Sony WH-1000XM4 Review (noise cancelling headphone)

[Oukkidoukki]

Somebody make wireless headphone that has tidal mqa built in and phone is just a remote. It’s like streamer in your head. No more this bluetooth codec mess. Amazing that 4th generation product by Sony still sucks.

 

[Harmonie]

For me, such NC phones are great just for that precise purpose to cancel ambient noise and I use them only in a plane which makes it a pleasant and relaxing journey compared to, when not wearing HP.
But for listening to music, there would surely be so many other better choices out there, no ?

 

[JohnBooty]

But for listening to music, there would surely be so many other better choices out there, no ?

Yes and no.

You can get "better" passive headphones for $300 or less. But for many passive headphones you will need a decent amp to get the best out of them. Also for many of them you'll need a way to do EQ which is not always a convenient option depending on one's setup.

By comparison, active headphones can sound really good with no extra fuss since the amp and the EQ are built in and, as we know, EQ can accomplish some things that are difficult to do with physical driver design.

Also, while you don't *need* noise cancellation in a home environment... it maybe helps more than you think. Remember that even a "quiet" room has like a 40dB noise floor. The result is that you can play your noise canceling headphones at a lower output level which is probably good for your hearing in the long run.

I've got decent passive headphones from Beyerdynamic, HifiMan, Grado, and Audio-Technica. I still reach for my Bose QC25 about half of the time, or at least I did before my wife commandeered them. All of those passive options slay the Bose QC25 in terms of detail and are overall "better." But the QC25 are smooth as hell. Definitely the least fatiguing headphones I've ever owned and the NC can be great when I'm trying to concentrate on work and filter out distractions.

Edit: I should note that the QC25 are wired only. I absolutely do not enjoy the sound of Bluetooth headphones I've tried, though I should note that (1) I've not heard the LDAP protocol in action (2) I've not tried many BT headphones nor any released in the last few years

 

[Natal]

I currently use the Bose QC35-II and the Beats Solo Pro which isn't considered here. But the Beats is distinctly clearer without any harshness. The Bose QC25 bests both of them in IMHO.

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks Amir. These look like good airplane passenger headphones. I might consider them for waifu.

I wonder how AKG N90Q compare. If I get my backordered pair before anyone sends you a pair, I can offer them, but I am hoping not to wait. Harman said July shipping for mine.

 

[PeteL]

Somebody make wireless headphone that has tidal mqa built in and phone is just a remote. It’s like streamer in your head. No more this bluetooth codec mess. Amazing that 4th generation product by Sony still sucks.

I assume you are talking wifi? wifi is many time more power hungry than Bluetooth, I don't see this possible for battery powered portable products.

 

[mugbot]

I assume you are talking wifi? wifi is many time more power hungry than Bluetooth, I don't see this possible for battery powered portable products.

Mobile phones are battery powered portable products which stream over wifi without issue.

Admittedly this would add weight (presuming a larger battery) to headphones, but I don't see how it's impossible.
The poster is basically suggesting a DAP built into the headset, with controls on their phone.

 

[PeteL]

Mobile phones are battery powered portable products which stream over wifi without issue.

Admittedly this would add weight (presuming a larger battery) to headphones, but I don't see how it's impossible.
The poster is basically suggesting a DAP built into the headset, with controls on their phone.

Yes didn't think of it this way, yes possible, but certainly bulkier and shorter playtime, especially if you need an amp on top of this for a full size headphone on top, but I admit i shouldn't have concluded so fast, always room for innovations.

 

[m_g_s_g]

if the team is interested I would be willing to send in my Bose QC35II for testing. Not using them much these days.

I own the Bose QC35II as well (since last summer), and only use them when in a noisy environment. I like them (NC on). I can send them to Amir if you prefer (if it has not been already agreed).

(EDIT: Not flying much this days, too)

 

[Tortie]

Interesting review! But not sure how useful this will be to most current users of the product. I'd say that taking the passive approach towards these speakers is probably not the right way. Anyone who buys these is going to be using it wireless, whether with ANC on or not. These are on the go headphones and bluetooth will be the prime functionality. I doubt 99% of the people who bought them will be using it passive (which you did mention).

With that in mind, comparing the power vs. the other headphones you've reviewed so far is probably apples and oranges. I recognise that you don't have any other bluetooth benchmarks at the moment and don't have the ability to make the right call regarding the internal amplifier.

Once the Bose and Airpod Maxes are in with the reviews done, it might be worth re-looking at the data again to see how bluetooth headphones stack up against each other on the power front.

Another thought is that most of these headphones come with their own EQ software. Might be worth including a look at those in the review as well. Users of these products again will probably just rely entirely on the company-provided EQ which forms part of the value package one is paying for.

To sum it up the wireless Sonys and presumably every other wireless headphone on the market sounds fairly bad compared to any budget priced wired headphone. The onboard DSP and EQ trickery you mention is not going to close the gap with even a $75 wired headphone run off a smartphone hp jack. I have a pair of wireless Sonys and I had to acclimate myself to their mediocrity, distortion and unnatural sound signature in order to reap the benefits of wireless convenience. These bluetooth products are for people that want to listen to music while taking a dump or making an omelet in the kitchen.

 

[TSB]

They should all work this way.

This is not my experience at all. I have used the older versions of this headphone when at the office and in public transport for several years. ANC does a great job with the low frequencies, removing them almost completely. Whether sounds are repetitive does not have any effect.

 

[A Surfer]

I have the predecessor, the XM3 and the stock signature is a terrible bloated mess. When I first received it from Amazon I was going to return it, but before I decided to play around with equalization despite never having seen any measurements, but I have an experienced enough ear to know where the issues were likely to be. I use Onkyo HF Player and it has a nice built in FIR equalizer. Once I cut away the bass bloat the sound signature is actually excellent. I still have the XM3 but I do prefer the KEF Space One Wireless. The KEF has terrible NC, but I don't need NC even when taking public transit as I listen at fairly loud levels anyway. The moral of the story is that stock Sony consumer tuning is kind of rubbish, but the driver and enclosure design are clearly capable of solid performance so just experiment.

 

[A Surfer]

To sum it up the wireless Sonys and presumably every other wireless headphone on the market sounds fairly bad compared to any budget priced wired headphone. The onboard DSP and EQ trickery you mention is not going to close the gap with even a $75 wired headphone run off a smartphone hp jack. I have a pair of wireless Sonys and I had to acclimate myself to their mediocrity, distortion and unnatural sound signature in order to reap the benefits of wireless convenience. These bluetooth products are for people that want to listen to music while taking a dump or making an omelet in the kitchen.

Not my experience at all, I have owned a pretty sizeable collection of high-end headphones, both wired and wireless and wireless can sound fantastic.

 

[TSB]

To sum it up the wireless Sonys and presumably every other wireless headphone on the market sounds fairly bad compared to any budget priced wired headphone. The onboard DSP and EQ trickery you mention is not going to close the gap with even a $75 wired headphone run off a smartphone hp jack. I have a pair of wireless Sonys and I had to acclimate myself to their mediocrity, distortion and unnatural sound signature in order to reap the benefits of wireless convenience. These bluetooth products are for people that want to listen to music while taking a dump or making an omelet in the kitchen.

Or people who, you know, go outside. I know it's uncommon now.. But back in the old days, we went outside, and not having a cable dangling from your head and your phone was a huge plus. Especially in public transport.

 

[A Surfer]

Or people who, you know, go outside. I know it's uncommon now.. But back in the old days, we went outside, and not having a cable dangling from your head and your phone was a huge plus. Especially in public transport.

Absolutely, let me tell the story of how I ended up being a Bluetooth convert. I had the lovely Oppo PM3 as my main portable headphone. I liked them so much that I had a custom balanced cable made (no I don't believe in cables, I just needed the extra power balanced had) to use with my Onkyo DP-X1 DAP. Loved the combination, but damn if the cable didn't constantly get caught on bus seats and the like, or I was constantly worried about strain on the barrels so I always fiddling with the DAP to make sure there was no cable strain.

Then one day getting off a packed train at university (I returned to university in my 40s) my cable got caught on another student in the packed crush to get off and it was pulled so hard that the cable was pulled out from both earcups. That was it for me, I had had enough with cables and I began to buy decent Bluetooth headphones and I have never regretted it from a sonic fidelity or convenience perspective. You couldn't pay me enough money to return to wired headphones for portable use. Not a chance.

 

[xarkkon]

To sum it up the wireless Sonys and presumably every other wireless headphone on the market sounds fairly bad compared to any budget priced wired headphone. The onboard DSP and EQ trickery you mention is not going to close the gap with even a $75 wired headphone run off a smartphone hp jack. I have a pair of wireless Sonys and I had to acclimate myself to their mediocrity, distortion and unnatural sound signature in order to reap the benefits of wireless convenience. These bluetooth products are for people that want to listen to music while taking a dump or making an omelet in the kitchen.

Yep, exactly why a different approach should be considered for benchmarking each one's performance. It's still useful to see exactly how bad these are against wired, but ultimately the comparison being apples to apples (within the bluetooth space only) would be most useful.

 

[Tortie]

Or people who, you know, go outside. I know it's uncommon now.. But back in the old days, we went outside, and not having a cable dangling from your head and your phone was a huge plus. Especially in public transport.

When I'm outside I prefer to aware of my surroundings.

 

[Tortie]

Yep, exactly why a different approach should be considered for benchmarking each one's performance. It's still useful to see exactly how bad these are against wired, but ultimately the comparison being apples to apples (within the bluetooth space only) would be most useful.

Exactly! People familiar with how so-called "high-end" bluetooth headphones are not surprised to see them measure poorly and prospective consumers shouldn't be dissuaded by the funky looking graphs. These headphones are like fast food, convenience over quality.

 

[bluefuzz]

To sum it up the wireless Sonys and presumably every other wireless headphone on the market sounds fairly bad compared to any budget priced wired headphone.

No. On the contrary, as I said before, my Sony XM2s sound far more pleasant to me over Bluetooth with ANC active than any of my wired phones without EQ. And here I'm not talking about budget wired phones, I'm talking Sennheiser HD58X, AKG K701, Beyer DT990 and Philips X2HR. I'd take the Sony with ANC over any of these without EQ. Of course with EQ and with a good amp and DAC then they are all hands down better than the Sonys. But that's useless to me when I'm on the train ...

 

[Saxkun]

I work at an airport ann these headphones (well, past version xm3) are a godsend, i can listen to my music even when planes are near and can block the chit chat of my coworkers to almost complete silence.
Do they sound as good as the gear I have at home? no, of course not.
But do they acomplish their purpose of letting me hear music in noisy enviroment. They do it perfectly.