Sony - WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise-Canceling Over-the-Ear Headphones - Black

Sony has been at the top of the line for years now when it comes to Noise Cancelling Headphones, and their latest addition continues that tradition. So far my experience with the WH-1000XM5 have been excellent! UNBOXING & SETUP: - Sony has really impressed me this time around with their minimalist packaging and unboxing. Its a subtle thing but its just nice that everything is recyclable and it does not come with a bunch of extra packaging, twist ties, and plastic wrap. - Once you take them out of the carrying case, they are essentially ready to use! Just connect them to your phone / tablet / computer and you are ready to go! - Sony recommends downloading their Sony Headphone App as well, which is definitely useful. Especially since it downloads any software updates needed for the headphones in the future. PROS: - I absolutely love the refreshed design on these! The XM3 / XM4 had the same design which was fine, but the XM5’s really have a more modern sleek look to them that are a big upgrade. - I was very impressed with how light these are and how comfortable they are! Sony opted for more of a plastic feel to keep them lighter, but I don’t think it makes them feel cheap. I think it was the right choice to make to keep all day comfort in mind as well as portability. - On that note, I wore these for a long time and they were comfortable the entire time. The adjustable headband is better fitting, the ear pads are comfortable, and they are not too tight at all. - When I first put these on I was truly blown away at the Noise Cancelling. I have used plenty of noise cancelling headphones in the past, but these easily offer the best noise cancelling I have used. Instantly you are taken back by how much sound they drown out. - The Sound Quality is of course exceptional! Everything I listen to is so crisp and offers a ton of clarity. The dialogue / vocals are excellent, the bass is impactful, and everything about the music or show you listen to just feels alive. Overall I am very pleased with how great these sound. - The touch controls are once again excellent as well! You can pause, play, change tracks, change from noise cancelling to transparency mode, and if you hold your hand over the right touchpad you can quickly hear what’s going on around you which is an cool little trick. - Taking calls on the XM5’s are fantastic as well! I can tell the call quality has improved and people have told me the mics sound great on their end as well. Definitely would be really easy to use for phone calls, work meetings, or gaming as well. - Battery life is really solid too! 30 hours with ANC on, 40 without ANC, and they give you 3 hours of playback from 3 mins of charging if you are in a pinch. - Lastly, the minor details all work well too! They still offer a aux port, still charge via USB-C, and the carrying case feels premium. CONS: - I do wish these had a waterproof design for use outdoors or while working out. - The carrying case is larger than before since the headphones do not collapse/fold in, and instead just lay flat. However I still think the carrying case is really nice. BOTTOM LINE: - The Sony WH-1000XM5’s are simply the best Noise Cancelling Headphones you can buy! They offer superb Sound, Noise Cancelling, have great features, and are very comfortable! Plus Sony headphones just work with everything - Android, Apple, Windows, you name it. If you are in the market and want the best headphones possible, these are the ones to buy!

I have had many headphones. I have had predecessors to these (both XM3 and XM4s) and i have had/still have multiple of the largest competitors. Recently I have been daily driving for work and leasure the Surface Headphones 2+ which I love (Seriously the ANC on these things are better than any of my others by a landslide, too bad their sound quality isnt as good). So of course being headphone obsessed, I was sooo happy to hear the XM5s were coming and been reading up and prepping for today!! Had to drive 8 miles to a store partway across town to get the "white" pair but I got them! And I am not disappointed. Let's get into it! Pros: - Extremely light. Seriously these things just melt into your head. I would have had this review done hours ago BUT ended up listening to these for 6 hours because i just lost track of time and was wisked away in auditory bliss! Clamping force is super light though so not ideal for any as many action based activities. - Easy to set up/pair. Out of the box all I did was turn them on and they popped up to pair with my Samsung S22 Ultra. Set up was easy with configuration taking about 15 mins to set my button maps, Google Assistant, 360 Audio, enable LDAC, and pick a decent EQ preset to start with (Im a "bright" fan dialed down 4 notches with a little amp in the upper mids for my Sonys). All up took about 40 mins to get them completely to my prefered settings with a few tweeks here and there throughout the listening period. -Long battery life. All up i used 18% today in over 6 hours. Then when I threw them on to charge they took less than an hour to top out!! INCREDIBLE battery which is no shock from Sony. - Color/texture is gorgeous. As some reviews reported the "white" is more like a "Stone Creme" with some speckling to it. They have a matte finish and since people had reviewed saying the black smudged really easy I got white which really doesnt (plus i already had the denim blue XM4s and wanted these to really look different). -Packaging/quality. Everything is "classy" i dont know why people say these feel "cheaper". Plastic is used in headphones for a reason. Take it from someone who used to daily drive all metal Dr. Dre Detox Edition Pros (it was a different time ya'll lets move past it), you dont want that much weight and clamp force when doing 6,8, or 10 hours of listening in a day. These shave weight while staying sophisticated. I like it. - Sound quality. These things are SOOOO punchy i love it! That Carbon 30mm driver really is putting in work and its great at what it does. Less boom than the XM4s, much tighter "poppy" flavor to the bass notes (seriously go pull up Billie Jean - MJ with these and you'll see what i mean). Just very adaptable sound profile that really bring well mastered music to life! Don't believe me? Throw on "Reckoner"-Radiohead, or any "Off the Wall" - MJ track and have your jaw dropped!! Like your in the studio. Cons: - Pricey. This being the most expensive XM line item is hard to swallow. Are they worth it. I feel like yes. They bring more to the table than my Bose 700 for the same price. But still, price creep is present and could price these out of range for target customers who would love them. That's ok though, wait for black friday when the hit $349 or dare I say $329 then snag you a pair. - Portability. If you've looked into these you know this complaint. They don't fold in so harder to transport. Not really a major issue but noteworthy. Moving on... - ANC. It may just be how spoiled i have got with my Surface Headphones but i was slightly underwhelmed by the ANC. With my Surface Headphones i can snap right in front of my face at high-medium volume and not hear a peep. These i could snap at almost out stretched arm and still hear it at similar volume very clearly. Not too worried though as Sony is great at improving via firmware updates; but for launch day I'm a bit disappointed considering how much they hyped up how much they had improved. Still does the job just want more. - Included "charge cable".....seriously Sony.....its like 4 inches.....wire is not that expensive. I know you kept it short so it better fit in the magnetic case pocket but seriously what charger/situation is that gonna work with unless with a pc port or a table top usb hub. Do better for $400. - App. The app is very buggy right now. Setting up Google assistant it crashed twice and hung during registration at the start. Again this is day one stuff so you HAVE to expect that things like that aren't gonna be perfect and will improve but want to inform potential buyers so they are bummed by it. - LDAC unavailable for dual device mode. This isn't really a con, just a hope. In order to have dual device pairing LDAC is disabled. Im assuming it is due to bandwidth limitations caused by dual stream splitting the avaiable bandwidth but sucks having to enable it every time i go back to single mode. At least make it so they remember i had it on before dual device mode and have it automatically turn on. With that, we're done with the major stuff. I hughly recommend these. They are so light, comfortable, and sound amazing. If you're coming from the XM4s I can't say that they are necessarily an "upgrade" but more just a variant. The sound is just different enough to give a different experience, and honestly i think it makes these an even better all arounder than the XM4s were. Most of the issues will be patched in the coming weeks, and then these will be slayers!! They are definately gonna be daily driven with me for the next few months to put them through their paces. I would have loved to see aptX for PC and something like Team Certification given the events that have occured in business/workplace since the XM4 that i could use in my work, but that was prolly wishful thinking. Overall strong 5/5 and so happy to finally have them in my hands. But ultimately everyone's preferences will impact their thoughts on them so get out there, get yours and decide for yourself. Happy listening.

My "daily driver" headphones are in-ear Beats Fit Pro and AirPods Pro; wired Westone W40 (airplanes); and Bose QC35 ii (which for some reason has started to disconnect from my iPad Pro). These are the best, but I do not plan to take from home except on trips (due to their size and the case). Pros - Noise cancelling is absolutely the best for white noise (my AirPods Pro - latest firmware - has lost 80% of noise cancellation) - I can play music super low - like 5-15% of total. I can't imagine what "loud" is on these... - Sound stage is excellent. I haven't had to mess with the EQ nor on-device bass reduction, even though strong bass gives me a headache - Bluetooth connection is good with Apple products (I haven't tried multi-device connect - which works really well with Bose and Apple headphones - because I don't want to disable LDAC) - The app isn't bad. Quirky, okay, but there are a lot of controls - and you can see Sony has improved it over the past 2-3 years with more functionality - Speak-to-pause works well (disables noise cancellation and you can talk with others). Some quirks to it - i.e. if you manually turn on passthrough it will accidentally turn on noise canc ... this happens sometimes.. - Fit is comfortable compared with others (Bose QC35/45 have also been good to me) - Bluetooth connection is stable 50+ feet from the source. If this becomes a problem, you can disable some things to get greater distance Cons - The "cabin pressure" of Sony headphones appears greater than Bose - They do get warm on my ears - the "leather" is plasticky - The matte plastic coating picks up fingerprints and oil like nothing else - They cut out a bit on certain iOS sources - I need to investigate as it might be either alerts or something else confusing the Bluetooth source - Music pause (when removed from ears) always works. But resume only works about 20-30% of the time. - Touch controls can be infuriating at times. I've disabled, but it still makes the touch sound... - Dog barking and people talking still leaks through. I presume so will airplane announcements - they've had to do this for safety reasons Cost cutting - The case is really cheap - I'm guessing the zipper will break within weeks - The blue power/pairing light isn't helpful - they should have used green/blue/red for on/off status (cost cutting) - and doesn't show solid as you're turning it off - The USB port - Type C - seems cheap/weak. This could be an issue real soon. - The outside box, as well, is super cheap. You have to nearly tear it apart to get the headphone box out. [UNBOXING is awful] - They came - on day 1 - only charged 63%. That seemed a bit odd for a new release... And they are expensive - $400 is not cheap, yet the case and box are really cheap.

Let me just start off with; these headphones are so worth it. If you have the money to spend on luxury over-the-ear headphones this is as good as you're going to get. Sure, you can get Airpods Max for a bit more but unless you're all Apple they're not worth it. Lastly, there's the Bose also has a good alternative but I'd rather not look like an alien when I'm wearing headphones. If you want a good EQ use the one I have as an image

WOW!! These headphones are insane. The noise cancellation is amazing and I love the fact your music stops when you move them off your ears. For the price, it’s so worth it. You can also change how much bass/treble you get and can do custom noises. I would definitely recommend! They are so beautiful :)

Honestly transparency not clear like the Apple AirPod max but in my opinion the XM5 are a better all around built headphones.

Recommended by YouTuber Flossy Carter as his his new #1 over the ear Bluetooth headphones, these have “God-tier” ANC and are packed with features no other headphone can match including AirPods Max. Not cheap but well worth it.

I don’t regret the upgrade. These headphones are a beast. They connect pretty quick and don’t loose connection when switching back and forth with 2 devices.