The Sony WH-1000X Mark IV Noise Canceling Headphones: A Closer Look

Folks, it's time to talk about the new Sony WH-1000X Mark IV noise canceling headphones. These headphones have been highly anticipated, and I'm excited to dive into what makes them so special. First off, let's take a look at the outside of these babies. Not much has changed from the Mark III, with the same black and silver color options available. The price tag remains the same at $350, which is no surprise given their already impressive features.

However, if you take a closer look, you'll notice some subtle alterations designed to make these headphones fit more comfortably. The ear pads are slightly bigger, with an oval shape that's a bit wider than before. The padding has also been tweaked to be a touch softer, while some of the top padding on the headband has been shaved off. These changes are intended to reduce pressure on both the top of your head and around your ears. I can attest to these changes, as I found them to be slightly more comfortable to wear over longer listening sessions.

Another change you'll notice is that the buttons have remained largely unchanged in terms of placement. However, the button that was once labeled "NC Ambient" has been renamed to "Custom" from the app. This means you can now program this button to do what it did before – toggle between noise canceling and a transparency mode that lets sound in from the outside world or program it to perform another function like activating Amazon's Alexa or Google's voice assistant. You can also hold this button for a few seconds, and the headphones will enter a calibration mode to detect the shape of your head. This feature optimizes the headphones based on those readings, ensuring a comfortable fit.

The biggest changes are inside these sleek ear cups. One notable addition is a sensor that detects when you're wearing the headphones on, automatically pausing the audio when you take them off. Surprisingly, this doesn't seem to affect the battery life, which remains rated at 30 hours with wireless and noise-cancelling on. You also get five hours worth of juice from just 10 minutes of charging via USB-C.

But what's really new inside these headphones is a more powerful Bluetooth system on a chip. Sony has tweaked its algorithms for noise canceling and digital signal processing to slightly improve both the sound and the noise cancelling. While it may seem like a small upgrade, trust me when I say that the improvements are noticeable – the headphone does a little better job of converting streaming music from services like Spotify to pseudo-high-resolution audio. According to Sony, this means the Mark IV is better at processing highs, adding back in a bit of missing detail when dealing with compressed streaming audio.

One of the most significant upgrades, however, is the refinement and detailing that these headphones offer. They're still incredibly comfortable, but now they're even more impressive in terms of sound quality. The improvements are subtle yet noticeable, making them an excellent choice for anyone looking to upgrade from the Mark III. And with firmware updates, we can expect further refinements down the line.

If you already own the WH-1000X Mark III, it's probably not worth upgrading just yet – there aren't many significant changes that would warrant a purchase. However, if you're in the market for a new pair of noise-cancelling headphones and want the best combination of comfort, sound performance, and extra features, then this is an excellent choice. With its impressive upgrade cycle, Sony's WH-1000X Mark IV remains one of the top noise-cancelling headphones on the market.

One thing that sets these headphones apart from their competitors, like Apple's AirPods Pro or Bose's Noise Canceling 700, is their ability to deliver an excellent balance of comfort and sound quality. It's clear that Sony has put a lot of thought into designing these headphones with the user in mind. And while there may be some minor issues with touch controls in cold weather, this is something that can likely be improved upon with future firmware updates.

In conclusion, the Sony WH-1000X Mark IV noise canceling headphones are an excellent choice for anyone looking to upgrade their audio experience. With their impressive balance of comfort and sound quality, these headphones are sure to please even the most discerning audiophiles.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is it folks the new sony wh-1000x mark iv noise canceling headphones much anticipated a lot of people have been waiting for this headphone i'm excited to tell you what's new about it so let's get right to it on the outside anyway very little has changed from the mark iii they still come in the same black and silver color options and cost 350 dollars like the mark iii did when it first launched if you look closely there are some subtle alterations that are designed to make the headphones fit more comfortably the ear pads are ever so slightly bigger you see the oval inside it's a little wider and the padding is also a touch softer and then some of the padding has been shaved off the top of the headband all these little changes are supposed to reduce the pressure on both the top of your head and around your ears i did find them slightly more comfortable to wear over longer listening sessions and oh they do weigh a gram less than the mark iii there's no change to the buttons at least in terms of their placement the button that used to be labeled nc ambient is now labeled custom from the app you can now program that button to do what it did before namely toggle between noise canceling and a transparency mode that lets sound in from the outside world or you can program it to perform another function such as activate amazon's alexa or google's voice assistant also if you hold it for a few seconds the headphones go into a calibration mode to detect the shape of your head whether you're wearing glasses it then optimizes the headphones based on those readings the bigger changes are on the inside one you can see inside the left ear cup there's a sensor that detects when you have the headphones on and automatically pauses the audio when you take them off it doesn't seem to affect the battery life which is still rated at 30 hours with wireless and noise cancelling on and you get five hours worth of juice from only 10 minutes of charging via usbc now the hidden stuff there's a new bluetooth system on a chip that has more processing power the headphone still uses sony's qn1 chip that's found in the mark iii but sony tweaked its algorithms for noise canceling and digital signal processing to slightly improve both the sound and the noise cancelling both were already excellent in the mark iii and now they're a touch better these aren't huge upgrades but more subtle improvements the headphone does a little better job of converting streaming music from services like spotify to pseudo high resolution according to sony the mark 4 is better at processing highs adding back in a bit of missing detail when you're dealing with compressed streaming audio again a subtle upgrade but the headphones do seem to sound slightly more refined and detailed even though the hardware and by that i mean the drivers are the same the base is full yet punchy and well defined they've got a nice openness to them with a relatively wide sound stage do they blow away what's out there from bose sennheiser and others no but they just sound really good while they're dynamic sounding they also have enough warmth to them that you don't experience listening fatigue over longer listening sessions features wise there are a few legitimate upgrades the first is multi-point bluetooth pairing that allows you to pair these headphones with two devices at the same time and switch back and forth between them it's an important feature for some people particularly those of us who like to simultaneously pair with our phones and computers while working from home or maybe it's your phone and a tablet i was using an early version of the software so the feature wasn't completely reliable but sony promises that it will be when the headphones officially shipped and the software is updated from the beginning the 1000x's signature extra feature was a quick attention mode if you hold your hand over the right ear cup it pauses whatever audio you're listening to it let's sound in so you can quickly have a conversation then go right back to what you're listening to just by removing your hand that's still there but there's a new mode called speak to chat that's essentially hands-free quick attention if someone comes up to you and wants to chat you can simply start talking hey what's up and your audio pauses and the headphones go into ambient mode that's pretty cool the audio then resumes after a set period of time you can set it from anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute or you can manually resume it by touching the ear cup i did make the mistake of having it on while i was out walking my dog every time i'd say something to him my music would pause which was irritating since dogs don't talk back i didn't need to hear what he was saying so remember to turn it off if you frequently have conversations with animals i'll finish up by talking about the two biggest complaints people had about the mark iii the first was that voice calling wasn't that great and the second was the touch controls just wouldn't work in very cold weather on the first issue sony says it's improved the noise reduction while you're making calls and also says the microphones now pick up your voice better in my test the voice calling does seem improved people said they could hear me clearly and while the noise reduction wasn't stellar it did noticeably muffle background noise i don't think the mark iv is quite as good as bose's noise canceling 700 headphones for voice calling but it's definitely better and not a weakness like it was on the mark iii when it first launched as for the touch controls responsiveness in cold weather well sony says it's made some improvements there too i'd love to test it but it's somewhere where i am i don't have a walk-in freezer handy once the cold weather comes i'll put my findings up on my text review on cnet i'm not convinced the touch controls will work flawlessly at really low temps then again a lot of electronics just can't handle subzero weather i will say they are still pretty toasty on your ears in hot weather that's sony's wh 1000x mark iv in a nutshell if you already own the mark iii it's probably not worth upgrading to just not that big a leap forward but this is a great headphone that's now about 15 to 20 percent better thanks to a few small but significant upgrades and it should improve a bit further with firmware updates remains one of the top noise canceling headphones if not the top one out there having the best combination of comfort sound performance and extra features we'll see what competitors like apple bose and others have in store over the next six months if i was going to drop 350 on a noise-cancelling headphone today this would be at the top of my list i'm david carney for cnet thanks for watching and let me know what you think in the comments section\n"