Sony WH-1000XM5 Review: Three Labs, Three Battery Figures

Where the sources agree

Three separate test rigs measured the noise cancelling. SoundGuys got about 30 dB of low-frequency attenuation, TechGearLab about 31, Headphones Addict an average of 29.48 dBA.

That is remarkable agreement. Headphone measurement is sensitive to fit, seal and rig, and figures from different labs usually spread further than this. When three of them land within a decibel and a half, the result is real.

What 30 dB buys you is aircraft cabin noise, engine rumble and train roar cut to roughly an eighth of their perceived loudness. It does not remove speech, which sits higher in frequency, and no headphone does.

Where they disagree, wildly

Battery life with noise cancelling on, as measured by each source, in hours.

TechGearLab, 25. SoundGuys, 31 hours 53 minutes. Headphones Addict, 40 hours 27 minutes.

That is a 15-hour range on the same product. Volume explains most of it. A test that fixes output at a loud, standardised level punishes the battery in a way that comfortable listening does not, and only SoundGuys describes its conditions in detail.

Take Sony's 30-hour claim as a reasonable centre and expect it to move a long way in either direction depending on how loudly you listen.

The tuning is a choice you can undo

SoundGuys measured a response with emphasised bass, a dip through the midrange from roughly 300 Hz to 1,050 Hz, and lifted highs. Headphones Addict, less technically, calls it muddy and dark and says the bass lacks the control that rock and metal need.

TechGearLab still scored sound quality 8.4 out of 10.

Both readings can be right. The drivers resolve well; the shipped tuning is consumer-oriented. SoundGuys names the specific fix, which is to drop the clear bass setting two notches in Sony's app, and that costs nothing.

If you buy these and listen once with the default profile, you have not heard what they can do.

The comfort problem is about your head, not the headphones

TechGearLab scored comfort 5.9 out of 10, by some distance the weakest part of their breakdown. Testers with narrower faces reported aching, compressed ears after an hour, and the headphones slipping off smaller heads even at minimum extension.

Headphones Addict wore them for a year and found them comfortable, at 250 grams, while noting the padding is thin.

There is no contradiction here, only different heads. The clamp and earcup shape suit some skulls and not others, and this is the one aspect of the product that no amount of reading substitutes for putting them on.

What wears out first

Headphones Addict raises the durability point nobody else does. The construction is entirely plastic, which they consider poor value at this price, and after a year of regular use the thin earpads are the part they worry about.

The complication is that Sony does not sell replacement pads through official channels, so replacing them is a third-party purchase and a do-it-yourself job.

Worth knowing on a product bought with the expectation of years of service, and worth setting against the XM5 also losing the folding hinge that made its predecessor pack smaller.