For their $400 price tag, the new Sony XM5s are some of the best noise-canceling headphones you can get right now. They feature balanced, flat sound, great for both critical listening and even music mixing.
But aside from a minimalist redesign and better microphones over their predecessor – the XM4s, are the XM5s bringing enough to warrant an even higher price tag? Not really. Let's get into the details…The XM5s have been redesigned quite a bit, to look slimmer, more minimalist and modern than their predecessor.
The"soft leather" ear cushions are indeed super soft and comfy, and when you press them down they have this memory foam thing going on. I dare say they're much nicer than what you get on other premium headphones like the AirPods Max, but also less breathable. If you sweat a lot, I'd assume these can get gross and slippery quick.
The Sony WH-1000XM5 have the best touch controls so far! Thanks to the cups' touch areas being flat now, you can easily feel for them. One swipe forward – you skip a song, swipe back – you go back to a song, double tap – play and pause, swipe up – volume goes up, swipe down – volume goes down. You can also long-press for a voice assistant , and more…
You want to change how these sound? The app lets you do that, but for now, we'll focus on how the XM5s sound by default… I've personally been spoiled by bass-heavy headphones, though, because I gravitate towards those, and at first, the XM5s didn't sound as punchy as I'd like. But I quickly learned to appreciate their clearer, flatter sound, and might even end up mixing a few songs with them.
Of course, ambient sound is one press away for when you need to hear what's happening around you. That mode uses the headphones' mics to let sound in, and it does it well. So long as your music isn't super loud and ambient sound is on, you'll likely hear if someone approaches you and starts talking to you just fine.When you first pair the XM5s with your phone, you'll likely get a prompt to download a Sony app.
What do you get after all this song and dance? Barely anything, unfortunately. I subscribed to Tidal, sat and listened to the 360 Reality Audio songs available, side-by-side with their"normal" counterparts as they sound on Spotify and YouTube, and could not hear the selling point of this feature at all.
Kind of like how the Apple Watch gives you badges when you outperform yourself during a workout, here you can get some for listening to various music genres. You'll also be getting"Safe Listening" notifications if your music is too loud and could damage your hearing over time.If you thought I wasn't going to complain about something in this review, oh how wrong you were.
But hey, if you don't need its bells and whistles, you can easily go without downloading this app at all…The XM5s have four microphones on each cup, eight in total. Four of those eight mics are handling your voice calls, aiming to keep them noise-free and clear. And whether it's wind or something else in your way, they do in fact deliver good results.
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