Ya know what we always wanted? The WH-1000XM5. Well, it’s time to move on to something better.
Sony Philippines has reached to us to let you all know that the successor to the WH-1000XM5 (or just XM5 if you don’t have the time) is here! And yes, just like other audiophiles, we are deeply excited about this one. It’s been a while since they released a successor to the iconic headset.
Sony isn’t the company that is good at naming electronics but that aside, they are a top notch manufacturer for audio peripherals. They did develop the Walkman after all. So, what is new about the XM6?
For starters, the new WH-1000XM6 uses a new in-house chip that boasts industry-leading noise cancelling, far better than your typical Bluetooth earbuds. The headset itself is finetuned by professional sound engineers, such as Randy Merrill and Chris Genringer from Stirling Sound, and engineers from Battery Studios and Coast Mastering. Sony even collaborated with Post Malone for advice on how to make the XM6 the headset that’s truly “for the music” as they call it. In a nutshell, it is a massive improvement over the XM5.
Compared to the XM5, you can tell this is the newer model mainly because of a new design philosophy that Sony pulled up. The headphones are intentionally designed to be asymmetrical so that you can easily identify the left and right ear without needing for labels. Also, the headphones have a wider headband to fit your large head better with less pressure.
The XM6 has a matte finish and comes in three colours: Platinum Silver, Black, and Midnight Blue. When you purchase the XM6, you also get a fancy carrying case and a magnetic latch.
With that said, these massive improvements do not come cheap, certainly many audiophiles know this too. The XM6 is much more expensive than the XM5. Sony says the headset has “studio-level accuracy” and it lets you hear your music “they way you want it to be”. However, until reviews come out, these things are just corporate speak for “sounds slightly better than the USD100 headset you probably have at home”.
The XM6 features a large 30mm titanium driver that allows you to see sound. Haha, well, just kidding. The 30mm driver does allow you to hear the most subtle details in any music you play. That means, you can finally hear the low frequency percussion you might not have heard of before the second you play a pop song.
As we mentioned earlier, Sony ingrained a new ANC chip inside the XM6. They call it the QN3 Noise Cancelling Processor. It detects noise and filters them 7x faster than the XM5’s QN1 processor. This rapid detection of noise allows it to be more adaptable to any environment, be it in an industrial location or just you chilling in your room. Sony calls this adaptive tech “Scene-based Listening” and works with popular music apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, Bandcamp, and Apple Music.
As with the flagship XM5, the XM6 supports Hi-Res Audio and its wireless variant. It’s a flagship headset, this is much expected, if not obviously needed. DSEE Extreme, as Sony claims, allows lossy music to be played as if they were lossless through upscaled compression.
Sony claims that calls have been improved. The current buzzword of the tech community is “AI”, and it seems like this would stay a little longer. First made prominence in 2020 thanks to ChatGPT, now it’s everywhere. We said this because Sony apparently uses AI-assisted beamforming microphones to make your voice clearer and louder especially for the receiving end.
Finally, the headphones, while uses battery, also comes with a USB-C charger that allows you to listen while charging so you don’t have to worry about dead batteries and essentially turns the headphones to a traditional wired version of itself. Create a problem, sell the solution. The reason you can do this is that the headphones will intelligently switch to the wire as its power source, conserving the battery and maintaining its health.
These headphones are now available in the Philippines for a staggering PHP 27,999 price tag. The WH-1000XM6 is currently on pre-order period and Sony is even giving you a chance to win a flight to Coron, Palawan, where you can capture a natural beach scenery with your headphones and enjoy the summer while it is still around. The headset is available from May 16 to June 20, 2025. Whether this means that the headphones are only available for a limited time or that’s the pre-order period, is up for Sony to decide.
You can find the headphones at Sony’s online stores, such as in Lazada and its website, and concept stores nationwide.
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