quick take on whether the M6 deserve top consideration, my answer is a vocal “absolutely” if punchy, but clean, layered sound is your #1 priority. I’m far from being an audiophile, but I do recognize and appreciate clear, detailed, and emotional, but not exaggerated music reproduction. This is what the M6 produces whether listening at low volume in a secluded hide-a-way or cranking it up in a rush hour subway. My experience and thoughts about key areas of the M6 is below if you want more details. CHARGE CASE The charging and storage case is eye catching with its rounded sides paired with straight edges top and bottom. I find those straight edges offer a secure grip, especially when fishing out of a pocket, so they are purposeful too. I have no fear they are going to pop out of my hand. Holding the case prior to my first open felt like an overture of a great opera. It’s in-hand feel conveyed an upbeat sense of what was to come. A gentle thumb flick and the lid jumps opens to reveal the X6’s and remains up until lowered. The functionality of the case, however, is standard fare with a LED battery indicator and a USB-C charge port. It’s also Qi wireless charging compatible. But it doesn’t have any extras like speakers or NFC to help locate it when lost under a pile of papers on your desk, or anywhere else. And while the M6 buds are IPX4 sweat and splash resistant the case is neither water nor dust resistant. In the big picture these are small nitpicks. BATTERY LIFE The M6’s are rated at 8 hours with ANC on. While I have yet to get 8 full hours on a single charge, it’s been within 45 minutes of that mark. I’ll never be in a position where I’m wearing buds for 8 hours straight or won’t have the carry case around so I’m fine with 8-ish hours. If you activate any of the M6’s other features, like voice control, battery life is well under 7 hrs. High volume level will eat into battery life too. I find 40% comfortable and efficient when using them outside my home. In addition to the case’s battery indicator, the specific % level of the case and each earbud is available in the Sound Connect app. If you have voice control enabled you can also ask for battery level. FIT The M6’s are chonky looking and that concerned me until I placed them in my small ears. This was one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” lessons for me. They snuggle in like a perfect puzzle piece and feel as invisible as buds can. Positioning them into the ear has a natural feel and I never have to look for which side is up. Once in, about half the bud’s shell is visible. It looks silly, as all wireless buds do, but no one wears buds for fashion. I use the M6’s for about 2.5 hours at time and find the tips comfortable. I’ve yet to experience fatigue, itchiness, or soreness. The hold is excellent even when I’m running hard and my ears are moist. CONTROL I’m a hard button guy but admit, the M6’s tap controls are precise and immediate. The various tap sequences are semi-customizable in the app as well which can reduce the learning curve and make controls more logical to you. But if you are 100% anti-touch, or maybe you wear gloves, voice and voice assistant control is available. Voice control is the M6’s internal system and summoned by saying “Hey, headphones…[command].” You must use specific phrases listed in the app or it won’t understand your request. Voice assistant is the ability to use your phone’s built in assistant like Siri or Hey Google. Turn it on in the app. Then it activates by saying, “assistant.” Wait for the tone then make your request. You can have either or both features available, but they do pinch battery life. In my case it was about 20%. But since I don’t like touch controls, I find it handy, especially when running. It works well in most situations but can be flaky if the ambient noise is especially loud. I find Siri’s response time is slower than when activating directly on my phone or via a pair of Airpods. Still, this integration on the M6’s makes them a serious consideration for iPhone users. For phone calls, head gesture control is also an option. The gestures are intuitive, head shake up and down answers, side-to-side sends to voice mail. SOUND CONNECT APP If you have app fatigue you’ll be happy to learn Sony Connect (iOS and Android) for the M6 is truly useful with extra features and extensive customization. There are so many options I can only offer a broad overview, but about every aspect of the M6 can be fine-tuned to taste and need. Neither an account nor sign in is required to access most features. However, the app is only accessible when the buds are out of the case and turned on, which is annoying. For frequency tweakers there’s a 10-band equalizer, though not parametric. If equalizers intimidate you a questionnaire will help you dial in your sound preference. And for those always on the move Adaptive Sound Control eliminates the need to constantly adjust settings. When enabled various audio aspects automatically change based on your location or situation. For example, it can turn on noise cancelling when out for a run and then switch to ambient mode when you are home. Some options are motion triggered while others are GPS tracked (with permission). AUDIO QUALITY To my ears the M6’s native, no adjustments, sound is even, lively, and unforced even with compressed 320mbps AAC tracks. The bass is slightly boomy but appropriately tight and energetic. Mids (vocals) are clearly prominent. It’s not technically a neutral sound, but it’s not outrageously biased either. I welcome this especially when running. It’s an effective second wind catalyst when I hit the mid-course doldrums. The high range frequencies are the most “neutral” aspect offering clean cymbal crashes and bold, not brash, trumpets. Herb Alpert would approve. The “out of the box” sound will thrill most ears, but if you want to spice it up more there is the equalizer and pre-sets. Of course, satisfying tuning relies on a solid audio foundation, and that is the M6. Certainly in-app equalizers are common, but the M6’s base capabilities are clearly top of the mountain. NOISE CANCELLATION The M6’s base audio is terrific but 2026 consumers demand even more to award Gold. Noise cancellation is no longer a novelty and its intruding artifacts are unacceptable in high-end earbuds. Many potentially great headphones have been felled by either meddlesome or wimpy noise cancellation. Apparently, Sony took note because the M6’s sound quality with noise cancellation activated is outstanding. To my ears, the musical difference between noise cancellation mode, transparency mode and all modes off is negligible. While “all off” is slightly fuller sounding, noise cancellation does not materially degrade clarity or punchiness with distracting white noise or hollowness. It’s quite impressive and I can only think of a few other buds I’ve tried that can accomplish this feat. In short, noise cancellation quiets outside sounds without muting the frequencies you want to hear. I can’t offer a scientifically derives percent on how much outside noise is removed, but my guess is about 90%, which is higher than almost all my other earbuds. For a “real world” example, when on a pedestrian path adjacent to a busy parkway on one side and an airplane landing route on the other, sounds that leak are low frequency, high decibel; jet noise directly above, ambulance sirens whizzing by and jackhammers 100ft away. Everything else that isn’t both of these qualities is audibly concealed. Even a 10-mph wind is as inaudible as it is invisible. CALL QUALITY The M6’s super effective noise cancellation contributes greatly to making phone conversations audibly comfortable even in loud places. Calls using the M6’s on the aforementioned path exhibit a combination of clarity and noise cancellation that most other buds fail to reach. The M6 is a winner in this situation and removes my stress of missing a word or phrase from the other end of the call. There also no “tunnel” sound. In my experience, the key to a great conversation in a noisy environment using the M6 is to turn off “Capture Voice…” in the “Calling” section of the settings in the app. When I had this setting on considerably more background noise leaked in compared to noise cancellation mode with music playing. I asked many of the people I was talking with using the M6 if my voice was clear and the response was always, yes. Next, I asked if they could hear any background noise, and while most could tell I wasn’t in the office or home none guessed I was next to a parkway with cars rushing by 20 ft to my right. CONCLUSION The M6’s are my new “go to” earbuds because they sound amazing no matter what I’m playing or where I’m using them. Too boot they also work well enough with Siri, which I use a lot for basic control even though she gets a bad rap. So, if you, like me, really enjoy the subtleties of a recording with clearly defined instrument and vocal separation above everything else, the M6’s should be a primary consideration. Some extras found in other earbuds are missing, but the M6's do music and noise cancellation better than almost all of them and if you need to pick up a call they won’t embarrass you.

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  TechO Posted 2 days ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Superb Noise Canceling and Sound

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  I find that getting noise canceling right in earbuds seems to be exceptionally hard. Not all earbuds that include the feature are able to execute it very well. While I have had success with some pairs that I have owned, the Sony WF1000XM6 are easily the ones to beat now. They are very comfortable to wear for long periods of time, never fall out of my ears, have great battery life, and sound excellent as well. -- Setup Getting started with the earbuds was about as easy as it can get. After charging them in the included case, I simply opened the case near my phone and was immediately prompted to pair them. It literally can't get any easier than that. While they were immediately ready for use by then, there is additional features available through the Sony app. One thing that was especially interesting during the setup, was the app testing how well the noise cancelling was working by checking the seal of the attached earpieces while I was wearing them. Helping me determine if I needed a larger attachment to make sure the noise canceling was working as well as it could be. This is the first time I have seen something like that before, and it was very useful. There are also nice little touches, like turning off noise canceling if you remove one of the earbuds. There is a lot of smart decisions made in general with these earbuds. Through the app, there is also equalizer settings and presets. There is also a cool feature, similar to what is available through their headphones, that allows you to set or detect locations. Which is helpful if you need more noise canceling or other settings while at work. -- Performance As you might expect from any of the XM series of headphones from Sony, these sound absolutely stellar. Clear audio and punchy bass. Of course, as I have mentioned, the noise cancelation is the true star here. I will not fly without noise canceling headphones anymore. They make traveling much more comfortable in general. They way these earbuds adapt to the surroundings is excellent too. No matter if I am in public places, or quieter areas, like my office. Touch controls work very well, making it easy to answer calls, or control music quickly. Speaking of calls, the call quality was excellent. I received similar feedback from the people I spoke to as well. The battery life is very good as well. They easily get well over 4 hours of battery life and can be charged quickly in the case. The case supporting wireless charging is a nice touch as well. Being able to just set it on a wireless charger is nice. -- Design I like the looks of these a lot. They're unobtrusive and look pretty sleek. They fit my ears well too. I would say both the case and earbuds are very elegant looking. One minor complaint, for me, I kind of wish the case had a bit more rounded edge. Only because it would make it a bit more comfortable in my pocket. That being said, it's easy to just drop these into my backpack. Overall, it's really tough to find any faults with these. They look and sound great. Pros: Superb noise canceling, comfortable, good battery life, great app and features Cons: I wouldn't mind the case having more rounded edges

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  dustinw Posted 1 day ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Be prepared to be startled more often, ANC rules!

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 1000 Contributor

  The Sony WF series of buds has been at the top or near the top of most music listeners lists for years. 2026 welcomes the XM6 and the buds have changed their shape a bit and added more microphones and the audio is easily as good if not better than previous years. My previous model is the XM4 and while still great, they are well worn and the XM6 is worthy upgrade for call quality and daily listening. The app is far more open to allow changes to make the buds more you and less some engineers sonic idea of perfect. Yet, even without the app, Sony has tuned the buds as close to my listening preference right out of the eco-friendly box. Pros: ANC is far superior when paired with the foam tips Call audio is more isolated for clearer conversations Easier to get buds out of the case and replace to charge Better app features to manage sound preferences Decent battery life. Minutes of charge for hour of use is great Cons: Adaptive sound control not working for me Touch controls not always easily repeatable as touch zone is lower than expected Sleeping with buds in is still not really possible Price likely keeps many from buying App: Sony has unlocked just about everything for the menu layout and audio settings in the app for these buds. Move the settings most used to the main page. A few custom 10 band EQ's to dial in the levels I like most. Best of all, custom taps for what you do most. Each setting has decent descriptions so you know what each setting does or might do. Top shelf app. Fit and touch controls: The memory foam tips might not be everyone's cup of tea. They can be removed/swapped and have several sizes included. The overall fit is very secure and unlike my XM4's do not feel like they are slipping or need adjusting while I worked outside for hours. As the XM6 does sit a bit more pronounced in ear. I would not classify these as sleep capable. A nap in a chair yes. Side sleep in a bed with normal pillows, not so much. The new jelly bean like shape sits in my ear securely, but the angle for touch seems to be lower than where I naturally want to touch. Practice might help, but for me I usually tap the top of the bud and nothing happens and have to hunt for the side tap zone. The touch zone is not as defined as the older buds. Sound: I get the most time use of my buds anytime I am doing chores around the house. With ANC at full isolation, it can be very immersive when the right songs come on. Bass thump is still not rock concert level, but at half volume with custom EQ. It is enough to get into the songs that motivate me to get going. Higher bitrate tracks are super clean and where the audio quality shines for the XM6. I still want to use spatial audio, but it is not common in my music. LDAC works perfectly for me and my top of the charts music selection. With a several days of use, never a connection loss. ANC: Clearly this has improved quite a bit and where the money spent to buy the XM6 goes. I don't know if the extra microphones or the new chip or Ai is doing the magic. It just works. Call quality is really better for the other end not knowing you are somewhere noisy or just sounding hollow. I tested with a loud TV and a call to my wife. She could not hear the TV in the background. For those who play hooky from work or school, have these on when you call from where you shouldn't be. The bigger issue might be not being too loud in public as I don't hear my voice as much. Ambient Sound/ transparency will likely help here. As for blocking noise that mess with my music. ANC on (Ambient Sound Control/ Noise Canceling) kept a noisy gas pressure washer almost completely silent while cleaning my truck and driveway for a couple hours yesterday. I look forward to blocking my zero turn mower noise this spring. Notice: On max ANC (Noise Canceling), be prepared to be startled a lot by people you thought snuck up on you. A 6am trash truck crew can hide in the silence Sony XM6 creates. Look around occasionally or allow pass through audio. Noteworthy: The Adaptive Sound Control gets setup when you first use the buds. I did day one update and while sound control was on. The several hours I was pressure washing it kept switching between full ANC and maybe the Ambient transparency mode every few minutes for some reason. Silence and music to hearing roaring engine is surreal. I turned Adaptive off and the buds locked out the world as I wanted. Maybe it works as intended or buds need update/reboot. I will leave it off for now. Lastly, the touch zone as mentioned above is not as defined as the XM4. Might be my ear angle or more practice to get it right. The XM6 is a very worthy upgrade for me over my much older XM4's. The new light gray color is easier for me, a guy to choose now. The older champagne color was what my wife liked as I went black last time. Wish Sony carried the blue over from their over ear headphones. If your budget allows, these are very good earbuds and worth a look.

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  JinOH Posted 5 days ago