Customer Ratings & Reviews

These were not what I needed, so I returned them for a full refund. However, they did work, but not the way I wanted to use them.

Not loud enough. The bass is trash. I was very disappointed

The product has already broken after only a few uses through normal operation. Not happy with this as it rendered it unusable. Perhaps it was assembled on Monday or a Friday. Will Best Buy stand by the products they sell? That remains to be seen.

I wasnt impressed by the sound i expected deeper bass but these are mid driven.

The headphones are ok for music but not good for phone calls and conversations. To much background noise doesn’t get filtered out. Controls are on the left ear which doesn’t work well for us. Lastly the Best Buy 15 day return window is too short as we are 4 days past it and now stuck with these headphones.

I wish I could say I love these but for the price. There are so many other selections to choose from without breaking the bank. I noticed I only used these twice since I purchased them. I'm thinking about returning them.

Packaging / Appearance Would you have gotten the dream job if you wore that t-shirt instead of the shirt and tie to the job interview? Does a nice red wine taste the same from a paper cup as a stemmed glass? Sometimes proper packaging influences our perception. These headphones were delivered in a box within a box within a box. All three boxes were black except for graphics and labeling and neatly latched and nested within each other with the innermost box containing a zippered, fabric covered hard shell case surrounding the headphones. It sent a nice message of quality even before removing the product. The headphones fold neatly and nest inside the case. The device is an attractive darker shade of gray. Being an over the ear design, the phones themselves are bulkier than an “on-ear” headphone, and of course “ear buds”, but I believe these are much more comfortable to wear over longer periods of time. While I really appreciate the compactness of quality ear buds, I worry they may fall out (There goes a couple of hundred dollars!) or that they may eventually cause some hearing loss because they reside in the ear channel much closer to the ear drum. I like the monochromatic look and overall design. Comfort While testing the headphones for the first time, I wore them for hours on end. I knew they were there on my head, but the lightness of the construction, padding on the ear pieces, and lack of pressure on my head from the headband, made for a pleasurable experience. Product Manual While I rarely open the product manual (yes – sometimes things actually come with printed documentation) that comes with an automobile or power equipment, I found the online Sony manual for these headphones to be quite detailed with useful links throughout. I admit I have not read all 144 pages, but I look forward to going back to it to learn about additional functionality I may have missed in my excitement to use the headphones. Controls Controls are nicely positioned and somewhat intuitive. Nothing requires more than a couple of taps to get by. I hate having to tap three times on one button, while holding down a second button, after counting the correct number of seconds to do each strike – which is no problem here. I especially like the Touch Sensor Control Panel located on the outside of the right ear phone. Two taps to answer and hang up your phone, a swipe up or down to control volume, swipes forward or back to change tracks, etc. And by holding the palm of your hand on it, you will momentarily turn off noise cancellation until you remove your hand. Unlike my wife who has natural noise canceling ability whenever I speak (i.e., cannot hear a word that I say), I need headphones to achieve that ability. But I am smart enough to use the palm of my hand on the Touch Sensor whenever I suspect she is about to speak to me, as that feature turns off Noise Cancellation until you remove your palm from the Touch Sensor Control Panel. Performance Using my Samsung Galaxy S22+ as my music source, I listened to John Mayall, Shelby Lynne, Lyle Lovette, Fat Boy Slim, and Cake. “Short Skirt / Long Jacket” by Cake was a great test of the ULT BUTTON on the Left ear piece, which enhances the bass to different degrees. One touch for ULT1 and a second for ULT2. The result was quite dramatic and illustrated the feature nicely. Varying according to the selection, the sound was truly immersive. I am looking forward to loading up my new SONY WALKMAN with my music library. The WALKMAN should pair nicely with this product. I think these new SONY ULT Headphones and I will have a great future together.

Do not purchase. They only last a few months before they break and the sound changes. This is my second pair. Try another brand!

The headphones dont stay on. The seem to slide off my head.

Probably the best sounding wireless headphones I’ve used. Sony has abandoned audiophile critique and catered to the average person in the gym, on the bus, or even the office worker focused on the task at hand – Bass. The ULT wear headphones seem to be a bass focused listening experience. Any time I’m given an equalizer to customize a sound system, I’m boosting the bass while trying to make sure lyrics and higher frequency tones are still heard. The ULT out of the box just gives you clean bass that doesn’t muddle or distort at higher volumes. The bass is there, and you’ll notice it, but if you try to hear the other tones and notes, you’ll find them too, which is a pleasant break away from the artificial boosting other headphones try to deliver. Keeping focused on the unique offering from this product, there are two different Bass settings you can quickly activate using the dedicated ULT button on the left earcup. I find myself gravitating to the ULT1 setting which elevates the bass frequencies. ULT2 setting really comes in strong with the Bass. While I find that ULT2 delivers on it’s promise, I find that while boosting bass can enhance the experience if that’s your preference, the ULT2 setting is just too distracting for me. You can also turn this off and manually adjust the EQ as well, but I found it doesn’t quite have the same oomf as the ULT setting being on. I highly recommend you download the headphones app so you can access all the features and customizations. The ULT Wear adopted several features I liked about the WH-1000xm5. The multi device connection allows me to listen to music on my phone then easily switch to my PC for teams calls. Sony’s noise cancellation is as good as the competition. A co-worker knocked on my office door, came in, and said my name, and I didn’t notice them until I just happened to look up which I think is a testament to how well it works. I also thoroughly enjoy the ambient sound mode which works very well. I’m able to easily watch TV or hold conversations without having to take the headphones off. You can hold your palm over the right ear cup and go full ambient sound from noise canceling and pull your hand away to go right back. Also, within the app you can create your own custom EQ or choose from one of the presets. You can also use the “Find your Equalizer” feature to select between several different sound profiles to create a custom EQ that saves under the Custom 2 for later use. Another useful setting is the adaptive noise cancellation where the headphones will detect your activity and surrounding sound and automatically apply noise cancelling or ambient sound depending on the type and intensity of the sound around you or if you’re walking down the street or just sitting at your desk. As far as wearing for long periods of time I’ve had no issue. The ear cushions are very comfortable and while after several hours, my ears are maybe just a bit warm but just a short break after a couple hours is enough to reset the clock. The cushion on the head band is made out of the same soft foam material and wears comfortably as well. I would say the one downside is, possibly in an effort to keep these light and affordable, there’s a lot of plastic to the build. Considering the quality of the sound and the features loaded into this, I feel like it was a design choice to keep these functional and accessible. Finally, a few notable pro’s and con’s. The headset came with a nice rigid case with an audio cable and a USB type a to C charging cable. The headphones fold to fit inside the case making for a very small footprint for travel. The battery life is killer, and I’ve only had to charge it once for a short time in the past week with daily use. Sony advertises quick charging with 10 minutes providing 5 hours of playback and up to 50 hours of total use if you don’t care about noise cancellation. I don’t like the notifications I would get when the noise canceling would switch in and out of ambient sound. Some may find the capacitive touch a bit extra compared to physical buttons or a volume roller, not an issue for me. I would have liked a way to mute the microphone when on a call, but again, minor complaint. Also, I was not able to find an IPX rating so may want to take notice that it may not be sweat or water resistant if you listen while exercising.

In the box: • ULT Wear headphones • 3.5mm single-ended audio cable (32-inch) • USB-A to C charging cable (9-inch) • Zippered semi-rigid carrying case • Printed reference guide (with QR link to startup guide), warranty, and safety information Note: The reference guide contains no operating instructions. These are only available online. Setup: The headphones came almost mostly charged so there was no need to charge it prior to first use. The Sony Headphones app provided an extensive set of prompts when first pairing with the headphones. Many of the steps were related to features and services that required additional subscription services and far too much personal information than I was comfortable providing. For example, if you allow Sony to track your location (or activity), the app can automatically switch ANC settings. I much prefer to switch ANC settings myself rather than to allow Sony to track my movements. During setup, the app will feature Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. This is not a function of the headphones so much as of the streaming apps capable of decoding the new audio file format. Enabling this feature requires a subscription to one of a handful of streaming audio services. I do not have a subscription to any of them and could not indulge myself in what Sony promises to be “an immersive experience”. Bluetooth pairing was simple on iOS phone, digital audio player (DAP), smart TV, and windows laptop. Pairing mode is entered by a long press on the power button on the bottom of the left earcup. The app retains a list of paired devices and can be simultaneously connected to any two of them using the base codec supported by the connected devices. Design: The headphones are well made from molded plastic. They are closed-back with a fine mesh grille over the top of each earpiece. The grille is mostly concealed under the support harness. A small semicircular part (about the size of half of a nickel) extends beyond the harness and (presumably) contains the ANC microphones. The three headphone control buttons are on the left earcup along with the USB-C and 3.5mm single-ended audio ports. The small round power button can also be used to put the headphones in Bluetooth pairing mode. The oblong button just above the power button serves to change the ANC mode. The large round “ULT” button on the outside edge of the earcup alternates between the three bass modes (plenty, too much, and way too much ;-). The headphones are light, sturdy, adjustable, and comfortable. Both earcups can be rotated and pivoted inward for more compact storage. While nicely designed, the zippered case seems to be made of box board. Operation: According to Sony’s web site, the ULT Wear uses Bluetooth v5.2 and supports SBC, AAC, and LDAC. I confirmed connections using all 3 codecs. The ULT Wear is able to connect with 2 devices at once when this option is enabled in the app. Connecting to my iPhone and DAP, I was able to control the equalization from the app on the phone while listening to music on the DAP. The app also recognized the music being played and allowed play, pause, next track, and prior track functionality on the DAP. With 2devices connected, the ULT Wear does not automatically switch between them when detecting a new sound source. Music playing on one device must be paused in order to hear audio on another. The app includes an equalizer with several presets. The manual preset can be customized with five-band sliders. Equalization settings made in the app are retained when switching to a source device that does not support the app (e.g., DAP and TV). When taking off the headphones, there are options in the app to pause playback and, after a short period, turn the headphones off. This keeps the battery from running down when not in use. Both features can be disabled in the app. Two- and three-press actions on the ANC button can be assigned to a limited number of additional functions that have relevance for two specific streaming apps (neither of which I have). The ANC function on the ULT Wear is remarkably good. The amount of ambient sound passed through can be varied in the app. ANC does induce an audible hiss that gets more pronounced as the amount of ambient sound pass-through is increased. The flat surface on the right earcup includes a touchpad that can be used to control audio playback and answer/hang up calls. Touchpad actions were intuitive, but often difficult for me to perform successfully. The double-tap to answer and end calls was the most useful. I could not find a touchpad function to mute a call in progress. Call quality is excellent on the receiving end (i.e., I can hear others very well). Persons on the other end describe my audio as if I was in a barrel. My voice was not unintelligible, just slightly distorted. There was no notable audio delay when using the ULT Wear with my laptop and smart TV. The ULT Wear can be used with a single-ended 3.5mm audio cable regardless of whether the headphones are turned on or off. They must be turned on to engage the ANC but the isolation provided by the closed back is quite good without it and avoids the hiss induced by the ANC circuit. Equalization settings are not used when using the wired connection. Audio Quality: Sound quality was assessed with a Hi-Res DAP with LDAC codec, multi-point mode disabled, “direct” equalization, and sharp roll-off filter (on the DAP). The default frequency response on the ULT Wear is bass-forward even without the additional bass offered by the ULT button. Bass notes were extended, more than mids and highs, despite the sharp roll-off filter (featured tracks 1, 2, 7, 11, 15, & 21). Mid-range and vocals were clear but overshadowed by the bass (featured tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, & 14). Fortunately, the dynamic range of the UTL Wear is remarkably wide allowing equalization to provide almost any desired frequency response. The app has a guided interactive system by which the user can select from equalization options presented while listening without having to manually adjust frequency sliders. These settings can be stored in one of two “custom” equalization profiles. Most of the deficiencies noted above can be easily overcome through equalization. Equalization settings are not used when using ULT Wear with a wired connection. Nonetheless, audio quality with the wired connection was remarkably good apart from the highs. Hi-hats and cymbal brushes were muted and difficult to hear (featured tracks 11, 12, 13, 15, & 18). Wired or wireless, the sound stage was very good, but recording dependent. Binaural recordings, jazz, and orchestral recordings were well-presented and spacious with good instrument separation (featured tracks 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, & 24). The possibility that this could be improved with 360 Reality Audio makes a subscriptions service capable of decoding this new format enticing. Battery: Battery life is good given the inherent demands of noise canceling and Bluetooth. I listened for several hours over the course three days and the battery level remained over 90%. I have no reason to doubt the battery life claims of up to 30 hours. Overall: For their comfort, dynamic range, battery life, and ANC performance, ULT Wear is a good choice for wireless use. The over-the-top bass and muted highs can be overcome with equalization. Some of the features available in the Sony Headphones app require access to a lot of personal information that I prefer not to share. The lack of equalization with the wired connection limits their utility for me. Featured tracks: 1. Laurence Juber: Guitar Noir: Blues De Luxe 2. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue: Flamenco Sketches 3. Nora Jones: Come Away with Me: Don’t Know Why I Didn’t Come 4. Hoff Ensemble: Quiet Winter Night: Dronning Fjellrose 5. Hoff Ensemble: Quiet Winter Night: Ville fjellgutt 6. Bonnie Raitt: Road Tested: Matters of the Heart 7. Joe Satriani, Surfing with the Alien: Echo 8. Julian Webber: Elgar Cello Concerto - Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1: Adagio Moderato 9. Vladimir Horowitz: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto #3: Finale: Alla breve 10. 2L Test Suite: Concerto Fantastico: Allegro Affetuoso 11. Antoine Dufour: Back & Forth (Side B): Air Ground (electronic) 12. Bill Evans: Everybody Digs Bill Evans: Minority 13. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue: Freddie Freeloader 14. Tori Amos: Crucify: Smells Like Teen Spirit 15. Dr. Chesky: Dr. Chesky’s Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show!: Westside Blues 16. Dr. Chesky: Dr. Chesky’s Sensational, Fantastic, and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show!: Dancing Flute & Drum 17. Oslo String Quartet: The Shubert Connection: Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor D810: III Scherzo. Allegro molto 18. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue: All Blues 19. Yoyo Ma: Elgar Cello Concerto, Op. 85; Walton Cello Contero: I. Adagio – Moderato (Elgar) 20. Yoyo Ma: A Gathering of Friends: John Williams Cello Concerto: Theme & Cadenza 21. Stevie Ray Vaughan: Couldn’t Stand the Weather: Tin Pan Alley 22. Yoyo Ma: The Goat Rodeo Sessions: Attaboy 23. Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: Spin: Turn to the Sea 24. Los Angeles Guitar Quartet: Spin: Night Furniture Suite

I have been a fan of Sony Headphones for years and when these were released, I jumped at the chance. I have been an super fan of the Sony line and these do not dissapoint! My last Sony headsets I used was the WH CH720 and they outshine some of my more expensive headsets. For over the ears, I have to say the loudness is one of the more important factors in a good headset. Meaning if you turn on your music or whatever you are listening to, you want to hear it. On some of my past headphones, having my device set at medium volume, most times the headset on the volume is way too low and I have to crank it up a bit. I have never had to do these with Sony with whatever reason. Now with the latest Sony ULT headphones, they do not dissapoint! I just simply added these to the app I already have and it paired up quick and easy! The case is nice and the foldable earcups are a great addition. I can place this case in my carry on bag to the airport without issue with room to spare. The build is decent for a mid range device like this. The Sony and ULT logos may be a bit too much for some, especially on the black colored versions anyway. I think on the grey and white versions, it wouldn't be as flashy or noticeable. Now to the meat of the matter, how does these sound? Right off the bat without playing with any settings, the sound was super clear as I expected it. It was just the right sounds to be clear without being tinny and the bass was present, but not overpowering. Now this is where the ULT feature comes into play. Once you have your EQ settings where you want them, you can easily use the ULT button to go to two other levels other than off. The ULT1 is where I opted to stay and enjoyed all my music. ULT 2 is just wrong lol. I used it not expecting the jarring affect of the amount of bass it can deliver with a tap of a button! I literally had to remove the headphones from my head! It was just too much for me! ULT 1 is the level I am living at and enjoying it very much so! The battery life is fantastic as well. In listening to my music for around 2 hours, the battery level still read 100%. Pretty good especially with ANC on. Speaking of ANC, there is a sweet feature that I wish other companies can adapt. With the music playing, without removing the ULT headphones, you just cup the right earcup and the volume lowers and ANC is turned off so you can clearly hear someone or something like you have removed your headphones, which you can do as well, but this is a sweet feature that I have used numerous times already in the few days I have used it! Would I recommend it? A wholeheartedly yes is my answer! For the price it may be a bit steep but you may wait a bit for some seasonal sales to possibly pick these bad boys up! It is worth every penny in my opinion.

Bought these for my son for his birthday. Bought them prior to said birthday luke most people do. They were too big. Went to return them and Best Buy would not return my money because it was 5 days past their 15 day return policy. No exceptions. BUYER BEWARE.

The ULT Wear headphones provide enough features to satisfy more users looking for a good pair of headphones without breaking the bank. They incorporate some features from the Sony XM flagship lineup. Sound quality and ANC are better for a similar-priced pair of headphones. Sound Quality: Even though they are bass-oriented headphones, the Sony ULT Wear headphones sound good for the price range. After setting up my custom equalizer via the Sony app, I did find myself enjoying the sound quality. This is probably, the most bass coming out of Sony headphones. You do get some features like a basic version of DSEE that enhance your music. The equalizer settings are adjustable up to 7 bands. There are also a couple of preset equalizers to choose from. For the most part, I went with the custom equalizer and ULT 1. If you want to feel that bass ULT 2 is the way to go. For some, the lack of bass from the XM series might find the ULT wear as sounding better due to the higher-sounding bass. That’s actually how I felt coming from Bose headphones. Features: 30hrs life with ANC On (50hrs off) Quick Charge Connect up to 2 devices at the same time. Touch controls that are responsive, nice, and easy to execute. Hold your palm over them and it will activate transparency mode along with lowering your music especially useful when jogging around and needing to listen to your surroundings or hear someone. Auto Play and Pause Mic was decent for call quality and background noise suppression. Build Quality: The build quality is pretty decent. They are light, but not as premium feeling as some higher-end models which is expected at this price point. I don’t have any concerns that they will break down anytime soon. The ear cups are large and comfortable for long listening sessions. Overall you can’t go wrong with the ULT Wear headphones. You get some good sound quality and ANC that is very close to what you get from the XM lineup along with some quality-of-life features. Battery life is superb especially if you don’t have ANC on.

Got these Sony ULT headphones about a week and a half ago. I have a number of similar style and spec headphones over the years from Sony, Bose, and AirPod Pros as well and this ULT set rivals them all...maybe beats them! Took them on a trip last week and on the airplane flights, these were excellent with the noise cancelling on to draw out the engine noise and annoying toddler behind me on one of the flights. The sound quality was REALLY good too! Piped music through these on my iPhone 13 Pro (stock settings as well as playing around with parameters in the separate downloadable Sony app too). Great deep bass and clear rich sound across various genres. Also connected to my iPad Mini 6 to watch an episode of Masters of the Air on the flight. Sound sync was perfect and action sounds and dialogue were excellent as well. Headphones come with a nice quality sturdy case and a couple cables (pretty standard). Feel on my head and ears was quite comfortable even for 2+ hours straight. Features are AirPod-like where they stop playing when I remove them from my head. Easy to learn tap functions on outside of right ear piece. And that Sony app probably has too many features and settings, but they are there if you want to tinker for sure. These are now my go-to headphones for the foreseeable future!

What a great pair of noise canceling headphones. They are lightweight, easy to adjust to your size and very comfortable. Then once you get them set up you instantly get a great sound with different levels of bass at the push of a button. Before I tested the ULT button I set up the Music Center App and I would highly recommend you do the same. Creating your own equalizer was genius. It walked you through testing by picking what you think sounds the best with multiple options at each phase. Think of it like going to the eye doctor and picking option 1 or 2 and then 3 or 4 and so on until you have built the perfect prescription, only this prescription is for your ears. Once I had the equalizer set, I thought the sound was great. But there is more! With the click of a button on the left ear called the ULT button you can quickly kick in ULT1 that is deep low frequency or ULT2 that is ultra-bass. So, with each song you can quickly adjust to the best setting for that song. To immerse yourself in the music the headphones have Sony's premium noise cancelation. If you need to hear something outside of the song, I accidently found a neat feature. If you cup your hands over the headphones, it brings the music slowly down to a quiet level for you. Then pull your hands back and you are right back to listening at the level you were at. The battery life is also superb. You can get up to 30 hours on a full charge. If you are in a rush, you get 90 minutes on a 3-minute charge and 5 hours on a 10-minute charge. So, the battery life and ease of getting more time are very convenient. Overall, I gave these headphones 5 stars for the great sound with comfort and would especially recommend them for those that like their bass.

SONY's ULT headphones are the latest offering in their bass-enhanced product line which currently also includes some speakers. The hook is that you can choose the extent of the enhancement with the push of a button. This can be a welcome addition to some audio streams that are otherwise too "thin" but can also sound bloated or otherwise prove distracting. The headphones have a quality feel to their construction and come with a rugged case. I appreciated their origami like folding that allows them to nestle into that case for storage. It makes it easy to toss them in my carry on. The head strap is adjustable and the padded cans make for a comfortable fit. They also were able to fit in larger drivers and still keep the unit lightweight. The feature set is rich and includes the ability to mate the phones to two devices at the same time. Handy for taking a call while your listening on another device. Blu tooth connectivity was flawless and solid (no dropouts). You can also elect to use the headphones wired as the necessary cable is provided in the case. Battery life is excellent and you can add hours of listening time with just minutes of charging. Another positive with SONY's headphones is their control app. There is a very deep list of features that allow you to do some fine tuning so that you can truly make the phones fit your personal preferences. On the not-so-good side - I found the noise cancelling feature to be only fair. And I encountered choppy audio using it in ambient mode while having a phone conversation. Also, as mentioned earlier, I found the ULT function to be only modestly useful for me and in fact I mostly listen with it disabled. I still think the product is worthy of your consideration (especially if you like over-the-top bass) and I believe that SONY will address some of the other issues with firmware upgrades in the future!

Came in defected. When contacting Best Buy for assistance I was not helped.

The volume is very low quality very disappointed. I can’t return it back. 14 days are up.

Noise cancellation is not that good and headphones are not at all comfortable.