Sony has moved on to the WH-1000XM6 which sits on the same Amazon page as its predecessor, yet the older pair hasn’t gone anywhere. What has changed is the price, since the Sony WH-1000XM5 are down from $399.99 to $198 on Amazon, 50% off, a level Amazon tags as its lowest in 365 days. Nothing about the offer is tied to a Prime membership, so any account sees the same figure.
Eight Microphones Against the Open-Plan Office
Noise cancellation is why people buy this line, and on the XM5 it rests on eight microphones managed by two processors. Sony’s Auto NC Optimizer adjusts the cancellation on its own according to how the headphones sit on your head and what is going on around you, which matters more than it sounds: glasses, a hat or a different seat on the train all change the seal, and nobody wants to open an app each time. Think of the colleague two desks away who takes every call on speaker, or the drone of an engine on a four-hour flight, and you have the use case.
Battery life is rated at up to 30 hours, enough for a week of commuting or a long-haul return trip without looking for a socket. The figure I find more useful day to day is the quick charge, because three minutes on a cable gives three hours of playback. That covers the classic morning where the headphones turn out to be empty just as you are putting your shoes on.
Several small automations are built in. Music pauses when the headphones come off and resumes when they go back on, and Speak-to-Chat does the same when you start talking, letting outside sound in so you can order a coffee without touching anything. I’d expect anyone who hums along or mutters at their screen to switch that one off fairly quickly. Multipoint connection keeps the headphones linked to more than one device, so that a call on the phone can interrupt a video on the laptop. Touch controls on the earcup handle play, pause, skipping, volume and calls, and Alexa is built in for voice requests.
For calls, Sony uses four beamforming microphones and signal processing to isolate the voice. Comfort comes from a light frame and what Sony calls soft fit leather on the pads, and the headphones ship with a carrying case that Sony redesigned for this model, useful for a pair that will spend much of its life in a backpack. On sound, the listing says little beyond naming the Integrated Processor V1, so I’d rely on the reputation of the series more than on that line. Keep in mind too that this is the previous generation: the XM6 is the model Sony is developing now, and whoever wants the newest hardware should look there. My own view is that noise cancelling of this kind ages slowly, and that the older pair is easier to recommend at this price than it was at launch. On Amazon the XM5 average 4.2 out of 5 across more than 20,000 ratings.
Three colors carry the full price cut: the Sony WH-1000XM5 in Black, Smoky Pink or Silver cost $198 on Amazon, against a list price of $399.99. Midnight Blue is $198 as well, though Amazon shows a lower list price of $248 for that finish. Returns are free and no Prime membership is needed.