Introduction to Sony WH-1000XM6
(relaxed music) – ‘Kay, so Sony is back with their new flagship wireless noise-canceling headphones with the super easy to remember name. You know the ones. These are the Sony WH-1000XM6s. Easier way to think of it, most people just call these the XM6 or the Mark 6s, which is exciting because the Mark 5s from last year actually left some room for improvement. They improved some things, but they also made some things worse, which was weird because the Sony noise-canceling headphones were pretty much king of the hill for so long, they didn’t have a ton of reason to change a whole lot. Thankfully though, the newest generation updates a lot of the stuff that the Mark 5s fell short on, so that’s really good to see. It’s exciting that there is a new design, new sound, a new case, but also a new price. We’ll get there.
Design and Comfort of Sony WH-1000XM6
So, straight from the top, I still love this super clean, simple design. They kept what was good about the Mark 5s. They are very, very lightweight. The vegan leather earpads are super soft. The headband is incredibly flexible. These are just some of the most comfortable headphones to wear for a long period of time, which is what you want from these. If you wear them for a long time for traveling or for a commute or something like that, they are still awesome. But if you remember the last generation, maybe you’re a subscriber and you’ve watched all these videos, wink, wink, then you remember that they made this huge downgrade to travel specifically because they didn’t fold at all, ever, so they had this huge case that was more annoying to travel with. So, first thing I was happy to see is the Mark 6s are back to being able to fold up again, so they have a new, significantly smaller case designed around them that fits some cables as well, and bonus, the case doesn’t zipper anymore. It just closes with magnets at this buckle on the side and it is way faster to open and close than everyone else’s zipper cases. I’m actually not sure how we haven’t seen this more often because this case is pretty much perfect. I have a feeling it’s about to be copied a whole lot in a whole bunch of places, ’cause wouldn’t change a thing. Also, another thing that Mark 5s weirdly didn’t do was when you’re wearing ’em around your neck was just to be able to rotate them flat like this. For some reason, they took that away in the Mark 5s, and now they’re back. Simple thing, but thank you. So, overall design-wise, I feel like these are back to being up near the top of the best travel-ready noise canceling headphones. It also comes with a four-foot right-angle headphone cable, and one of those tiny USB-C to USB-A cables for charging and they just fit in this little pocket over here in the corner of the case like this. It’s great. Feels durable. No notes.
Controls and Build Enhancements
And then they changed the buttons and microphones around the outside of the headphones just slightly, so the right side is still just the USB Type-C port, and then on the left next to the audio jack, they’ve made the power button much bigger, which doesn’t seem like much of a big deal, but that now lets you distinguish better between the power button and the noise cancellation button while you’re not able to see them.
Noise Cancellation and Microphone Improvements
Now, speaking of noise cancellation, they made a bunch of behind-the-scenes changes to these headphones that sound like they could make a big improvement. So, there are 12 microphones on these instead of eight from the last generation, there’s also a significantly more powerful Sony QN3 chip inside that should be able to do much more processing, and they also said that they’ve trained these headphones on 500 million voice samples using AI to be able to better distinguish human voices from environmental noise. So, this is the last generation of headphones and how the built in microphone sounds to someone I’m on a call with. Eight microphones. You know, some noise from air conditioners and general room tones, but nothing too crazy. And so now here is the Mark 6. So, they added two more beamforming microphones to the front for hearing my voice better, but what I really think most of these microphones are better for is noise cancellation and transparency.
Sound Quality of Sony WH-1000XM6
So, how do they sound? Well, I’ve been listening to these headphones for the past two weeks or so. I’ve taken a few flights, I’ve worn ’em around the studio, at home, all kinds of different environments, and they sound better. These are actually all-new drivers versus the last gen, so there’s a lot going on here, but to be specific, they are excellent quality sound with great range. Punchy lows and a lot of bass and then a lot of detail and clarity all the way through the mids and the highs and they are still really, really insanely good at canceling out white noise. Now, if we wanna get even more granular, I did a bunch of back-to-back listening with these Mark 6s and the last generation, and there are certain tracks where you really feel the difference a lot. Basically, the Mark 6s have a much stronger low end, especially in the sub-bass and lowest bass, and the Mark 5s started to feel a little spiky in the midrange where the vocals are and were a little bit weaker in the low end, so in the tracks that have a really important bass or sub-bass, pop, electro, hip hop, stuff like that, that’s when in these, they’re really appreciated.
Transparency and Ambient Sound Mode
And then the Mark 6 also has even stronger noise cancellation than the already GOATed Mark 5s, but the real highlight for me is actually the transparency mode, which feels way more natural and clear sounding. So, if you’re wearing these headphones and do want voices to come through or just wanna hear your environment more for whatever reason, people might talk to you through these headphones, the transparency mode, or what Sony calls ambient sound mode, went from feeling a little muddy and unclear to literally up there with AirPods Max levels of crystal clear and natural, which is awesome.
Sound Connect App and New Listening Modes
Now, not only are these headphones new, but Sony’s also refreshed their app. The Sony Headphones Connect app is now just called Sound Connect, but it still does most of the same stuff. There’s still literally 20 different levels of ambient sound. There’s still custom EQs that you can easily flip between, and this is also where you can turn on or off any of the other convenience features. Now, this one new one that I found interesting is listening mode. So, you can listen to your audio like normal in standard mode, or you can flip it to background music mode, which does an incredibly good job of making it sound like the music is coming from a small set of tinny speakers, like, 20 feet away, like, as if you’re in a cafe somewhere, which, you know, you might be into that. There’s even actually three modes. So, cafe, living room, or my room, each of which just shrinks the size of the virtual room a bit, and then there’s also cinema mode, which does this upmixing from stereo to a 360-degree immersive sound mix of whatever you’re listening to, kinda like a movie theater. It’s also a very dramatic V-shaped sound too. I could picture someone maybe in their home office or a cubicle or something like that listening to these all day and wanting to feel like it’s a less fatiguing, further away sound, and then you’d put cafe mode on and it works. It’s surprising how well it works. And maybe then you flip to cinema mode for watching certain YouTube videos or something like that. There’s also still the EQ stuff. The point is you can make these headphones sound exactly the way you want them to.
Performance, Battery, and Price of Sony WH-1000XM6
The sound is really strong. The noise cancellation is excellent. They’re extremely comfortable to wear for long periods of time. They fold up into a smaller case. The battery life is the same 30 hours as last year. My only downsides are literally that your ears can get a little sweaty without any ventilation after a couple hours and the touch pad controls on the side are still finicky like they are every year, but clearly these have a lot of great things going for them. So then the price. $449. These are even more pricey now, and the Mark 5s were already super premium at 400 bucks when they launched, and now they’ve dropped down into the $350 range. These are launching at $450, maybe partially to account for tariffs, maybe partially because they think they’re that much better now, but that is really expensive, and I was thinking about it for a while, and I actually still think they are worth it, and I basically landed on that because this whole category of all these other premium noise-canceling headphones options is filled with other things that still try to beat these and don’t and make these still feel like a deal, if that makes sense. Also, especially for Android people. Like, the Bose QuietComfort Ultras are $429. These are better. The Sonos headphones launched at $450 and have dropped a little bit, but these are better. JBL has a $400 option. This absolutely smokes those. This smokes the Beat Studios. AirPods Max are still somehow $550. You could argue though for the Apple ecosystem people that maybe that’s worth it, but these Sonys still have multi-device connectivity and can combine an Apple device and a non-Apple device, which is sick.
Final Verdict: Sony WH-1000XM6 Back on the Throne
So, my take is if you’re still just looking for the flat out best headphones to fly with, to work with, to commute with, that you gotta have the most comfort, the best noise cancellation, I mean, that’s just how much they cost. These are back on the throne. So, there you have it. Sony’s WH-1000XM6.
