Sony WH-1000XM5 Premium Noise Canceling Headphones, Auto NC Optimizer, 30-Hour Battery, Alexa Voice Control, Midnight Blue

I recently bought this XM5 as a perceived upgrade from my old XM3 bluetooth cans. I had held off this purchase, thinking that by now Sony would've released the XM6 by now. But no, Sony decided to continue making and selling the XM5. Tired of any further waiting for something that might not happen anytime soon, I finally caved and bought the XM5 when Amazon put the price back under $300 for the October 2024 Amazon Days.The first thing I noted was how CHEAP the packaging and the accompanying accessories were for this XM5. No stout carrying/storage case this time around. The headphone's boxed packaging might appear to be about Sony trying to be environmentally conscious and being "green", but I suspect that Sony was more about SAVING some green by cheapening up their packaging costs. Even at a discount price, the rudimentary unboxing process made me feel a bit cheated.However after charging up the XM5, I have to admit that in the end it's really only about the user experience with the headphones. And I must confess that it's pretty great, a definite step forward from the XM3 from two generations before. The XM5 is definitely more comfortable for me than the XM3, which itself wasn't all that bad to begin with. I still loathe the swipe controls on the right earpad, but at least I god used to them during my years of using the XM3.I have six plus decade old ears, so a LOT of the sonic range is now denied to my brain as my ears certainly don't perform like they used to. But I still can hear enough to say that acoustically the XM5 is a noticeable step forward from the old XM3. While initially the XM5 sound seemed a little colder and a bit on the sharp side, the soundstage imaging is better and more appealing to me, and detail recreation seems marginally improved over the older headphones. So far well-recorded live performances sound a bit more spatially realistic than what was possible with the XM3, and as the burn-in hours add up (roughly about 120 hours of burn-in so far), I suspect that these nuances with further blend, warm up and smooth out.I don't generally use over-ear wireless headphones for phone calls, so I can't really comment about this feature set of the XM5 when I used it with my cellphone. It does seem to work okay, and persons on the other end seem to regularly claim that they can hear me well enough.All in all I'm pleased with the XM5 so far. It sounds nicer than the retiring XM3 I had been using, and it fits my large noggin decently well. I do think that the headband is, if anything, a bit on the loose side. But that does seem to aid in making the XM5 wear as comfortably as it does for me. The XM3 was a difficult set to wear to sleep; any slight turn of my head at night often resulted in neck pain the next morning. I've not had this problem at all with the XM5. So far it's been a 5-star experience, and I'm looking forward to continuing to use these for the next few years.

These replaced a set of Sennheiser 450BTC headphones. Great headphones for the money and intended use but no equalizer and noise cancelling is automatic and not that great. I decided it was time for a set of premium noise canceling headphones, so I started researching. I had it narrowed down to Sony, Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra and Apple Airpods Max. Choosing Sony was fairly straightforward: The Apple headphones are a lot more expensive and have no equalizer or sound enhancing software except for the EQ settings on your iPhone (forgot to mention I'm purchasing for use with iPhone/iPad). The Bose have by far the best noise cancelling of the three, but the sound quality isn't quite up to par with the Sonys. I decided incredible sound and great noise cancelling was more important than very good sound and perfect noise cancelling. Plus the battery life of the Bose is significantly less than Sony. I went with the blue color, thought it was a nice change from black. I have a big head and big ears and the cups cover my ears completely and the fit is very comfortable. Don't pair and try them before downloading the Sony app. They sound a little flat out of the box with no enhancement. Once I installed the app and spent about 30 minutes tweaking them to my liking, they were very impressive. My best friend is a professional musician and has a set of very nice studio headphones. These don't sound that good but they are very close. Overall, I am completely satisfied with my choice. Couldn't have found anything nicer for the price.

For some reason I’m obsessed with headphones so here is the most straight forward review to help you out.Price - They are all expensive, usually in headphones you pay for what you get.Sound - APM sound better, but you’re not gonna know unless you compare them side by side. XM5 sound amazing.Comfort - Super light and really comfortable. Headband doesn’t bother me at all. Trick is to expand the headband so it doesn’t rest on the top of your head that much. APM are too heavy, Bose feel slightly better than XM5.Features - They are the best you can get.Controls - Amazing, touch controls work great!ANC and Transparency - ANC is really good and on par or better than all other brands. Transparency on APM sound like you’re not wearing headphones, XM5’s transparency is much better than XM4 but do sound electronic, like you can tell it’s coming through the mic. It’s no APM but 2nd best for sure.Build Quality and Design - Plastic but that’s a good thing because they are lightweight. IMO they look better than anything else.Multipoint Connection - Set it up in the app and you are good to go with 2 devices. Stop playing on one device start playing on another. It’s seamless for the most part but sometimes you may have to reload the video or song to get it to play.Headphones are really subjective to the user. What I’ve learned is sound quality and comfort matter more than anything. There aren’t any headphones that are perfect and check all the boxes but the XM5 IMO are the best on the market.