Practically known for at least a week, the curtain has just been raised on Sony’s new WH-1000XM5 headphones, revealing a product with small stylistic variations, greater comfort, and notable improvements in sound quality.
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At the height of an intense week of rumors, which had revealed practically every detail, Sony officially presented the premium headphones WH-1000XM5, available from the end of the month, at a price of 420 euros, in black and platinum silver.
The new WH-1000XM5, of the circumaural type, have a thinner and rounder headband, adjustable in length without clicks, in plastic material but with a more evenly distributed padding: the pavilions, covered in imitation leather, with a less elongated shape and more rounded, and inside them there are some newly designed bearings, they can be slightly rotated vertically, 90% inwards and 45 ° outwards. Also considering the weight, of 247 grams, and the case with zip and accordion side frame, the new product is better transportable and even more comfortable to wear: it should be noted that the more precise and less visible presence sensors continue to activate the music. when the headphones are put on, to stop them when they are removed.
The outside of the right pavilion supports the touch to manage music playback and adjust the volume, while placing your hand on it activates the Ambient Sound mode, essentially the transparency mode to hear environmental sounds: alternatively, the arrival of wake words allows you to call Assistant and Alexa’s voice concierges for help. The interior houses, with a gold and lead-free solder in favor of connectivity, drivers sized at 30 mm, whose rigid dome based on carbon fiber also pays attention to the high frequencies, respected as well as the low ones.
Compared to the 2020 model, the microphones go from 4 to 8: among their tasks, there is that of supporting (together with the HD QN1 chip processor, and the new – also coming from the LinkBuds earphones – Sony V1 which also takes care of the amplification ) ANC, active noise cancellation. The latter, via Adaptive Sound Control which recognizes the places visited most frequently or the user’s actions (walking, running, being on transport, etc.), is adjusted automatically, unlike with the Auto NC Optimizer function, which takes into account other variables (eg whether or not to have glasses, hairstyle, pressure change in an airplane, etc.) in making the same adjustments on command.
Still among the tasks of the microphones stands out the support of the proprietary beamforming technology “Precise Voice Pickup“, which allows to pick up the voice clearly even in the most noisy environments and in the presence of the wind. Remaining in the list of functions aimed at guaranteeing good audio support, it should be noted the presence of immersive audio 360 Reality audio, the DSEE Extreme to recover the details lost by signal compression, and the LDAC codec for Hi- Res wirelessly.
The smart functions of the WH-1000XM5 headphones include the quick pairing system with Android devices (Fast Pair) or Windows devices (Swift Pair), the Bluetooth Multi-point to connect the headphones to two sources together, the “speak-to” function -chat ”which lowers the volume when the system understands that we are starting to speak, and alerts you if the volume is too loud (based on OMS parameters and sound pressure). Once recharged via USB Type-C, up to 30 hours of autonomy are obtained, with the user being able to recover another 3 hours in 3 minutes via fast charging (Power Delivery).