Sony Wireless Premium Noise Canceling Headphones WH1000XM4

Sound Quality (5/5)

These are the first headphones I’ve owned that when first listening to them I didn’t immediately flinch and look for the nearest EQ. I’m no sound engineer, but definitely it has great bass and great quality for mids & highs.

Noise cancelation (5/5)

Although this is my first set of headphones that support this feature. I’m really blown away by it. I have an air purifier in my office, and even at medium setting. The fan is pretty noisy. But with these things on, I can barely hear it, and that’s with no music/movie playing. But as soon as I turn on a movie or song, I seriously can’t tell it’s on.

I read some people say they could hear a waterfall or something in the background. I can’t hear anything other than silence, or what I’m listening to.

Wireless/Wired (4/5)

Being able to use the headphones with them powereoff with a wire, or have them connect wireless via bluetooth is an amazing feature. And it works really well!

I was really surprised however that I don’t seem to be able to use this headset with the bluetooth of my main PC. It has a really think glass panel, so I’m wondering if it’s not because of that. If you own a case with a glass panel, maybe double check with another set of bluetooth headse/earbuds to see how the conenction goes.

Audio Delay/lag on Bluetooth (5/5)

I own a mini laptop and it only has bluetooth 4.1. But for some reason when I watch videos or movies, I’m virtually unable to tell whether there is lag. Unlike any other bluetooth earbuds I’ve owned. The delay is amazing. Obviously your mileage may vary, but it’s something that drove me insane with my previous wireless earbuds. Don’t have this problem here!

Gestures (4/5)

I wasn’t really looking forward to the gestures pad. But it turns out to be working really well. Once in a while an action won’t register. But it’s really rare for me.

Play/Pause on a PC can be a little weird though. One day I was listening to spotify while working, and then with the tab still opened I started watching youtube after work. And after pausing said video and unpausing it, using the headset. It ended up starting the playback of both my spotify tab, and my youtube tab.

Comfort (4/5)

First day I wore them I was a little concerned since, even though I have a small head. I felt like the headphones were pretty tight on my head. But after even just 2 days of use. It’s already leagues better. Either I got used to it, or it’s ‘breaking in’.

The cups are pretty comfortable. Wish they would be just a tad larger, not sure if I have big ears. But I can tell that part of my right ear touches the pad. And I’m wondering if I ever end up pulling a really long work, or gaming session if it’ll end making my ear feel pinched. One of my older headsets did that.

One thing that I was happily surprised was the weight of the headset. With such an impressive battery life and suite of features. I was expecting this thing to be rather heavy. Compared to a Corsair Void (probably a bad example) it’s light as a feather.

Pairing Headphones with 2 Devices (3/5)

First thing, this feature is only possible via the headphone’s native app. Meaning you can’t perform this type of sync with the physical sync button. Once you have the devices regisered on the app, then you can enable a setting and select which 2 devices you want.

On the topic of “2 devices”, I guess Is should have read more on this feature. But I use 2 PCs at home, a media and a work/gaming PC. And I really would have liked to be able to on the fly, switch between audio of both. But it turns out that you can only connect to 1 phone, and something else. It can be 2 phones, but not 2 PCs.

Included Accessories (3/5)

The case it comes with is great. Hard-shell clam design, with some neat nook where you can shove the USB C charging cable, audio cable and airplane adapter thing. But as much as I like the quality and how it snuggly holds on to and protects the headphones. Not sure if mine is a fluike, but whoever decided to sew the elastic mesh bag on the ‘bottom’ part of the clam. Kind of silly.

The audio cable is ‘OK’ if you use it for your phone. But if you want to use it for a PC you’ll for sure either need an extension or a longer cable period. But at least it’s a usesable lenght albeit a little conservative.

But the USB type c charging cable. I hope you have a USB hub available. Depending on the case/setup you have. I’m pretty sure a lot of people wouldn’t be able to use that cable to connect the headphones to their PC’s back USB ports. Well you could do it, but depending on your case or setup. The headphones won’t be able to rest on either the top of your case, or the desk/floor it’s own. They’ll end up dangling. (Which I think would be a bad idea.)

Review completo como consumidor y profesional dedicado al audio, si te da flojera leer, de entrada te digo que esto vale cada centavo, no lo dudes ni esperes, rompe el cochinito porque te lo estás perdiendo.

Ahora si para los que dudan de Dios:

Hace 3 años adquirí los MDR-XB950N1, mejor conocidos como los Sony Extra Bass. Sin duda fueron una compra demasiado buena, pasé de unos Skullcandy Hesh 2 a los Extra Bass y vaya que la diferencia es muy considerable.

Ahora, 3 años después decidí hacer un “upgrade”, yo me dedico a la música, soy estudiante de la materia y me dedico al audio, la verdad es que no puedo llevarme mis audífonos de estudio fuera de casa, necesitaba unos que realmente ofrecieran buena calidad, portabilidad y facilidad de uso con mis aplicaciones. Encontré estos después de hacer un par de búsquedas en internet, los comparé con varias opciones y al final me decidí por comprarlos.

En primera debo decir que he quedado impresionado por la tecnología que traen estos audífonos. Puedes personalizar el audio acorde a tu oreja, así es, a la forma de tu oreja, Sony te pide que tomes un par de fotos para que se puedan analizar y proveer mejor experiencia, nunca en mi vida había visto algo así.
Desde que los abres se denota un producto bastante premium y que vale el dinero que se paga por él, ya que de hecho no es nada barato.

La experiencia de abrirlo es excelente, pero es cuando bajas la aplicación que empiezas a ver lo brutal de estas máquinas. De adelanto estos audífonos ya vienen con carga máxima, o al menos así fue en mi caso, no te pide que los cargues ni nada, funcionan desde que los sacas de la caja. Son extremadamente cómodos y si eres miope como yo y usas fierros para ver, estos audífonos no te van a incomodar en ningún momento.

No es que quiera advertir, sino más bien dar aviso de que por defecto los audífonos se oyen un poco flojos, el sonido está un poco saturado, y si te gusta escuchar música como el Heavy Metal o música clásica te quedas pasmado, no se oyen para nada como los Extra Bass que al salir de la caja otorgan un sonido fino y bien configurado. Estos no, pero entiendo por qué lo hacen, ya que como mencioné, la experiencia de verdad comienza cuando bajas la aplicación que tiene como mil opciones de configuración y optimización de sonido, así que prepárate para estar ahí unos 25 minutos de tu vida, que sin duda alguna por supuesto, lo valen.

Una vez que has pasado las optimizaciones, toca jugar con el ecualizador, yo recomiendo configuración 400: 1 1K: 3 2.5K: 7 6.3K: 8 16K: 5 Clear Bass: +5 o +7 para escuchar Heavy Metal y música clásica, aunque si eres fan de los medios tal vez quieras mover un poco más, pero como dije, esto es libre y Sony te prevé todas las herramientas para que esto quede sabroso.

Ya con todo listo, toca escuchar música, y ahí es cuando te da el golpe. Sabía que habría una diferencia entre los Extra Bass que tengo y los M4 que son estos, pero no sabía que realmente se fuera a notar tanto. Estos no son audífonos, son interfaces de audio andantes, además, Sony te regala una prueba gratis en cualquier servicio de restringe que contenga su servicio Sony Audio 3D, yo escogí Tidal, pero también puedes escoger otros 3 más, ahí aparece la opción.

De verdad que escuchar música en formato de alta calidad como es el FLAC que te ofrece Tidal es algo maravilloso, inclusive después de varios años escuchando lo mismo, logré notar varios elementos musicales extras que antes ni sabía que existían en la canción, ahí es cuando te vas para atrás, es como por fin escuchar las cosas sin filtro. También recomiendo el formato “Loss-less” de Apple music en caso de que sean usuarios de iPhone o solo para que tengan una tercera opción. Sea cual sea el servicio que escojan, se oye increíble, pero sin duda combinado con formatos de baja compresión esto se vuelve místico.

Claro que esto no es tan plano como unos audífonos de estudio, pero sin duda la experiencia se acerca bastante.

En conclusión, estos audífonos realmente son un producto bastante premium, te otorgan no solo alta calidad de audio, sino una experiencia tecnológica muy innovadora, además vienen con su porta audiófonos y cables correspondientes, son muy cómodos y portables. Los recomiendo al 100% no duden en adquirirlo para nada.

Honestly, there was a part of me that was worried that these headphones would not be the best pair to own after the issues that I experienced with the prior generation of them: the WH1000xm3. The main issue that I had? The build quality: the plastic around the headband snapped due to a flimsy connection, resulting in me having to tape both headbands together so that the headphones don’t fall apart on me. I tried several alternate brands to see if they would work, but they never came close to giving me the same level of satisfaction while wearing them as the WH1000xm3 did, even with the taped headband taken into account. So I decided that the best replacement for a Sony headphone was another Sony headphone, and I invested in the M4, which succeeded the M3 last year (as of this writing).
My initial thoughts were as follows: the headphones were a definite improvement upon the originals, retaining what I liked most about the original headphones (largely the overall comfort) while also improving the headphones in other small ways (especially in regards to the special features-the M4 are way more feature-packed than the M3 were, incorporating many elements that are being found on most other headphones these days). My favorite thing that was fixed, however, was the sound quality. You see, the original sounded amazing, and honestly sounded better overall than the likes of Bose and Sennheiser, which I have tested as potential replacements for the Sony headphones. And that is despite the fact that the headphones have a relatively small 40mm driver inside, instead of a more traditional 50mm driver. However, the one minor issue I had with the M3 was that the low frequencies were heightened a bit more than I would have liked, making songs sound a bit bass-heavy even when the EQ was turned off (the only way I was able to fix this was by setting the EQ to ‘bright’, which isn’t ideal since the EQ does degrade the battery life). With the M4, Sony improves this by tuning down the low ends, resulting in the headphones having a very flat frequency response, which in turn results in every song having a much wider sound stage than the M3 did (and almost making them sound as good as the various open-back headphones I have tried, including the Sennheiser 650, which is my personal favorite open-back headphone).
In terms of the special features, I think they were implemented quite well in these headphones. The noise cancelling is exceptional, much like it was on the M3, and the transparency mode is somehow even better than it was on the prior generation headphone, sounding a lot more natural and less tinny overall. The auto activation of transparency mode during conversations is fantastic, and enables me to talk to people naturally without ever having to remove the headphones from my ear. This also means that I don’t have to awkwardly tap my hand on the earcup with the M4, either. The DSEE Extreme audio enhancer really helps to make music sound a lot more full, even when using devices that don’t support the LDAC wireless standard. It isn’t as good as listening to lossless files wired, mind you, but it is still an amazing feature that helps to take advantage of the flat sound stage and frequency response of the headphone drivers.
Now, this isn’t to say that these headphones don’t have issues, mind you. The auto-pause when removing the headphones from your ears is very much a gimmick, and doesn’t always pause the song (and may even resume the music before you have a chance to place the headphones back on your ear). Since the headphones use a light sensor to tell if you are wearing your headphones or not, it means even a simple shadow can cause the headphones to think that they are back on your ears and restart music playback. It is quite obnoxious, and it is best left out. Another, more minor issue is the touch controls. While I personally have no issue with them, I know that there are many people that don’t like them whatsoever. So I will just make a note that they are still here, and they work in much the same way as they did on the M3. Finally, I should mention that the flat soundstage, while amazing for my listening experience, may not be for everyone. Bassheads in particular would likely prefer extra pronunciation on the lower ranges. And while they will never be quite as bass-heavy as the Skullcandy or Beats line, the EQ can still bring the bass levels up quite a bit, using a ‘clear bass’ slider that reminds me of the slider on the Skullcandy Skullcrushers: raising the bass without causing distortion.
Overall, the headphones turned out to be quite an exceptional pair, especially when it comes to listening to music during commutes. The great noise cancelling, beautiful audio, and fantastic transparency mode definitely make these headphones a winner in my book. And the app only helps to improve the flexibility of the headphones, allowing for many different features to be unlocked. And while these headphones certainly have some issues (no pair of headphones are perfect, after all), I think the benefits more than outweigh the issues for me, and put these at the top of my list of best closed-back headphones that I have worn. Hopefully Sony will continue to make amazing headphones like these in the ears to come.

I like this