WH-1000XM5
The quietest headphones you can buy without the cancellation colouring the music.
Most noise cancelling headphones win the measurement and lose the music. These do not. The mid frequencies survive the processing, which is the part cheaper pairs get wrong and the reason we keep coming back to this line. The case is the compromise. It no longer folds flat, so it eats more of a bag than the XM4 did.
Anyone who works in a noisy room and listens to music rather than podcasts.
You travel with one small bag. The case is bulky and the XM4 folds. Buy the older model and spend the difference on something else.
Sony's fifth generation flagship over-ear. Thirty hours of battery, a redesigned headband that spreads weight better than the model it replaced, and the cancellation everyone else is still chasing.
- Cancellation that does not hollow out voices or acoustic instruments
- Comfortable across a full working day, which the XM4 was not
- Call quality good enough to stop carrying a separate headset
- Does not fold, so the case is noticeably larger
- Default tuning has more bass than the drivers need
- The companion app wants an account for settings that should be local
