The Sony XM6 is an accomplished number of cans, but they will not replace my Sonos -Saas soon
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Sony recently launched one of the Most-Geanened products from 2025 in the HO-headphone WH-1000XM6. The earlier efforts of the company, namely the XM4 and XM5, have proved incredibly successful, so it is not surprising that Sony felt the need to continue the origin.
Those earlier models have actually proven So Popular that both will remain for sale next to their newly improved brother or sister.
I have been using the XM6 for about a week now to find out if they can deduct my trusted Sonos ACE as my go-to-over-ear looks. But as you had already guessed from the head of this piece, they have fallen a bit short for the top.
It has nothing to do with sound quality or noise reduction, although I will discuss those functions later. Instead, it has everything to do with how they fit.
I have made no secret of the fact that I have one Fan of Sonos’ first attempt to produce a few headphonesMainly because I find the bait so comfortable, and that is almost a year after they were launched in June 2024.
I never worn the previous XM4 or the XM5 for long -term periods, but after reading my colleague Gerald Lynch’s Sony WH-1000XM5 ReviewWho praised the general comfort level, I expected glorious things from the XM6.
Our new ones Sony WH-1000XM6 ReviewThat expectations should have been met. For me, however, they unfortunately missed the goal.
Maybe I have a picky head (hopefully not) or abnormally large ears (the shame), but for me the XM6 feels that they cling a little too much, at least compared to the Sonosaas. Sony has said that it has increased the clamping force of the new model compared to the XM5 to help with passive sound insulation, and it indeed works on that front.
For my still still it is just a bit too powerful for comfort. They feel more related to headphones on the ear when I wear them, because the filling presses a little too much on my ears. In the meantime, the Sonos Ace -Oorschelpen completely surrounds my ears and feel much softer and feel much more comfortable as a result.
I should add the realization that the ACE -OOTSCHELPS is going to cover my ears more, because the openings are physically smaller than the Sony pair. I think the fact that the space within the earcups of the bait is deeper than on the XM6 is the reason for this peculiar phenomenon.
Although we weigh around 50 g more than the Sony, I think the Sonos engineers have also better distributed the weight of the bait. Again, I am probably just picky, but it is something I noticed as soon as I wore the XM6 for the first time and could not shake.
In my opinion, one of the biggest factors is to support my claim that the Sonos -Saas feels more comfortable for me, the hinge mechanism that is used.
Both couples have hinges that integrate into the earcups, but the one on the Sonos -Saas seems to have a greater reach of flexibility, so it is able to better meet the shape of my head.
The hinge on the Sony XM6, on the other hand, has a more limited reach and therefore cannot freely adapt to the shape of my head. That said, Sony’s said that the XM6 was inspired by an older hinge design, inherited from the XM4, with which they can be better folded for travel. In the meantime, the Sonos mechanism does not fold away as a compact, so that may have something to do with it.
Don’t get me wrong, that extra compactness is definitely a great function to have – although one that is a bit lost, because I don’t travel that much – but my head is probably just a bit restrictive. Maybe the hinge will come loose over time and does the XM6 fit me better? We will see.
Mind you, the carrier bag for the XM6 is, without a doubt, a winner about the Sonos design in my opinion. This time Sony has implemented a magnetic fasteners and it works a treat. The zip in the case of my Sonos -Saas broke within a few months and made it in addition to useless – a characteristic that I have noticed a lot Other owners of Sonos Ace have come across. I hope that other headphone manufacturers will follow Sony’s design choice in the future with new couples.
The music of one person is the sound of another
In my years I learned to write about speakers, headphones and other hi-fi components, the sound quality can be subjective and that in the end, if you like what you hear, then that is the product for you.
There are cases where it is impossible to say that something sounds good. But more often than not, I have discovered that I do not necessarily appreciate what a certain product sounds, even though someone else thinks it is great, or vice versa.
It is a similar story here, because while our Sony WH-1000XM6 review is a lot of praise for their sonic capacities, I am a little less enthusiastic. Or at least, I don’t think the Sonosas must be completely ignored if your budget can pay one of the two pairs.
However, sound is a personal preference and I actually prefer the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless To one of these competitors for outright sound quality. Comfort, however, is still at the top of my wish list, that’s why I keep returning to the Sonosas. If I could get the Sennheiser sound in the Sonos body, it can just be my dream set of headphones.
I will admit that the Sony headphone objectively sounds better than the Sonos Ace. They are more energetic, create a little more detail and have stricter control over particularly difficult songs such as the darkness’ I believe in something that is called loveResulting in a more coherent listening.
While the Sonos does not sound bad In whatever sense of the word, I notice that I have fun and my head bopping with the bait in place when listening to dance music, which is my go-to-genre much more than when I listen to the same tracks on the XM6.
This can amount to the fact that my ears do not feel so limited when using the ACE, resulting in a more 3D-like soundstage.
Silence is gold
When it comes to ANC performance of headphones, I personally don’t notice much difference between many of the newest pairs of the top brands. That may be because I listen to music pretty loudly (perhaps to my own future disadvantage) and cannot hear about ambient sounds, including colleagues sitting next to me in the office. It is therefore difficult for me to assess whether the technology for noise extraction works as promised or not.
Based on the in-depth reviews on TechRadar and speaking with my colleagues, the consensus is the ANC version of the Sonos Ace Non-Tooning. The opposite is the case for the Sony XM6, which are “the real deal in terms of ANC” according to our reviewer.
This too is perhaps a personal preference. The amount of external noise that you want to block can be different from my preference. If I can hear a train announcer tell which station then, it doesn’t really bother me. If there is something, it is proven to be useful when I am traveling for the first time and I am not sure where I am going.
However, if you want total silence, then I have to give it the Sony XM6 – although you also have the Bose Quietcomfort Ultra headphoneswho have long been considered the class leader. The Sonos Ace is great, but ANC version is not an area for which I can defend them confidently.
With both the Sonos and Sony pairs that sells a non-no-non-significant cost-Sonos ACE for $ 449 / £ 449 / AU $ 699 and Sony XM6 comes in at $ 449 / £ 400 / AU $ 699 of both would buy an impulse. If you want to spend this type of money on a new set of headphones, I would highly recommend that both couples first audition if you can.
While you are busy, you should probably give the recently released Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 Also listen, together with the aforementioned Bose Quietcomfort Ultra headphones. The premium over-ears from B&W have always been excellent with the sound quality, but often lacked in other areas such as ANC. That is no longer the case with the PX7 S3, which have many improved noise -reducing options. Combined with their beautiful appearance, they can be the ultimate pair in this price bracket.
There is positive to remove all this: we now have so many quality choices when choosing a few headphones, that it is difficult for even experts like me to give a definitive answer to which brand the others. And given how personally our choices are (one of my colleagues prefers the ACE for Fit for example), choosing and choosing the right couple is something that you can only do for yourself.
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