For years Bose's made the best noise canceling headphones on the market.
But then in 2016 Sony came along with the 1000 x-series and suddenly Bose's position was a lot less certain.
Fast forward to today, and it's clear that Sony has become the one to beat.
I'm set on trusted reviews and these are the Sony WH 1000 XM 3.
The Sony 1000 X and 3 are the best noise cancelling headphones on the market now
330 pounds will buy you some very competent alternatives such as the Bose
QuietComfort 35 Mach 2 or
The Bowers & Wilkins px but neither of those offer the Sony's
all-round appeal the 1000 X and threes noise cancelling performance sound quality and
Features lists are an unbeatable combination now
They're not a huge departure from the 1000 XM - from 2017
but they happen a huge number of small tweaks all of which add up for a
Significant upgrade design-wise. They're quite familiar. They're not all that different from the original one
That's an X or the 1000 X and 2 from 2017. That's not a bad thing because I've always found the design to be
Somewhere between elegant and ergonomic they're very nice
They're certainly more stylish than the Bose QuietComfort 35, although they're not quite as nice as the Bowers & Wilkins px
let's talk about the new stuff and the most obvious addition is the coloring in around the logo and
The noise cancelling microphones the black version has bronze accents. And while the sober version uses brass highlights
There's a new headband which bends more
acutely and is less of a circle which means that there's
less of a gap between the headband and your head you don't get that Mickey Mouse effect where the
headbands kind of form a big circle or on your head
The padding is thicker and make up for a bigger surface area. And also there's more room in there for your ears
so these are definitely
unarguably over ear headphones
They're also 20 grams lighter than 4 which takes them a lot closer to the Bose
QuietComfort 35 s the Bose are still a little lighter, but
They're close this generation of the Sony 1000x are now comfortable enough that I could wear them for hours
I have these on a 2 hour flight and didn't once feel the need to remove them actually at one point
I fell asleep wearing these they're that comfortable
The chassis is still primarily plastic which isn't as nice as the aluminum and ballistic nylon on
The Bowers and Wilkins px or the aluminum and leather used on this in hyzer momentum Wireless
But those two are heavier than the Sony's and for what they're worth
The Sony's have a new quieter and smoother hinge as well as more solid buttons the one change
I'm not so sure about is the plastic on the back of the ear cups. Now the
1000 X m2 from last year had a tougher more textured back
This time it's a sort of soft touch slightly rubbery feel which is more delicate now. Sony tells me that's to make the
operation sounds
More quiet so you won't hear yourself tapping on on the ear cups
But I'm worried that they'll get scratched up quite easily Sony does provide a nice hard case
So if you intend on throwing these into your bag for travel use the case the battery system has been upgraded
Gone is the old
MicroUSB system for charging and replaced with the new USBC standard
That's great. If you're the owner of one of the new Android smartphones because you could basically use the same charging cable
There's a new improved fast charge feature
So if you plug them in for 10 minutes, you can get 5 hours of playing time. Total battery life hasn't improved
But that's fine because 30 hours is more than enough. And actually that's 10 hours more than the competition
I think that bows and the Bowers & Wilkins offer around 20 hours
The most significant addition is the new qn1
Processor which boasts a massive upgrade in noise cancelling and music by performance
Once canceling headphones tend to work best with low concert sounds such as offers air-conditioning
Or the engine of a plane
It tends to work less well on transient higher frequency sounds such as voices or the clattering of a keyboard
that's where these headphones come in because the qn1 chip is supposed to be four times more powerful than the predecessor and
It's supposed to be a lot more effective at handling in the mid to high frequencies
the qn1 chip really does this job because the noise cancelling on these headphones is
Eerily effective I
Was on a plane and behind me
I heard two girls excitedly nattering away
And I thought that's fine because noise cancelling headphones don't tend to erase everything
But when I land it I realized that behind me wasn't just two teenagers. There was a whole class of about twenty of them
So twenty teenagers down to two not bad
Another time. I wore these headphones and stood by the big roundabout next to Waterloo Bridge
Now if you know that roundabout, you know that it's constantly surrounded by buses and London taxis, which are very loud
I didn't hear anything
Finally, I took them into the trust a traveese office which is a test until itself because it's full of voices and keyboards and voices
Talking about keyboards and the occasional ping-pong tournament. I didn't hear anything
The noise canceling performance on these headphones is simply unparalleled
There's nothing on the market that can perform this well at shutting the world out
Audio performance has also been improved. Thanks to the qn1 chips new analog amplifier which cuts down on noise and distortion
Last year's 1000 xm2 were known for a slightly flabby base
But the 1000x entries have fixed that what you get is a tighter more engaging performance
It's a really entertaining sound and the only thing I have to complain about is kind of a nitpick
I would say the boughs and wilkins PX offer slightly more detail at the top end but
they're also
kind of mid-range
Focused and I think the Sony's here offer a more rounded sound
Some of my favorite features are back and improved for instance
The touchpad is more responsive than ever, which is great because it's very useful you
Tap on it to pause or play you swipe forward and back to change tracks you swipe up and down to change volume
You hold your whole palm over it to meet the music and let in the world, which is very useful for
Hearing train announcements or hearing the flight attendants serving. You drinks. Make sure you download
Sony's headphones connect app which is very useful. It's very clever
what it does is it uses the
motion sensors in your phone to work out what you're doing and then it'll tell the headphones the
appropriate level of noise canceling so it will know if you're sitting still or
Walking or running for the bus or if you're sitting on a plane
I've set the walking option to 50% noise cancelling which gives me some situational awareness
Walking around town and it means I don't get run over crossing the road
But I do want full noise cancelling on a train
The automation totally works
As soon as I get on the train
The headphones will go ping and automatically ramp up the silent to sum up the Sony
1000x and three offered the best noise canceling performance on the market the sound fantastic
The features list is comprehensive and they're a bit more responsive than before for 330 pounds
You will not find a better pair of noise cancelling headphones. But what do you think? Are you a bose fan?
Are you offended that I like these very much
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