Sony WH-1000XM4 Review

Last updated on 2022-09-19
By Yvonne

Sony WH1000XM4 Review - Whether you are looking for the best-in-class headphones or a slew of industry-leading ANC features, the Sony WH1000XM4 is the right choice. It was tested for 48 hours.

Sony WH-1000XM4

We like this

Natural sound quality with beautiful, organic tones
Active noise cancellation at the next level
Design and build quality are top-of-the-line
There are tons of options and customisations available
Battery life is solid

The Things We Hate

It's quite expensive
There are no more aptX codescs
It is possible to be confusing with features

The Sony WH1000XM4 is the most powerful and reliable in its class.

This article explains

Design
Comfort
Durability and build quality
Tone Quality and Noise Cancelling
Battery life: as good or better than expected
The Codecs and Connectivity
Software and Other Features
Prices
Sony WH-1000XM4 vs. Sony WH-1000XM3
Final Verdict
Specifications

We purchased the Sony WH-1000XM4 so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Continue reading to see our complete product review.

Sony WH1000XM4 headphones were a big step up from their predecessors. The 1000XM3 model was just released a few years ago. Sony's noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, which are the flagship of the Bose QuietComfort series, is truly an impressive achievement in consumer audio technology.

The 1000XM4 take a refreshing approach to a next-gen—specifically, they just don't try to add too much. The 1000XM3's sound quality and appearance are almost identical, and they look just as high-end and premium as these headphones. This is a good thing because I thought they were the most comfortable ANC Bluetooth headphones that you could buy. As a tech critic, this version was too good to pass up. I ordered a pair of XM4s black and tested them out to see if there were any significant updates.

Related Reading: OnePlus Buds Z Review: Bangin’ Budget Buds

Design: Beautifully familiar

Sony's simple, sleek design is something that most people will like. Bose made a major design change when it launched its 700 series headphones. Sony, on the other side, decided to follow last year's WH1000XM3s with a single-color design and a copper-like accent color on the ANC microphone ports.

Although the earcups don't look completely circular, the edges are slightly rounded to allow them to fit more easily with your oval head shape than fully-round headphones. They are just over 2 inches in thickness (from your ear to where the cup touches your ear) and much slimmer than other top-tier ANC headphones. These headphones can be carried on your commute or used as a travel companion.

They must look polished and professional, yet still be elegant enough to justify the cost. This design theme is carried over to the hardshell, cloth-covered case and down to the zipper in copper. These headphones look as great as any pair of over-ear headphones.

Comfort is for the long-term

They are among the most comfortable headphones on the market thanks to their choice of material. Its super soft leather-like cup material is just damaged enough to gently rest against your side without being fragile. This year's foam is identical to last year, but it is a great choice. It is somewhere between memory foam and springy. The foam is flexible and provides form-fitting support. Although it could be just my imagination, I believe the pads are a little thicker than the XM3s. This is great because they provide additional support. This same material was used to make the adjustable, rugged headband.

Although the whole structure feels light, it is still substantial. The matte plastic finish looks great.

This makes them headphones that virtually disappear from your head after you place them on. These headphones weigh in at 250g, which is a lot lighter than one might think. These headphones were comfortable enough to be worn for work with no breaks or heavy listening. They do tend to get sweaty over time, like many other over-ear headphones, but it is not as bad as any others I have tried.

The best touches are in the durability and build quality

Sony made great decisions to create premium headphones. You'll be able to feel the soft touch plastic in the majority of the headphones' housing. Sony aimed to create a chassis that feels similar to leather-covered pads. Although the overall construction feels light, it is still substantial. The matte plastic finish looks great.

You can lose durability if you choose to use soft materials such as these for comfort. The XM4s' soft materials will be susceptible to scratches and scuffs, but not as much as other high-gloss plastics. The bones of the WH1000XM4s were very solid. The best thing about the headphones' adjustable inner band is its sturdy, metal construction with a sliding, firm mechanism.

There is little to worry about the band deteriorating over time. Important to remember that the headphones are not certified for water/dust resistance and have no IP rating. As with the majority of over-ear ANC headphones on the market, this is not a problem. However, don't expect them to be worn in rain. These headphones are sealed so I wouldn't recommend them for running or at the gym. The sweat can also cause damage to the fabric. It is great that the case comes along with the headphones. It is rigid, and keeps the headphones suspended nicely in a felt interior.

Superior Sound Quality and Noise Cancelling

It's no surprise that the Sony WH1000XM4s offer a rich, full-bodied sonic experience at this low price. These headphones are able to provide incredible isolation, even when active noise cancelling is not in use. This helps explain the detail. These headphones will allow you to hear a lot of the music that you have.

According to the spec sheet, the headphones' frequency response is 4Hz-40kHz when plugged in. This means that they cover a lot more area than what the average person can hear. When operating at 44.1k sampling rates, the story is slightly different. The range of the headphones drops to 20Hz-20kHz. This corresponds exactly with the human hearing range. It's all you would expect for premium headphones. There is plenty of coverage. The 1.57 inch dome-type driver drivers make the 105dB sensitivity feel very loud. The large speakers offer a lot of bass support.

This is a lot of jargon. I want to talk about my own listening experiences. Last year's XM3s felt extremely even, but had a bit more power at the lower-to-mid end of the spectrum. This muddyd up the music but adds thickness. For some reason the XM4s feel a bit more studio-like and have a flatter response. It isn't something you would find in consumer headphones. This frequency response doesn't enhance top 40 music and it does not provide an even frequency reference. The XM4s have a great even response, and I like it. However, some may find the XM4s lacking in bass. You can adjust this with the app, which I will get to shortly.

Noise cancellation is another key distinction between these two generations. Sony claims that the XM4s have better ANC. This was surprising to me, considering how great the XM3s in this class was. The noise canceling is much better than the XM3s, and almost as good as the XM3s. Sony's 'personal NC Optimizer' and QN1' HD Noise Cancelling Processing are likely to explain this.

Sony's description of optimization actually refers to a feature that measures the sound pressure within the earcups in relation to your head and ear shape. This allows it to optimize noise cancellation. These headphones are quite impressive in how they manage music whenANC activation is on. Some headphones can be too active to cancel out sound, while the M4s allow music to shine through.

Some headphones can be too active to cancel out sound, making it dull and sterile. However, the M4s are able to clear the background noise so that your music shines through.

Battery life: as good or better than expected

This is not to sound like I am a broken record, but these headphones have a battery life that's about the same as the previous generation. You can expect to get 30 hours of battery life if you use these headphones fully, turning on noise canceling and switching between transparency modes, while still listening to decent music. However, my age was more in the middle of the 20s because I was trying out all features for this review.

You'll have a longer battery life if you use active noise cancelling sparingly. This will allow you to listen for up to 40 hours continuously. This is a great product for the price and you won't be disappointed. It's also very fast, and you can get a good amount of juice with just a 20 minute quick charge. Although it will take three hours to charge them, that is normal for such an enormous battery.

Sony Tech Connectivity and Codecs: All-in for the best

The presence of third party codec options is one of the few differences (but extremely important) between this pair of headphones. The XM3s had Qualcomm aptX technology, which allowed for better audio compression over Bluetooth. Sony has removed the Qualcomm aptX functionality from the XM4s in favour of lower-def AAC, SBC and less commonly used LDAC options.

At first glance, this may seem like a decrease in quality. If you agree with Qualcomm's aptX approach (especially regarding latency), then you might find it a disadvantage to purchase the 1000Xs. Sony seems to have made this concession in order to let their DSEE Extreme technology upscale compressed audio once it reaches headphones.

Sony clearly believes in the software they use here. I found the quality of the audio to be solid for most of the time. Sony's HiRes Audio capability could also be responsible for this. This means that you can rely on Sony's final-line polish rather than on a lower lossy compression format at the front end. It is important to remember that has less latency for video-to-sound than aptX.

Bluetooth 5.0 is available onboard, compared to Bluetooth version 4, which was on the previous generation. It uses a 2.4GHz frequency band for transmission. On paper this allows for approximately 30 feet line-of sight connectivity. In practice I was amazed at how strong these headphones kept a connection. The Bluetooth 5.0 technology allows you to seamlessly switch between two devices simultaneously, making the experience even more enjoyable.

The only problem I had with the headphones was pairing them to different devices. You can easily put them in pairing mode by simply holding the power button at the off position until it tells you. It took me a while to get them to pair up to my MacBook. It is possible that this is due to how strong the connection to the XM4s' recalled devices. This makes it harder to force it to pair mode. Although it's minor, the issue was still there.

Software and features: All except the kitchen sink

The key takeaway with most of Sony's flagship headphones is that they come packed with a head-spinning amount of customizable features—almost to the point of choice paralysis. The WH-1000XM4s is a good example. The DSEE Bluetooth scaling tech and High-Res Audio, which Sony is well-known for, have been covered. But that's not the end of the story when it comes to tech with the WH-1000XM4s.

The 360-degree sound included in this year's package includes a fun new trick. It uses a specially designed surround sound algorithm that helps you spatialize the sound inside the headphones. Although this is not true surround sound because only two speakers are used, Sony has created something quite special with the software. Although it worked in our test audio, there aren't many applications that can support such proprietary software functions right away.

The headphones come with a variety of interactive functions that make it easier to integrate the headphones into your daily life. If you take a look at the left earcup, you will see an oddly-shaped square. It is actually a proximity sensor, which allows headphones to detect when they are on/off. The assumption that you are taking your headphones off for a chat will cause the music to pause automatically. You can also activate "ambient sound" mode to keep your environment in focus, passing the noises around the microphones.

The key takeaway with most of Sony's flagship headphones is that they come packed with a head-spinning amount of customizable features—almost to the point of choice paralysis.

You can also activate the headphones temporarily to have a conversation. You can also control the music through touch gestures and swipes. The speak-to chat feature, which detects when you begin talking on the headphones, is a really cool feature. After it detects your voice it automatically stops your music and plays ambient sounds. These features may be helpful for some users but can also prove annoying to others. Although it's great to have premium features on a device this expensive,

The Sony App controls many of these features and more. The app allows you to do anything, from setting an auto-power-off limit to selecting what the "custom" button does (which toggles noise cancelling by default). This is all normal, however I was most impressed by the EQ.

You can change the sound of your headphones by using this app. It's a fantastic way to increase the XM4s default frequency response. Because it uses fewer buttons, I prefer having these apps for controlling headphones. Sony is doing a good job overall, however, don't expect that you will be able to master all of the features and options immediately. There's a steep learning curve.

Prices: This is not for the weak of pockets

These ANC headphones are a high-end pair. This is usually the case unless you are talking about truly audiophile headphones, which you can use with a tube amplifier.

The XM4s were launched by Sony at $348. While it is not cheap, the quality of the headphones, as well as the comfort and sound, makes it worth the investment. Let me put it another way. Sony took the time to make these headphones feel premium and workpremium. You won't feel any buyer's regret if you have the money to buy them from the beginning.

Sony WH-1000XM4 vs. Sony WH-1000XM3

If it was not obvious from this review, the number of times that I have compared the two latest generations of the Sony WH-1000XMs shows me that these headphones are very close competitors. Bose is not without strong competitors in this market, while Microsoft's Surface Headphones offer a different entry, but the WH1000XM3s were my favourite flagship, ANC over-ear, headphones. The XM4s have been my favorite headphones for a while, so it's not surprising that they are now the best.

The Bose 700-series could be a good choice. There are many similar features and a lot of newer models of old headphones of the same brands that will offer enough updates to render the older ones obsolete. The XM3s are a great option if you're on the fence. The XM4s have a thicker earpad, a more natural sound, and more software features. The XM3s could be cheaper, but I wouldn't advise updating if you don't want to have the most recent Sony products.

If your budget is sufficient, you will find the Sony WH100XM4 a great choice because of its superior noise cancelling, flatter and more natural sound quality as well as the more comfortable feeling. These headphones will suit your needs whether you are looking for something to keep you comfortable on a long work day or something that can drown out the roar of an airplane.