Silence is Golden

For years now the battle for the premium noisecanceling headset has been hotting up. With Sony leading the charge others have caught up with the Japanese giants. Apple’s recent Airpods Max headphones were excellent and Bose’s update to their legendary Quiet Comfort range has made the competition even more fierce. But has Sony just revealed the best ever noise-canceling headset with their update to their still impressive WH-1000XM4 headphones from 2020? Spoiler warning: the answer is yes.

Difference is slight, yet significant

Throughout the last few years, Sony has changed the game when they released their award-winning WH-1000XM3 and WH1000XM4’s onto the world. For years Bose was the king of silence, but Sony stole that title away from its main competitor with some excellent cans. Now in 2022 Sony is set to keep that crown with the release of the WH-1000XM5, yes Sony does need to work a bit on their naming for these. So the question is, what sets these apart from their predecessor? Well in terms of specs and performance they mostly do the same as the iteration before, just better. The first thing fans of the Sony cans will notice is the new slick design, this first visual upgrade in years and a welcome one. After two generations of largely-identical overear headphone designs, the WH-1000XM5 headphones are a significant departure from their predecessors. The best way to describe the WH-1000XM5 headphones is that they’re a bit curvier than their predecessors. It’s all a bit tidier, a bit sleeker and a bit more modern. Sadly once again they are not water-resistant but that is a minor query. Yet the new design means they cannot fold into itself as per the previous models which make them slightly less portable than before.