00:04The Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds are finally here, and we've been testing them for the last few
00:12weeks, including comparing them against their biggest competitors from Bose, Apple, Technics,
00:17and more. The Sony XM6 buds cost $329 or £249, and they bring with them a new design that's
00:2611% thinner, and a cool new ambient audio feature. So, the XM6 must be Sony's best earbuds
00:33to date, right? Yeah, that is probably true, and they probably put Sony's earbuds back on
00:39top, over the likes of Bose and AirPods, right? You're not so fast.
00:43If the discussion were purely about sound per pound audio quality, the new Sony XM6 are
00:49absolutely in the mix. They're cheaper than some of the real audiophile-adjacent wireless
00:54options, but for noise-cancelling power, clear call handling, and a truly comfortable fit,
01:00and useful spatial audio skills, Sony's been overtaken somewhat now. So let's dig into it.
01:09Sony has once again stuffed these earbuds with all the perks and extras it knows. A lot of
01:15them come from the previous buds, but a lot are new. The 10-band EQ is an upgrade over the
01:20old 5-band option. Plus, there's a specific gaming EQ preset. There's also the cool Find My EQ feature
01:27that gives you a fun interface to personalize the audio to your preferences, although this isn't the
01:33same as adapted audio based on a true hearing test. Let's talk about the app here, because it could do
01:39with being more intuitive. For example, the home screen is essentially a list of tabs of quite
01:45light touch lifestyle options, but there's one tab called Menu. Now you'd think this is where all the
01:50really good stuff lives, but actually it's basically just a home for the support bot and some other
01:55stuff no one really uses. Now for the interesting settings to tweak, you need to go to My Device,
02:00and then Device Settings. These perks should be front and center. It's worth digging through these options
02:07though for the background music effect feature. Now this is five, five menus deep from the app's home
02:15screen as an example of what I was just saying. But what this enables you to do is select from
02:19My Room,
02:21Living Room or Cafe, and these spread and push the music just a little further away from your ears each
02:27time. It sounds gimmicky, but it's great. If you're someone who sometimes just likes to turn the TV on for
02:33a
02:34bit of background noise to focus, or if you can't concentrate if the lyrics are too prominent in
02:39your ears, this feature is for you. There's a bunch of other good stuff in these menus like the fully
02:45customizable controls, the ear tip fit test, the excellent quick attention feature so you can hold
02:50your hand over one bud to activate the transparency mode briefly, and there's the ability to make some
02:56prioritized Bluetooth connection stability over audio quality if you prefer. Now when it comes to
03:03active noise cancellation, Sony says these are the best noise cancelling earbuds it's ever released.
03:10Sadly we need to manage your expectations here because although sounds are absolutely dulled well
03:16when ANC is on, switching to AirPods Pro 3 while testing showed that the Apple earbuds are on a
03:24different level. If you want that bubble of silence feeling where the noise drops and extraneous sounds
03:30simply melt away, then the Sony XM6 are pretty good, but the Bose Ultra earbuds second gen and the Apple
03:37AirPods
03:37Pro 3 both have them soundly beaten. Spatial audio is technically here because you can have 360 reality
03:44audio if you can find any content presented in this Sony-made format. Tidal and Deezer both dropped support a
03:52while ago, so really it's either time for Sony to go with a format agnostic system like Bose does or
03:58with
03:59good old Dolby Atmos like Apple, Samsung and LG do. Call handling is also a little bit of a letdown.
04:05Sony has wind reduction grills, a new AI algorithm, beamforming and bone conduction sensors, and yet
04:12callers said we sounded muffled when using them for voice calls compared to a lot of the competition,
04:17particularly compared to Technics AZ100 and AirPods Pro 3. In terms of battery life, their claim of
04:238 hours from the buds with noise cancellation and 24 hours from the case equals that of AirPods Pro 3,
04:31which means it's good, but this is good in a standard way rather than anything outstanding.
04:35In testing we got a little less than that from them at 7 hours before they needed charging just in
04:42the
04:42buds, but our testing often involves boosting the volume above 50% or scrolling through features and
04:47profiles so we don't think Sony has really missed the mark there.
04:54We mainly tested for the listening quality with all sound profiles set to standard with a neutral EQ
05:00and making sure the connection profile prioritized audio quality over Bluetooth stability. The great
05:06news is that they sound very good overall and are a nice step up over the Sony XM5 earbuds that
05:13they
05:13replace and do rival more audiophile focused earbuds in their price range, but don't quite match them.
05:21The XM6 can react to razor sharp edges of notes, bringing crispness and detail that simmers along
05:27beautifully. They can hold detail and richness in notes that plunge and fade into other parts of the music,
05:34maintaining individual elements better than cheaper or mid-range earbuds can.
05:39Instrumental works have an expansive and emotive sound stage where each musical strand is held
05:45together in a cohesive and rewarding mix. Human breath in vocals feels three-dimensional and,
05:50for want of a better word, real. But there's an extra ounce of build and final texture that the Technics
05:57EAH-AZ100 earbuds, which cost around the same, can bring out of the tracks that the Sonys just lack.
06:05The timing ticks along beautifully with these. They're capable of deep but controlled bass drops and
06:11tonal changes, but they can gloss over some of the more marginal inflections or imperfections that make
06:18up music. There's a sliver of intensity, sometimes missing in songs, that really demand it. Just the final
06:24seasoning. This is really a hypercritical view of them, but that is our job and it's notable
06:30that you do get all of these things I'm saying from the Technics earbuds. But there's a caveat to
06:36these criticisms. We did have some struggles getting what felt like a truly sealed fit from the Sony XM6 in
06:43the ear, even after over a week of testing them, which I'll discuss in the next section. If you were
06:48to
06:48find the fit to be perfect, you may find that you actually do get those little extra edges in the
06:53sound.
06:57Sony has once again reworked the shape of its earbuds and the XM6 are 11% thinner, according to Sony,
07:04than the older model and are very much pill shaped from above, but they are deeper. This means that
07:10they stick out of your ears a little more as well as sticking out more from their taller case.
07:14But we were actually pleased to see this, because this initially bulbous looking fit can work very
07:21well as it does in the Technics AZ-100. However, in this thinner shape, we found that getting a secure
07:28fit involved a fairly rigorous push and twist into the ear to get them to lock in, as it were,
07:34more
07:34than we normally experience. And several of us on the TechRadar team found this. It's possible that in the
07:41pursuit of a positive, hey, they're smaller goal, Sony hasn't actually quite achieved the benefit of
07:47a better fit. Although fit is always a personal thing, of course. However, a good aspect of the
07:53taller buds, along with the fact that there's no shiny plastic involved in the design this time,
07:57is that we never once dropped the earbuds while pulling them out of the case. And that is an upgrade
08:03over the older XM5 buds and a few of the competition. They're taller, they're easier to grab, and they
08:09even have a little nub to help. The case is much more angular and a little taller, with a USB
08:15-C charger
08:16on the back, plus wireless charging too. The magnets that hold the lid closed feel a little weak,
08:22which concerned us, but we did a drop test and the lid stayed closed with the buds inside,
08:27so hopefully that's not actually a problem.
08:32Do you want the best noise cancelling available in earbuds right now? If so, the Sony WF-1000XM6
08:40would not be my top recommendation. You can simply get better noise blocking for the money
08:45from the Bose Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen or AirPods Pro 3. For sound, there is plenty to celebrate though.
08:51These earbuds offer an expansive and pleasing soundstage with neutrality and plenty of options
08:57to further tweak the sound to your liking. If pushed, yes, we could have used a little more
09:02energy and oomph to allow for an extra ounce of dynamic nuance, but that's because it's our job
09:07to nitpick. For sound, they are still right on target for the price. Buy them and you will not be
09:13disappointed sonically, but you'll probably be even more pleased with the Technics AZ-100.
09:18But the Sony XM6 are excellent when it comes to features, even if the app should make them even
09:25easier to access. Their value is in being great all-rounders, as is often the case for Sony,
09:30although we wish they had stronger spatial audio support because Bose and AirPods 3 have them beat
09:34there. A lot of people are going to buy and love the Sony WF-1000XM6. There's no question that they
09:42are
09:42really good earbuds, but they are not quite the leaders of the pack like the Sony WH-1000XM6 over-ears
09:50proved to be. We still think that the Technics AZ-100 are the best earbuds right now overall. Like the
09:56Sony, they are not leaders in noise cancellation, but the sound, features and battery life are all
10:02top tier. For Apple users, the AirPods Pro 3 really are hard to beat. An overall features list to match
10:08the
10:08Sony buds and with unbeaten noise cancellation that is a step up from the XM6. Or for top tier noise
10:15cancellation with spatial audio that works on any device, the Bose Ultra earbuds second gen are a
10:21five-star option, although they are much chunkier than the Sony. So that is our Sony WF-1000XM6 review,
10:29based on a few weeks of real-world use. If you have any questions about them, please let us know
10:35in the
10:36comments below.
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