With each new model, Sony's noise-cancelling headphones improve upon the previous formula, giving longtime industry leader Bose a run for its money. The $399.99 Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones continue where the WH-1000XM4 left off, with top-notch ANC (active noise cancellation) and audio performance. Compared with the $329 Bose QuietComfort 45 and the $549 Apple AirPods Max, the 1000XM5 over-ear headphones offer comparable noise cancellation and arguably the best sound quality of the bunch. Throw in a comfortable, stylishly understated design—the earcups catch the light in interesting ways with their matte surfaces and sharp edges, and look even better in person than in photos—and you get a pair of high-end noise-cancelling headphones worth their equally high price. While there are still reasons to consider models from Apple and Bose, Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones earn our Editors' Choice award for audiophiles.
Sony WH-1000XM5 Fit, Specs, and Controls
Available in black or silver models, the WH-1000XM5’s circumaural (over-ear) build is sleek and attractive, with the synthetic leather headband matching the earcups in terms of color and matte surface. The cups swivel down flat, and easily fit inside the included zip-up carrying case. The over-ear fit is exceptionally comfortable, even over long listening sessions.
Internally, the headphones employ 30mm drivers to deliver a frequency range of 4Hz to 40kHz. This is the only published spec, and it refers to when the headphones are used in powered, wired mode.
The left earcup’s side panel houses dedicated buttons for power/pairing and ANC/Ambient modes. These are the only physical buttons on the WH-1000XM5’s spare, attractive contour—but capacitive touch controls add another layer of functionality. Swiping forward or backward on the right ear’s outer panel navigates forward or backward through tracks. Swing up or down handles volume, and a double-tap controls playback and call management, while a press and hold summons your phone's voice assistant. The controls work well and are quite intuitive.
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Sony includes an oddly short USB-C-to-USB charging cable that connects to the USB-C port on the right earcup, as well as a 3.5mm audio cable for wired listening. It’s worth noting that the audio cable provides both the benefit of passive listening to preserve battery life, and the expanded frequency range mentioned above.
The headphones are compatible with Bluetooth 5.2, and support the AAC, LDAC and SBC codecs, for higher-res audio streaming than you get with Bose. They also support multipoint connection, which allows them to be paired with more than one device at a time.
Sony estimates battery life to be roughly 30 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels and ANC usage.
Sony WH-1000XM5: App Experience
We tested the latest iteration of Sony's ever-improving Headphones app (for Android and iOS) in beta mode, but it ran without any glitches. The app offers the basics—firmware updates, customizable settings, EQ—and then some. If there’s an annoyance factor, it’s Sony’s coaxing you to share information without really calling it that—in various features, you can earn badges for listening to music or by turning on features such as “Detection of actions” or “Learning of locations you frequent.” There’s very little that plays into the headphone experience that is location-dependent, other than the obvious concept that noise is dependent on location. Thus, you needn’t tell the app where you are or what you're doing to memorize certain ANC presets—it should just be able to call these up naturally as the sounds occur. Whatever the purpose is for asking for your location, it has little to do with audio. Happily, you can skip/opt out of any requests the app has for learning more about your habits.
Otherwise, the app is excellent, with very good user-adjustable EQ. You get five bands to tinker with, as well as a bass fader that is dedicated to the truly deep lows. You hear immediate differences when you tweak the EQ, and presets are easily saved. The drivers sound great out of the box, but the EQ ensures that you can tune them to your personal listening preference.
The app also allows for use of Sony’s 360 Reality Audio setup. It's an effect similar to Apple’s Spatial Audio, but less impressive. If you're going to spend $400 on these headphones, don’t ruin the mixes with gimmicky features—EQ is all you need to enjoy the audio, and even EQ might not be necessary. Still, we won’t punish Sony for bloating the app a bit when it is otherwise useful and well designed.
Sony WH-1000XM5: Noise Cancellation Performance
The WH-1000XM5’s eight-mic array delivers powerful, top-tier adaptive noise cancellation. You can be sitting next to a whirring fan, and turning your head slightly will cause the mics to reevaluate the noise—so within a second or two, you’re likely to hear the fan’s sound, which may have temporarily raised, lower back to previous levels. Intense low-frequency rumble (like you’d hear on an airplane) is dialed back substantially—at medium-loud levels, the headphones eliminate it completely. At extremely loud levels, the lows are minimized to a faint noise. A recording of a busy restaurant with dishes clanging and boisterous conversation was dialed back dramatically in testing, as well. The high-mids and highs still made it past the ANC circuitry, especially at extreme volume levels, but the overall noise was reduced notably.
It's also worth noting that the ANC here doesn’t seem to add high-frequency hiss to mask the signal, which is a common trait of most noise cancellation. Some lesser ANC models will actually sound as if they’ve increased the highs when tested against the restaurant recording mentioned above, but Sony's headphones dutifully lower the racket without adding anything to the highs.
Compared with the Bose QuietComfort 45, Sony delivers comparable ANC performance, though they differ in their approaches. The Bose headphones dial back intense low-frequency rumble quite well, as do the WH-1000XM5—but the WH-1000XM5 seems to allow a thin band of high-mids through that the Bose model blocks out. That said, the WH-1000XM5 headphones seem like they actually eliminate more of the lows on the same recording, so there’s a trade-off here, and it’s hard to say one is absolutely better. The restaurant recording, however, clearly favors the Bose headphones, which dial back more of the entire frequency range. It’s possible the QuietComfort 45 are also adding some slight masking hiss compared with the WH-1000XM5, but if so, it's minor. From a pure ANC performance standpoint, Bose gets the edge for mids and highs (like in a noisy restaurant), and the low-frequency rumble test is more or less a draw.
Tested against the AirPods Max, Sony's noise cancellation is more consistent. There are times when you turn your head a certain way and the AirPods seem to eliminate all sounds (except for a slight added hiss). But they can also seem to dial back mids and highs far less at times, and let through more high-mids and highs in these moments than the other models. Like the WH-1000XM5, the AirPods Max adjust on the fly to head movement and new sounds, they waiver in efficacy depending on your head's position in relation to the noise—they don't adjust nearly as quickly as the WH-1000XM5. It's the same story with deep rumble—the AirPods Max are capable of edging out the WH-1000XM5, but it’s inconsistent, whereas Sony's headphones are far more steady. Both models dial back lows quite a bit.
The ANC has no obvious effect on audio payback, which is how it should be. The Ambient mode is useful, allowing you to hear your surroundings without taking the headphones off, and it can be adjusted in the app to focus on voices. Both modes are relatively easy to converse in, but a more pinpoint focus on conversations isn’t a bad thing.
Sony WH-1000XM5: Audio Quality
We tested the WH-1000XM5’s drivers without any of the various audio effects enabled and with EQ off. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones deliver powerful low-frequency response. At top, unwise listening levels, the drivers don’t distort, and at more moderate volumes, the bass still sounds quite robust—it’s also well balanced with higher-frequency content.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the WH-1000XM5’s general sound signature. The drums on this track get some added heft, for certain, but nothing that sends them into unnaturally thunderous territory. Callahan’s baritone vocals have a solid balance of low-mid richness and crisp high-mid definition, and the higher-register percussive hits and acoustic strums are delivered with ideal high-mid and high-frequency clarity. This is a sculpted sound signature, but one that will appeal to those who love deep bass and still want clarity and definition in the mix. That you can dial the bass back in the app (or up, if you need it) with EQ is a huge plus.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punch, while the vinyl crackle and hiss normally relegated to background status takes a slight step forward here. The powerful sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with strong subwoofer-like depth, but not to a degree that disrupts the balance of the mix. The vocals on this track are delivered with excellent clarity, without any obvious added sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, have an ideal balance between lower-register instrumentation and higher-register brass, strings, and vocals. The deepest lows are delivered with a natural presence—most of the time, the lows are playing a more subtle anchoring role in the mix, with the higher-register orchestral elements in the spotlight.
The mic array offers strong intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone, we could understand every word we recorded clearly, without Bluetooth audio artifacts muddling up the signal. Callers on the other end also attested to the clear voice quality. These headphones deliver stellar call clarity, provided you have a good mobile signal.
Noise Cancellation for Audiophiles
Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones continue the role established by their predecessor, offering the best sound quality in relation to noise cancellation. It’s close, but the Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones edge out the WH-1000XM5 in terms of sheer ANC prowess, while Sony is superior in the audio performance department, with better sound out of the box, a more useful five-band EQ (compared with three), and LDAC codec support for hi-res audio streaming. The AirPods Max are competitive in the audio department and at times eclipse Bose and Sony in terms of ANC, but they’re the least consistent of the three, and by far the most expensive. That makes Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones the best bet for audiophiles, as well as an Editors' Choice award winner.
Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones pair top-notch noise cancellation with class-leading audio quality in a comfortable, attractive design.
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About Tim Gideon
Contributing Editor, Audio
