It’s been a solid three years since I last reviewed the Sony WH-1000XM5, and this year, I’ve got its successor, the WH-1000XM6 in my hands and wrapped around my ears for the last month or so.
And while there are better options like the Sonos Ace and B&W Px8 and Px7 S3, I’ll repeat what I said in the review of its predecessor: With these new headphones, it feels as if Sony is, once again, trying to reinvent the wheel through the mathematical acts of subtraction and addition.
What Am I Looking At?
The WH-1000XM6 is a pair of ANC Wireless headphones, and both a follow-up and successor 2022’s WH-1000XM5. Each earcup houses a 30mm Neodymium driver, flanked by the brand’s new QN3 HD Noise Cancelling Processor and Adaptive NC Optimiser, the latter automatically adjusting the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and Ambient Mode (or Passthrough, whatever you call it) on the fly.
The biggest change to the WH-1000XM6 is the return of the foldable earcups. Sony skipped a generation with the XM5, probably due to the current and ongoing trend of creating headphones that are flexible and durable enough to stuff into your bag caseless, but not worth the effort to make them foldable. But, it’s good to see the form factor return, and to think, all it took was just a single generation before Sony caved in to the demands of the masses.
Then as now, much of the headphones’ controls are via the touch large touch sensor, found on the back of the right earcup. There are only two buttons, the power button and ANC, the former now in the shape of a big round…well, button, that is concaved and textured. Allowing you to differentiate between the two.
What’s Good About It?
Sound-wise, this year’s WH-1000XM6 feels a little muddier and, dare I say it, flatter than its predecessor. More on that in the next section. The good news, however, is that the overall clarity is still up to par, and sound staging is bang on.
Out of the box, highs and mids sound balanced without one attempting to drown out the other, while vocals tend to lean a little on the warm side. This makes tracks like Gekkou by Chihiro Onitsuka sounds really comforting, and even the Bossa Nova stylings of From the Start and the whimsical Valentine, both by Laufey, give that “je ne sais quoi” feeling that these songs often evoke.
The lows are strong but not skull rattling until some tweaks are done (again, more on that in the next section). By default, songs such as Feeling Good by Nina Simone sound full, while the bass line in Flight of the Cosmic Hippo by the Flecktones reverb hard enough to enjoy it.
Perhaps one of the biggest and long awaited feature to be added to the WH-1000XM6 is the ability to charge the headphones while still in use. It is such a simple yet basic feature that other brands and their headphones are capable of, and while Sony is late to this party, I am glad that the company has actually come to its senses.
30-hour battery life is still a key selling point of the WH-1000XM6, although to be fair, it’s a feat that almost every pair of wireless headphones I’ve tested throughout my career can comfortably boast about. That said, this pair comfortably gives me three and a half days worth of on-and-off usage.
What’s The Catch?
As I said, the sound signature of the WH-1000XM6 isn’t as bright as its predecessor and overall feels a little flat. In my case, the Goldilocks principle was in effect here; I fiddled with the equaliser just so the cans would scream into my ears at just the right decibel. In this case, I increased everything ever so slightly, with the lows being a moderately higher priority for me.
One design feature I wish Sony brought back with these WH-1000XM6 is the laddered headband. I honest to goodness do not enjoy having to play the approximation game with the length of each earcup, every time I unfold the headphones to put them on. Some of you may think this a minor issue, but for someone with a very mild case of OCD, it is maddening at the worst of times.
Because of its return to the foldable form factor, the WH-1000XM6, I feel, may lose a point in durability. While I myself haven’t gone at lengths to purposely break, having those extra joints means that there’s something
Lastly, Sony has upped the price this year, with the WH-1000XM6 going for RM2,099, RM300 more than the WH-1000XM5 when it launched in 2022.
Should I Buy It?
Unless you’re a diehard fan of Sony’s offerings, the battery in your current WH headphones is unable to hold a charge or is feeling the tail end of wear and tear, then no. Truth be told, the WH-1000XM5s are still just as good to listen to.
Again, while it still retains Sony’s sound signature, these headphones still require some tweaking to before it sounds the way I wanted.
While these aren’t “money is no object” headphones, I can assure you that you can hardly go wrong with them, especially if you’re a sucker for the foldable form factor. Is it a worthy successor to the XM5, though? My answer is a strong “definitely”.
Photography by John Law.
