Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Industry Leading Active Noise Cancelling Headphones,8 Mics for Clear Calling,40Hr Battery,3 Min Quick Charge = 3 Hours…

Quick take aways:
Without an EQ, the headphones have a very very dark sound signature (I was not a fan)
Sound very good for Bluetooth headphones with EQ, sound okay when wired
ANC seems to be decent, lot of customisability in the app
ANC works well in standalone mode (without pairing)
Battery life is good
No form of sweat/water resistance is a minus but can be worked around
High noise floor (if you care about that sort of thing)
Optional pause with take off and resume with put on feature is amazing!

As a preface, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are my first set of ANC headphones. I would consider myself a mild audiophile (I have a DAC, AMP, and too many headphones). With that said, everyone’s ears are different so take this with an extra pinch of salt.

Out of the box experience:
The packaging was quite nice. It included a hard-shell carrying case, USB-C to USB-A charging cable, 1.2m long 3.5mm cable, and the headphones. The connection process for new devices is wonky and leaves a bit to be desired. The initial pairing did not work until I installed the Sony Headphones Connect app from the appstore. After this, you have to power off the device then power on and hold the power button for 5 seconds to enter pairing mode (confirmed by a vocal “pairing” from the headphones).

The sound signature left a lot to be desired. For a bit of background, my favourite type of headphone is flat/neutral with a balanced sound signature. I enjoy heavy bass in electronic music and am sensitive to loud highs/mids (I get listener fatigue quite fast from it). I enjoy a lot of variety when listening to music an will try most things out. In particular I regularly listen to Classical, Avant-garde, Experimental, Easy listening, Electronic, Contemporary folk, Latin, Jazz, Rock, and some Traditional folk. I don’t tend to listen to much Blues, Rap, or Hip Hop. I occasionally listen to mainstream-Pop and Country.
Without EQ, the sound signature is very very dark. The bass is very punchy and present, the mids are recessed, and the highs have their edge taken off. I was not a fan of it for anything but electronic tracks with no vocals and heavy bass. Even then, it wasn’t particularly amazing. Anything with vocals will sound horrendous (again, with no EQ) as the bass frequencies in voices will be very pronounced.
The ANC worked well for me out of the box. For the open mode, I set it to let near voices through and ambient noise out. I use them with eyeglasses but the ANC still seems to work well. They do a particularly good job of filtering out A/C noises, the electronic whine that appliances generate (not all people can hear this), and running water. The ANC tends to struggle with erratic high pitched noises (as I understand it, most ANC systems do). However, it will dull the noise a tad through both the closed back headphone and ANC component.

Adaptations
Since I was not a fan of the sound profile out of the box, I set up an EQ profile with these headphones. The Sony Headphones Connect app includes an EQ but I found it to be extremely limited in terms of customisability (I did not like any of the presets that were offered) and not very user friendly. Due to this, I set up my own external EQ using AutoEq (on github) as a starting point. After fine tuning it to my preferences, using the headphones became a much much better experience.
They sound very good for Bluetooth headphones. For genres where I like more bass, I strongly prefer the Sony headphones over my Sennheiser and prefer the Sony to my Bose.
In wired mode, the headphones definitely sound better but no where near as good as my other wired headphones. If I’m attached to a wire, I would rather just switch to another pair of headphones. With that said, they do sound better if you leave the headphones on while connected with a cable.
The ANC works well for me. If I use them for noise canceling without music, it can get unsettlingly quiet in the mornings (which is a great thing). Around others, particularly in the kitchen, the headphones do a very good job of dulling and eliminating noises. The pass through function works well in the event of conversation. I am a very quiet eater but these headphones did a great job canceling out all noises while I ate. I don’t use these headphones outside, so I do not know how well they perform with nature’s noises.
The gesture controls included are useful but a bit too involved to be my go to. If I have physical access to my device, I prefer to use that to control the music. However, the pause on take off feature is amazing! It consistently pauses my media any time I have to take my headphones off and resumes right where it left off and soon as I put it on. Simply magic is the only way I have to explain it (the function can be turned off if you don’t like/want it).

🔴The ANC (overall great but doesn’t block all noise)
It works fine but don’t live in a dilemma (I did) that it will block all the noise, I can still hear my ceiling fan on full speed but at a extremely lower volume, my parents talking from few feet aparts is almost non audible but yeah I can hear them at a extremely low volume, the birds chirping from 10-20 feet apart is occassionally hearable too. Play any music while on ANC and then ALMOST every background noise will be blocked.

🔴THE CREAKING SOUND WHILE MOVING HEAD in this is almost non noticable, (people say there isn’t any creaking noise but there is very minor, it exists)

🔴SOUND QUALITY is good BUT the default eq is the worst, you should try different eqs and make yourself one (I thought it would be hard but nope, I was done in 4 minutes) then it will, for me, sounds way better and actually worth paying 26k

🔴 It’s Comfortable BUT (for someone who doesn’t do any sort of neck exercise and have an average head) it’s till a bit heavy, I know 250 g for a headphone is very light weight but for me who switched from airpods to headphones, it feels heavy but the comfortable headband always puts me to sleep 😴. The headband is also quite thin, (took me solid 30 minutes to achieve a position where it doesn’t hit the top of my head and still feel comfortable.)

🔴AMBIENT MODE for an average person is actually great, nothing to complain about

🔴Mics are also great, and extreme clear, do check the reviews

🟢OVERALL
SOUND QUALITY ⭐⭐⭐⭐
ANC ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2⭐
Mic ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Highs ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lows ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comfort ⭐⭐⭐⭐
🚩🚩🚩Delivery (bought from APPARO RETAIL) ⭐⭐, they literally threw my headphones into a big oversized box WITHOUT ANY PROTECTION, it was just a bix box where my headphones where jumbling, like a small pencil in a big pencil box, no bubble wrap, no paper filling to have my headphones not dance while inside, nothing was given. The headphone box was quite dirty which almost made me return them but the inside (THANKS TO SONY) was well protected.

Rating as it fulfills my purpose
Office use:
-Mic output is great in teams/zoom meetings.
-Battery Backup is great, almost what is mentioned in description.
-Wearing continously for 2 hours on the ear is not a problem, but when it is around the neck feels uncomfortable if kept for long hours.
– Great for regular phone calls as well.
– Connectivity is hasslefree.

Build Quality:
-Requires care, the matte surface is somewhat easy to get marks.
-Case is a bit big for travel and keeping the headphone in case after use is not so great experience.

Music:
The equaliser would require some modification for punchy music, Which can be easily done using headphones app for Sony.

Range:
Works smoothly in a range of 10-15 metres, beyond that have noticed voice distortion.

Pros:
Battery backup is good and charging is quite fast.
Multi device connection is smooth.
Buds quality Isn’t impacted by sweat or water splashes.
Grip is tight and the overhead band is still rock solid.

Tested on Windows, IPhone, Android, PS5 and Smart TV.

The best part about these headphones is the noise cancellation which is superior to most of its competitors. I tried the Bose QC45s and these definitely beat them.
In terms of sound, these are a no brainier in the ANC category. They have the coloured Sony bass heavy profile by default but I’ve adjusted the eq from the app to make the frequency response much flatter. Now they sound pretty close to my studio headphones which I use for producing and mixing music. Soundstage is pretty wide and convincing.
Battery life is great and it charges super quick.
The Sony app integration is top notch. 6band eq lets you get the sound you want.

Now here are the downfalls.
They don’t fold like the earlier version, the case gets bigger. Still a pretty slick case but yeah, it’ll take up more real estate in your backpack.
They are a fingerprint magnet. I couldn’t keep these clean for more than 10mins.
The headband is comfortable but could’ve been slightly wider.
That’s it.
I bought these for leisure listening and making music on the go and they seemed to have checked all the boxes. Definitely recommend!

 I own Sony’s WH-1000 XM4s and the Bose 700s, two of the leading models in the industry. I had AirPods Max for a minute, but I rage-sold them. To me, the Sony and Bose are both awesome headsets. So I was psyched to hear Sony was releasing XM5s. Summer’s here, and these can get a little hot on hot days outdoors. It’s like wearing earmuffs on the beach. But, if you can get past a little sweaty ears, or if you use them indoors or on airplanes, you should be a little excited.

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.