New Sony WH-1000XM6 Firmware 2.1.0 HURT noise canceling but improved sound? 🤔
We have a new firmware for the Sony WH-1000XM6. Firmware 2.1.0 fixes a few things specifically, like an issue where recording and playback may not work properly with some iPhone apps, and an issue where call audio may become inaudible when playing music or videos during a call. Since I only get scam calls, I haven’t encountered those issues myself but I’m glad that Sony caught those issues and is rolling out a patch.
However, when I tried updating on my iPhone, the update keeps failing, as in it’s always’s stuck at 0%, so I have to update on my S25 Ultra instead. This is the issue I want Sony to fix, because what’s the point of an iPhone-related fix if I can’t even get the update on iPhone, right? Anyway since I have updated it, did this firmware inadvertently affect the XM6’s performance in terms of mic pick up, noise canceling performance, transparency and sound quality? We’re going to find out, so buckle up!
Microphone Quality
Its microphone quality is one thing that did not change from the previous firmware, whether in terms of voice quality, noise gating and wind noise reduction, it’s doing as great of a job as before, although I had hoped that with this new firmware, maybe the voice filtering could be polished up a bit.
👉 Have a listen to the mic quality samples
Active Noise Cancelling
Its active noise canceling seems to be a little weaker from my measurements. Previously I got this result which is awesome, but after the update, noise canceling seems to be weaker across the board. No matter how I adjusted the headphones’ position, many times I measured it, I couldn’t get the same result as when it was on 2.0.2 So my conclusion is that it got a little weaker after the update.
👉 Have a listen to the ANC quality samples
Transparency Mode
As for its transparency mode, from my measurements (see above) it seems to be largely similar, except for a bump in the sub-bass frequencies. Since most people can’t hear the sub-bass very well, the XM6’s ambient mode is still going to sound just as transparent and natural as before the firmware update.
Sound Quality
In terms of sound quality, it seems to sound a little better now on its new firmware. Frequency sweeps show that there may have been some adjustments to the bass frequencies, particularly in the sub bass. This is probably to reduce some bloat, so the mids appear cleaner.
👉 Have a listen to the sound quality samples
From the results, I have to conclude that Firmware 2.1.0 did pull the noise canceling back a little, and a bit of nerfing of the sub bass frequencies. But no one seems to notice, because I can’t find any comments about it on Reddit which could show that the difference is in fact a small one, which can only be picked up with proper measurements and sampling. If you want to know if future updates will affect the XM6’s performance again, subscribe to the main channel for all the content.
