Sony introduces the WF-C500 and WH-XB910N Wireless headsets

I was expecting Sony to unveil these next week, but it looks like they took the wraps off this week, so a nice surprise. These look to be quite decent pairs of wireless headsets specification wise, hopefully they will perform and sound just as good.

Sony YY2951 revealed as WH-XB910N

Source: @_snoopytech_

Thanks to a leak by twitter user _snooptech_, we have press photos of the upcoming WH-XB910N, or the YY2951. I originally posted about the YY2951 design back in July, but I did not know what model name it would take.

The design looks much better in the official photos, which shows a higher end plastic rather than the shiny plastic used on the prototype/pre-production model. I am embedding the tweet below with more photos.

Exclusive: Sony WH-XB910N Noise Cancelling Headphones first look pic.twitter.com/kJoI9b7cv8

— Snoopy (@_snoopytech_) September 23, 2021

As for price and availability, it looks like prices will be around 169 Euros, although I have seen it lower at around 155 euros on one retailer, with availablity slated to be around the 3rd week of October according to Axitech.

The retailer shows 2 colours, black (B) and blue (L), but from the photos from _snoopytech_, it looks like grey will be a third colour option. Indeed this seems to be confirmed even by Sony's own parts replacement website, Encompass, Grey and Blue. Perhaps only certain regions will get the Blue colour option.

Finally a quick reminder, the headset will be using the Mediatek MT2822S Bluetooth chipset like the WF-1000XM4, and should also feature dual noise cancellation microphones for NC. I suspect Sony might even mention that the WH-XB910N employs the new V1 Integrated processor as well since this is the MT2822S. Previous model had a driver size of 40mm, it will be interesting to see if this has changed or Sony will retain it for the new model.

We will also see LDAC, SBC and AAC support, DSEE Extreme and Sony's 360 Reality Audio. One thing I asked back in the original post, would Sony move production of the WH-XB900N from China to Vietnam? Well we now know they have and the WH-XB910N will be Vietnam made by an OEM for Sony. So would made in Vietnam put people off? Or it does not matter? For comparison the previous model was made in China.

Anyways, now we wait for a press release. Should be soon, I suspect first week of October

Sony WF-C500 Price revealed by Retailers

Two weeks I posted high resolution photos and full specifications of the new WF-C500. The retail listing also had a price, $79 USD, but Sony's own Rewards site showed 9999 points, pointing to a $99 price. Now with some new retail listings, it looks like we can expect a higher starting price and some details on retail availability.

Sony WF-C500 Leaked by retailer

I revealed the WF-C500 design back in July from certification documents, but such certification photos rarely do a device justice due to their lower quality and often using prototypes or pre-production devices. Fortunately for us, a major retailer's website (now removed), had the WF-C500 up as a listing and naturally I saved the photos and specs.

Sony V1 Integrated Processor: A deeper look

When Sony announced the WF-1000XM4 back in June, I was looking forward to seeing how Sony had improved the design and engineering in a teardown. In my main post, I did a quick teardown analysis of the device from the initial photos from Sony but this was not enough, but luckily a few days later the FCC report was finally available. The report labelled the Bluetooth IC and comparing it to Sony'press photos, it was clear the Mediatek MT2822 was the V1 chip. In that same post, I speculated that the V1 was a new chip integrating all the functions from the WF-1000M3, NC, flash memory and power management into one package. So was I close with my guess?