I've had these earphones for a month now and I feel like they are the best noise cancelling headphones I have ever owned. My previous ones were an older model Bose and then a comparable Sennheiser.
My job requires that I do inspections in various industrial facilites.
My initial work is about five hours in an office, but the decibel level is still around 70dB. At that level, the Sony WH-1000XM4 remove about 95% of the ambient noise. Music, computer videos and telephone conversations are excellent. These headphones are very good at that level.
I next spend up to four hours inspecting out of the equipment floor. The noise level varies from around 78dB to 82dB. Not painfully loud, but it can cause short term hearing damage in short sessions, but 5hrs/day on a regular basis can permenantly affect your hearing. To give you a reference point, you would have to shout at someone standing about 3ft away for them to understand you. So it's not jet engine loud, but it's uncomfortable and in addition to hearing damage, long term exposure can raise your blood pressure and cause other negative effects on your physical and mental health. And yet, the level at which OSHA requires hearing protection is 85dB.
All this is to say that I take sound cancellation seriously, and I also take my music seriously too. These earphones are great on both fronts. I'm very comfortable at work and I can listen to my playlists and don't feel as if I have to turn up the volume to drown out the noise of the machinery. It's really pretty cool.
My total shift is about ten hours, and I feel no discomfort wearing these over my ears. I'm also bald, and there is plenty of padding on the band where it contacts the top of my head. I'm very happy with these, and even though I've spent more for earphones, I've never had a better pair for my needs.
The only downside is that they are not great when using them to make phone calls in a loud enviroment. I honestly didn't expect them to function great in that respect, but it would have been great if they did.
The app has numerous ways to customize your experience. More than I actually use. The adaptive sound kept changing the noise cancellation as I moved, so I turned it off. The Speak to Chat feature could be handy, but I occasionally sing along with my music and it would switch off the cancellation. So I turned that feature off also.
PROS:
Very comfortable to wear for hours at a time.
Very good sound cancellation.
Love that they pause the playback when you remove the headphones.
Great that just holding a hand over the right ear cup will turn off cancellation so you can have a conversation without removing your earphones.
Very good music reproduction. Bass is not quite true, but if it was really pronounced, I could adjust the equalizer.
The app is very good and has a lot of features, I was pleasantly surprised even though I don't need or use many of them. It's very helpful.
Love the ability to stay connected to two devices at the same time. My phone and my computer work well with the earphones.
Cons:
Sometimes I wish they were a little more snug (maybe I have a small head?)
The app is almost TOO helpful. It can take some trial and error to get everything set up as you like it.
I would prefer a more tactile controls. These require that you sweep a finger over the outside of the ear cup for volume and track control. It's actually very accurate, but I would still appreciate something that I could use while wearing gloves.
Overall, these are a total win, and a bargain at the price. You could probably get something just a shade better, but it would be at a significantly higher price. These are perfect for me and my situation. I would defintely buy them again.
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Truly a Worthy Successor to the WH1000xm3!
Honestly, there was a part of me that was worried that these headphones would not be the best pair to own after the issues that I experienced with the prior generation of them: the WH1000xm3. The main issue that I had? The build quality: the plastic around the headband snapped due to a flimsy connection, resulting in me having to tape both headbands together so that the headphones don't fall apart on me. I tried several alternate brands to see if they would work, but they never came close to giving me the same level of satisfaction while wearing them as the WH1000xm3 did, even with the taped headband taken into account. So I decided that the best replacement for a Sony headphone was another Sony headphone, and I invested in the M4, which succeeded the M3 last year (as of this writing).My initial thoughts were as follows: the headphones were a definite improvement upon the originals, retaining what I liked most about the original headphones (largely the overall comfort) while also improving the headphones in other small ways (especially in regards to the special features-the M4 are way more feature-packed than the M3 were, incorporating many elements that are being found on most other headphones these days). My favorite thing that was fixed, however, was the sound quality. You see, the original sounded amazing, and honestly sounded better overall than the likes of Bose and Sennheiser, which I have tested as potential replacements for the Sony headphones. And that is despite the fact that the headphones have a relatively small 40mm driver inside, instead of a more traditional 50mm driver. However, the one minor issue I had with the M3 was that the low frequencies were heightened a bit more than I would have liked, making songs sound a bit bass-heavy even when the EQ was turned off (the only way I was able to fix this was by setting the EQ to 'bright', which isn't ideal since the EQ does degrade the battery life). With the M4, Sony improves this by tuning down the low ends, resulting in the headphones having a very flat frequency response, which in turn results in every song having a much wider sound stage than the M3 did (and almost making them sound as good as the various open-back headphones I have tried, including the Sennheiser 650, which is my personal favorite open-back headphone).In terms of the special features, I think they were implemented quite well in these headphones. The noise cancelling is exceptional, much like it was on the M3, and the transparency mode is somehow even better than it was on the prior generation headphone, sounding a lot more natural and less tinny overall. The auto activation of transparency mode during conversations is fantastic, and enables me to talk to people naturally without ever having to remove the headphones from my ear. This also means that I don't have to awkwardly tap my hand on the earcup with the M4, either. The DSEE Extreme audio enhancer really helps to make music sound a lot more full, even when using devices that don't support the LDAC wireless standard. It isn't as good as listening to lossless files wired, mind you, but it is still an amazing feature that helps to take advantage of the flat sound stage and frequency response of the headphone drivers.Now, this isn't to say that these headphones don't have issues, mind you. The auto-pause when removing the headphones from your ears is very much a gimmick, and doesn't always pause the song (and may even resume the music before you have a chance to place the headphones back on your ear). Since the headphones use a light sensor to tell if you are wearing your headphones or not, it means even a simple shadow can cause the headphones to think that they are back on your ears and restart music playback. It is quite obnoxious, and it is best left out. Another, more minor issue is the touch controls. While I personally have no issue with them, I know that there are many people that don't like them whatsoever. So I will just make a note that they are still here, and they work in much the same way as they did on the M3. Finally, I should mention that the flat soundstage, while amazing for my listening experience, may not be for everyone. Bassheads in particular would likely prefer extra pronunciation on the lower ranges. And while they will never be quite as bass-heavy as the Skullcandy or Beats line, the EQ can still bring the bass levels up quite a bit, using a 'clear bass' slider that reminds me of the slider on the Skullcandy Skullcrushers: raising the bass without causing distortion.Overall, the headphones turned out to be quite an exceptional pair, especially when it comes to listening to music during commutes. The great noise cancelling, beautiful audio, and fantastic transparency mode definitely make these headphones a winner in my book. And the app only helps to improve the flexibility of the headphones, allowing for many different features to be unlocked. And while these headphones certainly have some issues (no pair of headphones are perfect, after all), I think the benefits more than outweigh the issues for me, and put these at the top of my list of best closed-back headphones that I have worn. Hopefully Sony will continue to make amazing headphones like these in the ears to come.
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Ahora si para los que dudan de Dios:
Hace 3 años adquirí los MDR-XB950N1, mejor conocidos como los Sony Extra Bass. Sin duda fueron una compra demasiado buena, pasé de unos Skullcandy Hesh 2 a los Extra Bass y vaya que la diferencia es muy considerable.
Ahora, 3 años después decidí hacer un "upgrade", yo me dedico a la música, soy estudiante de la materia y me dedico al audio, la verdad es que no puedo llevarme mis audífonos de estudio fuera de casa, necesitaba unos que realmente ofrecieran buena calidad, portabilidad y facilidad de uso con mis aplicaciones. Encontré estos después de hacer un par de búsquedas en internet, los comparé con varias opciones y al final me decidí por comprarlos.
En primera debo decir que he quedado impresionado por la tecnología que traen estos audífonos. Puedes personalizar el audio acorde a tu oreja, así es, a la forma de tu oreja, Sony te pide que tomes un par de fotos para que se puedan analizar y proveer mejor experiencia, nunca en mi vida había visto algo así.
Desde que los abres se denota un producto bastante premium y que vale el dinero que se paga por él, ya que de hecho no es nada barato.
La experiencia de abrirlo es excelente, pero es cuando bajas la aplicación que empiezas a ver lo brutal de estas máquinas. De adelanto estos audífonos ya vienen con carga máxima, o al menos así fue en mi caso, no te pide que los cargues ni nada, funcionan desde que los sacas de la caja. Son extremadamente cómodos y si eres miope como yo y usas fierros para ver, estos audífonos no te van a incomodar en ningún momento.
No es que quiera advertir, sino más bien dar aviso de que por defecto los audífonos se oyen un poco flojos, el sonido está un poco saturado, y si te gusta escuchar música como el Heavy Metal o música clásica te quedas pasmado, no se oyen para nada como los Extra Bass que al salir de la caja otorgan un sonido fino y bien configurado. Estos no, pero entiendo por qué lo hacen, ya que como mencioné, la experiencia de verdad comienza cuando bajas la aplicación que tiene como mil opciones de configuración y optimización de sonido, así que prepárate para estar ahí unos 25 minutos de tu vida, que sin duda alguna por supuesto, lo valen.
Una vez que has pasado las optimizaciones, toca jugar con el ecualizador, yo recomiendo configuración 400: 1 1K: 3 2.5K: 7 6.3K: 8 16K: 5 Clear Bass: +5 o +7 para escuchar Heavy Metal y música clásica, aunque si eres fan de los medios tal vez quieras mover un poco más, pero como dije, esto es libre y Sony te prevé todas las herramientas para que esto quede sabroso.
Ya con todo listo, toca escuchar música, y ahí es cuando te da el golpe. Sabía que habría una diferencia entre los Extra Bass que tengo y los M4 que son estos, pero no sabía que realmente se fuera a notar tanto. Estos no son audífonos, son interfaces de audio andantes, además, Sony te regala una prueba gratis en cualquier servicio de restringe que contenga su servicio Sony Audio 3D, yo escogí Tidal, pero también puedes escoger otros 3 más, ahí aparece la opción.
De verdad que escuchar música en formato de alta calidad como es el FLAC que te ofrece Tidal es algo maravilloso, inclusive después de varios años escuchando lo mismo, logré notar varios elementos musicales extras que antes ni sabía que existían en la canción, ahí es cuando te vas para atrás, es como por fin escuchar las cosas sin filtro. También recomiendo el formato "Loss-less" de Apple music en caso de que sean usuarios de iPhone o solo para que tengan una tercera opción. Sea cual sea el servicio que escojan, se oye increíble, pero sin duda combinado con formatos de baja compresión esto se vuelve místico.
Claro que esto no es tan plano como unos audífonos de estudio, pero sin duda la experiencia se acerca bastante.
En conclusión, estos audífonos realmente son un producto bastante premium, te otorgan no solo alta calidad de audio, sino una experiencia tecnológica muy innovadora, además vienen con su porta audiófonos y cables correspondientes, son muy cómodos y portables. Los recomiendo al 100% no duden en adquirirlo para nada.
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Super comfortable, top music quality
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