Sony WH-1000XM6 Review

Introduction

After a long wait, Sony has finally updated its flagship WH-1000X headphones – but was the wait for the WH-1000XM6 worth it?

Ahead of the highly anticipated launch, I got the chance to spend some time with the new cans – testing out the barrage of new features, including the updated design, ANC and sound.

We’ll have a full review of the Sony WH-1000XM6 from our audio expert coming soon, but here are my first impressions of these £400 cans.

Design

• They fold
• Slightly wider headband
• Three colour choices

Ahead of the launch, Sony described the change in design as more of an evolution rather than a revolution, and that’s certainly the case.

After the WH-1000XM5 received a big redesign, Sony was unlikely to completely start afresh with a whole new look – and from afar, the upgraded model I have here resembles the outgoing model very closely.

Look a little deeper, and there is a selection of changes. Some of these fix issues our reviewer had before, while others aim to make the headphones more comfortable and easier to use.

My favourite change is the reintroduction of a design that folds. When Sony changed the design for the WH-1000XM5, it ditched the ability to make the headphones smaller for slipping inside a bag by keeping everything rigid, a move I felt was a little too restrictive.

Thankfully, the Sony WH-1000XM6 have a folding mechanism on either side, and the earcups can fold up to make the package smaller. Everything feels very sturdy, and the carrying case has been shrunk too, as you now fold up the headphones slightly to fit them in.

I did find that putting the headphones into a case took a bit of getting used to as they need to be placed specifically for it all to fit, but once my muscle memory started to kick in, I got the gist of it. The updated case has a pocket for the included USB-A to USB-C charging cable, plus a new magnetic latch.

Sony has extended the width of the headband, supposedly to alleviate pressure on the top of the head and aid comfort. There’s no denying these are supremely comfortable to wear. I could wear them for an entire workday without my ears feeling squashed or my head aching, something I find common when wearing the AirPods Max.

However, the extended headband does seem to stick out a little more, making the headphones look quite on my (admittedly already quite large) head. This is really just a personal preference, but I have grown to like how tightly the Sonos Ace fits to my head.

The earpads are made from a vegan/faux leather and are also very comfortable, not getting hot or sweaty after long listening sessions.

Like previous versions, you can pop the pads off – although this takes some force and Sony actually recommends you don’t do it yourself and have it done by an authorised repairer. It would have been nice to have AirPods Max-like removable cups that can be swapped easily when they start to degrade.

I like obvious buttons on my headphones, and Sony has both excellent buttons on the WH-1000XM6 and a selection of responsive gestures too. I appreciate the new big On/Off button that’s easy to press, and there’s an option to mute the mics completely.

Three colours are available at launch: Black, Platinum Silver and Midnight Blue. Fans of the series might notice that the Smoky Pink hue added to the XM5 line isn’t available, at least for launch. This is a shame, as all the currency colours are either a little dull or similar, while the tasteful muted pink shade offered something a little more standout. Hopefully we’ll see this colour added down the line.

The tweaks to the design formula here are mostly for the best, however I still don’t see these as much of a design-focused set of headphones as something like the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 or even the AirPods Max. The overall design is functional, rather than eye-catching, more in line with something from Bose.

Sound Quality

• Updated driver
• New QN3 chip
• LDAC support

Sony’s flagship WH headphones have long been some of the best headphones on the market, and there’s plenty new here to keep those who value audio above all else happy.

There’s a new QN3 chip and a new 30mm driver with a carbon fibre-composite coating for extra detail. Plenty is going on here, more of which we’ll delve into in our full, in-depth review.

My first impression of the sound quality here is that it’s good, though I wasn’t quite as impressed by the upgrades as I was by some of the other aspects of the XM6. 

The soundstage is notably wider than before, and this adds some extra immersion to the audio. Vocals are sharp, clear and rich, while there’s a good hit of bass when required. These are mass-market headphones, so they sound good across a range of genres. Everything I listened to sounded good, although not necessarily better than much of the similarly priced competition.

There’s a wide range of codecs supported plus High-Resolution Audio and High-Resolution Audio Wireless. Android users with supported devices will benefit from LDAC – although there’s no Snapdragon Sound.

There’s DSEE Extreme tech for upscaling compressed music from streaming services, and this works across iOS and Android through the updated Sound Connect app.

Features

• Improved ANC
• A big focus on call quality
• 360 Reality Audio Upmix for Cinema, plus various other modes

While sound quality will always be a key selling point for a flagship set of headphones like the WH-1000XM6, it now feels like both noise cancelling and call quality are just as, if not slightly more, important.

The ANC was excellent, although not quite the best on the market with the XM5 model, and Sony has tweaked a lot for the follow-up to try and make it the option to beat.

There’s a new processor inside called the QN3, which Sony claims is seven times faster than the QN1 inside the outgoing XM5. This is paired with 12 microphones – six on each cup, with four inside and two on the outside.

Sony says the positioning of these mics, along with the improved software tuning, should seriously improve the ANC skills, making it more adaptable to your environment.

My immediate impressions were strong – the ANC here is great. On a busy street with all sorts of machinery making a racket, the noise was reduced impressively, easily on par with the AirPods Max I was swapping between. The high-pitched rumble of a plane engine was diminished to comfortable standards, and the London Underground was dealt with easily.

A lot is going on to improve how calls sound too, from improvements to the way the mics pick up your voice to AI-optimised noise reduction. The results are, like the ANC, impressive. In some tests in a very busy train station, both I and the person on the other end of the line could hear each other clearly, with plenty of clarity.

We’ll need a bit more time to come to a concrete verdict, but so far signs are very positive.

Elsewhere, there’s a new 10-band EQ for more customisation over audio, a dedicated Game EQ that’s been created with the help of Sony’s Inzone division and an interesting 360 Reality Audio Upmix for Cinema feature that’s supposed to create a more immersive sound when watching movies that are mastered in stereo.

Battery life is stated at 30 hours with ANC on – the same as the XM5 – and this will go up slightly with the noise cancellation off. What is new, though is that you can charge and listen at the same time, which is welcome.

Oddly, and slightly annoyingly, Sony doesn’t include a fast-charge-capable USB-C to USB-C cable in the package, just a slower USB-A to USB-C one. If you want to benefit from the three minutes of charge claim for three hours of listening, you’ll need a faster cable.