Sony WH-1000XM6: What is its noise reduction in front of Apple, Bose and Sonos is worth?

Certainly the Wh-1000xm5 was from a general point of view not fundamentally better than his elder Wh-1000xm4but the manufacturer had then managed to progress very slightly on the active insulation. The feat of Sony WH-1000XM6 is to have sunk the point, since if we could think that the brand had reached its limits, this new creation still wins some precious decibels.

To do this, Sony uses no less than 12 microphones (6 by side), and entrusts calculations to its new Puce QN3, announced as 7 times more powerful than the QN1 equipping the Wh-1000xm5. The result is there: an almost total attenuation in the low frequencies, a superior insulation of more complex sounds such as the voices (especially male), all accompanied by an excellent work of the pads (passive insulation).

Of course, perfection is not of this world. As impressive as it is, this model fails to push the effectiveness of its active treatment on high medium, which still slightly passing certain voices as well as not very predictable sounds (such as keyboard keys).

The second point of satisfaction compared to the previous generation is clearly the transparency mode, which gains natural. Still a little smothered on the previous version, this representation is more natural, because they are very effective in the treble.

And faced with competition?

Sony and Bose were only a few years ago in the world on sound insulation, but competition has clearly progressed in the high end. We have, to establish the place of the Sony Wh-1000XM6 in the helmeted hierarchy, confronted the device with what we consider its most serious adversaries: Apple AirPods Max (USB-C version), Sonos AceAnd Bose Quietcomfort Ultra Headphones. For the occasion, we carried out both tests in the field, as well as a comparison with our lab measurements.

It is clear that if Sony does not stand out on all levels, its sound insulation remains one of the most impressive, if not the most impressive from a global point of view. First observation, although this is noticed more to measure than in real conditions: this active noise reduction starts even earlier (in frequency) than its competitors, with the exception of Sonos ACE. This is all the more striking that this performance does not weaken, and remains constant in the mediums, where the Apple model precisely manages to be a little better on the mediums, but starts later.

Arriving on high mediums, almost all Bluetooth headsets are experiencing a slight drop in efficiency, a drop which corresponds to what we could call the cutting frequency, from which active insulation becomes ineffective, and is caught up by passive insulation. This fairly tightened but crucial range is one of the rare areas for improvement in high -end helmets, especially at Sony. Indeed, the AirPods Max as well as the Sonos ACE are slightly more efficient in the face of the acute voices as well as on a few sounds (type blower).

After these frequencies, the passive insulation of the Sony takes leadership. Here no secret, the helmet has more dense, more padded pads, which optimizes the blocking of high frequencies. If the Sonos Ace manages to stand up to him for a while, the WH-1000XM6 saberly saber the acute sounds. Thus, the Sony helmet is the most gifted to alleviate the extremes, it ranks in the best in mediums, and is slightly less good than certain actors in high medium.

Regarding the transparency mode, there is the Sony Wh-1000XM6, the AirPods Max, then the others. The ultra headphones bose QC and the Sonos ACE are very good students, but both fail to compensate for the inexorable attenuation in the treble, hence a very correct but slightly veiled rendering. Conversely, Sony and Apple helmets manage to reproduce this range almost perfectly. This does not come without a few errors, with in particular an accentuation of high mediums, which generates background noise and slightly alter the stamps, more subtle characteristic with the AirPods Max. Apple remains the best helmet on the market on this function, but the Japanese manufacturer has almost completely caught up.

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