Sony introduces the WH-1000XM6

The highly anticipated Sony WH-1000XM6 was finally announced last week. We had to wait an extra year for the new model, but was this wait worth it, or should you save your money, and keep your WH-1000XM5? Time for a deep dive of the new model. Sony has published the Sony Engineer interview, click here.

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Design

The WH-1000XM6 redesign is more evolutionary than revolutionary. The idiom "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" worked well for Sony with the first 4 generations, but then Sony went ahead and changed the design in 2022. This redesign for some broke the model, literally, as hinges were breaking and snapping left and right on Reddit. The fact the XM5 did not fold was a deal breaker for many. So with folding coming back, perhaps those users who skipped the XM5, will return to the XM6?

Some users have called the WH-1000XM6 just a WH-1000XM5 with folding hinges. While I agree that they share similar design cues, the design is all new. I do not believe any parts are shared between the models, at least structurally.

For more comparison photos, check out my original leaked thread here. The materials are different according to This is Tech Today's review on YouTube. with Sony even stating the new model uses a fingerprint resistant finish. Fingerprints are an issue on my black WH-1000XM5, so hopefully this new finish solves this problem.

I do like the redesign, it is a refinement of the WH-1000XM5 design. I do wish the Sony logo was embossed like on the WH-1000XM4, to give the headset a more premium feel. As for the new hinges, they are now metal, but have more moving parts and are still surrounded by plastic. So things can still break.

It will be interesting to see how the hinge holds up over the lifetime of the model. Sony is still using recycled plastic on the new model. so this might be a weal point. The recycled plastic in my opinion was one of the reason we saw the hinge breaks on the WH-1000XM5. Fingers crossed Sony found the cause of the breaks, otherwise we will have hingegate 2.0.

Even if the hinges turn out to be rock solid, the earpads might not be. A few posts have popped up on reddit regarding stains on the earbuds, and how the new pads stain easier. See this here, and here. I am sure I saw a third post, but cannot find it now. I did ask a few users for their experience, and some have said the new model is still a fingerprint magnet, which is worrying.

Features

The WH-1000XM6 carries over all of the WH-1000XM5 features like Voice Assistant support, Google Fast pair, Windows Swift Pair, multipoint connectivity, wear detection, 360 Reality Audio, DSEE Extreme, and ambient mode.

The new model adds gesture control for calls, background music mode, 10 band equalizer, 360 Upmix for cinema, and Auracast.

The WH-1000XM6 finally includes support for LC3, along with SBC, AAC, and LDAC. The  WH-1000XM5 was re-certified together with the LinkBuds S for LE Audio, but only the LinkBuds S received the LC3 update in the end. Not sure how Sony came to this decision.

The new model is also advertised as ready for gaming, but it may not be that simple. Yes the model supports LC3, which has a lower latency, but audio quality is not really geared towards gaming, as shown in this Reddit post. The hypothesis, thanks to aborne25, is that the WH-1000XM6 does not support GMAP, which is the Gaming Audio Profile. But we have no way to know what Bluetooth layers the WH-1000XM6 supports, as Bluetooth SIG no longer has these available for the public. 

The added LC3 support is very welcome, but why no LC3plus? Well apparently Fraunhofer IIS recommends that GMAP be supported by a headset if LC3plus is to be used. If the WH-1000XM6 does not use the GMAP layer, then this might explain why LC3plus is absent.

If I missed any important new features, let me know in the comments.

Battery Life

Unfortunately the battery life is still pretty much identical to the WH-1000XM5. The only improvement, SBC with NC on, is now up to 30 hours compared to up to 28 hours previously. Although the argument could be made that Sony was able to maintain an identical battery life while having more NC microphones and the new QN3.

With the LE Audio support, we finally get the LC3 codec. But the battery life is not superior to SBC or AAC. This is disappointing, as LC3 is supposed to be more efficient than SBC. I already covered the rather mediocre LC3 battery life of the LinkBuds S in this post. So not surprised with the numbers Sony has provided. Perhaps we will see improvements in LC3 battery life with future firmware updates. Well at least it has better latency than SBC, assuming the device you connect to, supports LC3.

A full recharge still takes about 3.5 hours. A quick 3 minute recharge provides up to 1 hour of playback, and using USB-PD, 3 minutes provides up to 3 hours of playback. This is identical to the WH-1000XM5. The guide states to use an AC adapter capable of  5 V/2 A or 9 V/3 A output. I think using at least 30W should be enough to achieve maximum recharge speed.

"New" Driver

The WH-1000XM6 driver is the same size, 30mm, and uses the same materials, carbon fibre composite, but it is not the same driver as found in the WH-1000XM5. The outer soft edge is now more flexible, which helps reproduce lower bass frequencies, which in turn improves noise cancellation performance. The rigidity of the dome is increased improving the reproduction of low and high frequencies (source: 1, 2, 3). Finally, the voice coil now has 12 holes in its structure. These holes optimize the air flow inside the driver, which improves the reproduction of high frequencies. 

We have expanded views of the both the XM6 and XM5 drivers, and they do look very similar, but there are very small differences in their designs. While I am sure the new driver is improved, it is unfortunate Sony did not go back to a 40mm size.

Here is a head-on view of the driver of both models. We can see the plastic piece which holds the feedback NC microphone has also been redesigned. Whether this has any impact on the sound quality, I have no idea. What do people think, should Sony have gone back to a 40mm driver? Or is the 30mm size acceptable in a flagship?

Noise Cancellation

The dual processor setup is carried over from the WH-1000XM5, with both chips being upgraded to newer versions, Sony V1 to V2, and the QN1 to QN3. For anyone wondering what happened to the QN2, I have no idea. There is a QN2e in the Sony WF-1000XM5, but we have no actual physical evidence of the chip, as neither the FCC or 52Audio teardowns show the SiP without the top cover. Sony's render's of the SiP shows 2 chips, so we will have to take their word. I am tempted to buy a broken WF-1000XM5 earbud and see what is under the metal cover. Would people be interested in that?

The FCC teardown does not reveal the writing on the chips, but we know the Sony V2 is a Mediatek MT2833, and this is confirmed by the FCC manual. Specifically, it is a Mediatek MT2833A. This is the first MT2833 chip with a suffix. Previous Mediatek MT2822 chips also had various suffixes, like MT2822M, MT2822S, and MT2822A. In my research, I was not able to identify what these suffixes were for, as they did not correlate with anything specific. Perhaps it is related to the amount of embedded flash on the chip.

WH-1000XM6 FCC manual

The Sony Engineer interview has no photos of the QN3, so we will have to wait for a 52Audio teardown to get a photo of the chip. In the interview, Sony mentions that the QN3 features a "predictive noise shaper". This is technology that improves the sound quality when converting digital signals to analog signals. 

Acoustic Design
Takamura

When you actually listen to it, you will notice that the bass is sharper and the treble is extended a step further, and the sense of sound is wider.

From audio samples in video reviews, the WH-1000XM6 does sound wider or fuller, so I do believe this is helping with sound quality. What is a noise shaper and how does it work? This is Sony's explanation:

QN3 Developer
Tamori

A "noise shaper" is a technology that controls the spectrum of quantization noise of a digital signal, which is necessary for the analog conversion of a digital signal. The "look-ahead noise shaper" was newly developed with academic guidance from Nagoya Institute of Technology. It is characterized by its ability to accurately respond to steep signal changes such as the rise of a sound, because it calculates and optimizes quantization noise in advance. Compared to conventional noise shapers, the powerful energy of the bass and the smoothness of the treble have been greatly improved.

While I understood most of that, the tech and explanation is still beyond my scope of knowledge. Sony used the same development board they use for their S-Master Amp to optimize the algorithm the QN3 uses.

The QN3 is 7 times faster than the QN1, which I suspect was necessary since the XM6 has 12 NC mics compared to 8 on the XM5. 

From Asian tech site reviews and WhatHiFi, we know that the QN3's master clock is a "newly developed low phase noise crystal oscillator, vacuum sealed, and using gold plated electrodes. The vacuum seal enhances the clarity, while the gold plating enables deeper bass reproduction, and a richer more immersive sound experience". These are Sony's words not mine

The same high-grade gold solder is also used in Sony's NW-WM1ZM2 Walkman. In addition, Sony has also "optimised components and circuitry to minimise interference, and shorten travel of the signal." The FCC internal photos are not the best quality, but there have been changes in the layout compared to the previous model. I will have more on this in the FCC teardown post.

Microphones

The new WH-1000XM6 sports 12 NC microphones in total, which is 1.5x more than the WH-1000XM5, which had a total of 8 microphones. This increase is also why the new model requires the new QN3 chip, for the extra microphone inputs.

From video reviews, the ANC performance is very good, but whether it is significantly better than the WH-1000XM5 is debatable. It will be some time before I buy a WH-1000XM6, so I cannot compare it to my WH-1000XM5. For anyone with both the XM5 and XM6, what is your opinion? Which model has the better ANC performance? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

Previously Sony only used 1 feedback NC microphone, with the XM6, Sony is using 2 feedback mics. I believe the mics are oriented in opposite directions. I suppose 2 mics are always better than 1.

Sony WH-1000XM6 - R side Feedback microphones

I compared the size of the MEMS mics in between the XM6 and XM5 using the FCC filing photos, and there is no change, the mics are identical in size.

For voice pickup, Sony uses 6 microphones, together with AI noise reduction to improve the quality of the calls. According to Sony, the structure around the microphones has been optimised to minimise any wind noise interference. Looking at the FCC internal photos, this seems to be true when comparing the XM5 and XM6. I will have a closer look at this in my FCC teardown post.

Sony has added the ability to mute the microphone by pressing the NC/AMB button twice. This will only turn off the headset's microphone, and not the smartphone's. This feature needs to be setup in the Sony Sound Connect App. When the microphone is muted, a notification sound will play every 7 seconds to denote this. This notification can be turned on and off in the app as well.

Carrying case

I covered the case in my leaked post, but I will briefly go over my thoughts here. The new case is smaller than the XM5 case, almost similar in size to the WH-1000XM4 case. Gone is the zipper, replaced by a magnetic closure. The main reason for this change was because users wanted to open the case one handed. This is actually a good change, first, there is no zipper to break, and second, easier to open. Win win.

I am uncertain of the case material, and how water resistant it is. From past posts on Reddit, the WH-1000XM5 case is somewhat resistant to small splashes of liquid, but not larger spills.

Price and Availability

Major markets should have the headset shipping by now, but certain areas will have to wait for June, as I originally mentioned in my leaked post. For Japan, the model will ship at the end of May. What surprised me, is that in Japan, the model comes with a 3 year basic warranty, with the ability to expand that to 5 years, or 3/5 years expanded warranty, which covers even damage. I know Europe has a 2 year basic warranty, but not US or Canada as far as I know. Sony should make the 2 year warranty standard everywhere. Would be a good selling point.

The XM6 is more expensive than the XM5, so users will be paying a premium since it is a new model. Whether the price difference is worth it will be up to the user. Apart from the LC3 mic quality issues on Windows and the fingerprints/stains, the new model is a good upgrade, especially for users with much older models.

If anyone still has not picked up a WH-1000XM6 and will be ordering from Amazon, pleas consider using my affiliate links, as I will get some commission. This will help with the domain, and cookie handling costs. Thank you.

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The headset is not released in Canada yet, but if you wish to pre-order through Amazon Canada, please use my link below. Unlike the Sonyshop.ca, you can get a full refund from Amazon Canada.

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