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The Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones feature, what Sony advertises, “industry-leading noise cancellation.” And they ain’t lyin. With Bluetooth 5.2 and Sony's QN1 and V1 chips, the XM5s have DUAL processors - compared to the lonely single processor of the XM4. These two processors control 8 microphones for crazy accurate noise cancellation. Think - a little computer actually sampling noise from fans, airplane engines, air conditioners, motors, and consistent noise like that - and creates an identical but perfect opposite wave, so they kinda cancel each other out. And this time, the dual processors are capable of filtering higher frequency sounds, including some voices. It’s pretty cool tech. The first time you hear this, it’s like magic! In my video review, you can see my personal reaction.
With the XM5s, noise canceling is automatically optimized based on your wearing conditions and environment. You don’t have to do anything. It knows if you’re sitting, walking, in an airplane, et cetera.
No, noise reduction probably won’t completely cancel a very loud angry spouse, or a crying baby. But the over the ear closed design may help dull annoying sounds.
A very small cadre of people claim they become nauseous using noise cancelling headphones, and especially the old model XM4s. I’ve never experienced this personally, but be aware it could happen. You can disable it if you need to. Some people thought the WH-1000XM4s were too snug. I thought they felt great, but they’ve improved the fit with a new lightweight design with soft-fit leather. This material fits snugly but with less pressure on your ears while still keeping out the external sounds you don’t want to hear.
There were a few other design changes – the XM5s aren’t foldable like the XM4s, and there’s a redesigned case that’s collapsible to save room in your bag when you’re wearing your headphones.
With up to 30 hours of battery life, you’ll have enough power to travel halfway to the moon in one of Elon Musk’s rockets. But, in case you forgot to charge and you’re in a hurry, you can get 3 hours' worth of charge after just 3 minutes with an optional AC adapter.
And unfortunately, the in-flight plug adapter is not included in the supplied accessories this time. But who uses that anyway? That’s so old school! Fortunately, there still is an aux-in for you old-school holdouts.
The touch controls survived, where you can pause/play/skip tracks, control volume, activate your voice assistant, and answer phone calls. And the speak to chat lives also, where as soon as you start a conversation, Speak-to-Chat automatically stops your music and lets in ambient sound. And wear detection knows when you take them off.
But – how do they sound?
Sony has popped new, more rigid, 30mm carbon fiber drivers in the XM5s. They have more of an audiophile sound profile with slightly more balanced sound, better clarity, and more accurate bass. That’s important if you listen to real music, you know, with actual instruments, like rock, jazz, r and b, country, classical, and music like that. The XM4s have 40mm drivers, which will probably be better for hip-hop. The XM5s will reproduce hip-hop very accurately, meaning the way the studio producer intended you to hear it, but they probably won’t have the head-vibrating tinnitus-inducing bass many people want. TBH that's hard to find in any headphone due to physics.
The XM5s support LDAC and spatial 3D audio, whatever that is, and they have also upgraded their Sony Music Studios Edge-AI music algorithm, which somehow magically guesses what musical dynamics were lost during compression and tries to replace that, so everything sounds crisp and clean without losing the bass that’s necessary in most of today’s popular music.
I have heard some folks claimed the MX4s sounded “muddy” with some music. I didn’t notice that, but I’m a producer and I’m familiar with equalization. There are about 20 presets including several you can create yourself.
And even without the Qualcomm APTX Low Latency chip, both my XM4s and XM5s allowed me to watch a complete movie on Netflix on my 2022 Samsung Frame television, wirelessly, from 10-plus feet away, with ZERO loss in mouth synchronization. Plus, like my XM4s, the XM5s still have dual Bluetooth pairing so you can pair them with two devices at the same time and switch back and forth between them. It's a pretty cool feature if you use them for your phone, but also want to use them to watch YouTube videos at work on your computer. But, you probably shouldn’t tell your boss about that.
And the XM5s work with Google Assist, Alexa, and Siri. You can even set up Spotify playback with a few taps. Try that on your Air Pods Max.
The big win seems to be a vast improvement in the sound of your voice during phone calls quality. They’re actually impressive when it comes to calling in louder rooms. I’ve made test calls on busy streets and on windy sidewalks, and my call-ee said she couldn’t tell I was actually outdoors. Apparently, the four beam-forming microphones and the dual-processor software can recognize your voice and somehow block a lot of background noise. I mean, you can still probably hear tire screeches, gunshots, and car alarms, things you’ll typically hear in the city. But a lot of the noise is just gone. Like magic!
Oh – and there’s Speak to Chat. You start speaking, and the XM5s automatically adjust noise cancellation to pick up the voices of other people. No buttons, no fumbling with your phone. That’s a pretty cool feature.
So are they worth the upgrade? If you have XM4s and you think your call quality is shaky, then grab some XM5s and sell your sweaty old XM4s on Craigslist. If you’re moving from Bose's Noise Canceling 700 or QuietComfort 45s, the new dual processors and 8 microphone array will provide some noticeable improvements, plus the dual Bluetooth sync, so they’re probably worth looking into. If you’re done with your Air Pods Max and prefer better compatibility with non-Apple stuff including android phones, PCs, and Sony or Samsung Smart TVs, it’s a no-brainer.
