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Sony improved upon its already stellar WH-1000XM4 headphones earlier this year by introducing their follow-up, the WH-1000XM5. The new cans make nearly everything about the previous model ever so slightly better, putting them in a class of their own — and their $398 price tag reflects that. But now you can snag the XM5 for roughly $60 less than usual thanks to a one-day sale at Woot that brings the black model down to $340. That’s the best price we’ve seen since the headphones came out in May.
Sony did make some subtle changes to the design of the XM5. Compared to the XM4, the new headphones have a slimmed down headband and a more modern look overall. They only weigh slightly less than their predecessor, but they feel much lighter when you’re wearing them, which should make them even more comfortable to wear for hours on end.
Somehow, Sony managed to make sound quality and active noise cancellation even better on the XM5. The headphones have new 30mm carbon fiber drivers that handle audio, which is well-tuned for a wide variety of genres and has better depth and clarity. ANC has improved thanks to additional processors and a total of microphones that help detect noise and block it out. Overall, the XM5 does a better job of blocking out things like nearby voices and TV noise than its predecessor.
The XM5 work with Sony’s companion mobile app as well, which you can use do change settings and do things like enable multipoint connectivity, change voice assistants and more. As far as battery life goes, you’ll get roughly 30 hours before you’ll need to recharge them, and it’ll only take three minutes to get three hours of playback time. Make no mistake, the Sony’s WH-1000XM4 are still great headphones (which you can often find on sale as well), but the XM5 cans are the ones to get if you want all of the latest features and some of the best ANC you’ll find on over-ear headphones.
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