Sony CES 2023 Preview

Happy New Year's everyone. 

It is January and that means CES. Sony will be holding their press conference on January 4th at 17:00 Local time (PST). I am embedding the stream below, link the Sony CES site here.

Update: Wow, Sony opted not to reveal their TV lineup, pretty bold move. Supposedly they will have an event later on in the year, guess this explains the lack of TV certifications on Bluetooth SIG. Maybe Sony are holding out for later in the year to introduce TVs with LE Audio or with future updates which will bring LE Audio support. Unless the delay is due to production problems? 

Anyways, lackluster show from Sony. Sony's venture into the car business is silly and needs to be abandoned immediately. I would be fine with Sony providing camera tech for cars, but not actually building a car company. Where's a facepalm emoji when you need one.

Here are the times for other regions: 

New York - January 4th, 20:00
London, UK - January 5th, 01:00
Tokyo, Japan - January 5th, 10:00
Melbourne, Australia - January 5th, 12:00

The only confirmed reveal or news is from Sony themselves on  twitter. Sony mentioned they would be joined by Honda on stage for their new joint company, Sony Honda Mobility. No doubt this will be an automotive focused venture. CES debuts usually consist of new TV models, some home audio equipment and even wireless speakers.

The only wireless speaker I found is the YY7853E (see photo below).

This model is only present on the E-ComM, and no other site has this model on it, not even the FCC from my searching. Whether this will debut at CES is unknown.

New Walkmans

For anyone waiting for the new Walkmans, well you will probably have to wait a bit longer. Do not expect the new Walkmans at CES 2023. But the wait will not be long, we are looking at a February/March reveal timeline. This is hinted by the short term confidentiality end date. All of the information on the new Walkmans can be found in this post, which I am constantly updating.

New Wireless Headphones

As for any wireless headphones, Sony rarely reveals them at shows, apart from the WH-1000X line which was usually unveiled before the show, but the WH-1000XM5 did break that pattern last year. So with nothing for the show, here is a list so far of this year's upcoming headsets:

YY2968 (WF-C500 successor)

YY2978 (WI-OE600 production?)

YY2966 (WH-CH720N?)

YY2958 (WH-CH520)

I wrote so far, since we are still missing a major new headset, the WF-1000XM5. Likewise Sony may have other headphones coming in the second half of this year, meaning the list of 2023 headsets will grow. 

I would love to see Sony release a new WF-XB700, with Sony Headphone app support, but in an interview, Sony engineers said less is more and the era of niche models like the WF-XB700 and WF-SP800N are in the past. Hopefully Sony will migrate the increased water and dust protection of the WF-SP800N and the larger driver in the WF-XB700N to other headsets like the WF-C500 successor and the new WF-1000XM5.

WF-1000XM5

I know a lot of people are waiting for the new WF-1000XM5, I myself am curious what Sony will bring to the game. The battery drain fiasco on the WF-1000XM4 will not be easily forgotten and Sony needs to make this sure this does not repeat with the new model. 

The WF-1000XM4 appeared on the FCC at the end of March in 2021, so if we are looking at a similar timeframe, it will be a while before we see anything. That being said, I suspect Sony might already have submitted the documents to the FCC, or will be submitting their FCC filing soon. If anything shows up anywhere, I will post it up right away. With a lot more competitors on the market now, perhaps Sony will reveal the WF-1000XM5 earlier like they did with the WH-1000XM5.

If we look at the new upcoming Walkmans, they have been in development for a while now, the first Geekbench results were in March 2022, so about a year before their upcoming announcement. No doubt the WF-1000XM5 development and design is finished with Sony probably now just doing final testing. 

The question now is, what changes and improvements can we expect in the mark 5? The competition does not stand still and a new model from Soundpeats, the Opera05, looks to be packing a lot of impressive features. It is expected to be released sometime this year.

They have a Kickstarter coming soon, and from their twitter announcement, we are looking at a 12mm driver, 2 balanced Armature drivers, ANC and LDAC support. There is no mention of battery life or a release date, so hopefully those will be posted on the Kickstarter page.

This is not a sponsored post, my blog is no where big enough to get review models or have sponsored posts, I just wanted to show what Sony should be aiming for with their new model. If other companies can fit a larger driver and 2 balanced armature drivers into a TWS headset about the size of the WF-1000XM4, then surely Sony, with all their technological skill could easily do the same. Update: So it seems like from early reviews the Opera05 while good is not a Sony WF-1000XM4 killer.

I was thinking of making a WF-1000XM5 post, but it would be mostly speculation since there is very little information out there at the moment. But if people want to see such a post, let me know below.

Anyways, that is the preview what we could see at CES 2023 and what we will NOT see at CES 2023. I look forwards to the press conference, maybe Sony will pull a surprise or 2?

REPLY TO COMMENT

Lots of fair points, and lots to unpack in your comment.

Yes Honda is probably doing the bulk of manufacturing for their joint venture, but does this JV really need a new car company? No, Sony could easily supply Honda with the tech and have the car branded as a Honda, which is much more widely known and trusted than a new company that just appears on the market. Such a new company would require significant investment in advertising, which could be spent on R&D. But if Sony wants to do this, fair game to them.

As for the WF-1000XM4. it is a solid TWS headset but it has its flaws like all other products, nothing is truly perfect. The battery drain fiasco proved that. But can the model be improved? Yes, the LinkBuds S showed you can make things smaller but there is a limit as with all things, as the LinkBuds S are not at the level of the WF-1000XM4.

The chipset improvements could be less power consumption, more processing power, newer Bluetooth version, etc. A good deal of sound quality comes from the driver quality/size, and the built in DAC.

The WF-1000XM4 size is a personal matter, same for the WH-1000XM5. Everyone's ears are different, and there is no way to accommodate everyone. Sony in their LinkBuds S engineer interview, showed off the many different prototypes they had for the design and size of the earbuds. No doubt the same happened with the WF-1000XM4 and the upcoming WF-1000XM5.

There is a limit to what you can do with physics and the room for improvement gets smaller + more expensive with every iteration.

Of course physics limits things, this is why Sony keeps trying to develop new materials and tech to try to overcome such issues. You say the WF-1000XM4 are too big but if they are made smaller, the driver will also suffer and in turn the sound quality. Not to mention the battery size and battery life. Sony in the past had some of the best miniaturization in the industry, whether they are still the leader is debatable, but no doubt if they wanted to, they could bring their A game if they have to. For example, Sony spent 5 years developing the new diaphragm material for the WH-1000XM5. Whether this same tech can be applied to the smaller driver in the WF-1000XM5 is unknown.

The average consumer is not willing to pay 250+ for Bluetooth In-Ear.

The average consumer doesn't care too much about sound quality or LDAC or even NC, they just want the headphones to work well with their phone and have a hassle free setup process. Apple provides this and this is why people drop 250 US on the Airpods pro 2 with no hesitation. The WF-1000XM4 are more expensive, so it is up the consumer to vote with their wallet.

There are so many other major competitors out there, from Bose, Sennheiser, JBL, Samsung, Beats, Jabra, etc. Not even going to mention the plethora of other Chinese clones. People have choice now, and Sony will have to bring something special with the new model. The only reason I could afford the WF-1000XM4 was 1, they were discounted heavily, and 2, I had a gift certificate to lower the price even more. I would not have purchased them at their full price, especially now in their lifecycle.

Sony already released the WI-1000XM2 which do outperform the WF-1000XM4 even though they are much older and they are still way below the XBA-Z5

Sorry but this is like comparing apples to oranges. These 2 models are very different, size wise and engineering. All of the processing, battery and connectivity occurs in the lower portion of the WI-1000XM2, leaving plenty of room in the top earpods for a large driver, a balanced armature driver, and the dual NC mics. The XBA-Z5 has a larger driver (16mm vs 9mm in WI-1000XM2) and 2 balanced armature drivers versus 1 in the WI-1000XM2, so it should sound better on paper. I haven't used either so I can't say.

The WF-1000XM4 require all of the tech to be in the earbuds, battery, Bluetooth, driver, NC mics, so there will be a limit what can be inside. So do you make the driver smaller and increase battery life? or add a larger battery but increase the size of the earbuds? There will always be a compromise.

Just like the WI-1000Xm2, the XBA-Z5 doesn't have the need for extra components apart from the drivers. There are no batteries, no NC mics, no Bluetooth. Like I said earlier, I don't own the XBA-Z5, so I can't compare it to the WF-1000XM4, but I do own the XBA-A3 and I have compared them to the WF-1000XM4.

I can say this, the WF-1000XM4 sound very good, considering their smaller driver, but they are no where close to the XBA-A3 in terms of sound quality. The EQ in the Sony headphone can improve the sound quality but it is never at the level of the XBA-A3s. Whether the XBA-Zs5 are mid level, no idea.

Of course Sony would be foolish not to improve the new model, be it sound quality, battery life, connectivity, or a combination of the 3. I for one fear Sony will do something stupid, and bring the  Auto NC optimizer to the new WF-1000XM5, since ai is the new "thing" now.

As for your final point, bad idea is an understatement, it would be disastrous.

Cheers for the discussion :)