![]() Sony has also given its Adaptive Sound Control feature a boost for the WH-1000XM4. It’s a feature we’ve come across in other headphones before and is nice to have. The headphones use a proximity sensor and acceleration sensors in each ear cup to pause playback when you remove the headphones, and then to automatically start playing again when you put them back on. There are a couple of occasions when we trigger the feature with a cough and an enthusiastic sing-along, but you can just slide a finger up or down on the right touchpad to go back to your music.Īnother new feature for the 2020 model is ‘Wearing Detection’. Helpfully, you can set the sensitivity of Speak-to-Chat in Sony’s Headphones Connect app to try and stop it from going off accidentally. There is a slight delay, though, between when you start to speak and the mode kicking in, which we’d like to see shortened. It’s a neat party trick and we find it works pretty well. The headphones recognise that you are talking and will stop playback and switch to their Ambient Sound mode automatically. You can now engage ‘Speak to Chat’, a feature that allows you to talk to someone while the headphones are still on your head, all without moving a muscle. The Quick Attention feature found on the XM3, where you can cover the right earcup with your hand to hold a conversation, carries across, but Sony has taken the conversational skills of the WH-1000XM4 to a whole new level. If you subscribe to a streaming service that supports tracks encoded in Sony 360 Reality Audio, the WH-1000M4 can also be used to experience the immersive audio format. This allows you to stream high-quality audio wirelessly from a compatible source, including select Android smartphones running Android 8.0 or above. There’s no aptX or aptX HD support, but the Sony’s are compatible with its own LDAC technology. If you’re a frequent flyer they can even take into account changes in air pressure. They optimise the noise-cancelling based on different factors such as the shape of your face and whether or not you wear glasses. If you’re not familiar with this software, it’s basically an auto-calibration program that is activated via a long press of that Custom button. The name might be different, but it carries out all the same duties as before, such as switching between noise-cancelling and Ambient Sound modes and running the NC Optimiser.Īnd you’ll need to run Sony’s NC Optimiser before you use the headphones for the first time. So too has the Ambient/NC ( noise-cancelling) button, though it’s been renamed ‘Custom’ on the XM4. The power button, a USB-C charging port and 3.5mm headphone socket have all carried over from the XM3. Because the grip isn’t as vice-like as some rivals, though, and the fact the headphones still don’t have an IP rating (for water and dust resistance), we wouldn’t recommend using them during exercise. There’s just enough pressure to grip your ears and get a solid seal around them without the headphones feeling too loose. Unlike the XM5, which only fold flat, these XM4 headphones can be folded once more, which makes them even more compact for chucking straight into your bag.Īll these factors combine to produce a very comfortable fit. Overall, the XM4 are lighter by one whole gram, too (254g vs 255g). The head cushion is also slightly slimmer. Speaking of earcups, the WH-1000XM4 are a thinner design, while the pads used are softer and actually 10 per cent larger than those used on the XM3. The gap between the hangar and the cups has been shrunk, creating a more seamless appearance, and the space where they connect to the earcups has been reduced to reduce the potential for any sound leakage. There have been changes to the ‘hangar’ section of the headphone (the hinged fork that hangs down and connects to the earcups). In the XM5 headphones, there's a new 30mm carbon fibre composite dome. The WH-1000XM4 use the same 40mm drivers found in the previous model and the finishes are the same too: Black or Platinum Silver. They still don’t, perhaps, look as premium or stylish as a pair of, say, B&W Px7 S2 or Bose Noise Cancelling 700, but they certainly give the impression that they’re built to last. Things feel slightly more textured compared with the smooth surfaces of the XM3s in our opinion, this helps give the impression that they are slightly sturdier. The first one relates to the plastics used around the earcups and sliders. Sony hasn’t exactly gone back to the drawing board for the WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones, but XM3 owners will notice a few subtle differences here and there.
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