Turns out the rumors were true: Sony has a new pair of flagship wireless headphones, and the price tag eclipses even the ultra-expensive AirPods Max 2.
The 1000X The ColleXion headphones are Sony’s 10th-anniversary celebration for its lauded 1000X series, and they’re doing it big. First, there’s the price, a whopping $650, which is $100 more expensive than the AirPods Max 2. Heck, it’s even more expensive than the MacBook Neo, which, last I checked, is an entire laptop.
For that price, Sony says you’ll get some killer sound, though. The centerpiece is what Sony is calling a “bespoke” driver unit with a “soft edge,” as well as a “high rigidity” dome made from a “unidirectional carbon composite material.” The translation: according to Sony, these headphones offer a wider soundstage and more detail than the regular-old WH-1000XM6, which are already highly regarded in the wireless headphones world for having excellent sound.
To aid that premium sound, Sony is giving its 1000X The ColleXion a first-ever in its wireless headphones: its top-tier audio upscaling tech, DSEE Ultimate. With DSEE Ultimate, Sony says its headphones should be able to upmix audio better than any other pair and restore more dynamic range, which is lost to compression via streaming and Bluetooth.
Sound isn’t the only way that 1000X The ColleXion are going premium, either. Sony says it’s using premium materials, including metal accents, a vegan leather that took two years to develop, and integrated metal buttons. They’ll be available in just two colorways: platinum and black.
One thing that might surprise you, given the very sizable premium over the WH-1000XM6 wireless headphones, is that, compared to the former, the 1000X The ColleXion headphones are actually not as good in the active noise cancellation (ANC) department. According to Sony, the WH-1000XM6 are still the leader of the Sony pack in the ANC category, due to some differences in the passive noise cancellation of the two pairs.
Ultimately, the selling point comes down to two things for 1000x The ColleXion: premium build quality and premium drivers. That means most of the value is hinging on the sound, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though it is hard to say for sure whether these ultra-expensive headphones really justify the price without hearing them for myself. Sony certainly thinks they’re worth the premium, though, and given how nice its WH-1000XM6 headphones are, it’s impossible to count Sony out, even with an MSRP that eye-watering.
