Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones with Alexa Voice Control - Black

Very very happy with these headphones. Great sound, as you can adjust the equalizer to get the sound you are after. Also, it has very smart controls on the headphone set too, such as, automatic ambient control, chat to speak and the sound optimiser feature is great too. It checks your ear seal, surrounding environment conditions, whether you have hair or sunglasses that are partially obscuring the seal around your ear, and makes the sound the best it can, based on these issues etc. I also love that sony supports 360 reality audio and Dolby Atmos. Sony also provided my purchase with a voucher for the use of 360 reality audio for three months, free, which was a great promotion at the time. The only thing I find I'm disappointed about is the custom button. I have ... MoreVery very happy with these headphones. Great sound, as you can adjust the equalizer to get the sound you are after. Also, it has very smart controls on the headphone set too, such as, automatic ambient control, chat to speak and the sound optimiser feature is great too. It checks your ear seal, surrounding environment conditions, whether you have hair or sunglasses that are partially obscuring the seal around your ear, and makes the sound the best it can, based on these issues etc. I also love that sony supports 360 reality audio and Dolby Atmos. Sony also provided my purchase with a voucher for the use of 360 reality audio for three months, free, which was a great promotion at the time. The only thing I find I'm disappointed about is the custom button. I have chosen to set mine as Google assistant but everytime I go to use my headphones the next day and push the custom button, the google assistant doesn't work unless I change to Alexa, or ambient mode and then change it back again to google assistant, almost to wake it up etc, as it seems to not want to work for some odd reason. Not sure if anyone else has had this issue?Apart from that, everything is great. Battery life is amazing, sound is quality and they are the most comfortable set that I have ever owned. I can wear them for two hours plus and I still don't have any pressure points or sore spots. 10 out of 10 there. I also chose the xm4 instead of the xm5 because of the size. The 4 fitted my head alot better and the cans cupped my ears alot more nicely and provided a snug, comfortable fit. I wish I could give this 10 out of 10 but yes, the custom google assistant button is a let down for me. Not sure if I just got a dud but apart from that, they are amazing, Sony has delivered superbly.

if you’re on the fence about buying the sony wh-1000xm4s, do it!! i got them for my birthday a week ago after having them on my wishlist for almost 3 years now. the countless reviews and ratings i’ve looked at to make the decision really helped to influence me, so i hope this does the same for you. they are incredibly comfortable, don’t give me headaches with the nc on which i have experienced with bose and other brands, they’re extremely stylish - i got mine in black, and are compact as they fold into a case for convenience. as a somewhat audiophile who loves music with heavy bass but also satisfying vocals, and everything in between - the sound quality is unlike any product i’ve tried. everything is crystal clear, and the best part? using the sony headphones app, ... Moreif you’re on the fence about buying the sony wh-1000xm4s, do it!! i got them for my birthday a week ago after having them on my wishlist for almost 3 years now. the countless reviews and ratings i’ve looked at to make the decision really helped to influence me, so i hope this does the same for you. they are incredibly comfortable, don’t give me headaches with the nc on which i have experienced with bose and other brands, they’re extremely stylish - i got mine in black, and are compact as they fold into a case for convenience. as a somewhat audiophile who loves music with heavy bass but also satisfying vocals, and everything in between - the sound quality is unlike any product i’ve tried. everything is crystal clear, and the best part? using the sony headphones app, you can change the eq settings to something that sounds better to you, by either their default eq options or customisable settings. in the app, you can either change the settings on your own or an advanced technology picks the settings that you believe sound the best. that’s what i did and my music sounds incredible. honestly they are great and i’ve been recommending them to everyone i know!!the only downsides to this product for me personally are that i feel like they’re a little big for my head - while they do fit and are comfortable, i wish they were just a tiny bit tighter? i also don’t believe they completely block out all sound - i was on the bus and could still hear the engine sounds. i don’t know if i’ve messed around with the settings enough or if there’s something different i’m doing, but if that bothers you then look deeper into that because i don’t have too much of a problem with it. also, i feel like i have oily fingers or something because whenever i touch the sides of the headphones it leaves these oily marks - i guess that’s my fault for picking the black but it wipes off easily. otherwise, this product is literal perfection. do yourself a favour and invest in these for the long run - it’ll be worth it!!

Amazing ANC and Sound, Bad Fit and Controls

I bought these headphones as an upgrade to my old WH-CH700N headphones, and I have used them over the past month. The ANC was very effective at cancelling background noise, and did very well at greatly reducing the volume of loud or consistent noises around me to the extent that I often didn't notice even rather loud noises. The sound quality is good and consistent (although I would recommend reducing the bass level by a few decibels in the equalizer settings if you want correct sound).However, I have some crucial complaints that hold back the headphones from a full 5 stars:- The headphones are not very secure on my head and often move around and fall off during any kind of movement other than passive sitting, and this is true at any of the variable length ... MoreI bought these headphones as an upgrade to my old WH-CH700N headphones, and I have used them over the past month. The ANC was very effective at cancelling background noise, and did very well at greatly reducing the volume of loud or consistent noises around me to the extent that I often didn't notice even rather loud noises. The sound quality is good and consistent (although I would recommend reducing the bass level by a few decibels in the equalizer settings if you want correct sound).However, I have some crucial complaints that hold back the headphones from a full 5 stars:- The headphones are not very secure on my head and often move around and fall off during any kind of movement other than passive sitting, and this is true at any of the variable length adjustments. As a result, this makes wearing the headphones more tedious and uncomfortable. This was not an issue with the WH-CH700N. DO NOT buy these headphones if you plan to do any more movement while wearing them other than passive sitting or slow walking.- The right-pad controls are absolutely awful and rarely pick up on my tapping motion to pause/unpause whatever's playing, to the extent that my headphones seem faulty. The controls do not work if you are not wearing the headphones, and so if audio is playing while you aren't wearing them, you cannot pause it. I would have vastly preferred having an assigned physical button instead. Also, it frequently occurs that my hand brushes the right pad slightly and causes "speak-to-chat" to enable which I frustratingly have to then disable.Overall, the headphones excel at ANC and audio, but have poor fit and awful controls.

Excellent at first but they don't last

Like many others, I only write reviews when I am very happy with a product or extremely unhappy, sadly this is the latter. I purchased my WH-1000XM4 having read numerous reviews on how good the WH-1000XM4 are. Undeniably the sound quality and noise cancellation are superb. I mainly use the headphones in the office, commuting and on long haul travel, the WH-1000XM4 were ideal for this. So why the one-star review when other reviews rave about these headphones, and they win so many awards? Simple, they don't last. All the reviews and comparisons are with new headphones. After about a year and a half (outside the warranty period) the headphones developed a fault, they wouldn't reliably charge, the battery level would get stuck at 10% and when plugged in to charge the ... MoreLike many others, I only write reviews when I am very happy with a product or extremely unhappy, sadly this is the latter. I purchased my WH-1000XM4 having read numerous reviews on how good the WH-1000XM4 are. Undeniably the sound quality and noise cancellation are superb. I mainly use the headphones in the office, commuting and on long haul travel, the WH-1000XM4 were ideal for this. So why the one-star review when other reviews rave about these headphones, and they win so many awards? Simple, they don't last. All the reviews and comparisons are with new headphones. After about a year and a half (outside the warranty period) the headphones developed a fault, they wouldn't reliably charge, the battery level would get stuck at 10% and when plugged in to charge the charging wouldn't activate. After a few months of struggling with this I decided to get them repaired at Sony. Having sent them in I was informed that the part required to correct this problem wasn't available, however, I could purchase a replacement pair at a discount, which I did. I have since discovered that the charging issue is a common problem, a quick internet search for "Sony WH-1000MX4 Not Charging" will bring up numerous blogs and articles describing exactly the same issue, generally after about 15 to 18 months, there are various button pressing resets that are suggested and these work for a while. But this is a fundamental flaw. For a "premium" product the components are just not adequate, and Sony does not appear to be able to source replacements. I would strongly urge anyone considering purchasing these to research how many of the glowing reviewers are still happy with the WH-1000XM4 after 18 months.If the discounted replacement pair worked, I wouldn't have written this review either but sadly after six months and very little use, this pair stopped working. Having been informed by Sony Customer Support that the replacement pair came with a 12-month warranty I wasn't too concerned. However, the Sony Customer Support have been nothing short of utterly woeful in resolving this. I have never had such a poor response from a major brand. I've purchased numerous Sony products over the past 30 years, from Walkmans, TVs, stereos and probably every model of Playstation and I have never once needed to contact customer support. After my recent experience with Sony Customer Support, the WH-1000XM4 will be my last purchase from Sony.

Excellent headphones

My first pair of noise cancelling headphones and I’m super impressed. Although I can’t compare them against other noise cancellers I can say that going from an ordinary pair of Sony headphones into these is like stepping out of a mini into a Rolls Royce. The feel of the headphones is excellent with soft touch fabrics anywhere that contact the skin. The cushions around the ears are sooo comfortable and completely cover my ears unlike my previous pair that kind of sat on my ears. There’s a nice cushioned bit under the head strap that makes wearing these headphones a delight. The noise cancelling blew me away. As soon as you put them on, even without playing music the “silence” is deafening. It’s not completely silent there’s still a little noise that comes in but once ... MoreMy first pair of noise cancelling headphones and I’m super impressed. Although I can’t compare them against other noise cancellers I can say that going from an ordinary pair of Sony headphones into these is like stepping out of a mini into a Rolls Royce. The feel of the headphones is excellent with soft touch fabrics anywhere that contact the skin. The cushions around the ears are sooo comfortable and completely cover my ears unlike my previous pair that kind of sat on my ears. There’s a nice cushioned bit under the head strap that makes wearing these headphones a delight. The noise cancelling blew me away. As soon as you put them on, even without playing music the “silence” is deafening. It’s not completely silent there’s still a little noise that comes in but once you start playing your music it’s literally you and your little bubble with no outside sounds or distractions. I took a bus ride with these during school rush hour and was pleased with the silence and music that was in my environment with the headphones on. I had to tweak the equaliser a bit to get it sounding how I wanted and again with nothing but my old headphones to compare against these came up trumps. The sound is crisp and weighty while not being too overbearing. I’m going on a nine hour flight to somewhere sunny on Friday and I can’t wait to have these on to drown out all the unwanted noise. Talking of which they come with a neat little adapter that you can use to plug into the airplane headphones socket. So I can use these to watch movies and enhance my experience rather than having to use those tinny plasticky things they give you on board. There are additional features and functions with ambient sound and talk through etc that I haven’t explored yet but i can truly say this is the best £500 I’ve spent on headphones. £500??? Yes!! Because my wife listened to them and politely instructed me to get her a pair too.

Good but not great all rounder

Pros:- NC Good but not exceptional - NC can fail to cancel certain speech frequencies sometimes- Can sound good AFTER EQUILIZATION with Sony Headphone app although the few equalization bands are inadequate to fix all tonal problems of the inherent sound profile- Great Battery Life- Comfortable for long term wearing- Easy to use and intuitive gesture control is good- Speak to Chat is a very useful featureCons:- Inherent sound profile has dull highs above 8KHz, dark subdued mids at 1-2KHz and bloated coloured upper bass at around 80-100Hz- Equalizer of Sony Headphone Band has only 5 frequency bands at 400Hz, 1KHZ, 2.5KHz, 6.3KHz and 16KHz bands which are inadequate to fix tonality problems and as the lowest frequency band which can be controlled is ... MorePros:- NC Good but not exceptional - NC can fail to cancel certain speech frequencies sometimes- Can sound good AFTER EQUILIZATION with Sony Headphone app although the few equalization bands are inadequate to fix all tonal problems of the inherent sound profile- Great Battery Life- Comfortable for long term wearing- Easy to use and intuitive gesture control is good- Speak to Chat is a very useful featureCons:- Inherent sound profile has dull highs above 8KHz, dark subdued mids at 1-2KHz and bloated coloured upper bass at around 80-100Hz- Equalizer of Sony Headphone Band has only 5 frequency bands at 400Hz, 1KHZ, 2.5KHz, 6.3KHz and 16KHz bands which are inadequate to fix tonality problems and as the lowest frequency band which can be controlled is 400Hz, the bloated upper bass coloration at 80-100Hz can never be fixed.- NC gets caught out by certain frequencies and/or noise patterns which are not filtered- Head Band adjustment inadequate for use by children, or adults with small heads- Noise Cancelling Optimizer in the Sony Headphone App does not take into account the environment noise to adjust the NC profile to the current noise conditionsAll in all, the headphones are a good allrounder which can be much further improved in sound and NC performance by improving the features and EQ sound controls of the Sony headphone app which are now inadequate..

Great Headphones!

When getting my first pair of headphones I really wanted to make sure I got the right pair and got my money's worth. I knew Sony was a good brand and looked at a couple reviews for these headphones and got them. The noise cancelling is good especially if you are playing busy music. Being in a room with a lot of noise though I can still hear the TV and talking in the distance and have to have the music I little louder than I would prefer. But it isn't much of a problem. Don't let that little comment deter you from getting these. Comfort- wise I can wear these for hours and they will not hurt my ears. Whether I'm on a long plane ride or watching a movie they work great. They sit comfortably lying or sitting. As for exercise I have not tested these running because I ... MoreWhen getting my first pair of headphones I really wanted to make sure I got the right pair and got my money's worth. I knew Sony was a good brand and looked at a couple reviews for these headphones and got them. The noise cancelling is good especially if you are playing busy music. Being in a room with a lot of noise though I can still hear the TV and talking in the distance and have to have the music I little louder than I would prefer. But it isn't much of a problem. Don't let that little comment deter you from getting these. Comfort- wise I can wear these for hours and they will not hurt my ears. Whether I'm on a long plane ride or watching a movie they work great. They sit comfortably lying or sitting. As for exercise I have not tested these running because I personally feel unsafe with headphones while running outside. But for jump roping which includes a lot of up and down movements they work great. I do have to adjust them a couple of times and sometimes if I'm going really fast but they overall stay in place. It's really nice because I can have surround sound and zone out doing my workout and not have to worry about them falling off. The battery life is also great I use them almost every day and charge them like literally every 2 weeks. I also love the case it comes in I bring them to the library with me for homework and studying. I highly recommend these headphones for exercise, school, etc.

Manufactured poorly.

All the extra features come with a lot of downsides and this is as a result of poor manufacturing when producing these products, these are difficulties i’ve faced upon initial uses of the product. My headphones frequently randomly turn off even when fully charged and with no disturbances. This is then followed with issues with getting them to turn on again and having to wait 5 minutes before getting them switched on. This is also accompanied by a frequent random disconnecting of the headphones from the currently used device again for no reason as well as random pausing of music with no provokes. There is so the common issue that I’m aware some others face with certain sony headphones of not being heard over the phone, facetime or voice notes when connected. I also ... MoreAll the extra features come with a lot of downsides and this is as a result of poor manufacturing when producing these products, these are difficulties i’ve faced upon initial uses of the product. My headphones frequently randomly turn off even when fully charged and with no disturbances. This is then followed with issues with getting them to turn on again and having to wait 5 minutes before getting them switched on. This is also accompanied by a frequent random disconnecting of the headphones from the currently used device again for no reason as well as random pausing of music with no provokes. There is so the common issue that I’m aware some others face with certain sony headphones of not being heard over the phone, facetime or voice notes when connected. I also deal with various random and unprovoked beeps and activations during listening even when these customisation are mostly switched off. The sound quality is good and the noise cancellation with the options of ambiance is a plus but All in all it hasn’t yet proved to be worth the amount of money paid, My £30 JBL headphones were a lot less of a hassle, lasted longer battery wise and worked efficiently as a headphones. It appears as though al these extra features have been ooorlt designed do don’t seem to work as effectively as they are supposed to such as the random paused of music even when the headphones are properly placed over the ears. It’s also very difficult to get ahold of anyone customer service wise which is unfortunate. Hopefully in the coming days the issues i’m facing can be addressed.

Sony - WH-1000XM4 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headph

These are technically the best headphones I have ever owned. Of which I currently use regularly 3 sets and another 2 lying around. Always come back to these.Only 1 issue, after about 1 year of pretty much continual use, I'm having issues with the active noise cancelling on the left hand side cup. I've taken it apart, cleaned everything and restored etc. Full reset, disconnect/reconnect etc... but the problem persists.I'm experiencing an extremely high pitched sound in the left ear cup when first turning on the headphones and after they connect to say my mobile phone or PC (doesn't matter what). I've found 2 fixes so far that appear to work,1st is obviously disable the Active Noise Cancelling and Passive sound passthrough as well, which basically means these ... MoreThese are technically the best headphones I have ever owned. Of which I currently use regularly 3 sets and another 2 lying around. Always come back to these.Only 1 issue, after about 1 year of pretty much continual use, I'm having issues with the active noise cancelling on the left hand side cup. I've taken it apart, cleaned everything and restored etc. Full reset, disconnect/reconnect etc... but the problem persists.I'm experiencing an extremely high pitched sound in the left ear cup when first turning on the headphones and after they connect to say my mobile phone or PC (doesn't matter what). I've found 2 fixes so far that appear to work,1st is obviously disable the Active Noise Cancelling and Passive sound passthrough as well, which basically means these headphones become just basic bluetooth headphones at that point - kinda defeats the purpose really...2. Only works when connected to the Headphone App. Turn down the ANC by 2 clicks on the slide adjustment for AND/Passthrough sound. Again kinda defeats the purpose of ANC but allows me to continue to use the headphones.After a while, undetermind exactly but at lst a few minutes, I can usually reengage the ANC and continue to use the headphones for many hours without incident. Though this isn't always the case. And sometimes I get blasted in the left ear by extreme high pitched sound which is both very painful and possible quite dangerous I suspect. Which is causing me some trepidation when using these. Which is unfortunate because as I said, technically these are the best headphones I own to date in any other respect.

Well built, excellent noise cancellation, good audio

I purchased the latest Bose QC recently and had to return them, they felt a little cheaply built and more importantly the noise cancelling was poorly implemented. The Bose Ultra were very good but with a large price tag to go with it, so I decided instead to go with the Sony XM4 as they are currently a relative bargain price wise, vs their launch price, they always get great reviews and I personally feel they are better built than the newer Sony XM5.On opening the packaging I was impressed by the quality, including the supplied case and accessories, with everything being beautifully built and the materials soft, tactile and comfortable. I went with midnight blue as a change from the ubiquitous black headphone and was not disappointed. The Sony app is good, ... MoreI purchased the latest Bose QC recently and had to return them, they felt a little cheaply built and more importantly the noise cancelling was poorly implemented. The Bose Ultra were very good but with a large price tag to go with it, so I decided instead to go with the Sony XM4 as they are currently a relative bargain price wise, vs their launch price, they always get great reviews and I personally feel they are better built than the newer Sony XM5.On opening the packaging I was impressed by the quality, including the supplied case and accessories, with everything being beautifully built and the materials soft, tactile and comfortable. I went with midnight blue as a change from the ubiquitous black headphone and was not disappointed. The Sony app is good, particularly with auto EQ selection to tailor sound to my taste. The noise cancellation is exceptional and the music playback is above average for a closed back with noise cancellation. It is a little bass heavy but that tends to be true of all good noise cancellers in my experience. Previously I've had sennheiser momentum 2 wireless and they probably have a better balance with respect of music reproduction but at the sacrifice of good noise cancellation, so there is always a compromise to be made. I haven't tested the microphone but I won't use it often so I'm not best placed to review it.To summarise, they're well built, comfortable, sound good, with exceptional noise cancellation. Nothing to dislike at the current price of under £200.