Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great pair of headphones with excellent noise canceling, I’ve had these headphones for over a year and used them almost every day and they have held up great.

*The Good* Range: Excellent. My apartment's longest length is 31 feet with 3 walls between them measuring at about 6 inches thickness. I played a 24 bit, 96KHz FLAC file using the LDAC codec to try to really test the connection because those are the highest settings I can get out of my audio. I didn't get a single stutter. NFC: Allows you to pair and connect a phone with the headphones by just tapping the phone on the left ear cup. No need to go through the menus for bluetooth and scan, or select device. Just tap and it will connect. Your phone does need to be unlocked though but that's it. The rest is just a simple tap. Noise-cancelling: Great noise cancelling. Successfully blocks out air conditioner sounds. I couldn't even tell if I had the AC on or not while I was wearing them. S-sounds or hissing sounds get cancelled out entirely. It does its best job with noise cancelling on the low frequency end. My PC's fans (6 of them) are brought down to white noise. I won't be on a plane until next month so I tried playing a YouTube video of plane engine sounds. It cancels out the harshness of the low frequency noise from it but you can still hear the plane sound. However, when I play music I'm able to successfully drown it out. It's not noise cancelling, but with the aid of the noise cancelling I'm able to tune it out for the most part. The same goes wearing it on the subway. I live in NYC and our subway is one of the loudest in the world thanks to tiles the MTA uses in most of their station's walls, which amplify sound. You're not going to block all the noise, but it does a great job at dampening it so you can hear your own audio better. You'll still hear cars on the streets but it will sound like they're hovering instead of rolling past you. If you own a WH-1000XM3, I couldn't tell much of a difference in noise cancelling performance from it. You can use the noise-cancelling even without any audio playing. It won't time out as long as you have Automatic Power Off set to "Do not turn off" in the app. Cupping your hand over the right earcup allows you to temporarily disable ANC and hear outside noise. Sound: I'm not an audiophile by any means, but they're my best sounding headphones. Voices sound clear. Instrument separation is clear. I can hear subtle hihat sounds clearly. Bass is evident out of the box and it doesn't sound muddy (I've read from others that it does but it doesn't sound muddy to me). I tend to think the sound sounds slightly warm (bassy) but mostly neutral. But best of all is the hardware EQ from that you can use from Sony's Headphones app (app available only on Android and iOS). Unlike the XM3, on the XM4 you'll be able to use the hardware EQ even if you're using the LDAC codec. You can wipe out that bass by setting the "Clear Bass" setting to -10. Or boost it up. You can customize the EQ through 5 frequency bands (400, 1k, 2.5k 6.3k, 16k). There are 8 preset EQ settings along with 2 Custom EQ settings you can set and save for whatever purpose and one manual EQ setting, which really is just a third custom setting preset. Since it's hardware EQ, the changes you make hear on the app effectively change the headphone's sound signature. If you use it on any other device like your PC, or TV, the EQ settings you set will stick. So I feel all the criticism about the out of the box sound feels unwarranted. Spend some time with the EQ and find the sound you like and that's the sound you'll have on all your devices because you've changed the way the headphones sound on the headphones themselves. The physical buttons: The Custom button allows me to either assign it to toggle ANC or Assistant commands (can't have both at the same time for that button). I have it set to Google Assistant but it also supports Amazon Alexa too. I find the Google Assistant support so invaluable. Thanks to it, whenever I get notifications on my phone I can press the button and it will read me my notifications. Whether you have notifications or not, it will also give you the time. So useful. The voice that reads you the notifications sounds natural too, not robotic, and is easy to understand. The power button is clearly spaced away from the custom button that I never mistakenly press it for anything else. One press of the power button and the headphones will tell me how much battery life I have left. **The OK** Comfort: The XM4s has slightly more cushion on the earpads and headband than the XM3. Unfortunately the opening inside the ear cups haven't changed much. They're not that wide, so they'll still sit on some of your ears even if you might not feel like it does. I can prove it does though. When I insert my finger underneath the cup and reach for my ear, I can feel that it's still being clamped under the earpad. You may not feel it because the cushioning is so soft but the pressure gets felt after extended use. The earcup is also not that deep. Your ears will touch the inner soft lining although you will not feel it. The evidence will be when you sweat. You'll find sweat marks on the lining where your ear touches it. Speaking of sweat, the XM4 made me noticeably sweat more than the XM3 or XM2 did. Conversely though, I imagine these would make great winter earmuffs. Careful though, they're not waterproof, so throw a hood on when it's raining or snowing. Clamping force will vary on your head size. I have a large round head so they do clamp with some force but I never really found them uncomfortable even after hours of use. Wired passive mode: You can use the headphones without power as regular headphones. When you power the headphones, you can also get ANC. You just can't use the touch controls. Touch controls: Touch controls are intuitive. Swipe up for volume up, down for volume down. Swipe left for previous track, right for next track. Double tap to play/pause. Unfortunately, the touch controls can be as finicky as they were on the XM3. If you're familiar withe XM3's touch controls and never had a problem with them, the XM4 will suit you fine. I put the XM4 in the freezer for 30 minutes while playing music to see if the cold issues on the XM3 exist on the XM4. Surprisingly they don't! I even used a fan to simulate wind along with the cold and I didn't get any erratic behavior that I had with the XM3. Touch controls still worked also. There's still about 3 months until winter here in NYC to know for sure, but I think they fixed it. Multipoint: You can now connect the XM4 to more than one bluetooth device at the same time. As long as you don't actively use them at the same time, you won't run into many or any problems. If you do actively use them at the same time, occasionally you'll run into issues. If audio is playing on one device, and you play audio on another, the audio from the first device will continue to play and you won't hear the second device until you pause or stop the first device. This appears to be the current nature of multipoint because I get this same behavior on my Jabra Active Elite 75t's multipoint. Multipoint does NOT work with LDAC. The Shure Aonic 50 supports multipoint on LDAC so bad job with Sony here, especially when LDAC is their own proprietary codec. How does another company one-up you with your own technology? So only AAC and SBC work with multipoint on the XM4s. Proximity sensor: There's now a proximity sensor inside the left ear cup. This allows the headphones to pause audio when you take your headphones off. You can also turn this feature on or off using the Sony Headphones app. My issue with it is that it doesn't work with all media. It works fine with audio players and YouTube. It doesn't work with the MLB app when I'm listening to radio broadcasts of games on it. It doesn't work with the ESPN app either. This is probably because they're live streaming sources. But my main reason to even pause audio when I take my headphones off is so the audio isn't leaking out and being distracting and this won't help with that. They could have just stopped the live streaming sources and have them restart it live. Battery life: 30 hours is what Sony claims. I got 23.5 hours with AAC, ANC on, no multipoint. 23 hours and 10 minutes with ACC, ANC on, multipoint on (Note 10+, Tab S6) I screwed up my tests with LDAC time and time again, and it's super annoying to start over from scratch so I apologize for the poor test but I got 60% after 14 hours and 40 minutes with LDAC and ANC on. So perhaps on LDAC, I can get the claimed battery life of 30 hours. Battery is reported in intervals of 10% so you'll never see any reports of battery life in between them like 97% or 55%. Sony claims 10 minutes of charge gives you 5 hours of battery life. My tests never got anything close to that. Using a 3.0A charger for 10 minutes I got: With LDAC, ANC on: 1 hour 55 minutes With AAC, ANC on: 1 hour 22 minutes Charging from 0%-100% does take about 3 hours (sometimes less, sometimes slightly longer) **Neutral** XM4 has Speak-to-chat which allows the headphones to pause your audio and allow you to hear outside noise. It just won't work they way most want it to in real life though. It does an excellent job at not triggering with anyone else's voice but yours. But any sound you make activates it. So no singing along. I find myself turning this feature off. **The Bad** Loss of AptX support. I hoped for AptX low latency but instead they got rid of it altogether. Bad news for older Android devices that can't upgrade to Oreo. No USB-C audio. **Concerns** Build: Plastic construction is like how it was on XM3; feels cheap. May creak after a while. Remains to be seen. **Conclusion** Great option for Apple users since LDAC and AptX is no concern, and for new buyers that don't own XM3. Poor value to upgrade from XM3 if you don't care for LDAC or multipoint.

Sound quality is great, fit is comfy, noise reduction is good

I bought this during thanksgiving, assuming this was a good product. However this model has serious connectivity issues. It does not automatically connect to your paired Bluetooth device (at least my headphone) and you need to reset the headphone every time before connecting which is pain. Quite disappointed but I am sure Sony will fix it in future.

These are awesome! I took a lot of time thinking which headphones to buy and do not regret getting these. It's been over a year now since I got them and I'm still as happy with them today as I was when I first got them.

Quality LDAC, excellent ANC, and utilize the wired connection for a better sound option (saves battery life as well). Got the midnight blue. I had the XM3s and no real difference...except if you need multi-point connections.

I am just an average user. Dont have super hearing, so i think this is better because of light plastic weight. Althougt some think light weight plastic felt cheap but i rather wear something light weight with quality than something heavey.

Very good sound, but not excellent. I prefer the quality of the Bose 700 by a substantial margin. The one area where these headphones excel is the bass. The sony app is also inferior to the Bose Music app. I frequently had issues with disconnections, especially when trying to pair multiple devices (my MacBook Pro and iPhone).

Got these for my mom after she had her concussion. She’s enjoyed them for 3 years and they still do the job. Looking to get myself a pair soon!

Sound very good, lots of good features. But despite all that, they do not have good volume. All songs on all platforms i listen at 100% and still wish they would go louder. Im well versed in electronics and tweaked all settings. But alas, still weak at 100% volume. Would have been perfect if were louder. Will be returning them tomorrow. Not worth the high price tag if you cannot enjoy your music.

Great headphones. For both working out and traveling, noise cancellation great feature. So glad I went with these over the AirPods

My son loves these headphones. He said they sound great and really blocks out the noises.

The sound quality is amazing, I also use it for playing video games and listening to music (Incredible sound that it makes all the noise around it disappear, and you end up with an incredible experience!

The sound quality is amazing, I also use it for playing video games and listening to music (Incredible sound that it makes all the noise around it disappear, and you end up with an incredible experience!

Great sound. I actually turn the noise cancellation feature down lower using app as it messed with my equilibrium. Weird experience but no uncommon for noise canceling for headsets.

Great headphones. I upgraded from the mx3 because of the ability to connect two bluetooth items at once. To my untrained ear they sound really close to the mx3 which isn't a bad thing at all.

Worth it, especially on sale. The most advanced Bluetooth wireless NC headphones I ever owned and as usual SONY knocks it out the park. The fact that these can AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH between two devices connected at the same time is amazing.

I love these headphones! Easy to use, they connect to your mobile via bluetooth flawlessly and they sound fantastic! I have a large head and they fit with ease due to the adjustability! Also, I love the color! I can't say enough good things!

An amazing piece of headphone which gives natural music to my inner ears. Nice design and l love using it.

I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile, however, I do not think these headphones offer the greatest sound for the price range. It offers many touch control features such as being able to lower/higher the volume with a stroke of a finger, disable noise cancellation by hovering your hand over the right earphone and many others, but I did not see myself using these features often. Some things I think are important to point out: These are primarily wireless bluetooth headphones in that they need to be connected via bluetooth to be able to modify and get the enhanced audio quality settings via their app. If you use these headphones strictly wired, the audio quality is noticeably worse. This does not seem like too big of an issue for me since they charge relatively quickly. On that note, these headphones cannot be used while they are charging. With that being said, I still enjoy these headphones, but if I had the option to buy these again, I think I would probably choose the Bose QC35 that are available for around the same price since I have had a better experience with Bose overall.