Sony WH-1000XM6: Response Curve and EQ Proposal (Based on 5 Pro Reviews)

[Palladium]

I don't understand what Sony's engineers are thinking hyping the upper bass like that. I've tried the XM3 once and those had the same problem with the bass and yet they haven't fixed it yetm after another three generations??

I paid only 20% of the original MSRP for the XM3 used and I still didn't think it was worth it. Same overbloated bass and also the terrible original earpads.

 

[Ruediger]

I own the XM4 and XM5 and have always been impressed at the amount of tech packed into these at their price point. Their best trait is the Bluetooth connection, it is incredibly solid. I’ve left my phone playing music in my seat near the front of a 777 and walked all the way to the back of the plane and they still work! The noise canceling is rather good, they are a must-have on long flights. I also enjoy using these for phone calls, Zoom meetings on the go, etc., as the microphone array works very well. The battery life is great, too. I hear the XM6 offer incremental improvements in all these areas.

Even with LDAC the coverage is very good.

On some occasions I have phone calls with the XM6, but I see no difference to the older generations. Just works.

Battery life was always superb from the XM2 up to XM6. I never managed to empty any of them. That's one of the most impressive features. I could use it for 10 hours+ with medium/high volume and they are not really heavy to support that with heavy batteries. Very efficient.

As for the bass topic mentioned: I remember in the 1x years, when Sony started with this series, they competed with the then very popular Bose model. Bose did a very warm, bass-heavy sound (lacking quality elsewhere) and at that time I thought Sony wants a piece of that to satisfy people's expectations. And also be better in the rest of the frequency band and with ANC. Which the XMs were, in my opinion, ever since. But I did not have all the Bose models (just 2) to compare.

 

[delta76]

I paid only 20% of the original MSRP for the XM3 used and I still didn't think it was worth it. Same overbloated bass and also the terrible original earpads.

I paid full msrp for it and worth it for me. The ANC was second to none at that point. It has a very weird bug in sub zero temp and covid + WFH killed my need for it, but for ~3y it was a daily driver.
After I got into "hifi" I tried it back and realized how boomy the bass is, but it is intentional (to make it appealing to basshead). After 7 years I bought XM6 and think it sounds much more natural

 

[Ruediger]

I got earpads for the XM2 and later the XM3 from Dekoni - I think those were deals on drop.com.

They have very upgraded options. Not cheap though.