Отзывы о Наушники Sony WH-1000XM4

This is almost the same as XM3, sounding everything is great but it has issues that made me prefer XM3 over this.

First, I didn't try the real 3D included. It's only works with other service like Tidal which has monthly charges. I really don't like they listed this as feature but it wasn't clear you have to pay those service later.

Second, battery life is horrible! It only lasted 6-8 hrs per charge. Upon research, people suggested to leave "DSEE Extreme" off which seems to drain battery life unexpectedly. XM3 has similar feature but I don't remember that has huge impact on battery life.

Until they fix the battery issue, I would suggest you to try similar Bose headphones instead.

Download Sony Headphone Connect App, open box, turn on headphones (bottom of left headphone on/off switch), using Sony Connect App, connect and paired new headphones.
- My headphones were 100% charged out of box.
- Many features in Sony Connect App, matter of your preference and use. I do think the app is solid and useful for my use of these headphones.
- My headphones firmware updated automatically -be patient, process took several minutes. Initial impression; very comfortable, really good noise canceling and sound quality.
- Voice clarity on both ends is outstanding.
- Easily connected two iPhones, my experience switching between them was seamless.
- Used ear profile in-app feature to analyze my ear shape for 360 Reality Audio setup.
- Able to connect to MacBook Pro (2020 version) directly via Bluetooth with no issues.

UPDATE: >30 hours of iPhone X, 8, and Bluetooth MacBook Pro connection.
- The phone call quality is awesome (you can hear
- No video lag/latency on FT and Zoom calls.
- I have found the connection at times can be a bit cumbersome when having two devices connected and receiving calls, it might be a setting or how I am picking up the call --directly from the phone or double-tapping on the headset.
- Great noise suppression to the wind, outside city/road-noise, etc... No reported issues with other people on calls with me. Always told call quality was very crisp and clear... my experience, much better than Apple Airpod Pro for suppression of noise for callers on the other end.
- I have also now used these headphones for Bluetooth connection to Nvidia Shield connected to my TV for over 16 hrs. Easy direct connection directly from Nvidia Bluetooth Settings. TV and Movie surround sound is great, you can hear the slightest sounds.

Bose 700 vs. Sony WH-1000XM4
- Seamless connection - prefer SONY
- Comfort - prefer Sony
- Headphone sound controls - prefer Bose. Sony touch control works ok but the Bose increase/decrease volume seems to work better on Sony
- Noise-canceling for me, both performed in a similar way
- Call quality, for me, both performed in a similar way

I Will continue to test and use Bose but the feel of the headset on my head is not as comfortable as Sony.

UPDATE: Running 7.3 Update
- Not sure if related but the initial bluetooth connection and subsequent connections are problematic;
- I have had to reconnect several times via the app and my phone needs to be very close to the headset;
- Once I am connected it has worked but I have had to repeat the process a few times now;
- Additionally, after significant use, the touch controls are a nice feature but not ideal under some circumstances. For example, if you have a hoodie on, jacket with hood, etc... touch control is sensitive and fabric, cord, ect... will effect the touch controls.
- I am running iphone X with latest iOS, should be receiving iphone 12 Pro this eve and will update with any new comments.

Well, I wanted to like this so bad. I needed to upgrade a 5 year old pair of Bose QC35s I loved dearly and have put through hell and back. I didn't love the design of the Bose 700s and wanted more modern ANC features than the QC35ii, so I chose these after plenty of research. First of all, the sound is way better, though unsurprisingly no where close to my open back Sennheisers. Still much much better than my original QC35s. Noise canceling was surprisingly uninspiring, it really didn't strike me as any better than what my 5 year old pair can manage, though the ambient settings were nice.

Unfortunately, I HATED the ear cup design. So much so that I actually ended up deciding to exchange these for a pair of the QC35ii's because at least I know those will be very comfortable. I have a fairly small ears, and my ears touched the inside of the headphones. The foam inside the ear cups really isn't all that smooth or comfortable, and would definitely catch on my earrings over a lifetime of frequent use. This also caused my ears to get very warm even when wearing these for only a short period while sitting in a cool room. I can't imagine how they'd feel outside on a hot day. And lastly, and least significantly, the faux leather on the ear pieces is definitely less comfortable than the Bose. This wouldn't be a deal breaker for me on it's own, but with everything else, these really aren't headphones I'd be able to wear regularly, much less for the amount of time I'll be wearing these.

I'd definitely recommend these for those less sensitive to ear comfort or wanting something primarily for short travel rather than day to day wear, but otherwise not so much...

Noise cancellation and audio quality exceeded my expectations. If you can afford it, buy it. If you can not afford it, find a part time job so you can buy it.

I receive both a S-brand Bud+ and the Sony XM4 on the same day.
In short, the Bud+ is garbage, no bass, average mid and high.
The Sony XM4 is a must buy if your budget allows for it.
Highly recommended.

1. If you like to listen to music around 70% volume and texts come through, it's very loud. Sounds like 150% and the only way to turn it down according to google and Sony is to turn down the sound. That would mean listen to music at lower volume. Why can't there be separate way to control notifications?

2. "Ambient Sound" mode is always on by default. It's very annoying because I never use it. So you have to open the app, sometimes the app takes 7 seconds to open sometimes 2 seconds. Flip a page. Toggle ambient sound off.

3. The google assistant can tell you "you have an email, or a text from Mr.X". Useless to me because in order for it to read the email subject or the text message, you have to use your hands on it like a babies toy. I can't understand why there is no setting to allow it to read it out without requiring the press of a button. I know I have an email because of unique sound notification. I know who the text is from because custom notification for each person. To me this feature is very useless. It's double the notification and I can't turn it off in the Sony app. I have to turn it off in the google settings.

4. If you are using blue-tooth and you want to plug in the cable, remember to turn off the headphones or else the battery gets drained. Sony says this is not suppose to happen, but it has happened. I sometimes plug in the cable and forget to turn them off.

5.Ambient sound seriously needs improvements. That Sony commercial about walking outdoors and hearing the traffic around you is total BS. If there is a small wind outside, you will hear so much wind you will go insane trying to use the ambient sound. The option menu gives you level 1 to 20, I can't go beyond level 3. Either a dead cat or better software is needed.

6. There is a feature that will pause the music when it hears you speak... if someone doesn't speak for 3 seconds, max 5 seconds, the music should return in my opinion. It's actually set to 15 seconds and no way to change it. So when you say anything, the music will pause 15 seconds before playing.

7. The same size speakers are disappointing. I was hoping for more bass that can be felt.

Sony says they appreciate my feedback and will work on updates. I decline to keep these because it's not worth the price.

So I was stuck between last year's M3 and the Bose 700. I saw these were coming out and wasn't sure. I did more research and was leaning towards the 700's to save money. I am primarily using these for WFH (music/calls) and the mic on the 700's is said to be amazing. As I researched I googled around and found that Bose has been having weeks of software issues and didn't want to get into that. I almost pre-ordered the M4's but decided to sleep on it because it didn't make a difference being in a queue. Finally one day, I found a YouTube video on the M4 and all my concerns were already addressed. I was sold.

Yesterday (Aug 18th) these arrived at my door and I was on calls ALL DAY. They were perfect. Today, I get to enjoy music and silence –– HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

As a diagnosed Autistic Person (Aspergers) I gave these headphones a 5 Star review because even though they have some faults I do think they serve their purpose.
These headphones are great for basic use like travel and at home / at work use. I personally use them to drown out the noise from a very noisy daycare I live next door to, or if i've had a long day of Sensory Processing and I'm drained and can't cope with background noises or volume control of other people's voices any more. I definitely recommend them for people who are ASD or with Sensory Processing issues. I enjoy wearing them when i'm working too as they help me concentrate on my tasks without having my attention diverted by auditory distractions.

The things that aren't the greatest about them -
* I do not recommend them for exercise such as Running. They are very sensitive and even when i go outside I turn down all noise canceling sensors on the app, just to stay quiet at the lowest level.
* The Speak to Chat function is cool, but can be annoying when you just clear your throat and it activates. The headphones are so sensitive that sometimes when I try to return back to Noise Canceling it switches off the function all together.
* Volume adjustment is not the greatest either. Having to slide your finger up and down one little bit at a time makes the whole function extremely slow. The skip or go back swipe function is cool but again, it's so sensitive that if you swipe accidentally or a little off angle it feels that.
* I also don't really like the material they are made of. Be sure to give them a wipe every day as the material easily gathers natural occurring oils form your skin and hair.
* It has this cool all surrounding music function, but you can't get that unless you purchase a specific music app for it. Spotify doesn't support that sadly.
* It's great that it can pair with 2 devices at a time, but sometimes that causes one device's volume to not work and I have to switch off the other device and start all over again with pairing.
* For some reason it constantly switches on itunes every time i connect it to my computer.

But as I said, I do love to wear them a lot and they help me out immensely, especially around the house, everyday tasks and with concentration.

I hope that with future products these things will be adjusted, but for now we're so lucky to have such cool technology.

As of about three years ago, I was an earbuds guy. The wireless over-hear headphones I had tried previously never could approximate the kind of audio immersion you get when you wedge little speakers directly into your ear canals. I never found over-hear headphone noise cancellation to work that well - often, turning it on would create more noise than it cancelled, compromising audio quality and, well, just sucking generally. Not to mention the inconsistent and typically non-intuitive affordances for powering on/off, pairing, and controlling playback on these things.

But then I picked up a pair of Sony's WH-H900N noise cancelling wireless headphones. I basically fell in love with them on day one and used the heck out of them over the past 3 years. So, now I'm an over-ear headphones guy. Specifically, THIS line of over-ear headphones that Sony is putting out.

I still love my H900Ns. But we all know that in tech a lot can change in 3 years time. In fact, I was about to upgrade to the WH-1000XM3s a few months ago but held off after learning about the imminent release of the M4s. So I waited. Then I pre-ordered. Yesterday, I received them.

I've now had about 24 hours to toy around with them and I'm already prepared to say that these are clearly the best headphones I've ever owned. Which is to say: They're everything I love about my WH-900Ns, but better:

- They're noticeably lighter, and based on about 5 hours of use I'm convinced they're more comfortable to wear
- Sound quality is significantly better. I didn't actually expect this amount of improvement, but it's definitely noticeable at both low and high end. Separation of layers is particularly amazing: vocals shine with total clarity, heavy bass tracks shake and vibrate my skull without any noticeable distortion; high-hats and snares are crisp and clear. Very happy with this so far, which i should mention is just using the default settings with songs downloaded from Spotify. I'm looking forward to optimizing further with custom equalizer settings in the sound connect app.
- Small thing but the semi-hardshell case with dedicated accessory storage (pictured) is really nice to have (900Ns just came with a bag...)
- Clarity of phone calls - both input and output (i.e., the mic works well) - is excellent. This is key as I plan to use these to listen to music and take meetings while WFH for the foreseeable future. The 900Ns were also very good in this regard, but the ability to connect to both my work computer and my mobile device simultaneously will really help me out during the work week.

CONNECTING TO TWO DEVICES SIMULTANEOUSLY

One of the issues is figuring out how to connect to these things to two devices at the same time. Given that this is a new and much-anticipated feature, I would have thought Sony would have thought to make it crystal clear to new users how to actually do this. Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find instructions for how to do this. Here are the steps I discovered through trial and error that allowed me to simultaneously connect to both my iPhone and Mac Mini:

1. You may have to enable the feature from within the Headphones mobile app. For me, it was disabled. See photo I uploaded showing the relevant part of the application.
2. You need to first pair the headphones to each device separately before it is possible to connect to them simultaneously. As far as I can tell, there is no way to put the headphones in pairing mode when they're connected to a device.
3. Then, when the headphones are connected to one of the devices, you should be able to connect your second device to the headphones using the second device's bluetooth preferences.
4. If the second device successfully connects, you'll hear a voice notification through the headphones: "Bluetooth device 2 connected". You'll also see two devices listed under the "Status" tab of the Headphones Connect application.

Not a big deal, but seems silly that something like the above wasn't just in Sony's own documentation.

OTHER MINOR GRIEVANCES AND NITPICKS

It seems that the only way to get the most out of these is to use them with your Android or iOS device. This is because a lot of functionality - such as the ability to customize sound - is only available on iOS/Android devices with the Sony Headphones Connect application. The iOS app is decidedly intended for use on iPhones - it only runs in portrait orientation, making it a pain to use on my iPad (which I almost always use in landscape orientation). But the worst thing about this is that I can't customize anything when listening on a MacOS device, which these days is a lot of the time. Fortunately, these sound excellent even with the default settings - just wish the capabilities of these headphones wasn't dependent on which device I was using them with.

Final minor grievance (for now) is this adaptive sound control feature that Sony got me to try out. It requires location sharing and by default fires annoying and surprisingly frequent notifications on my iPhone about how it's apparently adapting to my ambient environment. I figured out how to mute the notifications but still need to figure out how to shut the feature off entirely, which I frankly have had enough of. My advice is to opt out of this feature when you first set your headphones up. Very disruptive with totally unclear benefits.

FINAL WORD (FOR NOW)

Again, best headphones I've ever owned, and I'm very happy with my purchase. But the minor issues I describe above, combined with the high cost of these things, were enough to knock a star off my rating. Buyer beware :)

UPDATE 1/28/21: After a month and a half, I'm still very pleased with this purchase. Music sounds great and the battery life is amazing. I stand by my complaints, though. And I wound up disabling Speak to Chat functionality as it would sometimes pick up stray noise and pause music, like when washing dishes. Doubling tapping the right earphone is more than adequate if I need to pause. Also, I've been told by others that I sound very quiet on cell phone calls, but haven't it myself. Finally, Bluetooth with my Mac can sometimes be fussy, but I blame that on the abomination that is the Bluetooth protocol and Apple's poor Bluetooth stack.

UPDATE: I've managed extensive testing of the ANC with my 8-year-old twins and their near constant screaming has been reduced to a slight buzzing. Bonus sixth star!

I'm not an audiophile. My listening source are FLACs via a MacBook Pro. Also, my review solely covers the wireless mode. Qualifiers disclosed, these are without question the best wireless headphones I've used.

Over the past week, I've thrown numerous genres at them, spanning Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Anthrax, Rammstein, Beck, Big Boi, Run DMC, Prodigy to Aimee Mann (signaling much?) and the phones have acquitted themselves quite well. The bass is crisp and not distorted even at loud volumes and the highs maintain without becoming grating. The build-in equalizer is good and can dramatically alter the color of the sound to suit your taste. The Noise Canceling is a dream and has clever options, like adjustable ambient sound control, which is easy to cycle through.

The lifestyle features like remove to pause, Quick Attention and ASC are quite nifty. I haven't found the touch controls to be annoying like many others, though you do need to be precise and I've given up trying to control the volume with it and instead use the app, but track skip and tap to play/pause are easy. Speaking of the app, it's not the most straightforward thing, but it has been rock solid on Android and gives you tremendous customization options. I've only done a few calls with headphones, and while the call quality was fine, I don't have enough experience with that aspect to fairly comment.

While it doesn't come with a charger, it does include a ridiculously short USB-C charging cable and an adequate 3.5mm audio cable, which all fit nicely within a compact carrying case. Speaking of charging, the phones will easily last more than a day of serious use and it recharges quickly.

Of course, it's not all flowers and sunshine. They are closed-ear headphones, so they will warm your ears after a few hours. The touch controls are novel and take a bit of getting used to, but work pretty reliably (barring volume control). The Speak to Chat functionality is brilliant, but maddeningly fussy. I'm hopeful that the combination of more tuning by me and future firmware updates from Sony will make it a killer feature and if not, it can be disabled from within the app.

A couple of decades ago, Sony was the benchmark in consumer audio before sliding into also-ran mediocrity. These headphones are a refreshing reminder of that excellent past and I recommend them with minimal reservation.

Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless Industry Leading Noise Canceling Overhead Headphones with Mic for phone.

PROS :
1) Best noise cancelling on the current market Period in all frequencies.
2) Sound quality incredibly balanced & adjustable with the App to individual taste
3) Exceptionally comfortable, only beaten by the Bose 35s
4) Excellent connectivity stable connection with 2 devices at once
5) 30 hours battery life

CONS:
1) No AptX LL. This is a reason for me to send them back since I watch movies with head phones. In this day & age we need low latency to watch video content.
This is unforgivable since Sony was notified in their previous version the WH-1000XM3 it was a must.
2) Wind turns the ambient sound feature on & off. This is beyond annoying. Thank goodness it can be turned off
3) If it's windy one can hear wind in a phone conversation. This is not a problem with the Bose 700s
4) The ears will get quite warm if the headphones are worn for long periods.
5) I'm still not a fan of the swipe controls. They can be glitchy. For instance when trying to turn volume up or down, sometimes it pauses the music & other times it switches to the next track.

Overall Sony has improved the WH-1000XM4 from the previous generation but it could be better, much better with a few tweaks & recommendations above to become the ultimate noise cancelling bluetooth headphones on the market.

****EDIT**** I had to send the unit back because the automatic quick attention mode where human voices turn the music off went hay wire. Every sound started to turn the unit off. It didn't matter in the app if that feature was on or off, it kept doing it. This is a major flaw in the design. I DO NOT RECOMMEND this model. It's frustrating beyond belief....Now I star

After reading several online articles on the best wireless ANC headphones in the $300-400 range, I chose three to try out:

- Sony WH-1000XM4
- Master & Dynamic MW65
- Bowers & Wilkins PX7

The Sony pair arrived first and my initial thought was that although they had plenty of cool bells & whistles (touch sensitive volume control, automatic pause when removing them from your head) and the ANC was very effective, they sounded surprisingly flat. Even after trying various EQ settings within the Sony app and on my iPhone, the sound was decent but just not good enough for a $350 pair of headphones. And the most important thing to me with headphones is sound quality. I couldn't help but wonder why these headphones had such great reviews on sound quality when to my ears they just sound dull. All bass and mid, very little clarity of treble. To me, it seems the majority of the money for this pair went into the fancy features and not to the sound quality.

Next came the Master & Dynamic MW65 -- a newer company based out of NYC I hadn't heard of until this week. Besides the absolutely stunning design (not the most important thing to me honestly) I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the full, rich sound and crystal clear quality of the audio -- especially on the high end. An absolutely beautiful, well balanced, natural sound -- unlike the Sony's. Bass and midrange are important of course, and these have plenty of low end punch, but if you're like me and you want a precise, clear, open treble (so you can really hear all those delicate cymbals and high hats), then these will delight you. To be fair, they do not have many of the fancy features of other headphones in this price range (and they don't come with an app, which is fine by me), and the ANC isn't quite as effective as the Sony's. But a more subtle ANC is also what keeps the music sounding so great. They're also the only pair of the three that didn't come with a hard case (the case is soft), so to protect these I'm going to spend another $25 on a case. They're worth it. I only wish these were super soft over-ear phones instead of on-ear phones. The earpad leather is very soft and they are definitely comfortable (even to a man with big ears like mine), but I feel after hours of usage an over-ear set would be more comfortable.

Finally the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 arrived. I had high hopes for these because of their reviews, and the reputation of B&W for many years running. So I was as surprised as I could possibly be when I put them on and they sounded as flat and dull as the Sony's. In fact, after an A-B comparison they sounded nearly identical to the Sony's. Plus, the B&W app was buggy and terrible, and didn't even include EQ. (I used the iPhone settings to adjust EQ instead, but it still didn't help the B&Ws much.)

Master & Dynamic was the clear winner of the three, no contest. It amazes me that the Sony and B&W headphones have plenty of glowing reviews from people who rave about the sound quality. All I can think of is everyone's preferences are different, but most likely the people who popped them on and enjoyed them didn't actually do A-B comparisons with other brands. It was when I compared the Master & Dynamics with the others that I really noticed what the other two pair were missing.

Just got my new XM4 yesterday. Did a full charge and downloaded the app. The sound isn't as good as I had hoped. I'm comparing then to my Bose QC 35. The controls are very awkward but I guess I need some time to adjust. The part I don't like is the technology aspect of these headphones. There are several settings to go thru to establish the proper noise cancelling, including location and sending pics of your ears to Sony. Of course I didn't upload any pics, and after lots of quirks, I turned off location. There is a setting that auto mutes the headphone when you speak, so if you intend to sing along with your music, it mutes. You can't even clear your throat or sneeze, otherwise it mutes. How annoying.. bottom line I turned all the technology off which makes them regular headphones. The sound is great when playing music, but call quality is mediocre compared to Bose. In the app, you can change the equilizer presets a however, several are identical which is dumb. You can set a custom EQ setting. I'm considering returning them, but I will give a few more days for me to adjust and see if it gets better.

One solid point I forgot to mention. The new Sonys have Bluetooth 5.0 where as Bose QC35 have 4.1 or 4.2 (depending on when you bought them). The Bose connection is not very stable. The receiving antenna is on the right side of Bose QC, and if my phone were on my left hip, it cuts it or jitters. The Sony's are absolutely solid, and with 5.0, you can literally walk around the house without your phone and it hasn't stuttered once.

Update 8/25/2020: After a couple more hours tinkering with them, the voice assist is horrible, and the worst part, the headphones do NOT announce caller. (Bose do).. I haven't found a solid way to reject a call and it isn't in the help section. While the controls take practice, most of the time I try adjusting the volume, but change the track instead. I definitely prefer the buttons on the Bose as its really easy and intuitive.

Update 11/15/20: these headphone controls are getting worse. I can no longer control volume. I used to think it was just when my hands were moist from being on treadmill. Add off this morning, I washed and dried my hands and still no volume control. This reinforces my previous review of preferring actual buttons. These headphones were a $400 mistake

Update 1/4/21: I cannot reach Sony for warranty. I've reached out to Amazon 2 months ago and still no reply. These are a useless paperweight. Do not buy these if you value quality.

I was very excited about this new product and was finally willing to spend money since I now work from home. They are incredibly comfortable, sound quality is incredible but the microphones are horrible and call quality is non-existent. I was unable to use it for office calls. People said I sound robotic, like I was in a box or I had to speak up. Noise cancellation did nothing for ambient noise at any level. It picked up my dogs outside, the tv in the background and even my wife. It’s unacceptable for a product in this price range. I really don’t understand the rave reviews on this. If you are using them solely for music I completely agree but nothing else. I switched to the bose 700’s and it’s night and day for call quality and noise cancellation. Everyone says I am extremely clear now and they cannot hear anything in the background at all. Sound is good but nowhere near the punchy bass and ambient sound the Sony headphones have. I really tried to love my xm4‘s but could not justify not being able to also use them for work. Note: I did update them to latest firmware and tested every knob and feature in the app. Nothing changed what I was experiencing.

definitely better audio-hi-fi than xm3 -- more openness and definition.

note: to pair with my walkman wm1a i set up bluetooth pairing on walkman, BUT, as with xm3, i have to turn off the headphones first and restart them by PUSHING POWER ON, AND HOLDING IT PRESSED FOR 7 SECONDS. devices then connect.

Owned the WH1000xm4 for a week. Thought the sound was great for a noise cancelling headphone, however if you don’t care for noise cancelling you can get better sounding bluetooth headphones for an even lower price, from Hifiman, Grado to name a few. I bought the Bose 700 a few days later. Sound quality is close between the two. The Bose sounded warm and neutral while Sony sounded a little lean and neutral. With the Bose you are sitting a little closer to the performer because voices sound closer to you, with Sony you are sitting a few rows back with a little wider soundstage. I would say Sony has a little better bass impact compared to the Bose. For a noise cancelling headphone at this price range I would give both a 9/10 in sound quality. However, compared to my $1700 Sennheiser HD800S, both would get a 5.5/10 if the HD800S was a 10. These are not audiophile headphones but sound good enough for non-critical listening.

Both are very comfortable, Sony is cushier, while Bose has a little firmer foam around the ears. Because the Sony is cushy with more surface area contact, your ears can feel warmer, good if you live in a cold area I guess. With this one I prefer the Bose.

Sony has more functionality with its phone app. However, Sony’s AI algorithm DSEE which is supposed to enhance compressed audio cause some loss in audio fidelity. Overall better with it off, at least with my ears. Music untouched and played as close to neutral as possible is best. Sony has a built in Noise Canceling Optimizer which made no audible difference to my ears. These are probably unfinished functionality pushed by the marketing department. I’m not sure. Before I bought this headphone, I was reading a review from Soundguys website where they tested battery life. Anyway, these got just below 20 hrs, not 30. So on par with other brands.

I would have kept the Sony, was happy with it. However, it wasn’t compatible with my Samsung TV(2019 model). Searched online and a few people have the same issue. Noticeable audio lag, and loss of sync between audio and video. With a firmware update from Sony, this will probably be fixed in the future, but I didn’t want to take a chance, especially considering the price of the headphone. So anyway, bought the Bose 700, now zero issues with my tv. Sound quality is identical, build quality and choice of materials is just as good. Final Rating. Sound Quality 9, Build quality 9, Noise Cancellation 9, Comfort 8.5.

I spent both a live chat session and SIX phone calls with Sony customer support trying to get these to work properly, to no avail. This is one of the most disappointing purchases I've made recently. Arguably the biggest selling point of the XM4 over the XM3 headphones is the multi-device connection feature, which supposedly lets you switch automatically between two devices. Without this feature, you may as well buy the XM3 headphones for $100-$150 less. It doesn't work when paired with MacBook Pro and iPhone. I've tried everything — restoring the headphones to default settings, deleting and reinstalling the app, deregistering and re-registering the headphones from both devices — nothing works. Search the Sony subreddit and you'll find a bunch of posts with the exact same problem when using a Mac and iPhone with this feature. The headphones will not switch connection to the second device. Both my MacBook and iPhone are running the latest versions of their respective OS. The MacBook is a 16" model from 2016 and the iPhone is an XS.

It seems completely nuts to me that Sony didn't detect this issue before putting these on the market. After six support phone calls and a live chat session, Sony did not offer to replace my unit. They told me the problem was with my computer and if I would like to return the headphones, I could. It would be one thing if the headphones had a compatibility warning that says "Does not work with MacBook Pros" or something, but there is no such warning. So if you use a Mac and an iPhone and you're thinking about getting these, please realize you may find yourself spending many futile hours trying to get this feature to work. If you don't care about that feature, I'm sure they're a great buy. The sound quality is great and the noise cancelling is excellent. Just pick up a pair of XM3 headphones instead and save yourself a chunk of cash.

Positives:

I do believe these headphones have incredible noise cancelling technology. They manage to make virtually every low-pitched sound (train engines, washing machines, etc.) non-existent and seriously reduce the sound of high-pitched sounds like talking, loud typing, clapping, etc. I'm a bit familiar with what's behind ANC and I can see both the internal and external microphones on the unit. Having ANC tech that adapts to both is what adds to a lot of the cost in high-end ANC headphones. These are certainly state of the art in that respect.

I expected the audio quality to be more amazing. It really is no better than the iPhone's included headphones or even the very cheap (but highly rated) Panasonic earbuds. However, adding ANC to playing sound is a tradeoff. Other, cheaper ANC headphones are far worse and wind up fighting with the music instead of letting you enjoy it. It could be that Sony is simply balancing ANC with sound quality and it can't get better than it is.

30 hours of battery life is awesome. It's literally 10 times more than AirPods. The low battery life of Apple's devices is why I avoided them.

Negatives:

These headphones are big and clumsy. As light and padded they are, they are still large, uncomfortable to wear for more than an hour, and take up a lot of space in a backpack. This isn't really Sony's fault; all over-ear headphones are going to take up X amount of volume because of the size and location of human ears. But due their size and weight, I am finding myself more and more often just using my cheap wired earbuds, even when the Sonys are sitting right there on my desk and ready to go. Do I choose ANC and excellent sound, but pain and discomfort? Or good enough sound, no ANC, wires that don't let me walk around, but no pain? I think you can understand the dilemma.

The gesture-based controls are nearly useless. I have heard from others that they don't work outdoors on very cold days, but that's not my issue. I only used the headphones in a climate controlled house. The touch controls are simply cumbersome to use. Either they will not trigger when I want them to, so I have to try it several times before they work. They also trigger when I don't want them to, such as when I pull up the top of my hoodie, move them aside to redistribute the pressure pain caused by the pads, or raise my arms to stretch. I would really prefer physical buttons, or even a way to turn off the sensor.

The headphones cannot be used while charging. They cannot be turned on while plugged in, and if turned on when plugging in the power cable, they immediately turn off. This is surprising behavior considering that Sony located the power port on the right side facing down, where it is most conveniently hanging while plugged in and being worn. After all, if you were on an airplane and just wanted silence, but were running low on battery, wouldn't you want to plug it in so that you continue to have silence for the duration of your trip? My iPhone and Macbook pro continue to operate while plugged in and charging, as does another pair of noise-cancelling (corded) earbuds I use. I can't think of any charging device that does not do this, so I don't understand how this could have been missed.

Another annoyance is that when paired with a MacOS laptop, every time they activate after turning on, MacOS will automatically launch the Music app and begin playing the first song. By "activate," this could mean moving aside the left headphone to speak with someone, then putting it right back on. The Mac will start playing music even when something else is playing sound, such as VLC playing a movie. There seems to be no reliable way to turn this off and it's incredibly annoying.

After nearly 20 years of Bluetooth technology development, I really expected something simple like headphones to be a smoother experience. Remember when you could just plug in the headphones to your phone when you take a call? Pairing these Sonys is a huge time-consuming headache. Just switching between my Mac and iPhone is a chore. It takes a long time to re-pair the headphones to a different device, even if you were hooked up to them earlier. If a call comes in, I need a good 30 seconds or longer before it the sound is established. I have missed calls because of this. To the caller, it sounds like I don't know how to use a phone. Yes, the headphones do work with a phone, and the other side hears me well. But due to this pairing delay, I just use the corded earbuds and not the Sonys.

To paraphrase Chase Jarvis, your best headphones are the ones you have with you... and start working as soon as you put them on, let you answer calls right away, don't interfere with your listening enjoyment, don't cause your head to hurt, etc. By that measure, $10 cabled earbuds are my best headphones, and these Sony headphones are down at the bottom of the list. Low tech easily wins over a kitchen sink of advanced features.

I have one of the oldest versions of these headphones. As I am a wage slave there was no justification for splurging on a headphone of this price range when I bought this. I do not recall the thought process that went into the initial purchase decision. (I suspect no thought went into it. But let's not dwell on the mistakes of the past impede us...)

I am a product of the western education; as a result, I am a nihilist. As such, life has very little to offer other than sex, food and displaying superiority over my fellow men with the hope of getting more of the former two.

Last week, as I was feeling especially oppressed by the thoughts of existentialist angst, I felt a sudden urge of something missing in my life, perhaps goaded by the Prime Day Sale on Amazon. So I decided to buy a newer (nay, the newest) version of the headphones, compounding my earlier folly.

I, like many before me, made the assumption that if something is newer it ought to be better. I have found that this headphone shows no distinct superiority over it's predecessors excepting being shinier and more expensive. In fact, my older version of the headphone is better in terms of built quality and response time.

If you are a like me: That is, a fool who hasn't got $300 to waste but in possession of the earlier version of these headphones. I urge you not buy this since it is in no way better than the earlier headphones.

Goodbye dear public.

“You! Hypocrite lecteur! – mon semblable, -mon frère!”

I bought the Sony XM4 headphones to replace an older set of Sony studio monitors based primarily on the reviews on-line. I wanted great sound, and noise cancellation. These headphones do not disappoint.

I use my headphones to listen to lps (at the moment) with a good audio source (Technics 1210GR/Blue Point2). I've listened to many different music types, and I like the fact that the sound is balanced and warm. If I listened to more rock I might want a stronger bass presentation, but I tend towards jazz and classical and I prefer accuracy and balance.

I'm using a low end Sony stereo receiver and the sound over paired Bluetooth connections is not as dynamic and strong as a direct plug connection. In my office I run a fan, and this set takes the fan out of the background. Just great. Reviews suggest the Bose high end is equally good for noise cancellation.

This is an enclosed over the ears headset. The pads fit snugly, but not tight. I wear my MX4 for hours a day listening to music and I never feel uncomfortable. I have an average sized head. Thankfully the folding headset of earlier Sony set is not in this model.

Bluetooth pairing is to two devices, and you can switch using a phone app from one to the other. Switching is a little funky, but not bad. If you are pairing to a single device such as an iPhone, then this is trouble free. The app lets you modify the sound profile of the headset.

This model comes with a dynamic sound format using music services that I have not sampled.

The MX4 has excellent battery life and would be a good headset to travel with. It's got features that are particularly useful when paired to a phone. Touch the earpiece to talk through, remove touch and sound resumes. Swipes up/down/left right for vol and track control. The sound of my phone calls (10XMax) is excellent.

The MX4 is a near audiophile headset with many features for phone users. Based on sound quality, quietness, build quality, and features this headset cannot be beat in its price point. It is a great piece of kit.

The headphones sound good. The poor design of the app is the problem.

Nothing works without the app. If you want to make the volume go up, you have to find the app, find the place where the volume is and adjust it. Then, when you want to play something else, you have to close or hide the app, and then select something else to play. But if you don't like the volume setting for the new piece, you have to find and turn on the Sony app again. I found that I needed to hold my phone in my hand all the time.

Then there is the problem of the frequent beeping while listening to a work. I keep on thinking there is someone trying to reach me, but it is just the Sony app interrupting the sound every few seconds with a beep. How annoying!

There is an instruction page the size of a newspaper without words. You know the kind, full of pictures, but no words. It is trying to convey how to use the headphones. The problem is that the headphones haven't read the instructions. Maybe the instructions are only for apple devices. My headphones don't know how they are supposed to operate, such as fast forward. They can pause the playback with a double tap on the right earpiece. However, a subsequent double tap on the earpiece doesn't get the playback to resume.

I am using an android phone and VLC for playback. If your experience is different, it may be our setups are different.

I've owned a lot of headphones over the years; most of them wired, without any noise cancellation. I think ANC is a great innovation, though, and my first pair of noise canceling headphones were the Sony MDR10RNC's back in 2015. These didn't sound all that great, but I only bought them for use on airplanes, and they looked and felt really nice. That combined with the noise canceling made up for the lack of sound quality. I actually loved these headphones for what they were, which was a way for me to feel less fatigued after a very long flight, while also allowing me to enjoy the on-board IFE.

Fast forward to today, and I've just spent $350 on a new pair of Sony wireless noise canceling headphones. With five more years of R&D under Sony's belt, a much higher price tag than I paid for my MDR10's (they were about $140) and great reviews around the net, I had high expectations. For this kind of money, I expected not just a set of cans I could use on a plane but some everyday hi-fi headphones for music too. Unfortunately, they just don't sound very good, even with noise canceling off. I've tried them wired, wireless, on and off (you can use them turned off when wired), with noise canceling on and off, and using both AAC and LDAC codecs. The problem seems to be the headphone drivers, which is fundamental to the hardware.

I probably should have known better. These are mass market headphones, and even at fairly high prices like this, people today don't seem to be looking for accurate sound reproduction; they're looking for a lot of bass. These have that; I wish I'd seen this before buying but headphones.com (no affiliation!) tested their frequency response and found a "v-shaped" curve that emphasizes bass and to a certain extent treble. Unfortunately, the mid-range is where most of the music is, so really good-sounding mid-range and flat frequency response is the sign of a good headphone. These do have a cell phone app where you can set a custom EQ, and I did that. Unfortunately, the mid-range reproduction in these headphones just isn't very good - it sounds tinny and harsh, so the flatter you make the frequency response, the worse it sounds. These just aren't very good headphones in terms of sound quality, and I expected a lot better for $350.

In fact, I also own a pair of Cowin E7 Pro's, which are $60 Chinese wireless ANC headphones, and they sound almost as good as these. I had bought those literally the day before a flight because I found out I wasn't going to be able to plug in my headphones to an IFE system, and they were cheap enough to be an impulse buy. But they're totally fine for that price; they don't sound great but they're not absolutely awful either, they also have a ton of bass and their noise cancellation is adequate. For almost six times the price, I would expect these Sonys to sound a lot better, and they just don't. I was trying to upgrade and I'm not sure I really have.

As for the active noise canceling itself, yes, it's pretty good. My MDR10's noise canceling was pretty good too, five years ago. So are the Cowin's. Maybe I'm just more picky in terms of sound quality than noise canceling, but I feel like every ANC headphone cancels noise pretty well, though not perfectly - these are still tuned mostly for jet engines, and you're still going to hear stuff in higher registers. The WH-1000XM4's do have a slight hiss in ANC mode that means you probably won't want to use ANC at home. I noticed this right away and tested my other headphones to see if they did the same thing, since I hadn't noticed it before. And they do, but the frequency of the hiss on the 1000XM4's is a bit higher. It's not louder, just higher, so that's probably why I immediately noticed it.

Lastly, I am not a fan of the build quality of these, especially compared to my MDR10's - which, again, are also Sony ANC headphones and were much cheaper. The MDR10's look and feel premium, even today. The 1000XM4's look and feel like cheap headphones. They're all black plastic and just don't have the premium look or feel that I'd expect from a $350 set of headphones. They also seem to have a higher clamping force that makes them a little uncomfortable after an hour or two of listening. It's not noticeable at first but becomes noticeable pretty quickly.

If these cost $150, I'd say they were worth it. I do not think they are for $350.

I am seriously considering returning mine.

I like this product as a vacation pair of headphones. They have good noise cancelling, are pretty comfortable, and hold a good charge. They're nice on a plane, in an airport, in a hotel room. The sound quality and depth is really great, the bass reproduction feels very nice, and I enjoy music on these headphones.

Less good is the general feature set. The touch controls are a disaster, and the auto-on/off feature when you take the headphones on and off is a complete pain. I wish there was an option in the app when you first connect to enable or disable this feature set. This makes these headphones totally useless for day-to-day usage in the time of Covid. Sometimes I need to take one ear off to hear the environment around me, which may or may not cause music to start playing in the middle of a meeting. The auto-off feature is great for battery saving when you're on vacation, but in a work environment; it means that the headphones frequently don't re-connect quickly when jumping on a meeting, which is embarrassing. These headphones are okay for a few hours of usage, but after 4-5 hours, they start to get uncomfortable, which, given I'm on work calls all day means they aren't good for work usage again.

The online reviews that laud these headphones aren't wrong - the sound quality and noise cancellation is excellent; but those paper cut features that just annoy you are the death of these headphones, and so for that reason, at this price point, they get just 2 stars and I find myself going back to my older Bose headphones 90% of the time, to a point that I may just buy a new pair of Bose to replace the Sonys.

I really want to like these. 5/5, the noise cancellation works great. 5/5, the calls seem good. 4/5, the volume control is pretty easy albeit a little hokey. 3/5, they're somewhat comfortable for my big head but start to hurt after 30 minutes. 5/5, the battery life seems long lasting. 0/5, the two device control is awful. One device control works well. They easily connect to my iPhone X. For the 2nd device, when I connect to my Mac, however, the main audio stays with my Mac, and I cannot switch back to the iPhone. Certainly, the Sony audio app gives an indication that the headphones attempt to switch back to the iPhone, as the primary device, and then the headphones immediately switch back to my Mac, even with every audio and video app shutdown on my Mac. In fact, the only way I can switch back to my iPhone is to disconnect the Bluetooth from my Mac. I imagine Sony can fix this with a firmware update which brings me to the next issue, firmware upgrades. Soon after pairing my iPhone to the headphones in the app--the initial pairing in the app failed until I forced the issue in the iPhone Bluetooth settings, by the way--the app attempted to update the headphone firmware. When this happened, it stopped at 2%. Much later, after switching between apps, returning to the Sony app, I saw the firmware update process stopped. It was only when I checked the version, did I see that the firmware update works. I would avoid purchasing these until Sony works out the kinks with some firmware upgrades.

I've had three pairs of ANC headphones now, two MPOW brand, and these.

The active noise cancelling on these are good, but they cannot deal with wind noise despite having a setting for it; you will hear buffeting and grating sounds created by these in windy scenarios. They aren't the best for bumpy vehicles as there are "pressure waves" as best as I can describe that actually hurt my ears and I have to turn the noise cancellation function down, even after "optimization." The MPOW doesn't offer the same level of cancellation but also doesn't have these issues.

The call quality is crap, frankly. Any sort of background noise will be transmitted as clearly as your voice. Like the road or engine noise of a car, for instance. Or wind. Honestly, the MPOW isn't far behind this in call quality, it cancels out more noises but sounds more muffled in the process.

They haven't been able to pair with either of my Windows 10 PCs, but pair perfectly fine with my phone. To be fair the MPOW struggles here too, but at least they show up in the bluetooth list.

There is an audible hissing noise when using the included audio cord and no audio playing on the device which doesn't seem to be irritating at first but after an hour or so it becomes quite distracting to the point where I'd rather not wear them. Like constant radio static playing in the room next to you.

It comes with the smallest USB-C charging cable I've ever seen and for the price range that's pretty unacceptable, the MPOW's came with a cable twice as long.

The audio quality is decent but it isn't WORLDS better than the MPOW Deep Bass ANC headset, it's clearer and crisper but seem to perform similarly when ANC is active.

Build quality isn't much better than the cheapo MPOWs either, to my surprise.

Honestly, these are a rip off. They're maybe 10-15% better than the cheaper alternatives for 10x the price.

I had the 1000XM3, which unfortunately broke when the headband snapped. That fragility, along with the poor voice call quality, made me slightly resentful of the price I paid for them. Sony was great enough to replace it with a new one, which I decided to resell and use part of proceeds to upgrade to these guys.

So far these work great! I'm still concerned about the durability, but I'll also only be using these guys for walks and runs around the city for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, that mitigates the risk of damage.

Sound quality is still great, I'd like to do a side by side test to gauge the difference of the DSEE modes, but I've left it on without an issue. The noise cancellation is terrific, and finally, voice calls are functional (I'm pretty sure it denoises the other caller as well, which means their phone's denoising is mixed in with Sony's. The result is usable, but not crisp and full-bodied sound like I'd like. But they're voice calls so I'll take what I can get.

I'll always recommend these to folks, though not necessarily over the Bose alternatives since I haven't heard those myself.

These are terrific all-around, and for someone who wants to chat handless on a call, this finally pushes the 1000XM series into a must-have.

Honestly was really looking forward to these headphones and I didn't listen to my brothers when they told me just to get beats, which I now regret.

I was told that these would be leading technology headphones but honestly the sound quality was the same as my brothers beats -.-

I wanna use them to study but they keep slipping off my head when I look down at my book. my head isn't small and my brothers had the same issue when they tested them.

the set-up was confusing and you have to pay for the 360 feature which is dumb on so many levels especially because we paid 360$.

now let me get into the noise cancellation.... my brothers beats which were on sale for 88 dollars gave these 350$ headphones a run for its money. the Sony headphones noise cancellation was only slightly better and it makes me feel sick!!!! like actually it gives me a headache idk why but it's not worth the price at all!!!!

i'm convinced that sony wants to kill their costumers because why in the world would they give us such a small charger like .... why it makes no sense!!!

if your a student like me just trying to drown out the noise of you family then definitely don't buy these !!!

I will most likely be returning these unless I magically change my mind in the next few days.

(also it collects so many fingerprints)

little update the touch stuff doesn't work like at all it doesn't raise the volume or skip the music might just be mine but it's worth mentioning.

I bought this headset because I heard and got to experience the Sony WH-1000XM3 a few months ago and I liked the way the XM3 felt when on my head and sounded along with its features.

As a treat to myself, I purchased the Sony WH-1000XM4. The sound is real good whether music, tv or movies. I have not tried a phone call yet. I have it connected to my phone and my TV. This worked great between the two when I got it setup.

A feature that is a concern is the sound pause feature/sensor when someone is talking to you. It responds awesomely by pausing and changing the ambient sound. However, if you hum or sing with a song, the headset pause the music/sound due to your own voice. Annoying!!! If you turn the feature off, you can hum/sing the songs. However, when someone tries to communicate with you, you will not hear them. When you get eye contact, you have to take the headset off because the noise canceling feature is working awesomely... it tunes out the outside sounds. The other option is to not hum or sing. It may have something to adjust that I have not mastered yet. It's not a game stopper though. Just a learning curb.

The touch censor is something you have to get used to. It works pretty well once you get used to pausing, fwd/rev a song, and vol control.

Another concern I have is the cushion; it does not breathe too well. I had to do a little yard work and began to perspire. I had to lay the headset out to dry when I was done because the cushions were damp/wet.

Overall, this is a pretty good headset. The features, you have to learn and adjust accordingly (something I am still working on doing). There are a couple of flaws (my opinion) I mentioned... ear cushions getting wet and the overly sensitive reaction when you are humming or singing. I would give these a 8 out of 10. Nothing is perfect but I am sure the next gen will have more improvements.

So far I am flabbergasted at the mediocrity of these headphones, I had a pair of wired over ear Beats from 2015 that sounded better than these, the sound is muffled and muted, and sounds like your listening to the music behind a door, I've tried all the settings with no improvement, their headphone app is still a mess by the way all this time later.
The headphones come with a free year of a hifi audio app- you can choose one of three- and I chose Tidal. So first thing I figured out is that Tidal is completely unusable, tried it on a samsung galaxy s9 and a macbook, and whenever you try to play a song it says "couldn't start subscription, please try again" AND CRASHES EVERY TIME. I've cleared the cache and looked at all their troubleshooting. Haven't received any response from customer service yet. What's more, once you choose your hifi app it doesn't let you go back and choose a different one, and it's not a year at all, it's 90 days.
The one thing it does well is the noise cancelling, but that's the only high quality part about these normally $350 headphones.
In over a decade using Amazon I have never been more angry than I am now, I feel like I've been mugged.

First impressions. Easy to setup and firmware update guck and easy. Initially not impressed with noise cancellation as hearing a lot of ambient background noise. I’m finding the settings in Sony’s headphone connect app aren’t intuitive, at least for me.
I expected heat to be an issue to some extent with over the ear headphones but these seem to retain heat more than other brands I’ve tried on I have been unable to comfortably wear these for more than 5-10 minutes before my ears become uncomfortably warm. Other than that their comfort is outstanding. I don’t feel uncomfortable pressure on my ears or head surrounding my ears which some noice cancelling headphones do to create a better seal. Perhaps that is why I notice more ambient noice. As much as I was looking forward to owning these headphones based upon reviews of their predecessor as well as these by reviewers who received the new model in advance I don’t think they are going to work for me solely because they don’t seem to be well ventilated if that is possible with noise canceling headphones.

This new version is definitely improved over the previous version, the noise canceling (so far, it’s only been less than an hour of use yet) is amazing, I can’t here much of anything with them on. Sound quality is amazing as well, wider soundstage than the XM3’s and the sound is buttery smooth. At first listen the volume seems a little bit lower at the maximum but with the super noise canceling you don’t need it to be louder. Also this is with the default settings as I have not tried using the equalizer as of yet. Super comfortable and they do seem as if the build is sturdier as well. The speak-to-chat feature is nice but I probably won’t use it much as when I had it on it was pausing at every sound I made (I did set it to high sensitivity which you can change in the app). The headphones came fully charged and updated the software pretty quickly and they were good to go. The best noise canceling headphones just got even better! Highly recommended!
Update: 8/31/20 three main issues so far, the battery life seems worse when using the feature to connect to two devices simultaneously and the headphones only connect fully about 50% of the time and I have to go to Bluetooth settings to get them to connect. Also, wear sensor doesn’t always work and when putting paused headphones around my neck it often starts playing again. One more thing: the padding on the ear cups is slimmer and more plush so I feel the actual cups against the side of my face making them slightly less comfortable but not so much that it’s a deal breaker. I do like that you can put two fingers to the touch pad and hold to toggle the speak-to-chat feature on and off which is handier than going into the app to turn it off/on. Also I like that there is a power button in the app to quickly turn off the headphones and that they will auto shut off when taken off after a certain amount of time (although I have no idea how long that is as there is no way to change it in the app).

I got the MX4's for use when driving and in a noisy office location while doing college work. I also listen to music and audiobooks/podcasts nearly all day, and it is not uncommon for me to have a pair of cans on for 8-12 hours daily. Moving forward, my main comparison is with the Senheiser HD599 ($200) and the HiFiman HE4XX's ($150, plus $200 for a Schitt Modi/Magni DAC and AMP setup, coming to a total of $350 for all three pieces of hardware). My use case is pretty high-volume listening therefore, and my musical tastes go from Jazz, Pop and Trap to Classical, Folk, Acoustic, and Rock. Overall, I would definitely recommend the MX4's IF you are needing the top-end noise cancelation, as the hype surrounding the NC performance is definitely more reality than fiction. It makes my commutes and listening experience in noisy environments, including an interstate, very enjoyable and less fatiguing. I also certainly enjoy the convenience and mobility of these headphones, and the battery life has been excellent thus far. However, if you do not need the absolute best noise cancelling, or maybe don't care so much about mobility, then I would not recommend them due chiefly for the price and audio quality compromise. I shall elaborate, first with what I like:

- Comfort (though for bigger ears it may be a little less so).
- Build quality is good for a headphone in this price bracket, given the tech.
- Noise cancelling is honestly unbelievable, though please note these are my very first pair of NC headphones.
- Decent sound for what it is, with good battery life to boot.
- Cool intelligent tech, though admittedly I do not use it at all (I keep NC on at all times and do not utilize the speech recognition feature).
- Mobility.
- Truly some great tech thrown in here, and I can see the R&D going to work, also fairly useful app.

Cons:

- Price.
- Sound quality is lacking when compared to setups at this price point (though I hear it is the best sound quality when comparing to other NC cans), however more on this below.
- Ears can become warm after a while.
- This may be just me, but I have issues with ear pressure changes throughout the day and can cause a feeling of needing to - and not being able to - "pop" my ears, which is annoying and causes long-term comfort to be an issue for long sessions, forcing me to switch back to my faithful 599's.

To elaborate, I have HiFiman x Drop HE4XX'S, with a Schitt Modi/Magni stack DAC/AMP. This entire package cost me the same exact price as the MX4's from Sony, and the sound quality is essentially night and day difference. Sound stage, separation, and dynamic sound range is definitely noticeably worse on the MX4's, and there is significant bleed through the bass and mids in some songs. For reference I am listening on Tidal, with Master track quality. Even on my HE4XX's, the bass is tighter and more responsive, and, while not a bass-havy pair of cans, provides a much more accurate and tight listening experience across all ranges. This is partially due to the open back versus closed back design, but again for the price, if you do not care about being so mobile, or perhaps work from home or are a student doing much of your work and homework from a home office or fixed location like myself, I would suggest looking elsewhere. If you travel all the time and absolutely cannot live without maximum portability and noise cancelling, then the MX4's are the way to go. The sound quality is adequate (though I still grit my teeth when considering how much these cost compared to my true audiophile headphone set ups given the sound quality), especially when compared to other closed-back designs, and again the NC is absolutely insane. Another point is that firmware updates will hopefully keep improving on the already impressive and interesting tech inside these cans.

All in all, I really do like the MX4's, but due to the price, it makes me hard to recommend to someone who cares chiefly about sound quality first, and the convenience and portability/NC factors second. If this is the case, I'd say go to something with a better sound profile, and you will likely find yourself spending less with a better musical experience, and a recommendation off the top of my head would be the EXCELLENT Senheiser HD599's (around $200 new on Amazon). Personally, if they would have saved on some R&D and kept the voice and calling features to a minimum but dropped the price, this would be a no-brainer for everyone, but I digress. If however, you need the solid NC and are excited about the mobility and convenience and the versatility that these cans can bring, and are okay with the compromise on sound quality as well as the steep asking price, I would say you would be hard-pressed to go anywhere else than the MX4's. I am still debating on keeping these or not, as I have been spoiled with amazing sound experiences for the past 3-5 years now, and I find it hard to take a hit to my pocketbook like this when I could get a truly awe-inspiring pair of audiophile cans to use with my current setup for the same exact price, though the MX4's are good enough to make it a hard decision which is itself a promising sign.

Tldr; Should you buy the MX4's? It depends, but I do like them, and you need to just consider your use case when making that decision. This is a lot of money to spend on a pair of headphones, and if sound quality plays a large part in your decision, you have some serious competition to look at. Would I say I recommend the MX4's in general? Yes.

To keep things brief:
- *Everything* is done through a fairly decent mobile app. I'm fine with this, especially since it makes some things very simple (e.g. switching between multiple devices).
- Bluetooth connectivity is stellar. Latency is invisible (FAR better than anything I've tried except the competitive Bose headsets), switching is very quick (like 1s), no stuttering or issues whatsoever.
- It's a little sad / surprising that LDAC isn't supported when using multiple connections... but meh. AAC still sounds great.
- Noice cancelling is absolutely top-notch and incredible. But you already know this.
- EQ is.......... bad. Plain and simple. There's no nicer way to describe it. There are worse EQs out there! But this is well below average.

But.

BUT.

HOLY COW is this "boomy". So much so that it gives me a headache after about an hour at my normal relatively-low listening volume, even without noise-canceling. The Bose QC 35 ii are better at this, and I feel like the 1000XM3 were better too. You can turn the "clear bass" literally ALL THE WAY DOWN and it stops booming, but then it's clearly imbalanced.

Returned. Still looking for a bluetooth headset that doesn't have ridiculous issues. Maybe a firmware update of the Aonic 50 will fix their connectivity issues and improve noise canceling, because those sound absolutely *phenomenal* by comparison.

I can't get these to work properly in Windows 10. This is with bluetooth 4.0, updated drivers and a history of using Samsung Level On headphones with no issues. When connected to PC it just stutters and cuts in and out, completely unusable. This is using them as headphones in playback mode. If I use them as a headset, which is meant for phone calls and conferencing, then I can actually get them to work but they sound very tinny and the volume is very low. In researching I see this is a common issue with the prior model XM3's and there are various fixes ranging from turning off headset mode to playing with the drivers, I tried all of them and none worked. After several hours of research and seeing how many others didn't resolve this on the XM3's I am about to give up and just return these.

Here is the heartbreaker, using these on my Android phone and they sound superb, perfect, no stutter or cutting out. I downloaded the app and was able to tweak them to sound even better. But again this does nothing for using them on a PC.

One of the features I was most excited about was using these on 2 devices at a time, but it's a mixed bag at best. You have to manually switch them in the app, or turn the connection on/off on the device which is just as much of a pain as any other bluetooth headset without this function. The Android phone seems to be unable to connect back to them many times and I have to go to bluetooth settings and manually connect.

The ANC function is just amazing, I have my home office in a finished basement and have all kinds of furnace/fan and overhead footstep sounds, but with ANC on I heard zero of the furnace/fan, and the overhead footsteps were dampened quite a bit. My main reason to get these was for the ANC and I wasn't disappointed. One issue is that the left earphone has a hiss which sounds like the noise cancellation is a bit more aggressive, it's only noticeable when playing stuff at low or no volume. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but makes the function seem unfinished or faulty and spoils the perfection of the ANC otherwise.

Fit: These fit oddly, they are too large for my head, and I have a pretty large head. Most headphones are small on me, but these, even shortened all the way, still sit slightly below my ears. I can place the top band towards the front of my head to correct this, but it takes away from the comfort. The earphones themselves are not as comfortable as I hoped they would be based on reviews. One reason I was upgrading from the Samsung Level On's is because the Level On's earpieces are kind of small and caused fatigue on my ears after a few hours. While the Sony's earpieces are larger, I feel the way they sit on your head will make them just as fatiguing, maybe worse as they are fairly heavy. The top band doesn't have suspension system as I would expect with something this expensive, just some foam.

So overall I wanted to love these, and I do except for the fact that I cannot get them to work on a Windows 10 PC. Judging by the plethora of issues I found in searching for this issue with the XM3's it seems I'm not alone. Unfortunately, regardless of how good they are, that's useless for me if I can't even use them and I have to rate them at 1 star. Will most likely be returning these unless I can find a solution.

I spend hours on long phone calls every single day. I have been using Apple AirPod Pros for this and am very satisfied with the technology. But the in-ear AirPod is causing me a medical problem with my ears, so I needed to find a way to make iPhone phone calls without something sticking into my ear canal.

I decided to try Sony’s high-end WH-1000XM4 wireless headset. When I called the person on the top of my speed dial list to see how the phone call quality was, she said on her end of our phone calls to her were always fuzzy sounding, and that they clipped some beginning and ending syllables. Another frequent caller said our phone calls were alright (though he couldn’t rave about any aspect of the call quality at all). He also said he could no longer hear anyone in the background speaking from across the room when they spoke away from the headset. In my circumstances this can be both good or bad, depending on what results I want.

As the headphone wearer, I found phone conversations to be terrible regardless of the various settings I tried. Phone calls were terrible to listen to as they sounded so forced and unnatural. And they were also terrible to talk on due to inadequate sidetone and unnatural sound of my own voice. Also, the back of the headphones rubbed against my chair and that carried into the headphones acoustically.

The right cup wasn’t big enough, and so usually my right earlobe was scrunched under the cup edge unless I manually adjusted it each time I placed the headphones on my head.

I didn’t like the Sony apps I had to install on my iPhone; they just didn’t feel like they fit well into my chosen Apple ecosystem. There was also something about the initiation process each time I turned them on that forced some manual connect operation. I didn’t like that I had to take the headphones off to adjust my head height, and also in doing so, they shut the headphones off (though I could could change that default if I was willing to turn off the auto shutoff).

The “midnight blue” color might as well have been black. Initial reactions from 3 of 4 of us were that the headphones were black. Not even close to blue. We could see bluish elements by looking carefully, but the perceived color was far closer to midnight black than midnight blue. And I even paid extra for the blue color that I desired and felt that I did not receive.

I liked the volume up and volume down and skip forward and skip back motions, as they were very intuitive. I wish it was available on both sides of my head though, rather than only the one.

I generally was not impressed by the fit and comfort, and never really felt completely comfortable wearing the headphones as there was an angle and tightness that was not fully satisfying.

I really wish there was a lightning-to-headphone cable included, as then I would have tried wired phone calls, though I am pretty sure the lack of decent sidetone would still have been an issue, and I am guessing that the voice quality would have still been an issue to some large degree. Even if wired mode would fix the sound quality completely, I want wireless for my primary usage.

I found the added ability to listen to music or a phone call while also listening to ambient noises or discussions was somewhat more helpful than nothing, but woefully inadequate for routine use, no matter how I adjusted the various controls. And specifically, someone walking up to me and posing a question left one or the other or both of us always feeling frustrated in our communication ability. It was helpful to have some sense of what is going on around me, but not at all helpful to interact with another person intentionally.

The 3D sound was “cute”, and even satisfying, but until my existing library of 400+ albums had some automated 3D effects, why bother? Having a few special 3D albums, while having the totality of my well-loved collection being 2D just made me frustrated with the music that I love and devalued my entire collection in my mind. 3D was novel, but otherwise caused me real dissatisfaction with my collection acquired over the decades. I will always avoid 3D unless my old standbys can electronically simulate some 3D effects on my request.

I am not a high-end audio guy, but my music sounded fine to me. I really needed the phone calls to sound decent, and they instead were unacceptable for business use. These headphones weren’t worth the almost $300 cost to me, and in fact I would pay maybe $50 for them for music listening, and would simply be unwilling to use them for free for routine business phone calls.

I can tell you with certainty that I am going to be returning these Sony WH-1000XM4s, primarily due to telephone call inadequacy, but also because I really wanted a rich dark blue color.

I quickly upgraded from the SONY WH-1000XM3 when I found out that this device can pair to multiple devices at once. That sounded amazing, and I was really looking forward, as I use bluetooth headphones to connect to both my phone and my computer.

From day 1, I have had nothing but horrendous issues with the bluetooth dual-pairing.

Just in general, it fails to do its job. You cannot just go from the computer to the iphone and vice versa. I spend so much time fiddling with the controls to get back between the computer and the iphone. I will have to change to a different audio instrument on the computer before it will sync back with the iphone.

But even worse, it just randomly unpairs like constantly as I'm listening to music and podcasts on my phone. Like constantly. And then it takes 5 minutes to figure out how to get it to pair back up.

It's just terrible.

Sound quality is great. They are more comfortable than the 3.

But call quality is also just plain bad. You cannot use them as a headset like you can with the Bose 700. I cannot tell you how many times I hear that people cannot understand me while I'm using them as a headset and it is so embarrassing.

I really want to like these headphones, but they're making me go crazy.

UPDATE - RETURNED: Sony's offer to "resolve my issue" was an empty waste of my time. Upon contacting them, they simply reiterated, "Our Level 2 support told you this was working as designed." Muppets.

They ignored and failed to address another issue, which was the total malfunction of the Quick Attention Mode, where you place your hand over the right ear cup and it pauses and goes to ambient. Didn't work from day 1, and no firmware update resolved it. Reeeeeeeeeturned them suckas.
--------------------------------
Noticed that anytime the mics were active, either in a standard phone call or a VOIP call on a laptop, the noise cancelling took a noticeable step back. All ambient noise became much more noticeable. After playing with the NC modes, I feel it's not quite the same as "sound control off" - it seems to be blocking certain frequencies? But NC is noticeably reduced, whichever frequencies aside.

Spoke to Sony Level 2 support (which was responsive) and they indicated this is working as designed. The device borrows mics from NC to bring in voice so noise cancelling can't operate fully when the mics are being used. (He also tried to tell me that if it maintained full NC, my voice would be blocked out for the other side - I'll chock that up to ignorance blended with desperation.)

I can understand if the NC was less precise with fewer mics listening, but dropping the intensity of the NC noticeably? Ya?

My Gen 1s from 2017 give me full noise cancelling during calls. This is a big step back.

The pro reviews are singing this thing's praises universally - this is a huge miss IMHO. (And I'm not even going to mention problems with the Android app.)

Probably sending them back. So disappointed.

Got it on Friday, and the headphone is not chargeable. It cannot be charge on the PC using the type-c line provided, “the red light which is showing it is charging” is off, and when it charges on a adaptor, the headphone will only “charge” for 5 minutes (and by the meaning of “charge” is I only see the red light turn on for 5 minutes and then turn off) the battery of the headphone is below 10% and it won’t charge anymore. I tried to re-charge it, the red light just turn on for 20seconds and then turn off. I have tried using different adaptors, plug in different usb spots of PC, and using different type-c line, neither of it worked. I am reaching the seller now, and I will either ask for a replacement or refund.

Everyone is saying how good these headphones really are, but don't be fooled by that - try it for yourselves. Sure, it has upgraded padding, lightweight, easy on the ears, and subtle design improvements over its predecessor, but that's about where the difference ends - at least from a visual perspective anyway.

I can tell you it sounds great, but that's to be expected from a brand new pair of premium headphones anyway. Listening to them I was not blown away. I didn't get it... until I went back to listen to my old pair for comparison. WOW! Only then could I truly appreciate the immense acoustic separation that the 1000XM4 fields! Perhaps it was the AI upscaling my MP3 to a higher level or perhaps it was just relying on it laurels as a superb pair of high quality headphones. Whatever it was, WOW!

Perhaps the first sign that these were truly a magnificent piece of engineering, was when I put them on. The noise cancelling alone seem to create the feeling that I was in another world, the current world (of sounds) being blotted out. And then the music track dropped.

However, the only real issue that I had was that I wasn't able to enjoy the 360 Reality Audio. I cannot understand why these features were not built into the headphone so that everyone could enjoy it anywhere, instead of a limited subset of people relying on a few less popular websites like Tidal, and restricted to a handful of pre-selected songs. This is not good. People have vast libraries and their own user-created audio files that cannot utilize this feature. Moreover, even Apple or Spotify steaming service cannot access this acoustic engine.

One school of thought is for Sony to use AI to split the audio into several objects and place them around the user in real time, creating a crisp, immersive audio experience. And since custom settings are possible, the AI could play the same song in several different ways or move the objects around to create a real-live effect. In other words - simulated live concert in a headphone.

"Better than the artist intended."
This must be what Sony intends for in 2022, or how else can there be a WH-1000XM5?

I bought this xm4 and Sennheisser momentum 3. They were paired with my SONY WALKMAN NW-WM1A and my Iphone xs max., They Sounded very close!. bass is equal, mids are equal, highs.. Momentum 3 is .5 star better..( not much).. noise cancelling .. Sony wins. ease of use , sony wins. comfort, sony wins. battery, sony wins. software, sony wins. EQ, sony wins. i listened to HI-RES files, DSD, FLAC..all genres including hip hop/rap through LDAC on sony and APTx on Sennheiser. Now if u have a old MP3 files, or songs that are not recorded well.. and you are using your iphone on AAC files .. your music will not sound so nice on your sennheiser!.. guess what, sony has DSEE extreme..!! it makes the compressed music sounds much better!. Call quality, is equal on both... good enough.. not great. After testing for two weeks.. I returned the Sennheiser. Now the SONY XM4 is on sale for black friday for $278!!! what are you waiting for?? treat yourself for Christmas and get one already!!!! You wont regret it !

I haven't had a set of over ear headphones in quite a while but I thought I'd give these a try based on the stellar reviews of the predecessor XM3 model. Packaging is nice. The instructions consist of a fold-out sheet with pictures only. If you're not up on all the latest technology icons, you'll probably wish for printed words. There is an additional instruction sheet in about 6-point font that's fairly useless. Initially, I easily paired the headphones with my Apple TV and was able to use them quickly. The next day I decided to download the app to get into the finer aspects of setup. The app prompted a software update and allowed me to play around with equalizer settings and noise cancelling. I highly recommend using the app in lieu of the cumbersome instructions. Sound quality is very subjective. You'll find reviewers who think these are the best ever and others not so much. I fall in to the second group. Sound is decent, but not anything that stands out relative to what I've used in the past. At this price point I guess I expected more. From a control standpoint, the right ear cup has a panel that you tap to start/pause music or calls, skip ahead or back, and swipe to make volume adjustments. I absolutely hate the volume adjustment. Each "swipe" is about a 10% adjustment, so if you want to quickly raise or lower volume, you have to make multiple swipes. And half the time the swipes don't register. If you aren't swiping perfectly up or down, you will skip the music forward or back. If you're using the headphones with a device that has its own volume control, I recommend going that route. It's much easier. Overall, I'd rate the headphones slightly above average for sound and slightly below for controls.

I'm really conflicted with these. The noise cancellation is miles better than my QC 35 and airpods pro, and the sound quality is pretty good too. But these headphones creak to no end at the four points which connect the headband to the earcups. At first I thought it was a defective model so I got a replacement and tried to be as gingerly as possible but it started creaking again. I did some research on the XM3 and it seems these were an issue for those too. If you don't move your head at all it's fine but any movement of the head or jaw causes these creaking noises at those hinges. I really want to keep these because the noise cancellation is that good but when the headphones themselves cause distracting noises I don't know that I can justify these for $350. Maybe $250 for the XM3's and I can put up with the creaking noises but at this price point it's very difficult.

Other complaints are fairly minor. Basically all the "features" that are advertised (not sure how many of them were also in the XM3's) are pretty gimmicky. The whole "put one hand over the right ear cup when ordering a coffee"? Just slide the ear cup back and avoid looking like a goof. 19 levels of noise cancellation? I bought these for the max so cancel out the distractions in the back. The ambient sound noise works I guess but the microphones pick up wind noises too much and the headphones shifting around the head when walking make it more difficult to use - airpods pro transparency mode does this a lot better. The whole speak to put your headphones into ambient sound mode temporarily is super annoying. The only useful feature is the two connections, which is new to the XM4's. I personally don't like the pause music when lifting up the left ear cup because if I'm on a call and I lift it up to scratch my ear (which you will do a lot because your ear touches the inside walls of the headphones) and I put it back, my spotify will suddenly start ploying music again. Again, not a huge deal since the noise cancellation is that good. If only the headphones didn't creak so much, it would be well worth the $350. I'll use it for another two weeks to see if there is a "break in" period and the headphones stop creaking but if they don't, I'll have to make a tough choice on whether to keep them or return them.

Pros:

- ANC is as good if not tad better than Bose

Cons:

- Horrible audio sync issues to the point where it’s not useable when I watch Netflix or Prime on my MacBook. I have to refresh the page several times a day to fix the sync issue

- Bad call quality. I have a ceiling fan in my home office and I swear this amplifies the wind noise to the point where it is distracting during my zoom calls

Overall, I’m disappointed with this purchase. I’ll be returning it. I find my Bose 700s to be far superior

I bought a paid of the WH-1000XM4's and Bose NC 700's trying to decide which one was better. I prefer the Sony headphones in terms of customization and sound. However, I will be returning these due to the headband and ear cups. The headband puts a lot of pressure on the crown of my head, no matter how I adjust it, causing pain and headaches if wearing for more than an hour or so. Regarding the ear cups, they are very shallow and I can feel my ears touching the inner portion of the headphones. This puts pressure on my ears, so that after a couple hours it becomes uncomfortable as well.

For some reason, the Bose NC 700's do not have these pressure issues for me. I cannot say it will be the same for everyone, but I will be going with the 700's specifically for this reason.

I had the Bose 35 1st gen & they did fantastic in sound, noise cancelling, & comfort. But the Sony XM4 knocks the Bose 35 out of the park!! The sound is so much better with a punchier bass, mids & trebles are clean. No matter the volume the music sounds outstanding. Plus the extra features these have like covering the right ear cuff so you can hear the other person talk comes in handy on so many levels, taking off the headphone automatically stops the music & the customizable equalizer should please most of the people on their personable taste on music sounds. The touch control on the right ear cuff is very easy to use, using the swiping motions for volume & changing songs & tap to pause or play. I love the color black with the rose pink accent. Go get these over Bose, you won't be disappointed at all!!

The noise cancelling doesn't create the same pressure feel as my QC35v1, but that's the only thing that's an improvement. The ear cups are shallow, so there is constantly pressure on my ears which hurts after a few hours of use. The touch control is slow, cluncky, or unresponsive. The features are more hastle than helpful (if you talk it cuts out all input audio for 30s , even if you're on a call...). Everytime you get a notification google chimes in to remind you that it can read them... You can turn all the "features" off and I would recommend it. The dual bluetooth connection is difficult to set up compared to my bose, and constantly dropped one of the devices. The thing that really pushed me to return my set was the call quality. Out of the three sets of headphones I own, these are the only ones that people can't hear my voice even when in a quiet room.

I've been using the Bose Quite Comfort II for the past 3 years, and really like them. The only down side was poor Bluetooth reception at anything more than a few feet of separation between the headphones and sound source. Using the Bose headphones to listen to my Sony TV (from 8 feet away) was a pleasure, unless you turn your head (cutouts and loss of sound-sync)...making them pretty much worthless for that application.

I looked at the newer Bose and the Sony XM3 headphones as an upgrade, but decided to pass, as they were both tethered to Bluetooth 4, with the same reception issues as earlier Bose models.

I was so happy to see that the new Sony XM4 is Bluetooth 5 enabled. I've been using them for about a week, and can verify that Bluetooth reception at a distance of 50 feet or more from the sound source, and through walls, is excellent...no loss of sync, no cutouts and crystal clear reception in all rooms of my home, which is what I've been wanting all along.

I was trying to find a more comfortable headphone than my Sony WH-1000XM2 and was looking at Bose QC 35 II and recently released Sony XM4. Below are the pros and cons of each,

XM2:
Pros - Great bass with the best low end rumble, accurate sound/timbre especially in percussion instruments, ~25hr battery life, excellent noise cancellation, no wear in pads after two years of usage
Cons - Fatigue after 4-5 hrs, gets a bit too warm, a tad heavy, pads have become a bit slim though no wear

XM4:
Pros - Same as XM2, better sound stage, a bit lighter, didn't get as warm and seems a bit more comfortable than XM2
Cons - Low end bass/rumble not as good as XM2, ear cups seem a bit smaller and likely impacting the sound stage, headband shorter and less adjustable than XM2

QC 35 II:
Pros - Best comfort, best in class sound stage/instrument separation
Cons - Sound accuracy/timbre of instruments not as good as the Sony's, especially noticeable in percussion instruments, Bose seems to process/highlight vocals and they don't sound natural, ear pads lifetime not great and start to fall apart in 1-2 years of 5 days/week usage

I ended up returning both the QC 35 II and XM4 as the QC 35 II lacked the proper sound reproduction though it had better comfort and the XM4 was not that big of an upgrade in terms of comfort or sound compared to XM2. Just bought a new set of ear pads for the XM2 and planning to hold out for another year or two.

These have a wonderful full ranged and warm sound. Noise cancellation is excellent, but the audio isolation by itself is so good that you really don't need noise cancellation turned on until you are in a truly noisy environment.

These are the most comfortable headphones I have ever bought! I experienced no fatigue from wearing them for more than an hour. If you wear glasses, you don't have to take them off. Many headphones pads are so firm, that it feels like the eyeglass stems are being pressed into your head. Not so with this set of cans. The cups fully surround the ears and don't press heavily on the ears themselves.

The cons.....I was shocked that for a premium set of headphones, that the charging cable was only 8 inches long. This can create logistical issues depending on how close your available USB charging port is and if there is space to safely set them down while charging. There is no excuse to at least offer a 3 foot cable pack in for a premium product such as this. The fast charger disappointingly is sold separately.

The sound application is a tad complicated with many options and could be better organized. The graphic equalizer is rather limited in the number of frequency bands offered. There are five sliders at 400hz,1khz, 2.5khz, 6.3khz and 16khz. I really don't understand why it stops at 400hz on the low end. Would be nice to have a few more bands starting around 50-60hz. There is a bass enhancement option with 10 steps in either direction, but am not sure what frequency range that controls. Still, there is plenty of bass for those who crave it. Tried to update the firmware, but the instructions on how to do that are not clear. This feature should be as simple as a button to check for updates and apply.