The five-star Sony WH-1000XM5 ANC headphones first went on sale in 2022, and Sony tends to refresh its premium over-ear headphones every two years. The assumption was that 2024 was when the WH-1000XM6 would launch.
But Sony clearly pulled the wool over our eyes, and as you can tell by reading this article, the WH-1000XM6 did not launch in 2024.
Speculation suggests that not only will the WH-1000XM6 launch in 2025, but that Sony could also be prepping the WF-1000XM6 true wireless for one-two assault on the headphone market.
So, here are a few things that we’re expecting, hopeful to see in Sony’s upcoming WH-1000XM6, along with the current ‘hot’ rumours and speculation.
The Mk VI over-ears will launch in 2025
It’s been three years since the last model, which is a fairly long time to go without a new pair and in that time we’ve had the Ult over-ears, a cheaper true wireless and new models of Sony’s LinkBuds along with budget earphones.
Sony’s release cycle tends to build up to its flagship models, so with the budget models launched over the last couple of years and the Ult and LinkBuds now operating within the midrange of the headphone market, eyes are on when the premium headphones will be announced.
As picked up on by GSMArena, Sony is apparently looking at launching both its flagship true wireless and over-ears at the same time. Given the last few generations of the true wireless and over-ears have shared technology (such as the V1 Integrated chip), it makes sense to launch them at a similar time as Sony considers them as a headphone family.
The leak mentions that Sony is looking to launch both headphones in the first six months of 2025. We think that the WH-1000XM6 is more likely to come first as Sony announced the WH-1000XM5 around May 2022, while the true wireless tends to come around August of its release year.
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Price
The expectation is that the price of the Sony WH-1000XM6 could go up. By how much? No one is sure of that yet.
So whether it’s tariffs affecting the price or that components have become more expensive, most new headphone launches have gone up slightly on the previous generation.
Sony’s over-ear headphones used to start at £349 but they’ve slowly crept up to £379. £399 doesn’t seem out of the question, which would match the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3.
Don’t expect Snapdragon Sound support
Unless Sony do a huge pivot, it’s unlikely there’ll be support for Snapdragon Sound.
The WH-1000XM3 headphones were the last to support Qualcomm’s chipsets, and since then Sony has ploughed on its own path in developing its own technology to squeeze out as much bandwidth performance from Bluetooth streaming as it can.
So even though Sony’s Xperia 1 IV smartphone feature Snapdragon Sound support, we don’t expect Sony to push a Bluetooth codec from a rival competitor over its LDAC solution. We simply can’t see Sony performing a u-turn on this.
Battery life could go up…
Sony’s stuck to 30 hours battery life since the WH-1000XM2, its feeling that 30 hours is more than enough. That could change.
Heavy emphasis on could. As we said, Sony is content with how much battery life its headphones offer. However, the Technics EAH-A800, Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless and even Sony’s own WH-CH720N headphones offer 50, 60, and 35 hours respectively.
We’re not expecting massive changes, so a little battery boost could be one of the headline upgrades for the new model.
A lighter slimmer design?
Sony’s true wireless models have been getting smaller with each iteration. The over-ears have been getting lighter and less cumbersome. Our prediction is for that to continue, although it may just amount to shaving off a few grams.
Sony has used recycled plastic for the frame of its most recent over-ears, and that’s kept the weight down for the CH720N (which are 192g).
Could we get new colours? We don’t think so at launch but it’s likely the headphones will go on sale in white, black, and perhaps a midnight blue offering. The WH-1000XM5 has been launched in new colours, including a smoky pink, so down the line we could expect new colourways. But at launch it’s likely to be the tried and tested colours.
It’s unlikely to be smaller. Sony over-ears pack a lot into their earcups, but if Sony continue to make efficiencies (an area Sony is exploiting) with its processor, noise-cancelling, and battery life, the profile of these headphones may be slimmer than before.
We can’t see Sony going back to a collapsible design but FCC documents have implied that the hinge could be redesigned after complaints that it broke too easily.
Our sample (which we bought) didn’t suffered that problem, but if it’s a big enough issue, it’s likely that Sony won’t want a known defect continuing onto the next pair.
Expect a big focus on 360 Reality Audio
360 Reality Audio is Sony’s immersive 3D audio feature, similar to Dolby Atmos Music, and the WH-1000XM5, WF-1000XM5, and ULT Wear headphones all have this feature, so it’s a cert that the WH-1000XM6 will have it too.
As we’ve mentioned before, 3D audio is becoming the next battleground for headphone brands with Bose, Sonos, and Apple all jumping onboard the spatial audio rocket.
We do wonder what new 360 Reality Audio feature Sony will bring for the WH-1000XM6. Perhaps Sony has been looking at what Sonos did with its TV Audio Swap feature…
Even better noise-cancelling
Of course, you’d expect Sony to give its noise-cancelling a boost given the WH-1000XM5 remain one of the best models on the market for ANC, though they are no longer the champs in this regard with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones now the best over-ears for noise-cancelling.
While the XM5 bettered the WH-1000XM4 is most areas for noise-cancelling, one area we felt they fell down to their sibling is in suppressing voices. We expect the new Sony headphones to be very good when it comes to noise-cancelling but we’ll only know for sure once it’s announced and we have a pair in our hands to test.
