Sony WH-1000XM6 Wireless Noise-Canceling Headphones

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have been fortunate to receive a pair of Sony WH-1000XM6 over ear headphones from Sony to test and review. The headphones were received in minimalist fully recyclable packaging in line with "Sony's" aim to acheive "Road to Zero" and minimise environmental impact. The Storage Case holding the headphones is smart and functional, but has a magnetic clasp to hold the two halves closed rather than a zip, and it doesn't seem to close very well. There is a small carry handle/belt clip attached to the case, although this does not unclip to put over a belt, and I would be concerned about potentially snagging the clasp and causing it to open and the headphones falling out. Inside the case the headphones are neatly folded, and in a small pouch section there is a very short USB C charging cable together with a nice long audio cable of approx 1.2 metres. It's good to see that Sony still provide this type of connection, particularly useful for older music devices and phones. There is a reference guide included which has a QR code to scan, and this opens a quick start guide, which recommends installing their "Sound Connect" App. The App will allow you to customise the headphones to your personal taste and access many useful functions, although some features I feel are unnecessary and makes the App more cluttered and harder to navigate as a result. In addition, it would have been helpful if the App Icon had included the name "SONY" in order to find it easily on your phone. The Headphones look really great, neat and compact and reasonably light for over ear headphones. They are very well made, in a lovely satin black finish and look very Stylish, with a Premium Quality feel. The ear cups are smooth, soft and comfortable and covered my ears perfectly. However in order for the headband to sit on top of my head, for support, I needed to have the arms fully closed, and the ear cups did feel quite tight as a result, and this may be uncomfortable for some people. To turn the headphones on there is an easy to find " indented" circular power switch on the left ear cup, and they were instantly found by the Sound Connect App already installed on my phone. There was a voice in the headphones stating "pairing"... so it was a simple case of clicking the connect button on the phone pop up window. This brought up the set up mode which was easy to follow, with an option to sign up [or sign in] to a Sony Account. Just make sure that, in the Bluetooth settings on your phone, LDAC is turned on which is Sony's own high quality connection, to provide the best sound experience. A short press on the power button will tell you how much battery life there is available and and the battery does last a long time. Sony claim up to 30 hours with noise cancelling on. There is another button, on the left earcup, which is used to change noise cancelling and Ambient sound settings. The button can also be set up, via the App, to start music from your preferred music app just by pressing it twice. There are no buttons on the right side, but playback is easily controlled by swiping a finger over the ear cup itself. This is so much easier than using the controls on your smart phone. Swiping a finger up and down it adjusts the volume..swiping forwards selects next track, swipe back restarts track...swipe back twice selects previous track and so on. Tapping the ear cup twice pauses or continues the music track you are listening too.....tapping twice also allows you to take an incoming telephone call or end the call. The headphones have a noise cancelling feature, and as with all the headphones I've used, they are more efficient with background rumbling noises eg engines, fans, coffee machines, wind noise etc...and as expected they do this very well. A neat feature, is the option to cover the right ear cup with the palm of your hand so you can instantly hear your surroundings, extremely useful if you need to quickly listen to someone or hear a travel announcement... of course you can also just switch to the "ambient sound" setting. With regards to sound quality the headphones are a pleasure to use with the sounds being crisp and clear with good bass that is not overpowering, and there is a graphic equaliser within the App to adjust settings to your own taste. For those of you who are not familiar with Sony's 360 Reality Audio Sound, there are tracks available in this format, and they are worth searching for, as they provide an immersive music experience that uses "Sony‘s (object-based) 360 Spatial Sound technology" and makes good use of the headphones excellent capabilities. You can also turn on a Speak to Chat setting...so even if you have noise cancelling switched on, as soon as you speak it automatically switches to ambient sound and the music volume reduces so you can have a conversation with someone...the only downside is the same happens if you start singing to a track, so I have it turned off. Another function available is voice Cue ...you can turn on this service if you want notifications about emails or messages and there is an announcement when one is received...although I found this quite distracting. I did experience some compatibility issues with a couple of the "Sound Connect App" features with my particular Android Phone. There is the option to set up your voice assistant, which can be either voice activated or opened by holding one finger on the right ear cup. Unfortunately this feature would only work if my phone was unlocked and on the "chat screen", as soon as the screen timed out, or if I locked the phone, or tried to browse my phone the music would stop immediately, [although I did find that sometimes it actually worked] Consequently I tried resetting the headphones and completely reinstalling the App and even tried using another Android device [from the same manufacturer], but again experienced the same issues. There is also a clever feature called head tracking, which kind of simulates the effect of being at a concert, but I could not find a way to activate this on my Android Phone, and I could only experience this when using their own ear buds. Nevertheless, despite the above compatibility issues, my main reason for using these type of headphones is to listen to music without distractions. I discovered that as long as I listened to music directly via my Music App, then there were no problems whatsoever. All the touch controls worked, even when my screen was locked and was able to browse my phone without any problems, and that's what is important to me. In summary Sony have not only designed some excellent noise cancelling headphones, with great sound quality, but they have also endeavoured to provide us with various additional features, not only to make the headphones easier and more convenient to use, but also to enable us to decide upon the level of "isolation" and functionality that we actually need. I suspect Sony will issue a firmware update if other people experience the minor problems I encountered, but regardless of this, they are high quality headphones well worth purchasing.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I have used the headphones for just over a week and I am very impressed with them they are good fitting and are not loose and do not move around but also at the same time not to tight. My last head phones were Sony WH-CH720N they are very good but the WH-1000XM6 are better the sound quality is better and I have used them both for television and music on the tv watching films gives you great surround sound and with the noise canceling on gives you a better experience. With the music tried it outside in garden with noise canceling on and off to see how good it was and could hardly hear anything around main road out front people cutting grass did not interfere with the music and all controls on head phones and sound was not affected at about 50ft away. I like the controls being within the headphones nice and easy and like the bit you can cup your hand over right ear cup to turn volume off you can also skip stop and volume up and down nice and easy. As with all Sony products they seem well made but I can not understand why the charging cable is so short if it is not plugged into USB in a computer cable to short to plug into USB plug adaptor as it will hang by cord from plug but do like the headphone cable so you can plug into non Bluetooth units and use the headphones this is a plus as not sure if all Bluetooth headsets have this. The headphones were used around the house and in the garden with tv and music device in other rooms did not have any problems with sound or controls worked very well. I like the carrying case nice and sturdy better than just putting in a bag as put above well made unit just thinking if later will the ear cup swivels wear out in time if I like something will keep it for a lone time I do like this set and I am very impress with performance and look easy to use.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The feel of these headphones is smooth to the touch the weight is very balanced not too heavy but not light, i love the fact it has a 3.5 mm Jack port and adaptor wire included in the box, so you can use for any devices you may have, that doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity, The volume and skipping songs or going back can all be done with a touch or tap on the headphones moving your finger up will make it go louder and moving your finger down will lower it, there's a button where you can switch between noise cancelling and ambient sound There's an app which is called sound contract you will definitely need this to get the best out of the headphones if you already had a previous model, you can transfer your data to new ones saves you a bit of time recalibrating your headphones for your ears There are some amazing features which include, You can answer a call by nodding your head or reject it by shaking your head If you're not listening to anything it actually tells you the time on the hour also 1st time you put them on each day it will say good morning and say the date how cool is that You can have more than one device contracted at once it will auto switch to the one that's playing audio, i have my phone and TV contracted and it switches between the two effortlessly This is my favourite feature soon as you remove your headphones off your head anything you're listening to, or watching a movie on your tv for example Netflix it will pause the song or movie and soon as you put your headphones back on it will automatically restart it, i never seen any headphones do that before I would buy these just for that alone Now for the sound is it any good? Simple answer amazing, Listening to music you can hear everything crystal clear even at high volumes Watching a movie is the same voices, background noise in the film come through perfectly You have an option on the app to switch to cinema which i did its perfect feature for watching tv and with the 360 reality audio it's like having full surround sound with Dolby Atmos, I currently have a surround sound with Dolby Atmos and can say these headphones do an amazing job Overall verdict would i recommend these if you got this far i think you know the answer but yeah i will definitely recommend these, value for money these have feature that most don't and cost as much as these or even more, sound is second to none and you can even use them with your older devices, Another winner from Sony

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Smart looking, comfortable fitting , easy to pair to my phone and Walkman. The sound quality is excellent, not “Tinny” or echoing. The one touch facility to answer calls is a nice touch. They also work well connecting to an old school device using a wired connection. Not had them long enough to know how long the battery life will last, but I’m confident it will be decent.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] These wireless headphones are comfortable, provide excellent audio quality and are easy to set up and use. First up - straight out of the box, the headphones work perfectly. They come pre-charged, so no waiting for the batteries to top up before setting up. Switch them on, and they're ready to pair via Bluetooth. They are really comfortable and light, so a breeze to wear for hours. The noise-cancelling can be enabled/disabled as required, making it great to either block out background sounds or to be able to hear what's going on - perfect if out and about. Connection via Bluetooth was instant. The headphones come with an app, which helps set up the more advance features and gives a step-by-step user guide. What I loved... 1. audio quality is rich and deep, note-perfect. 2. light and comfortable. 3. easy to set up and use immediately. 4. user guide is easy to follow. 5. controls for play/pause, volume, skip etc are simple motions on the right ear - so easy to use and no fiddly little buttons or trying to remember combinations or codes. Definitely a great pair of headphones

I trust and believe in Sony products. I love them so comfy and sound is excellent with excellent noise cancellation

Awesome headphones. Extremely premium feel. I highly recommend

After rave reviews, purchased the new Sony 1000XM6 - definitely a high end product in materials and quality. The case is sturdy and very portable, which I appreciate for airplane travel. The app is easy to use and functions and settings are a breeze to set up. Sound is fabulous, various EQ settings allow adjustment to personal and music tastes. Music sounds open, clear, with detailed mids and highs that are never sibilant, bass is powerful and not muddy. The headphones sit very comfortably and clamping forces are just right. ANC is simply jaw dropping! Gesture controls on the right cup are intuitive and easy, but I wish the annoying confirmation ding for volume and track selection could be switched off completely and not end at - 2, that's my only gripe, really

This is my first time trying out the headphone side of things with Sony. I’ve tried the xm4 earbuds, that were ok but call quality sucked. I jumped ship and bought Bose quietcomfort earbuds when they released. I loved the Bose earbuds but they had the same issue. Terrible call quality too. I heard a lot about the xm5 headphones, right as I was about to finally purchase the xm5s the Xm6s ended up releasing so I gave them a try. I love these headphones! Great ANC and call quality finally! The sound profile is pretty good but I can’t say it’s the best I’ve heard. I can say it’s very solid and well rounded though. I wish the headphones didn’t smudge so easily tho. I have the black ones. All in all I don’t have any complaints or regrets!

The case is elegant, small and very easy to open. The noise-cancelling is like no other. However, my favourite is the improvement in the ambient sound mode. You can almost forget you are using headphones when the ambient sound mode is on.

Ordered these headphones on day one. Skipped WH-1000XM5 because I heard that the bass was lacking. After listening to the WH-1000XM6 all I can say is welcome back king of bass and the sound is great. I listen to Drum n Bass and these headphones are great for people who like bass and this without any need for Equalization.

These were bought by my wife as a surprise gift to replace my ageing WH 1000 XM3 headphones which still look & perform flawlessly after a few years of excellent service. The first improvement I noticed was the hard carry case, the magnetic clasp minus the zip is a great idea, I alsolike the foldable design Sony have gone back to, definitely a plus. Audio quality is just as I expected from Sony, noise cancelling just gets better, hearing music is taken to the next level. We do a lot of long distance coach & train travel & this where noise cancelling with Sony headphones excels, all ambient noise in removed easily.

I have ordered these on the first day they are available and received today. Used these headphones for few hours explored all the options and sturdy levels etc., over all these headphones again falls in premium category just like XM5 for sure and remains as top tier in ANC headphones category….materials feels little more premium compared to XM5…sound quality improved a lot with that punch bass and well detailed sound…headband feels comfortable compared to XM5…ear cushions feels comfortable as well for longer use in travels etc., …only thing I felt downside is the ear cups not the ear cushions…we can detach the ear cups and replacement with new but Sony could have used design like AirPods Max and Sonos Ace magnetic detach and attach option…once you detach the ear cups all the drivers inside wires are visible not covered with any of other plastic layer…and the under layer clothe used in ear pads is very thin can easily tears off in normal use. These could feel like nitpicking reasons but as these falls in premium headphones and expensive category everything comes into consideration….this was the downside I felt ear-cups design could have been better…apart from this reason I felt all other check points passes…case is well built with magnet closer option and very sturdy to project headphones. Overall if you don’t care on the downside I mentioned, these headphones can be considered for any occasion and mainly if looking for top notch ANC feature and premium quality sound.

The MX5 were a great pare but always left me with pain on top of the head which was really uncomfortable. The MX6 solved that problem somehow and improved on ANC which was already top of the competition. They fold nicely on the neck too. Simply the best!

I have only just purchased these to replace my WH1000XM3, I decided previously that the XM4 was not a massive improvement and that they XM5 was actually a backward step when it came to comfort and portabilty, the XM6 is next level, the sound quality is lovely with rich bass and great tone, they are not an extremely high end audiophile headphone but they are close as you will get at the price point, I also tries the Sonos and the Apple AirPods Max (I am in the Apple ecosystem) but kept coming back to the XM6 they are even more comfortable that the XM3, the ear cups are so comfortable and I have been wearing them most of the day with no fatigue, the addition of a proper power button is a real benefit as well. the new ear cup design with the slight angle makes them seat even better and the fact they can be folded again is such a benefit, and the new case with the magnetic open/close is excellent.