The best just got better - Sony announces the WH-1000XM4

• Superior sound with Industry-leading Noise Cancellation
• Enjoy less noise and even purer sound with smart listening technology that automatically personalises your experience
• Practical, comfortable and stylish with up to 30 hours battery life

Sony today announced the WH-1000XM4, the 4th generation over-ear wireless noise cancelling headphones in Sony’s award-winning 1000X family. The latest headphones offer all the much-loved technology from the hugely popular WH-1000XM3, with additional intelligent features that allow you to personalise and control your music, improve noise cancellation and adjust ambient sound automatically based on your preferences for a superior sound experience.

Superior silence, superior sound Whether you’re flying long haul or relaxing in a café, the WH-1000XM4 headphones deliver Sony’s best ever noise cancelling performance, reducing high and mid frequency sounds. With two microphones on each earcup, being used for noise cancelling, our Dual Noise Sensor technology captures ambient noise and passes the data to the trusted HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1.

             

Then a new BLUETOOTH® Audio SoC (System on Chip - suspected Mediatek MT2811S, to be confirmed via teardown) senses and adjusts to music and noise at over 700 times per second. Using a new algorithm, the HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1 applies noise cancelling processing in real time. This allows the user to focus more on the music they love and blur out the chaos of the outside world.

Mediatek MT2811S

Using Edge-AI, DSEE ExtremeTM more accurately rebuilds audio lost during digital compression for a full fidelity experience. Edge-AI analyses music in real time and recognises instruments, music genres and individual elements of each song to restore the high range sounds lost in compression for a richer, more complete listening experience. To build this AI system, Sony has worked with Sony Music Studios Tokyo to gather data on music to garner true insight into how specific music signals are composed.

360 Reality Audio, a new immersive audio experience, can be enjoyed on the WH-1000XM4 headphones when combined with an Android™ smartphone/iPhone that has a participating streaming services app installed. The 360 Reality Audio listening experience immerses you in the music as if you are right in front of your favourite artist. Listeners can enjoy a custom immersive musical field that is perfectly optimized for each individual user when using the WH-1000XM4 headphones and the “Sony | Headphones Connect” app

Smarter listening experience like no other

Adaptive Sound Control on the WH-1000XM4 is a smart function that senses where you are and what you’re doing then adjusts ambient sound settings for the ideal listening experience. Over time, Adaptive Sound Control learns to recognise locations that you frequently visit such as your workplace, gym or favourite café, and tailors sound to suit the situation. So, if you’re travelling you can lose yourself in your journey with no background noise to interrupt your favourite tracks. Or if you’re walking you can be aware of everything around you while still enjoying your music. You can set up your frequently visited locations and your preferred settings via the “Sony | Headphones Connect App” and ambient sound settings will automatically update as you move between different environments.

The WH-1000XM4 now comes with wearing detection. The headphones detect whether they are being worn and adapts playback accordingly to help save battery power. Using the headphone’s proximity sensor and two acceleration sensors, the headphones automatically stop the music when you remove them and resumes playing when you put them on again, providing an effortless listening experience.

The WH-1000XM4 features new Precise Voice Pickup technology. This controls five of the microphones in the headphones optimally and performs advanced audio signal processing to pick up voices clearly and precisely for hands-free calls and Speak-to-Chat.

Pursuit of ultimate design

WH-1000XM4 blends sophisticated styling with an exceptional comfort and light-weight design, you’ll barely notice you’re wearing them. Designed for those who travel frequently, the super-soft, pressure relieving earpads evenly distribute pressure and increase ear/pad contact for a stable fit.

For total convenience, the WH-1000XM4 can be paired with two BLUETOOTH® devices at the same time. When a call comes in, your headphones know which device is ringing and connect to the right one automatically. You’ll also be able to quickly and smoothly switch your headphones to either of the two devices at a single tap. (edit, will apparently require a firmware update - see here).

The WH-1000XM4 are NFC and BLUETOOTH® enabled and have a battery life of up to 30 hours and quick charging function giving you up to 5 hours of wireless playback from 10 minutes of charging.

The WH-1000XM4 also supports Google’s helpful new Fast Pair feature that lets you easily locate where you left your headphones by ringing them.

The latest model includes the same touch panel controls as its predecessor and are optimised for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa so you can manage your day by asking your favourite voice assistant.

The industry-leading Noise Cancelling wireless headphones WH-1000XM4 will be priced at approximately €380 / £350 and available later this summer in black and silver.

Amazon US is listing the headphones for an August 21st release, Amazon UK is showing them as already in stock and ready to ship, while Amazon DE has a release of August 14th.

I might buy these in the near future to replace my MDR-10BT, but I might wait until a new firmware drops.

               

Make sure to check out Aaron is Loud and Wireless's review of the WH-1000XM4 and comparison to the WH-1000XM3, below. I will mention one thing with regards to the first video. The WH-1000XM3 has 7 mics, 2 on the right for noise cancellation, and 5 on the left, 2 for noise cancellation and 3 for calls. Will be interesting to see if Sony has actually changed this setup in the WH-1000XM4. The audio delay on Android is a shame and Google really needs to fix this. Finally the loss of aptX sucks but iOS users will not notice this since it was not supported anyways.

Here is the comparison video, the call quality is slightly better, less muddy and underwater for sure.