20.1.2018

I have written a comparison of 4 bluetooth headphones. This one is being published under the Sony product page. Why not 5 stars? Essentially the controls are too fiddly, and they aren't as comfortable to wear for long periods as their "rival" the Bose QC35. Also they do not implement Multipoint (allows for two devices to be actively paired) which is a really handy feature.======So, I thought I had my headphones sorted. Since my new iPhone dropped the audio socket I have been wireless. I’ve tried a few, but had settled on the Plantronics Backbeat Fit for running, the Beats Solo 3 for everyday use, and the Bose QC35 for when I wanted peace & quiet.(Plus a pair of Soundmagic E10s for the Nintendo Switch).I alternate between the QC35 & the Beats for my London commute - but tend to favour the smaller sized Beats.So - it was sorted until I got hold of a pair of Sony WH-1000XM2 on the Amazon Vine program (lucky me). I thought I should do a proper review comparing the 4 wireless headphones and assessing their strengths and weaknesses.The LookBackbeat Fit - these are a sport band type, in lime green. They look good, and are very sleek. Cyberman rating 0/10.Bose QC35 - these are, for big headphones, very svelte. They look streamlined on the head (I have the black variety). Cyberman Rating 5/10Sony - these are big. Wide cups. They look chunky on. Again, mine are black (or dark grey). Cyberman rating 8/10Beats Solo - despite small cups these are at least as noticeable as the Sonys. The headband attaches to the outside of the cup and this creates a lot of space between head and band at the side of the head. Cyberman rating 9/10.Fit & ComfortBackbeat - you wouldn’t know it is there.Bose - as light as a feather. So comfortable, can wear these for hours at a time. Hardly any clamping force and the cups fit totally around my big ears. You can drop these around your neck, but the cups face outwards, which is odd.Sony - they feel solid and superior - but you can feel them. They clamp more strongly than the Bose, and are a little tighter fit around the ear. Like the Bose there is a padded headband which is comfortable. It is possible to drop these round your neck, but the extra clamp force feels uncomfortable.Beats - clamp as tight as a vice. On-ear (rather than round-ear) - I’ve not had a pair like this before. They are good for up to an hour but after that can get uncomfortable. Easy to wear around neck if not using them.Best Use?Backbeat - definitely the best sports headphone I have ever usedBose - commuting/flyingSony - commuting/flyingBeats - commutes/around the houseEase Of ConnectivityBose & Beats both excel here for different reasons. The Plantronics & Sonys are standard bluetooth 1-at-a-time devices. If I am listening to something on my iPad and want to switch to my phone I first have to disconnect the bluetooth on ipad then connect on the phone. Fiddly.With the Bose, you can have up to 8 (or 10?) devices in its memory, of which 2 can connect simultaneously. This is brilliant for me on the commute - I can be watching something on the iPad, suddenly realise that its my stop, pause the video, stuff the iPad into my bag, get off the train, press play on my phone and the music starts. No disconnecting/reconnecting.With the Beats, the main advantages come if you are deeply immersed in the Apple ecosystem. My phone, tablet, watch, laptop & desktop are all signed into my iCloud account. As soon as I paired the Beats with my phone for the first time, all my other devices knew about the Beats. It doesn’t do the 2 device thing like Bose (well it does - but only Apple Watch & iPhone) - but switching between iPad & phone is just done by selecting the Beats on the device you wish to use. No deselecting as there is on the Sony & the Plantronics.DropoutsThe Backbeats very occasionally glitch when I’m on a run - which is a little frustrating.The Bose I used every day for nearly a year and never had a day where they didn’t suffer an audio dropout. I usually have my phone in my coat or jacket inside pocket - and the bluetooth would sometimes drop out if I turned my head to watch for traffic.The Beats have never had a single dropout. Absolutely rock solid connection.The Sonys I have used for two days on commutes and - not one dropout, which looks promising.Bluetooth RangeUp The Stairs TestBose - Died at step 24, brief dropout on step 5!Sony - All the way to the top (30 steps) with no dropoutBeats - All the way to the top (30 steps) with no dropoutPlantronics - 28 stepsGarage To Kitchen Through 2 Doors testBose - 17 steps (2 closed doors)Sony - 27 steps (2 closed doors)Beats - no dropouts, my house isn’t big enough to test its range!Plantronics - 24 steps (2 closed doors)Sound QualityI shan’t bother reviewing the songs on the Plantronics - except to say they sound a whole lot better than 2 pairs of cheaper sports headphones I own (Phillips & some Far East no-brand).Song Test 1: Abba “Take A Chance On Me”. That’s right - you don’t get What HiFi doing Abba do you? This was the first song I played on the Sonys (turn on music app - select first band you see - you know how it is). This sounded awesome. Vocals warm and rich, Depth of bass absolutely present. Faultless. The Beats sounded good on this track, but the sound seemed more biased to bass. The QC35 - wow - the female vocals are so harsh! This is a bright sound indeed. On this track, way too bright.Song Test 2: Ghostpoet “Freakshow”. Brooding bass-heavy track with some distorted guitar breaks. The Bose do a good job here. They lighten the gloomy sound and create an open feel. I played the Sonys next and the sound is a lot more claustrophobic - probably what the artist wanted. The guitar is less harsh, and I honestly thought I heard more of what was making the layers of noise work. Again the Beats had a sound that was more biased to bass - which works well but I felt that I could distinguish less of the component sounds.Song Test 3: Spoon “Knock Knock Knock” My go-to test song! It sounds great through headphones. I tried the Beats first. The kick drum & bass sounds fantastic, and the headphones deal well with the vocals and guitar - but its the drums here that grab you. The Sonys make less of a deal of the drums and bass, presenting vocals as the focus whilst the guitar has a nice warm balance. The Bose - its all about the guitar and hi-hat! Really interesting this. I like how it sounds on all 3 - the QC35 sounds more nimble than the other two - but the drums on the Beats win out.Song Test 4: Idlewild: “Actually Its Darkness” - an attack of guitars. The Bose puts all the action at the top end - accentuating the distortion - its quite thrilling. The piano break two thirds of the way through actually sounds quite hollow though. The Sonys sound too polite, this is a rock band tearing it up and it sounds like a blanket has been put over the sound. The Beats get the balance right - the bass & drums are noticeable, and the top end is allowed to let rip too.As for volume, I’d say the Beats and the Sonys have a maximum level approximately the same as each other, whilst the Bose go up to eleven. Just a tad louder. The Backbeat Fit can go quite loud too, at the top end they can obliterate other noises in the gym and on the road - but not as loud as the other three. A caveat to the sound - the Sony headphones to have an app which includes a graphic equaliser, so you can tune the response of the headphones to your taste. I did not use the equaliser for these tests.Battery LifeWith noise cancelling on, the Bose & Sony both have 20 hours claimed, and that has proved accurate. I’ve not tested ANC off (on the Sony) but apparently it adds another 10 hours. The Plantronics lasts for 6 hours. The Beats may as well last forever. I’ve used them almost daily for 2 months, and have only charged them once, and that was more out of curiosity than necessity.Noise CancellationBose Active Noise Cancellation - when you put these on, with no music, the absence of noise is amazing.Sony ANC - there is an effect noticeable with no music playing. Its almost like a pulsing wind, a very faint noise - but not the dead silence of the Bose.Beats & Plantronics do not feature ANC.I played a youtube video of airplane noise to see which could block out the most - interestingly both the Sony & Bose reduced the sound by a lot - but a little more of the lower frequencies got through the Bose filter - and a little more of the higher frequencies got through the Sony. All in all I actually, and possibly controversially, think the Sony deadens the aircraft noise best.The Beats - with passive noise isolation (tightly clamped cups) - could not compete, and there is no isolation at all on the Plantronics.Button ControlsThe Bose are straightforward and the best. Slider switch to turn on & pair devices, three buttons - volume up, volume down and track control. The latter is pause (one tap) next song (two taps) previous song (three taps). The Beats have a power button (hold down to pair), a volume up, a volume down and a centre track control button that works as the Bose. However the buttons feel a bit clicky and I often pause instead of skipping a track. I notice I use my phone controls more when I have the Beats on.The Sony’s controls are awful. firstly the power button is flush & hard to find, secondly it is very easy to get the wrong button - there is an adjacent button that manages the ANC mode. As for volume & track control - it is touch controlled. The right cup is touch enabled (slide down/up for volume, slide left/right for skip back/forward, single tap for pause). I nearly always get the wrong result when doing this swiping.Plantronics has no ‘previous track’ - the left bud has a button for pause/play/skip. The right bud has answer call.When answering calls - the Beats, Plantronics and Bose are precise, click a button and answer a call. The Sony - you end up stabbing the cup hoping that you don’t turn up the volume or disconnect the call. Quite unsatisfying.Call QualityAll four sound OK when taking calls. I asked a friend to rank each one out of 10 for my voice clarity.Beats - 9/10 - really clearSony - 7.5/10 - bit muffledBose - 6/10 - muffled and cut outPlantronics - 4/10 - crackly sound.Case/CablesAll of these charge with micro-USB and each comes with a charger cable. The Bose, Beats & Sony also come with a 3.5mm audio cable for wired listening.Each has a case - the Plantronics arrived with a running case for a standard phone (strap to arm style). The Bose & Sony have hard shell cases of broadly similar sizes, the Beats has a semi-rigid soft case.My ConclusionsThe Beats perform surprisingly well. They are a really good daily headphone, as long as you can stand the clamping force. Whilst they have no ANC, you don’t really notice that much on a train when playing music. Nor do you need it when just using them around the house. And the battery life, and bluetooth range are the best here.The Plantronics are niche, they are my running headphones. And having tried many - these are the best by a wide margin.The interesting comparison is between my beloved & well used Bose and the new Sonys. I prefer the sound and the bluetooth signal solidity of the Sonys. I prefer the multi-device connectivity, comfort & controls of the Bose. I expect I’ll be restricting the Bose/Sony to long train journeys, flights etc whilst using the Beats on my commute. So do I need the multipoint connectivity? The sound should be king, but would I miss the absolute comfort of the Bose?

29.6.2018

These are pretty much what I expected. I was doubting among these, the Bose QuietComfort 35 and the B&W PX. I pondered some Sennheiser and Audio Technica models, but the reviews were pretty negative about them. I had the chance to test both the Sony and the Bose before purchasing and I ended up choosing these, as all reviews on the B&W concluded they were a bit uncomfortable after a while and its noise cancelling wasn't up there, despite being the one with the best sound quality.I'm no audiophile, but the sound quality of these cans is almost up there with my RHA ma750 (around 80 euros), which are earbuds and no where even near my Meze 99 Classics (around 300 euros). Yet,this is what made me choose them over the Bose, as the Bose sound quality is way worse, very plain and mediocre, at least with the music I listen to (metal).I cannot compare them with the Bose when it comes to noise cancelling as I didn’t have a chance to actually test to which lengths any of them go, but I’m surely eager to go on an airplane to test them. Anyway, this is the reason for which I bought them! Sometimes at work I’m fed up with the noise and I just want all my colleagues to disappear. Since I cannot do that, I bought these headphones and with the noise cancelling off and the music on I can barely hear them, same as the other way around, music off and noise cancelling on. Once I turn on both the ANC and the music, they are in another dimension where I cannot hear them and I can focus on my tasks. I tested them as well on the tram and I could only notice a little bit of noise if I really focused on it, while on the street I had to turn it off as I fear being hit by a car and that kind of stuff.The microphone is ok. I tested them during a call and I could clearly hear the other person and she never complained about the quality of my voice.When it comes to features, even though I do not feel it will be too useful to me due to the usage I will give them, they can switch modes on its own detecting your activity. When I hopped on the tram and it started moving, the headphones detected I was on a transport, thus went from ANC off to on. Once I arrived at my destination, they detected the mode changed to “walking” thus changed to ANC Ambient mode. This is why it won’t be useful for me, as in the street I prefer to fully turn it off, but anyway, I’m not planning to take them to the street often.The controls using touch gestures for volume up/down, next/previous track and play/pause are great, but the best is by far placing your hand on your right cup so that you not only disable momentarily ANC but actually get your environment magnified, hearing the person speaking to you more clearly than without them.When it comes to construction, I feel this is the place where they are bested by the Bose. I believe the previous model some flaws and I truly hope they were fixed on these, but the Bose just simply feel way sturdier than the Sony, by far. It’s not like the Sony feel cheap, but if you hold them at the same time as the Bose you can totally tell the difference.Lastly, as accessories they carry an airplane adapter, a jack-to-jack cable and the little charger cable as well as a carrying case which looks great and I’m going to use every day to take them to the office. I would consider the Android/iOS another accessory that gives you even more control over them, very handy.Summarizing, these are great and I’m really happy with my purchase. Maybe the price is a bit high, as there are not many options and the best ones are all at this price range, but these headphones surely are worthy and you are paying the extra money on the noise cancelling technology so, if you don’t really mind about hearing the world around you, there are way better options on audiophile closed headphones. If there are times you cannot stand the noise in the place you are, these can become your best friend!

19.2.2018

As an owner of Momentum's 2.0 and previously a pair of B&W PX's (for 10 days), I can say that these Sony headphones are phenomenal.Sound Quality:Easily a 9, the Sennheiser's at 8.5 and the PX's at 9.1 out of 10. The PX's are more punchy but need at least a week to get going, the Sony are great straight out of the box. I believe they're getting better day by day and the difference between the PX is marginal. The Sony's sound more natural like the Sennheiser's whereas the PX feels as though they're being altered by technology.Comfort:The Sony's 10, Sennheiser's 10, PX's 5 out of 10. This is the main reason why I returned the PX's. The headband is made of a hard rubberised material which just isn't comfortable.I was told to persevere for a month, but they were so uncomfortable all I could do was 10 days and at the end it was 15 mins max per 3-4 hours. This has been documented by other reviewers but it seems that their pain threshold for wearing headphones are better than mine.Noise Cancelling:Sony's 10, Sennheiser's n/a, PX 7. The Momentum's I have are wired and have no noise cancelling. The PX's NC are not very good at all, at the max setting, it sounds like you're in a tunnel and it's obvious the headphones are playing with the sound. The Sony's are the opposite. The sound is simply awesome and appear to be better with the NC activated. Having never owned NC headphones I didn't know what to expect and thought the PX's were the norm. Since having the 1000XM2's I can say that the B&W's have the problem.Tech:Sony 9, Sennheiser n/a, PX 9. I liked the intuitive nature of the PX's controls and equally I feel comfortable with the Sony's. Both are great and easy to use and both have very good mobile apps to compliment the hardware.Connectivity:Sony 10, Sennheiser n/a, PX 6. I experienced drop outs with the PX's, where I lost sound when in busy train stations at peak times. This usually occurred whist walking past Guy's hospital. As my first pair of BT headphones I presumed this was normal due to the amount of BT headsets in the area. I can confirm that I have not experienced any drop outs with the Sony's.Build Quality:Sony 8.5, Sennheiser 9, PX 9. The PX wins in this department. They look better than the Sony IMO but I think the extra looks with metal add to the weight which makes them just that much too heavy for me to wear. The Sony's appear to be all plastic, which may deteriorate quicker in time. I will update this review if they do.Overall:The Sony 1000XM2's for me all the way. The quality of the sound, portability, tech and comfort. There's something to be said about a manufacturer that makes studio grade headphone equipment like Sennheiser and Sony. This is certainly the case with these Sony headphones. Simply brilliant.Phone: HTC U11 with PowerampHiFi: Roksan K3 AMP with BT

11.6.2018

I received these headphones as a birthday present a couple of months ago. I work offshore and never really thought it was a particularly noisy environment...Until I put these headphones on.The noise cancelling is unbelievable. I cannot stress how big a difference it makes when it a noisy environment with HVAC or while travelling on a train or plane. Even at home (I live near the city centre) these make a huge difference.Speaking of which, the reason I held off my review is I wanted to see how they held up on a flight. Needless to say they were perfect. The small moment between powering on the headphones and the NC kicking in is special. It makes you appreciate true silence!Now, on to sound quality.I'm not an audiophile but I know good sound when I hear it. Clear, crisp, detailed sound which doesn't overpower in any direction. If you want your fillings to be rattled by bass and nothing else, by a pair of Beats. If you want more, buy these.Connection is a breeze with Bluetooth, and even easier if you have an NFC enabled phone. Just tap the left headphone with your phone and that's it.Battery life is immense. I have used these moderately for the last 2 months and I've had to charge them TWICE. That's it.As for the other features, holding your palm over the right earphone will allow sound to pass through so you can have a quick conversation without taking them off. A little gimmicky, and I actually found I inadvertently set it off a couple of times when I put my arm over my head on a resting position. But useful in most cases.Controls are easy. A double tap to play and pause all media ie pauses a Netflix video, for example, which is pretty cool. Swipe up and down for volume. Left and right to switch tracks.Sony being Sony, there is a dedicated Headphones app which let's you really drill down on the sound quality with a huge variety of equalisers etc. There's also an 'optimiser' which adjusts sound quality depending on your environment....apparently! I haven't bothered dabbling much with the app, but it's there if you want to change things.Now for a few very minor negatives. Bluetooth call quality through my phone is decent enough. I can hear the recipient very clearly, however they struggle to hear me and say it sounds like I'm in a large cathedral when I speak!Also regarding Bluetooth, I find the connection can be mildly patchy at times. I've only ever found this in busy airport terminals, however, which to be fair has thousands of people each with 1 or 2 devices transmitting signals.However I won't end on a negative! Truly stunning headphones. I believe my partner paid around £300 for them, and they appear to fluctuate between £250-£275 at time of writing.Worth. Every. Penny.Give your ears some love. Wrap these headphones around them.

14.5.2018

I’ve been in airports a lot recently and got a chance to test the main three noise cancelling headphones. I have been using a pair of Sennheiser PXC-450s for more than ten years now so I was due an upgrade.I tried the latest Bose, Sennheiser and Sony pairs and I felt that the Sony had the best mix of NC, comfort and sound for me.I thought the Senns felt weird on my head, like the cups were too small for my ears. The Sony cups look small but we’re weirdly far more comfortable. The Bose are probably the most comfortable to be fair, the ear cups are big and the cushion material is very nice.It’s hard to test the sound of all three with a quick demo in the airport but now that I own the Sony pair,

22.1.2018

I love music and I know fidelity when I hear it, so I was very keen to try these Sony WH-1000XM2 headphones out.They are not particularly light but do sit comfortably on my large (according to hat manufacturers) head. The noise cancelling function is second-to-none and certainly is amongst the best. Even better is that you can turn on Ambient Mode, whereby you can hear stuff around you, but it's muted. Of course, temporarily muting both sound and noise-cancelling by placing your hand on the right speaker works well too - I would have preferred it to have a toggling action so it stayed that way until I switched the music back on.Just to put this in perspective I compared them to a wide range of headphone that I had to hand,

19.4.2018

I purchased these from Amazon Marketplace in Germany. Deliver took 2 days. Apart from the box being opened, they looked otherwise brand new. After conversion to GBP, the cost was only £203. I would definitely buy from marketplace again.As for the headphones, they were purchased to replace a well loved pair of Bose QC15 noise cancelling headphones. I was keen to move to a wireless option.Firstly, these are clearly a very high end set of headphones. Build quality is fantastic. They certainly have the premium feel to them. They are sold with a hard protective case. The process of folding them into the case is a little cumbersome and it takes a while to remember that they need to be folded in a specific way into the case.

22.3.2018

I normally don't write reviews, intact I think this is the first product I have reviewed but my sheer amazement has forced me to take the time out and write a review.When trying to decide if I should buy these I faced two questions, I believe they're the same a lot of people will face and so I will try to answer them here.A) Are any headphones worth £300.In short yes, I'm someone who likes to splurge on a big ticket item every now and again (a watch, a new tv etc) yet even by my standards I thought "can £300 for a pair of headphones really be justified". To me my £80 headphones were doing the job perfectly and I had no reason to complain, how wrong I was.

20.1.2018

So, I moved on from my Audio-Technica ATH-M50X headphones to these after a few months of debating whether or not to make the move over to these. I can fully assure you that I do not regret this purchase in the slightest. The reason for the move from the Audio-Technica ATH-M50X's to these was more for the sake of the Noise Cancelling, however, I did want a step up in audio quality too, so why not take this as an opportunity to upgrade too.In contrast to the Audio-Technica ATH-M50X's I found these isn't a big of a jump as I expected and I was left slightly deflated. However, after a few days of use, I can honestly say that the contrast falls into a much cleaner, warmer,

28.11.2018

I have finally succumbed to advancing high frequency deafness and moved from in ear headphones to over the ear ones. Having lost over 75% of my high frequency hearing I needed headphones that could boost that part of the range without a commensurate boost at the lower frequencies where my hearing is average for my age, volume alone is not the answer. Additionally I wanted noise cancellation as I use my headphones on trains for about an hour and a half a day.Having done some research I decided to buy these. The price was an attraction as I got the Black Friday price of £199 but even Amazon's regular selling price of £269 is about 60 quid cheaper than the market leading Bose equivalent and the

3.2.2018

These are great headphones. They come nicely packaged, with a made-to-measure carrying case (which has a handy diagram to help you put them back in!). They fold and twist into quite a small space. I find them very comfortable to wear, really light on my head, and the padding on the cups is just right. My ears do get a little warm after a while, but nothing too major. They really do block out a lot of noise - perfect for when I'm trying to concentrate in my noisy open-plan office at work. If the music stops I can hear a faint hissing noise like wind blowing, but it is only slight and doesn't interfere when the music starts up. If I need to hear for a moment I can put my right hand over the right cup and it allows the sound to come in again,

10.3.2018

These WH-1000xm2s are outstanding but there is a niggling issue which I will come to, firstly just a little about why I bought them. I need high end noise cancelling headphones due to inhabiting environments which are noisy to the point of stress (traffic noise and engineering noise in the main) which were driving me almost to the point of breakdown. I also wanted a superb music sound quality. Thanks for bearing with me on these points, now my experience of these extraordinary headphones:I am simply blown away by the noise cancelling quality, it is everything I wanted, I now have the relief I needed so desperately. I have tried so many other high end brands (you know them) which have left me unsatisfied.

25.6.2018

Disclaimer: this is my first pair of noise cancelling headphones.Noise cancellingThree functions: noise cancelling, ambient sound, off.I found them very effective at cancelling surrounding noises on the street and in the office, esp. aircon hum and continuous rumble.Voices are barely audible but obviously are not completely cut out.The insulation is OK even by just wearing them turned off.Sound quality is very good - at least to my taste.Might be argued they're a bit prominent on the bass as per Sony tradition, but to be 100% sure I'd need a double blind comparison, so take this just as a sensation.Battery life is excellent, the auto power off works well and saves a lot of energy as one would easily forget to turn them off.

27.12.2018

The headphone is very comfortable. Even without NC turned on, only by wearing it most of external sounds are cancelled by the closed ear cup design. I haven't needed to charge the battery yet since I bought it. It has a very good battery indeed. The noise cancelling is amazing, I ride buses with it and it feels like I'm inside a quiet library, crossing the street with it is dangerous given that you almost can't hear anything. The app is nice, equalizer works very well, you can configure a mode where the NC microphones will instead of cancel external sounds, bring external sounds to your ears, which in my opinion is useless but some people might like it. One nice feature is to cover the touch controls with your hand,

3.1.2019

I have now been using these headphones for over a month and I am just amazed by the quality. I researched a lot of different headphones including some cheaper ones and it finally boiled down to Bose QC 35 and the Sony WH1000XM2. The noise cancelling on the Sony is second to none and I really like the options of touch gestures and music fade to listen into conversations through the right ear cup. I felt the sound quality may have been (slightly) better on the Bose QC35 (if I am splitting hairs), but to my non audiophile ears, only marginally so. The battery life is fantastic and beats Bose by a country mile. The headphones are super comfortable for the nearly 3-4 hours I have used them continuously.

Sony WH-1000XM2 - Reviews

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