Buy which one? 🤔 Sony WH-1000XM6 vs WF-1000XM5 | Review
You must be wondering, why am I comparing the WH-1000XM6 headphones to the WF-1000XM5 earbuds? It’s so stupid, right? Because these are completely different products.
Well, I’m doing this because there could be people who were considering the XM5 earbuds but want to know if getting the full sized headphones is an upgrade in terms of noise canceling, sound, and if they’re going get better phone call quality.
Obviously, even before considering these things, the main reason people prefer earbuds is the portability. XM5 buds are super small, you pop them in your pocket and take them out anytime anywhere. EASY. Not so easy with headphones like the WH-1000XM6. For people wearing glasses, or prefer to keep their hair neat and spiffy, the WF-1000XM5 could also stay out of the way.
But, it could be the extremely small size of the buds, or it could be the glossy surface, some people have said the XM5 earbuds can’t plug into their ears properly - no matter which ear tips they use. And this affects noise canceling power as well as sound.
That’s not going to happen with the XM6 headphones. The earcups cover the entire ear so the whole issue of fit affecting performance is not an issue here. Another advantage the XM6 headphones have is battery life. It’s got up to 40 hours on a single charge, so if you’re flying from London to Tokyo, it will easily last the whole trip playing audio and noise canceling which isn’t possible with the XM5 earbuds.
After 6-10 hours you’ll need to put it back in the case to charge, and while it’s charging, you need to put up with no noise canceling and audio. So here are some surface level pros and cons with both. In terms of features, they’re pretty much similar, except that the XM6 has the new 10-band EQ, voice control, and Spatial Audio mode, like BGM mode which simulates background music in a cafe, and being able to convert any audio into 360 Spatial Audio. The WF-1000XM5 can’t do that, it can only play 360 Reality Audio content on certain devices and apps.
Microphone Quality
First let’s compare their mic pickup. Both are quite comparable, but in some ways the XM6 headphones deliver cleaner voice pickup. In quiet conditions, my voice on the XM5 earbuds sounds more echoey, so there’s a bit less voice isolation. And in noisy, windy conditions, although both of them do a fantastic job at background noise reduction, voice filtering works better on the XM6 headphones.
👉 Have a listen to the microphone quality
Now, am I surprised? Nope. From the start, the XM5 is at a severe disadvantage. Both earbuds are further away from my mouth than headphones. And second, the XM6 has 12 microphones, 6 of which are dedicated to voice pickup. So considering all these disadvantages, the XM5 earbuds actually performed very well.
Active Noise Cancelling
In terms of Active Noise Canceling, the XM5 earbuds are pretty powerful noise cancelers, and they seem to do a little better at cutting the lower bass frequencies, perhaps because these are earplugs with foam tips. But the XM6 headphones, as you can see, are far more effective at cutting the audible ranges in the mids and highs. This means overall, you’re going to get more silence from the XM6 in day to day noisy situations.
👉 Have a listen to the ANC quality
Transparency Mode
In terms of Transparency mode, they’re both very close in the sense that there’s very little muffling, and though the XM5 earbuds have a slightly airier quality to its ambient passthrough, the XM6 headphones sound a bit more natural, hugging closer to the base ambient sound level represented by the white line. Both are very usable in terms of general awareness and verbal exchanges. But one thing to highlight also is that the XM6 headphones have an Auto-Ambient mode, which fades in and out of transparency depending on your ambient noise level, something that the XM5 earbuds don’t have.
Sound Quality
Based on their default settings, the way their sound is tuned does have some differences, mostly in the mids and highs. The XM5 earbuds do have a crisper, brighter signature instead of sounding more rolled off in the highs like the XM6 headphones. Vocals also have a bit more focus, and the bass regions don’t glow into the mids as much.
But the XM6 headphones, with bigger drivers that sit away from the ears, do have something that can’t be replicated in earbuds, and that is a more enveloping, outside the head experience which presents wider soundstaging and better directionality for discrete channels which makes them better for watching movies.
And the XM6 is very tunable. With its 10-band graphic EQ, I’ve managed to craft a setting called the SINGAPORE SPRING which makes them sound a lot cleaner, crisper, airier, more Hi-Fi, and overall, more enjoyable than the WF-1000XM5 earbuds.
So those are the differences between the WH-1000XM6 headphones and the WF-1000XM5 earbuds. There are pros and cons to both, as we discussed in the first part of the review, but if we’re going by pure performance, the XM6 headphones is the stronger performer overall in terms of noise canceling, mic pickup, transparency, and sound.
Check latest prices:
Sony WH-1000XM6 - https://amzn.to/4krYDas
Sony WF-1000XM5 - https://amzn.to/3JGI1uN
