Sony has unveiled the WH-1000XM6, the latest member of its wildly popular 1000X family of active noise-canceling (ANC) wireless headphones, introducing several technical and quality of life improvements that are sure to be welcomed by its users.
The first thing to note about the WH-1000XM6 headphones is that Sony has brought back the foldable form factor dropped in the WH-1000XM5, which had adopted a rigid design similar to Apple’s AirPods Max. This was one of the most common gripes heard among fans of the Sony series and the returning foldability provides users with a bit more flexibility in terms of storage.
Powering the WH-1000XM6 headphones is the QN3, an all-new HD noise canceling processor that Sony says is “seven times faster than the previous model”, which uses 12 onboard microphones (“1.5 times more than the WH-1000XM5”) and a newly included Adaptive NC Optimizer to continuously monitor “any form of external noise and air pressure” and adjust in real time. Sony says this delivers “unmatched noise canceling precision” and adds that users can manually adjust and edit these settings to their liking in its app. The ANC found in Sony headphones is generally considered to be among the best in the industry, making these additions and improvements sound very promising.
Internally, the new headphones feature a new, custom-built carbon fiber composite driver unit that Sony describes as having a “high rigidity” that “brings out the subtleties in every frequency.” Additionally, the newly designed driver helps to provide richer vocals and more defined instruments that the brand says better conveys “the emotion” of your music. And, in terms of codecs, the WH-1000XM6 headphones support High-Resolution Audio and High-Resolution Audio Wireless, as well as Edge-AI and DSEE Extreme that “upscales compressed digital music files in real time to restore high range sound lost in compression.”
Sony is using AI throughout its new headphones, including with its “AI-based beamforming system” that uses six of the 12 onboard microphones to improve call quality by isolating the user’s voice from background noise, making the WH-1000XM6 effective for calls “even in noisy environments.” Scene-based Listening, another new feature, uses AI to get a sense of a user’s surroundings and can adjust the level of noise canceling based on both a user’s environment and their location. This intuitive new feature is compatible with most popular streaming services including Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify.
The WH-1000XM6 headphones feature “up to 30 hours of battery life” with ANC switched on (and even more without, though Sony hasn’t disclosed how much more) and just three minutes of charge provides “three-hours’ worth of charge”, according to the brand. The new headphones also support LE (low energy) Bluetooth audio and include multi-point connectivity, meaning they can be paired and simultaneously connected to more than one device at a time.
Sony’s latest flagship wireless headphones are available now in three colors – “Black”, “Platinum Silver” and “Midnight Blue” – priced at £399.99 GBP / $449.99 USD.
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