Sony WF-1000XM4 noise cancelling ear buds

[craigjm]

Has anyone got a set of these released this week or indeed a set of the older XM3? I have just bought a pair after having a set of wired Bose QC20 for about 7 years. I dont know if im expecting too much or if they are faulty. The sound quality is great but the noise cancelling appears to be utter ste. If this is how they are supposed to be I cant see how What Hifi and others are handing out 5 stars everywhere.

So ive tried all the ear buds that come with it and the test in the app says the large buds are positioned correctly and tight. I can still hear people talking and cars passing etc which you just wouldn't with the Bose. The headphones app that controls them is needlessly complicated in my opinion and you cant really tell when noise cancelling is on and when it isn't. Ive turned off the stupid adaptive sound because it was changing things as soon as you stopped walking for like 1 second. What am I doing wrong? At the moment they feel like £250 of junk and I cant believe that

[craigjm]

mikef said:

I have the XM3 buds. Both sound quality and noise cancelling are remarkably good. The only weak spot is the microphone for calls

The reviews I have read say the XM4 noise cancellation is an improvement, so something definitely sounds wrong. Maybe be go through all the settings in the Sony mobile app, just in case

Thanks. Ive tried that. The settings for noise cancellation appear to be on, ambient or off and quite frankly you can barely tell the difference. I am starting to think that they are faulty.

With the 3's how close can you stand to a road before you hear the traffic?

[craigjm]

mikef said:

That depends if I’m listening to music or voice and whether the traffic is cars, motorbikes or HGVs. I’d say that listening to music at 10 metres from an A road I am not hearing most light vehicles, I am hearing motor bikes and I am feeling the rumble of heavy vehicles which accentuates the sound

I think I’m expecting too much then. They can go back they will be useless on trains and planes. I’ve just tried them back to back with my old wired quiet comfort 20 in ears and although the music quality is much better the noise cancellation is st in comparison. How what hifi and others have given these 5 stars I will never know

[craigjm]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

If you want quiet you want isolation not cancelation

Have had that debate before and I tried some etymotics some time ago. I have bespoke caps on my Bose QC20’s that isolate in addition to the noise cancelling and I guess that’s what’s missing here. Problem with that is they wouldn’t fit in a charging case with them on. My comparison above was with the QC20 with their standard tips on

[craigjm]

lonny said:

All the reviews are excellent and I’m tempted by them. It’s disappointing you are having problems.

Maybe you could try a factory reset before sending back?

I’ve tried the factory reset twice and turned off all the motion detection and voice detection stuff and they are rubbish quite frankly. You can stand 10ft from a TV at normal volume and you can hear every word. With the quiet comfort 20s with just their standard tips you are lip reading. I think I’m gonna send them back and try the new wireless in ear Bose ones.

[craigjm]

CarCrazyDad said:

https://youtu.be/hIWn_RjN-Wg

A review on Short Circuit - LTTs unboxing / first impression channel.

Linus, the reviewer, has a lot of experience with a variety of audio / visual - so I'd trust his opinion a lot, and they aren't paid for reviews anything like that - if he doesn't like it, he will say so.

All of the reviews including his say they are amazing and I just don’t get it

[craigjm]

I’ve said they may be faulty above. I also buy from Amazon for that reason. I will return them

[craigjm]

Well i have decided they are faulty. Thought I would give them one last chance and the right earbud is totally dead. Showing 100% charge on the app but it’s not working at all. Back to Amazon it is then. Notice that they have sold out everywhere though so a replacement set of Sony’s might be tough to come by

[craigjm]

vaud said:

Global chip shortage, especially for commodity chips. Not going away soon.

Yep and first batch of an eagerly awaited product always sells out fast. I have asked for a swap to the Bose equivalent let’s try those. The noise cancellation is more important to me than our and our musicality

[craigjm]

alorotom said:

You might want to check out the new Beats buds released today with full ANC etc… and under $150

Read a couple of reviews and they all have poor noise cancellation as a negative so ill pass for now and try the Bose Quietcomfort earbuds and go from there.

[craigjm]

ulakye said:

I've had a couple of pairs of XM3s and found the noise cancelling to be poor. I also assumed they were broken but even swapping to the second pair didn't make much difference. There was some noise cancelling but minimal at best.

I then got a pair of Bose Quietcomfort earbuds and they are so much better. Noise cancelling is excellent and subjectively I prefer the sound quality as well.

I think my problem is that I have got used to the Bose way of noise cancelling. I guess i will find out when these go back and the Bose Quietcomfort earbuds arrive.

[craigjm]

I eventually got round to buying a set of Bose quiet comfort earbuds, £249 from Amazon. I have to say they are night and day ahead of the Sonys!

Setup was easy.... download the app, create an account and search for the buds. Found instantly and connected and away we go. Initial impressions were good and the adjustable noise reduction worked well. Straight outside onto the roadside to give it the test that the Sonys failed miserably. Stood 30cm from the road I couldnt hear the traffic! brilliant. I then turned the noise cancellation down and it had to go down to 60% before I could hear the traffic moving at 30mph just a foot away from me.

They are very comfortable in the ears with the usual Bose fittings and they dont feel heavy in your ears. OK they dont have as many trick features as the Sony like stopping the music automatically when you talk but who cares when the noise reduction is this good. Sound quality is better than my old Bose QC20 wired with much more depth and a better bass.

Very pleased. Recommended

[craigjm]

mikef said:

Nothing in aviation comes cheap

I hope you find them decent. I think, like I said above, that I have got used to the Bose style of noise reduction. I was on the tube yesterday and it’s great to not hear the racket. You could hear some of it with my QC20s so it’s an improvement.

[craigjm]

mikef said:

Bose QC buds arrived and I've run a quick test against WF-1000XM3

Short verdict - the Bose noise cancelling is amazing, as always. For sound quality, the Sony's beat the Bose hands-down. Sample track used for comparison: Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah in high-def audio



I guess it depends whether NC or sound is top priority

I would agree with that vs the XM4's that I tried. The absolute sound quality was better on the Sonys. With the Bose I was on a train this weekend and it was totally suppressed. This is top priority for me. If i want absolute clarity I will listen on my home HIFI. I like the way you can alter the NR on the Bose too so you can have it not 100% if you want to be aware of stuff. Happy with my purchase

[craigjm]

mikef said:

Oh yeah, and I will keep the Bose for my train journey's when we finally get back to commuting to the office

Question has to be asked though.... why have you got 5 sets of headphones?

[craigjm]

Do you have a fetish and need to get yourself checked?

[craigjm]

bodhi said:

mikef said:

I guess it depends whether NC or sound is top priority

And if you want both go for the Sony over-ear model - the WH range. I've got the XM3's (and XM2's for that matter) and they are a fantastic set of cans, excelling in both NR and sound quality.

Was potentially looking for some of the in-ear ones for golf - do I assume they aren't as good as their big brothers?

People who wear the over ear versions when out and about just look ridiculous in my opinion. The in ear Sonys are rubbish for noise cancellation which is why they went back swiftly

[craigjm]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yeah I agree with that but faffing around for ages trying to get the seals right is a pain. The test in the app doesn’t work well either

[craigjm]

And in less than a month the left ear unit on the Bose has failed. Refuses to charge and therefore is dead. Cant fault amazon though. Reported it today and will get a set of replacements tomorrow then send the faulty ones back.

[craigjm]

craig1912 said:

Thought I’d resurrect this thread as was looking at the Sonys but some reviews about them not fitting properly and falling out. Also looking at the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 which get good reviews.
Any real world experience?
Thanks

The Bose units talked about here have been updated too since the thread so may want to look at those