Sony - WH-CH530 Wireless Headphone with Microphone - Black

While the XM line of headphones are top tier, they carry an exorbitant price. The CH350 is a budget friendly pair of headphones that has terrific sound that will satisfy most everyone’s needs. Not to mention the fun colors you can get. IN THE BOX Sony does a pretty good job of minimal packaging. You get the headphones and that’s it. Part of me wishes it came with a cable, but let’s be honest, at this point we should all have lots of charging cables. SETUP I use a Google Pixel phone. I’m confident the setup is similar for iPhones and other Android devices; but it was dead simple as most every Bluetooth headphones/earbuds.. I turn it on, and my phone instantly connects. Of course, it asks me to download the Sony Connect app (which I already had). But it’s not necessary. It just gives you a little more control (see below about the app). DESIGN Admittedly, the headphones feel “cheap.” They’re made of plastic and are ridiculously light. There’s cushions on the headband as well as the ear cups. They don’t go around your ear, but rest on them. There’s three tactile buttons on the right ear cup - a big plus as they’re easy to locate with your fingers. There’s obviously a USB-C charging port on the right ear cup as well. There’s convenient lettering in the inside of the ear cup so you know which way to wear them. Not truly necessary - you know the ear cup with the buttons goes on the right, but a nice touch.I love the colors, they bring a little character and charm to otherwise blah black colored headphones. Mine was the mint green which I really like. The headphones, while small, do not fold up. I didn’t find that to be too big of an issue, but I’m always worried about stuffing them in a bag -simply because they feel cheap. The earcups themselves rotate and flex to provide some type of contour fit to your head. COMFORT Oddly, I find these comfortable to wear - in other words, I don’t really feel them or have fatigue - but when I take them off, my ears feel a tad sore. See, these earcups sit on your ears and don’t cover them in their entirety. I’m used to ear buds and/or large noise cancelling headphones where the earcups wrap around my ears in their entirety. For pure comfort, I prefer over the ear and/or earbuds. SOUND QUALITY First, these do not have active noise cancellation. In most headphones with ANC you can turn it on and off. Not here. It relies on seal. So long as they’re sitting on my ears, I really can’t hear much. Granted, I’m not wearing them out in a busy/noisy city. But testing them around my house, I couldn’t hear people talking to me - I could hear a little voice, but couldn’t make out the words. In my office, it blocks most noise out, and I can barely notice my mechanical, clicky keyboard. The sound quality is superb and the reason I would recommend these. Of course this is somewhat dependent on the person and is subjective, but for the casual user, you’ll find these to be really good. It has a nice amount of bass with clean vocals. There’s a lot of details when listening to rock bands and classical music (which I listen to when working) sounds crystal clear. Sound quality on phone calls is a little worse. When making calls, everything sounds good on my end, but the other person said my sound was a little muted. BATTERY LIFE The battery life is pretty solid. It’s rated for 50 hours. I’ve been using mine primarily at the office for the past week and the battery is still at 90%. It has a quick charge feature whereby a few minutes’ charge gets you about 1.5 hours of battery which is convenient. SONY CONNECT APP The app isn’t necessary and it’s light on features. About the only thing you can do is adjust the EQ - which some people like others may not care. The only gripe I had with the app is that it kept telling me there was a firmware update but I could not figure out how to install it. I wasn’t sure if it was a bug or not. But the headset works fine, firmware update or not. CONCLUSION These headphones are a terrific budget option. It has a few limitations which are understandable given the price range; including the inability to fold, there’s no wired connection (which I would prefer to use on my PS Portal and Switch 2), can be uncomfortable to some over long periods. But the sound quality more than makes up for it.

I was not expecting to like this pair of Sony WH-CH530 headphones this much! At first I thought here we go again, lightweight little cheaply made set of bare bones headphones. Couldn’t have been more wrong. These are now my go to!!! As mentioned, they appear to be bare bones, but they pack a punch. First off let me say if you have kids, especially teenagers, I HIGHLY recommend these. I believe they come in multiple colors so score! Mine are white and have 3 buttons on the right side, forward, back, and power/Bluetooth (standard pairing/super easy). They hold a charge for days! Packaging boasts 55 hours but haven’t used them long enough yet to speak to that. They also claim that with a 3-minute charge you get 1.5 hours of playback ! So I was worried about durability, which was heightened because there’s no case or weight to them. That is exactly why I like them so much, you can throw them, yes literally throw them in any backpack, work bag, gym bag, whatever, and you’ll barely notice them in there. (perfect for teenagers) Aside from directly stepping on them or something drastic I don’t believe they’ll break easily. Sound quality is fantastic! Recommend connecting to the Sony Connect app as instructed with the product QR code. All the EQs and ways to save your settings are in there. The DSEE™ sound is very clear and rich. Favorite part is the hands free calling and have FastPair which bounces back and forth between multiple bluetooth connections seamlessly. You don’t even have to do anything. I keep them on while working for teams calls and also connected to my phone. Simply amazed the first time I was jamming to tunes from my laptop and someone called, switched right over to my phone without ANY issues. No fatigue from having them on all day since they’re so lightweight. Also, when you take them off they fit very comfortably around your neck under your chin. Some OTE headphones are not so forgiving. I highly recommend and these will be traveling with me wherever I go!

First impression out of the box is WOW! these are SO LIGHT! My scale shows them at 5.3oz, about 150g. I almost don’t know I have them on. I like that the ear cups fold flat so they don’t take up much room in a backpack. Since these are an on ear style headphone the ear cushions are especially important and these are PLUSH. They are very comfortable to wear for hours. I wear a 2XL hat and I was able to adjust these to fit with room to spare. That’s unusual for me, normally I have to run the adjustment to the max and the headband pad is tight on my head. No so with these, they sit lightly on my noggin which I appreciate. I had to search up what LE Audio is. I had heard of Bluetooth LE but LE Audio is different. According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group website, LE Audio provides “improved audio quality, reduced power consumption and improved interoperability.” Which is what allows these headphones to sound amazing and claim a battery life of 55 hours. I’ve been using them for hours every day on the initial charge from when I received them and they still show 90% charge in the Sony Sound Connect app. These headphones support 360 Reality Audio but that can only be used if you are using an app that supports 360 Reality Audio. There is a sound sample in the Sony app to allow you to listen to what it does for the music. The app allows you access to the Bluetooth connection method, it’s set to Bluetooth Classic by default but you can enable Bluetooth LE Audio for devices that support it. The app also allows you to access the EQ settings, there are seven presets and two you can customize to your taste. In the app you can also set up auto switching between the headphones and a compatible Bluetooth speaker, enable DSEE which upscales compressed audio tracks for better sound, or set a max audio level to protect your hearing from undesired loud sounds. Very nice headphones, amazing value, highly recommend!

I picked up the Sony WH-CH530, and they easily offer the best value I've seen at the $70 price point. The sound quality is incredibly impressive for a budget pair of headphones, and the overall design is perfectly lightweight and portable. My wife has entirely taken them over for her workouts, and she actually prefers their sound over her AirPods Pro. Even without active noise cancellation, they block out a great amount of gym noise purely through the passive isolation of the earcups. The Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity is a big plus, allowing seamless multipoint connection to more than one device at a time. I have had them connected to my laptop and phone so I can listen to music or a video from my laptop but also answer my work phone when I get a call. The battery life is also exceptional—after a couple of weeks of daily workout use, we still haven't needed to recharge them since taking them out of the box. Sony's companion app makes the WH-CH530’s even better. The built-in equalizer makes the headphones versatile, letting us easily tune down the bass for her audiobooks and turn it right back up for my music playlists. The physical buttons on the headset stand out enough, making it simple to raise the volume or answer and decline calls without breaking a sweat or reaching for a phone. Finally, the aesthetics are fantastic. Some of the color options are very bright, and the coral color looks great in person. My wife really likes that color, I think it’s a little bold for me but I tend to choose more muted colors. Overall, I am genuinely not sure there is a better pair of headphones available for this price. They are not Sony’s top tier headphones for sure but they offer a lot for the money and the Sony name gives me confidence over lesser known brands that may offer similar features for the money.

The Sony WH-CH530 is Sony’s latest wireless budget model as contrasted to its premium siblings namely the XM series. But don’t let the budget label fool you. This review is to show that this model can actually deliver. First being a budget model, there are things that are expected from being a budget model. As such, this model is minimalistic that it has only a brief quickstart guide which is expected. But more so, it did not include a USB-C cable. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. The norm nowadays is not to include a charger, but not to include a cable is new to me. But really that is not much of a big deal to me. Build quality as expected to be at par with the XM or XB series which I both have. It is more aligned with the wired ZX series which I used to have. Like the ZX series the build is plasticky and has a firm grip. The ear cushions tend to strain your ears after extended use unlike its premium siblings. The CH530’s major selling point is that it boasts of a 55H battery life. It’s predecessor the CH520 has a 50H battery life. My unit came with a 60% charge and I’ve been using it daily for a week now and I am still at 30% battery life. I am so far impressed. As for the sound quality, this model can compete with the premium models sans the noise cancelling feature. But do note the XB series which means extra bass, of course is different but it can compete with the XM series. It’s sound features are similar to the other models and since I have two older Sony headphones, customization such as settings for 360 audio is already setup. Hence, it’s comparable sound wise. It has the same BT connectivity and clear voice calls plus integration with Google. It’s practically the same and again without the noise cancellation feature. Overall, this is a value for money headset. And unlike the other premium models, this comes in four colors, black, cobalt, pink and white. This model is a performer!