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[Video, The Verge] Hear how the best ANC headphones handle real world and lab tests
(www.youtube.com)
TL;DW: Buy the Sonys. You'll be happy.
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Technology
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Bought them, can't be used while charging, poor for calls, side of the strap broke easily so I have to tape it together
Also while walking sometimes the connection drops, but that is probably on my phone having crappy Bluetooth
I mean, their battery lasts so much...I've never needed to charge them while using them. At some point I might click power without noticing and it will say "battery low"...and then I know after using them this time I'd need to recharge them. But even then, it's not in a hurry, I know I can continue using them comfortably for as long as needed, just this time I need to remember to charge them. Call quality has been improving, and this time they have ANC also for the mics, so your other party gets noise from the street cancelled...this was an issue with my XM2, talking on a noisy street is a no-go, but with these XM5, is now perfectly ok....at least to me in a bustling city full of people and traffic.
Sometimes I forget to turn them off, they'll just be paired to my phone until they go to 0 and die (XM3, btw) so yeah, I need to be able to use them while they have no battery. That is, unless they just disconnect by themselves nowadays
So...bring with you the normal 3.5mm cable. That way even if they're dead they can be used as a normal wired headphone. I still find that feature awesome.
I use them for calls constantly, and I find it's one of the few ways I can hear someone while outside. I had the previous gen 3 of them for almost four years now and have had zero issues with breaking. But the redesign of the strap could be an issue.
Have never needed to recharge while wearing them, and I've used them on flights crossing a quarter of the planet at a time.
I had the third version, maybe they have improved some things in the 4th, but I don't know about the non-folding ones since the case is now much bigger
Yeah, this is my only complain of this redesign. I had the XM2 coming to these, and the non-folding thing irks me the wrong way. Not like the case was small to begin with, but now it's even bigger.
I have em all, XM3, XM4, XM5. The only disappointment was the earbuds, the battery gave up too soon.
Those ear buds suck badly. VERY expensive, very low battery life (typict 3 hours tops), very big, heavy and unwieldy and they always fly though the room when I try to pry them out of the charger case. Noise cancelling is laughable, they continually respond to taps even if it's my hair touching them, sound level is too low, and the batteries are dying after about a year of use.
They. Are. Crap.
Compared to my LG HBS 800 sets, that cost 50 bucks each, I'll chose those LG's any day
If you have the 2022 or earlier versions of the earbuds and not their newest ones, you can at least pretty easily replace the batteries in them as they wear out and get old.
Pretty much the only higher end buds that you can do it with.
I was very disappointed with the ear buds. The fit made them very prone to falling out even when just walking.
I can confirm: Bought them, am happy.
I bought XM4s. Was not happy.
I've had the XM3 for many years now and think they're great. No death from head sweat like the apples, too.
The noise cancelling barely worked I throught so didn't really see what the point was.
Those were broken or you weren't using them properly. I assure you, much as this video reported, the noise cancelling works quite well.
...and has been since the first generation. That's what made them a best selling item from scratch. I remember the first one was commented at the time "a close competitor" to the Bose, but by now they stand their own ground.
Which Sonys?
XM5
Got the Sony's myself. The recommended ones and some older version, the XM2. Happy with both.
I have a pair of Sony headphones over the ear with noise cancelling and I hate them. The wind is picked up and added to the sound when outside. Also any hoodie touching them will add extra noise. In the house they barely cover my AC unit hum, let alone voices. I got some AirPod Pro (in the ear) and they’re incredible compared. I worked for a whole day with them on and was surprised that the window AC was actually on 5 ft away from me. The sound transparency option is also great. Feels like I’m not wearing headphones at all and still hear music naturally as if it was playing in front of me.
Return them under warranty, because your experience does not match how the product works. Flat out. I've had Sony since the gen 3 and I use them while mowing my lawn, snow blowing, snow boarding, business meetings, etc. They work flawlessly in all of those environments and significantly decrease the noise I hear from a riding mower.
Also, watch out for condensation killing those air pods.
Sounds like you have it in Ambient Sound mode. I have a pair of WH-1000XM3 and even though ANC is not perfect, it certainly doesn’t add wind or hoodie rubbing noises.
Very timely, just when I'm looking for new headphones with noice cancelation. Noice noice cancelation.
Me too, and the quick connect and passoff with my various Apple devices makes the Max a clear standout. I can live with them being a close second to the Sony headphones, especially when the Max excels at the spoken word tests.
I just wish they didn’t look so goofy on the head.
I'm allergic to Apple, so for me they are the least interesting from the list. I just purchased the Sony's, I must be fucked up in the head to spend so much money on headphones but hey, it's "treat yourself" day. And the Apple's are of course unreasonably even more expensive... (see the other video someone posted here).
You probably did the right thing for headphones.
I’ve been looking for real data on the effectiveness of Sony’s MX5 vs Max vs others - specifically I want to see how well they do passive and ANC across the frequencies we are exposed to. And Verge have come through with this video: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/31/23852241/we-took-six-pairs-of-headphones-and-a-dummy-head-on-the-subway
Its a good video, but its also got real data from some experts. If you are TLDW - then skip to the end for a table from the experts.
The Sony MX5 are head and shoulders above the rest (with the max second in most categories).
I mean, it IS the video I posted in OP 😂
And heavy. The Max’s are quite a bit heavier than competitors.
Perhaps Apple added metal weights again so the headphones appear more "sophisticated", like they did with Beats...
I know it was a sorta joke… but I had to find out if it was true.
This link: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/AirPods+Max+Teardown/139369 provides an awesome breakdown on the contents and lots of X-rays.
It turns out the answer is no, although both batteries are in the right ear cup, and ifixit never do figure if there is a counterweight in the other ear. There’s just a gap.
And yeah… adding that weight was a crappy move and very un-apple IMHO. Their products should stand on their own and not require gimmicks like that. Having said that, this is Beats. Analysis showed that their products cost as little as $18 to make (including parts and assembly) - talk about cheap overpriced crap. The other few hundred dollars per set is marketing, distribution and profit. Shows what celebrity endorsements can get you.
The necks thanks them for the extra sophistication. 🙏
The interesting thing for me from the tests was showing that anything above 1kHz is just passive noise cancellation. I have acoustics notes from university that are over a decade old that have 1kHz listed as the limit of active noise cancellation and it apparently hasn't been improved in all that time.
Here's a more in depth comparison of these brands
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=6WTHBCZBt_E
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I love the XM4 headphones. They’re so good that when I was too focused on my phone I ended up missing my train. Sucks that it happened, happy with the noise cancellation quality.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=-zE1CsM-XLE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I would buy the XM5, but I would prefer if I could use it with a 2.4Ghz dongle because the Bluetooth delay is huge. But I can't do that or connect to the computer. I'd prefer to get a universal solution to my needs for $400, not "you can listen to music in these, but buy another pair for gaming"
Hmmm which headphones do you use that you get huge delay? Which codec do they use? I mean maybe my experience is not the greatest, I don't do online shooters....but I don't usually have trouble with delay, the audio is always synced to the action.
Every single one, there's not a single Bluetooth headphone that is actually synced
Is ANC safe to use while walking around a city like NYC? I personally find myself rarely needing it unless I'm flying in a plane where I really want to hear as little outside noise as possible.
No, its not safe, you wont hear incoming dangers. But these Noise Canceling Headphones have a nice feature for cities: with their microphones they can give you an „ambient sound“ feature. It mixes the noise from the outside to your music, so you can hear the surroundings while listening to music.
You can hear shit just fine compared to any headphones. There is nearly zero difference in sound that isn't background noise.
While they mute the noise, they don't make it impossible to discern, IMHO. I have the XM5, and I still hear the traffic, constructions etc. If I'm playign music it's harder to hear, but definitely not if it's just ANC by itself.
You're fine. You can hear traffic just fine. Anytime telling you it's any more dangerous than wearing regular headphones has clearly never used ANC.