SonyWH-1000XM5 Premium Noise Canceling Headphones, Auto NC Optimizer, 30-Hour Battery, Alexa Voice Control, Midnight Blue

The XM5 scores high on the three key dimensions that matter most to me -- sound quality, noise cancellation, and comfort. I'm very satisfied on all fronts, feel very good about the purchase. The sound is rich. The noise cancellation is astoundingly good. On a train ride, I could hear nothing, including the guy behind me talking loudly on his phone.I had also bought the Sennheiser Momentum 4 and compared the two side by side. I found the sound quality to be about the same as the XM5 and the noise canceling nearly as good. But, for me, the Momentum 4 is far less comfortable. Whereas I wore the XM5 for more than five hours on a train journey with no fatigue, I found the Sennheiser irritated my ears after only a half-hour or so.I also like the hand-gesture controls. They function very well and being able to simply touch the right cup to control volume and to skip/repeat songs is great.I'm somewhat concerned about the build quality after reading that there may be an issue with the joint connecting the cups to the headstrap. Haven't had them long enough to know if it's going to be an issue -- but I bought extended warranty just in case.I bought them on Amazon Prime day and after the XM6 came out, so I paid less than the list price -- which mattered to me.Highly recommended!

These replaced a set of Sennheiser 450BTC headphones. Great headphones for the money and intended use but no equalizer and noise cancelling is automatic and not that great. I decided it was time for a set of premium noise canceling headphones, so I started researching. I had it narrowed down to Sony, Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra and Apple Airpods Max. Choosing Sony was fairly straightforward: The Apple headphones are a lot more expensive and have no equalizer or sound enhancing software except for the EQ settings on your iPhone (forgot to mention I'm purchasing for use with iPhone/iPad). The Bose have by far the best noise cancelling of the three, but the sound quality isn't quite up to par with the Sonys. I decided incredible sound and great noise cancelling was more important than very good sound and perfect noise cancelling. Plus the battery life of the Bose is significantly less than Sony. I went with the blue color, thought it was a nice change from black. I have a big head and big ears and the cups cover my ears completely and the fit is very comfortable. Don't pair and try them before downloading the Sony app. They sound a little flat out of the box with no enhancement. Once I installed the app and spent about 30 minutes tweaking them to my liking, they were very impressive. My best friend is a professional musician and has a set of very nice studio headphones. These don't sound that good but they are very close. Overall, I am completely satisfied with my choice. Couldn't have found anything nicer for the price.

Awesome headphones. I've owed Beats, JBL, Technics, and several others, including an earlier version of these from 10 years ago. Ive had ear buds, on-ear and over-the-ear headphones. I spent hours researching and actual purchased and returned 5 other brands before purchasing these. These are perfect. The best sound quality, ease of use and very comfortable. Noise canceling is very good. I enjoy tight bass and spatial range of sound..listening to all different genres of music...rock, jazz, classical. Yhese headphones bring out the subtle nuances and provide very enjoyable quality of sound and comfort. Controls took some getting used to but work perfectly to increase/decrease volume, rewind/fast forward. Hands free call are queit and mic is excellent. Includes hard case. Fairly compact but I just stash them in my backpack when traveling. Have flown all over the country as well as to Europe and South American and these are my go-to headphones. Highly recommended.

DO NOT BUY. Lack of durability due to a hinge on the headband has shown by many to make these useless. Even under the 1 year manufacturer warranty, this issue is not covered. If you haven’t come across this yet, just google sony headphones hinge issue and you’ll see many others like me who have experienced this.After 9 months of normal use and taking care of them quite well, I put them in one day and noticed the hinge had essentially broken. As a result, the right ear wouldn’t sit on my ears. This makes them useless. I reached out to Sony knowing I had a 1 year warranty as part of my purchase and they let me know this was considered “physical damage” and that type of damage is not covered under their warranty.Luckily, because I bought them through Amazon, I’m able to get a full refund from Amazon directly. But, as far as the product goes, you could find yourself spending hundreds of dollars on headphones that become useless within a year or two. Shame because as far as headphones go these really are the best in my opinion. But, because of this experience and many others who have faced the same, I won’t be buying a Sony product again.