Name: Sony’s best headphones get an upgrade: Sony WH-1000XM6 hands-on
Uploaded: 2025-05-23T07:37:22.000Z
Duration: 5 min 24 s
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Sony has new flagship noise-canceling headphones on the way.

Adverbs of degree

And I'll bet you can even guess what they're called.

And so at first glance, they're pretty similar to the M5s that came out three long years ago.

And there's no real one big feature that sets these apart from the M5s either.

Sure, the noise cancellation is more powerful, and Sony's put a lot of focus on sound quality this time around, but ultimately, this is a situation where a lot of small refinements and improvements add up to a must-have upgrade, for some people anyway.

Okay, so there's no better place to start than with their design.

And Sony's stuck with the same overall look and feel, but has made some really smart tweaks along the way.

First and foremost, the 1000XM6s can fold down again, praise be, which means their carrying case is quite a bit smaller and more compact than last time.

And it now uses a magnetic latch closure instead of a zipper.

That magnet won't break after wear and tear like a zipper so often does.

And the case does stay tightly shut no matter where you pull and tug at it.

I'm a little worried about how durable the folding joint on these headphones will be over time, but we'll see.

Well, the headband is thicker and more comfortable, and it's much easier to tell which side of the headphones is the front, both because of how they're shaped on your head and the no seam on the front anymore.

And the power button is round now, which means no more mixing it up with the ANC button.

By the way, Sony, why were those the same shape for so long?

Oh, and the earpads are much easier to pull off and replace if need be.

You can just yank them off without needing a special tool, a spudger, or a knife.

Putting them back on probably takes practice and more time than I had, but this is certainly a change for the better.

Now, inside these headphones is Sony's latest processor chip, which is part of why the company claims the 1000XM6s have the best noise cancellation on the market at their time of release.

And there's now a total of 12 microphones versus 8 last time, which also helps the headphones identify and reduce ambient sound around you.

And these mics now use AI beamforming to separate your voice from everything else in the background.

Now I've heard this before, companies always say their latest headphones are much better at this kind of thing, but we need more extensive real-world tests to know just how much clearer these really are.

Then we come to audio quality, and Sony says the 1000XM6s were tuned by mastering engineers from several of its own music studios.

I only got to try them briefly, and they sounded like Sony headphones.

And that seems to be good enough for millions of people.

You still get LDAC for higher-quality Bluetooth streaming, but these are mass-market noise-canceling headphones.

They're punchy, and they're fun to listen to.

Now, I'm less sure that anyone wants the new spatial audio upmixing feature.

These M6s can take stereo audio, be that music or movies, and virtualize it into spatial audio.

You're still starting with a left and right channel, but the headphones upmix that into more atmospheric surround sound with head tracking.

Compared to genuine Dolby Atmos music tracks, Sony is faking it here.

And Apple lets you do the same thing with AirPods.

Maybe I'll use this when watching Netflix on a plane for that added immersion.

Some aspects of the 1000XM6s are unchanged from the M5s.

Battery life is the same 30 hours with ANC on and 40 hours, supposedly, with it off.

But I do think there's one new thing that many people, myself included, are going to be pretty excited about.

You can finally, finally, charge and listen to the 1000XM6s at the same time.

That said, it's not the way I would have wanted it.

See, Sony still isn't supporting wired USB-C audio.

You can listen through the headphone jack and charge the headphones over USB-C at the same time, but that's two cords.

And why, in the year 2025, can't we just simplify this down to one cable for everything?

Apple's doing USB-C audio, Sennheiser's doing USB-C audio, Bowers & Wilkins?

And now we're going to have to wait until the 1000XM7s, God knows when, for this to be resolved.

This doesn't ruin Sony's new headphones for me, but it's certainly a bummer.

Usually, I would tell you at this point how much the headphones cost, but at the time of this video, I don't know.

Sony didn't share that with us until later on, and so the M6s cost this much compared to the M5s, which sold for $400 three years ago.

But now there are tariffs and all kinds of uncertainty in the world, so this is how things go.

Either way, there's a lot to like about the M6s.

They're comfortable, they sound promising, the ANC is best in class.

If you've got the M5s, there's no reason to rush out and buy these.

But if you have the M4s and something earlier, there are a lot of quality of life improvements here that add up to a pretty compelling set of headphones.

So I'm excited, and hopefully many of you are as well.

Those are just my first impressions of Sony's new 1000XM6 headphones, but for more headphones and other tech and news, check out TheVerge.com.