After over seven years of faithful service, I decided the time had finally come to replace my Sony WH1000-XM3 headphones (which I’ll refer to as XM3s from here on). That set of headphones has seen me through six different homes and three different jobs (not to mention four different kidneys). Along the way I had to replace the ear pads, but aside from that they are still holding up remarkably well. The battery does not last as long as it used to, and the active noise cancellation (ANC) is not as effective as I remember it once being (perhaps a side effect of the ear pad replacement), but it’s still a mostly usable set of headphones.
I used my headphones religiously for many years when I first got them, but in recent years I’ve had to keep them on the backburner. While I was dealing with kidney failure I also struggled with Meniere’s disease, and had difficulty using over-ear headphones. The pressure from the ANC and the closed-off nature of them sometimes triggered horrendous vertigo attacks that would leave me sick for hours.
But now that things have changed for the better, and my new kidney is working incredibly well, I find myself being able to use headphones again. I pulled my XM3s out of storage and have been using them for weeks, but the shorter life span and degraded experience leave me looking at greener pastures.
After taking a look at the current crop of high-performance Bluetooth headphones, I found myself largely unimpressed with the current offerings. Sony’s latest model, the XM6, receives high remarks for ANC performance and sound quality, but it is plagued by similar hinge issues as the ones that haunted the XM5s. It sounds like Sony improved the ruggedness by introducing metal into the hinges, but Reddit is still filled with image after image of hinges that have shuffled off this mortal coil. With that in mind, and after testing the XM6s in person and not liking the material on the ear cups, I decided against the two newest models in Sony’s line-up.
I was seriously interested in the Bose QuietComfort Ultras, and tested both the Gen 1 and the very recently released Gen 2s, but ultimately I just wasn’t blown away by the way they sounded. They also have a handful of reported issues, including ear pads that like to split open, and a persistent and annoying hiss that is sometimes present while ANC is active.
After lots of research and reading reviews, it became clear to me that the model after mine, the XM4s, are still the best choice, and undoubtedly the best value. They have been discontinued for a while, but you can still find them online and occasionally in stores, and usually for less than half of the cost of the more recent models.
The XM4s are very similar to the XM3s. The outward-facing design appears idential at first glance, although the ear cups are deeper and less tiring. I find that my ears fit better inside, and don’t suffer as strongly from heat that gets built up after wearing them for a couple hours at a time. There are lots of smaller refinements that I really appreciate: the “power on”, “power off,” and “bluetooth pairing” alerts use a softer and more human voice. The beeps and bloops made when using the built-in controls are much more gentle and pleasant. The buttons are more clickier and easier to press. It’s not a radical overhaul, but a worthy enough refinement to justify the upgrade, especially now that they can be found for a bargain.
In many ways, the XM4s are a refined version of the previous generation. The battery life is longer, the audio quality is better, the noise cancellation is stronger, and they can be connected to two different audio sources at once. They are more comfortable, less heavy, and easier to wear for long periods of time.
I’m really enjoying this “new” model, and hope that they last as many years as the originals I have replaced. Of course, that’s not to say that the original XM3s are being put out to pasture. I’ll likely either sell them to someone who needs a pair of inexpensive and gently used headphones, or possibly give them to someone else in the family. These long-lived headphones still have a bit of life left in them yet.