Price: £259 from fave.co/45ugXI2
Sony has struck another blow in the noise-cancelling battle with its latest true wireless flagship headphone, the £259 WF-1000XM5. Sony took some of the advanced technologies from its WH-1000XM5 over-the-ear headphone and coupled them with a huge number refinements.
Are those advances enough for Sony’s WF-1000XM5 to dethrone the Bose QuietComfort II as our top pick of in-ear noise-cancelling headphones? I found the default voicing to be tonally balanced from top to bottom, rendering good dynamics, decent midrange clarity and a detailed top end.
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Sony’s WF-1000-series has ranked consistently among our top choices for true wireless noise-cancelling headphones, and the WF-1000XM5 is well worth the modest £10 premium over the previous generation (the WF-1000XM4). Four key areas differentiate the WF‑1000XM5 from that earlier product.
Upgraded, larger driver: The WF-1000XM5 uses a larger 8.4mm driver versus the 6mm driver in the WF‑1000XM4. Sony says the larger driver reproduces lower frequencies and reduces distortion. The larger driver improves noisecancelling performance at lower frequencies and reproduces music cleaner. The new driver delivers as you’ll see in more detail below.
Additional feedback microphones: The number of feedback microphones has increased from four to six. Sony says these dual-feedback microphones monitor lower-frequency noise more precisely, registering more environmental data points and covering a wider frequency spectrum that the larger driver can take advantage of. The end result? Sony’s best noise-cancelling yet.
Dual processors for microphone and environmental analysis: The WF‑1000XM5 sports next-generation dual processors, the QN2e and the V2. Sony says its newly developed QN2e processor exerts precise control over the six onboard microphones, and the V2 supports real-time processing of the outside environment.
Wind noise reduction:
