7 reviews for Sony WF-1000XM4 Industry Leading Noise Canceling Truly Wireless Earbuds

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Ania – March 27, 2023

   
   I am EXTREMELY picky when it comes to earbuds, and I have to say, these are almost unexpectedly good. In the past couple of years, I have tested multiple brands of earbuds, cheap and expensive. These are unquestionably the best. There are a few cons, but the pros outweigh the cons by a long shot. Let me start with the cons:CONS:1. The memory foam tips are not durable. They certainly provide much better sound isolation than silicone tips would, but be prepared to purchase a bunch of replacement tips right away.2. Ambient sound could be just a little louder. The level of ambient sound is adjustable (fantastic feature!) but even at its loudest setting, it feels a little too muffled for me. When I am out in the street, I would like to hear the cars approaching and other street noises a bit better, especially if I am jogging. But it isn’t bad. I guess I am just used to Buds Pro, which actually amplify external noises a little bit during ambient sound.That’s it on the cons!PROS:1. The equalizer and other adaptive sound settings are incredible. Although be prepared that it won’t be excellent right out of the box. In fact, the factory settings might suck. But the equalizer settings are superb, so you should be able to adjust it to your liking very quickly. Your first step is to make sure you identify which ear tips fit you best, as it will make a major difference in your sound adjustment. Once you’ve got the right size ear tips, you can start adjusting the sound settings on your phone. I would start with the phone’s own settings first, and then go to the Sony Buds app and fiddle with the equalizer there. It comes with an app that has a variety of other smart settings. For instance, the level of noise cancellation and the volume of ambient sound can be adjusted. You can also program these buds to recognize the environment you are in, and have a few pre-set operation modes, such as for sitting at your desk at the office versus walking in the street, versus jogging. And the buds will adjust ambient sound, noise cancellation and other features based on your pre-set modes for the above conditions. You can also have several equalizer settings customized and saved.Since I have an Android phone (Samsung, to be exact), I started with first adjusting the sound on these earbuds by going to Samsung’s own sound settings and customizing my equalizer through the “Adapt Sound” menu. And then, when that was done, I went into the Sony Buds app and worked with the equalizer there. It allows you to play music straight through that app (via Spotify or whatever else you have) and adjust your equalizer while music is playing, so you can hear the difference right away.For those who don’t know how an equalizer works, I strongly advise you to watch a couple of YouTube videos on that first, so that you know what you are doing. A lot of people discard good earbuds and headphones because their sound is “bad” when in fact they just don’t know the first thing about setting up the equalizer. I am very picky and demanding in my music settings. I love having such a strong bass that my spine feels the vibration (slightly exaggerating here, but only a little bit), but at the same time I like to hear the vocals loud and clear without distortions. I like hearing high-pitch vocals, and yet, I am not too fond of having excess treble. On most of the earbuds I’ve tried before, achieving such highly customized sound was impossible. But these Sony buds promised and delivered. I got my settings exactly how I want them, and it is pure heaven.2. Amazing sound cancellation. Here is what I mean. They don’t just cancel out external noises. They are very smart about distinguishing between different types of noises, both incoming and outgoing. And you can program the sound cancellation settings to differentiate between, say, human voices and cars honking. As a result, I can listen to music while vacuuming and not hear the vacuum, but if my roommate talks to me, I will hear what she’s saying because that’s how I programmed my buds.3. Excellent sound clarity during phone calls, even in loud surroundings. I was recently riding my bike with wind whistling in my ears, but I could clearly hear the person I was talking to, and the person could hear me just fine. They didn’t hear the wind, and my voice was loud and clear, and not cutting out. This, to me, is just unbelievable. I have not been able to get this with any other earbuds. Buds Pro, for instance, are absolutely impossible to talk to in any loud surroundings. Some other brands, cheap and expensive alike, do a good job of muffling background noises but they also muffle your own voice in the process. This is not the case with Sony Buds. They keep my voice clear while muffling everything else around me. I was also recently walking in the street, and there was a siren. Prior to that, I was in the ambient sound mode. When I heard the siren, I tapped on one of the buds to switch them to noise cancelling. I could barely hear the siren while still hearing the person I was speaking to loud and clear, and the person could not hear the siren in my background at all. I have no idea how Sony did it, but my hat is off to them for achieving such high-quality smart sound.4. Very comfortable. I was hesitant about getting these because they seemed bulky to me. I have very small ears and usually struggle with bulky earbuds. But these are very comfortable, probably mostly because of the memory foam ear tips. Once they are in my ears, they stay there. I’ve taken them out jogging and bike riding, and they didn’t shift at all. Finding the correct size of the ear tips plays a key role here, so you should make sure you got the right size. But once you do, they are comfortable and stay in place for a while. And I didn’t notice any burning sensation, or any other sign of earbud fatigue. They stay in my ears for hours, and I am comfortable.5. The case and the buds hold the battery very well. No complaints there. I am either listening to music or having phone calls all day long, and they hold the battery just fine.6. A function that I have not personally used: it allows you to sync the buds with two different devices at once. I don’t like doing this, but this is probably a great feature for those who might want them connected to the laptop and the phone at once.VERDICT: Superb earbuds. 10/10 would recommend.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – June 11, 2021

   
   I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds and considered them a Day 1 purchase, if they were below $300. I was pretty hyped! So for $279.99, I purchased them on Day 1. Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed. First, the case and earbuds did not arrive fully or even half-charged. There was a orange light on the case so I had to wait about 3 hours for these babies to fully charge. It was annoying and anti-climatic.THE APPBefore they finished charging, the first thing I did was install the “Sony | Headphones Connect” App on my smartphone and then connect the earbuds to your smartphone as you would any Bluetooth device. You don’t have to necessarily pair them through the app. I also own SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 (paid $249.95) and Jabra Elite Active 75t (gift). It was my first time using Sony’s app and the options were confusing and hard to find. I am still figuring it out. Like, can I have the ability to skip a song AND raise/lower the volume on the right earbud?? But maybe previous Sony earbud owners will ride it like a bike.SOUND QUALITYThe sound on the Sony WF-1000XM4 is terrific. It’s on the level of SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 and probably even exceeds it a tiny bit. Is it worth the hype? NO. Maybe it will get better when I can stream “lossless audio” through Spotify, who knows? But I should be able to stream lossless on all my earbuds, so they all might sound better. Both Sony and SENNHEISER audio quality are better than Jabra. And Jabra audio quality is still really good, as I use those buds at night to watch movies. BTW, the ANC on Sony’s earbuds blew away Jabra and was much better than SENNHEISER earbuds. Sony’s ANC may be the best on the market, even with “Adaptive Sound Control” (see note below) disabled.BATTERY LIFEThe Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds have an awesome battery life (like 8 hours!), even with ANC on all day long. They exceed anything else available right now 6/11/2021. I can imagine they are the perfect buds for many situations, including LONG days. This is something to get hyped about! The SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds have a very good earbud life 5-6 hrs with ANC. And the Jabra Elite Active 75t battery life is pretty bad at 4-5 hrs with ANC.The FITI like Sony’s new foam design earpiece because it translates into a much firmer fit – better than the Jabras. I can see myself tracking up and down mountains with these earbuds and they will not fall out. The SENNHEISER earbuds have always been a loose fit that I have to constantly push back into my ear. The Jabras have always fit extremely well. Jabras are renowned for their excellent fit. I am concerned about Sony’s foam earpieces though. They remind me of the orange foam earplugs I use. Those orange earplugs get really black and nasty pretty quickly. Are my black Sony foam earbuds going to pickup are my dirt and earwax from my inner ear because they are softer than other earbud pieces? Is that why Sony made them black?? Yuck!**Do NOT clean the ear pieces with an alcohol wipe, they will disintegrate! (I made this mistake.)VOICE QUALITY:Ok, this is easy. I do a lot of Zoom-type meetings so I use earbuds like crazy. I might go through 2 sets on a busy day. The Jabra Elite Active 75t earbuds sound way too muffled so I can’t use them in my meetings. The SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds are amazing! They even block out the sound of my dogs chewing feverishly on bones in the same room! The early reports from the Sony WF-1000XM4 earbuds are not good – my voice sounds too muffled sometimes. People have a hard time understanding what I’m saying. (Note: This was with “Adaptive Sound Control” (in the App) turned ON.) I’m going to disable “Adaptive Sound Control” (where it listens and adjusts to your surroundings) and try it again for a few days. My suggestion is that you do not enable “Adaptive Sound Control” in the app. I’m sure Sony will have guidelines or a fix soon. I still plan to use the Sony’s throughout the work day, just not for Zoom-type meetings.***Update: Since disabling “Adaptive Sound Control” in the app, my voice is no longer muffled on phone calls or in Zoom meetings.Bottom Line: I’d recommend you buy these earbuds because of their amazing, all-workday battery life!

   
3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Antonio Carlos Pereira Cruz – September 25, 2023

   Silêncio total
   Produto de ótima qualidade chegou antes do prazo, para quem quer silêncio durante o seu uso ele é perfeito, isolamento total de ruído no modo cancelamento, modo transparência perfeito, necessário testar as borracha do fone porque no início machucou um pouco o lado direito, mais uma semana após o uso contínuo não machuca mais, muito feliz com o produto e recomendo.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Antonio Pérez – February 20, 2023

   Buen producto
   Los audífonos se escuchan increíble, por desgracia no puedo escuchar el códec LDAC que mejora a un mejor la calidad de sonido debido a que mi teléfono pone el códec cómo predeterminado y no me deja poner LDAC, chequen eso en su teléfono antes de comprar estos audífonos.La cancelación de ruido es sorprendente pues te aisla de la gente y un poco de los autos si lo solo llevas la cancelación sin música, se llegan a escuchar los autos un poco pero es muy mínimo lo que se escucha, ten en cuenta que también son un peligro si vas en calles muy transitadas, pues te aislaran de todo si llevas la música con 50 de volumen.El sonido ambiente es bueno pero no lo suficiente como para decir WOW se escuchan como si no llevará nada, si se escucha obviamente el ambiente pero diría que lo suficientemente bien como para poder escuchar a una persona y autos pero no para captar detalles mínimos.El sonido es genial, cuando activas 360 reality audio puedes notar la diferencia en una canción normal y 360 reality audio, se escucha como si la música se moviera a tu alrededor y no se quedará estática en un solo lugar, también hay que decir que si uno quiere mejorar su experiencia con los audífonos hay que descargar la aplicación Sony headphones que nos ofrece la posibilidad de usar su ecualizador con distintos modos y hace resaltar aspectos como la voz, instrumentos, etc.La comodidad, no los recomiendo del todo en ese aspecto pues llegan a doler un poco después de varias horas y eso que yo tengo oreja grande, no quiero imaginar si tendría oreja chica.La batería, hay que tener en cuenta esto y es que en la página de soy dicen que los audífonos duran 8 horas, claro si duran 8 horas pero solo con cancelación de ruido o sonido ambiente sin música, con música y cancelación de ruido o ambiente solo duran 5 horas con 30 minutos en mi experiencia, puede que algunos tengan otra emperiencia distinta a la mia y por último el estuche ofrece las dos cargas como dicen.Por recomendación mía diría que cuiden bastante bien el estuche pues si tienen manos sudorosa pues ten por seguro que si te descuidas se te van a caer, no me ha pasado pero he llegado a pensarlo y cuiden las almohadillas, se llegan a desgastar con el tiempo y mi recomendación es que las limpien con algo para que estas les dure aún más.

   
5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Wilton – September 29, 2022

   No real flaws, just a really really good pair of ANC earbuds.
   I am writing this review after having used the Airpods pro and wf100xm3 as my daily drivers for over a year.The noise cancellation is amazing. I have used expensive over-ear headphones that don’t even come close to the noise cancellation these pair of earphones offer (mainly compared with the Momentum 3 wireless).I truly can’t hear ANYTHING when commuting with low-volume music playing. The transparency mode is good, but nothing contests the Airpods pro transparency mode for me. Still great transparency though, I am just a little spoilt. Most things about the build quality also feel good. The hinge on the case is a little squeaky and not that tight feeling, but the earbuds and the rest of the case feel amazing. Nice matte finish, and quality. The case is definitely chunkier than the Airpods pro case but it doesn’t bother me. The XM3 case did definitely bother me. The sound quality is great, really clean sounding with a nice bass. Paired with the noise cancellation it is truly next level. Really nice sounding. Much cleaner and balanced than the Pros and the 1000xm3. The controls are good, but since using the pros, I have never preferred touch controls. The pressure sensor on the pros are just unbelievably good. The controls are top-tier compared to other touch sensor buds, though. I’ve used the galaxy buds Pro as well as the 1000XM3s but these are by far the most responsive and quick. Comfort is great too, they fit in my ear really well and almost never fall off. The pros fit in my ear unbelievably well but these still fit in my ear great and don’t get close to falling out. The XM3s never fit well in my ear and would fall out often. The battery life on these is AMAZING, 8 hours of ANC is truly a luxury. I remember, I woke up, put on the buds, and ate lunch, went to the gym, worked out, went to the library, studied, and went back home, and still had 30% remaining battery. I never took off the buds once. This is truly the biggest difference between the pros and these buds. The battery life is so noticeable and amazingOverall, Sony nailed this. They have everything. Best in class ANC, great comfort, amazing sound, responsive controls, great battery life, great transparency mode, amazing build quality.+ they look pretty stylish. Subjective though xD

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Felipe R.R. – September 22, 2022

   LO MEJOR DE LO MEJOR
   Estos son uno de esas compras que quedas tan encantado con ellos que si se me perdieran los volvería a comprar, para el viaje en carretera que hago mucho, se han vuelta una pieza clave con el comando de voz que capta muy bien las órdenes.Solo tengo un pequeño comentario, si bien su sonido no se compara a unos audífonos de estudio, su calidad si es bastante buena, con agudos muy claro, pero si les falta poder a los bajos.Como comenté, no es sonido de estudio, no busques eso, pero si es el mejor sonido en audífonos inalámbricos y su cancelación de ruido es brutal, en carretera sin exagerar, es como ir sordo, talvez la principio me costó acostumbrarme a su máximo de sonido, porque ya me había acostbrado al fuerte sonido de mis audífonos en casa con amplificador, pero no paso de la semana y ya me había aclimatado.Por último, tocaré el punto negativo que es algo muy personal, pero que es lo que más tarde en acostumbrarme que es la comodidad, si bien, la caja trae diferentes tamaños de copas, llega a un punto en donde empiezan a irritar y como que sientes que se quieren salir, en definitiva no son cómodos al principio, pero poco a poco te acomodas a ellos y te acostbrado y luego ya ni te acuerdas de ellos, pero si toma más tiempo del que yo hubiera cr ido.En fin, si lo que buscas es lo mejor en cancelación de ruido y calidad de sonido sin tener todo un aparato de diadema en tu cabeza, simplemente no vas a encontrar nada mejor y si los compras con descuento pfff olvídate.

7. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Danny – October 10, 2023

   Ear tips to not last and are expensive to replace
   I am generally very pleased with these earbuds. Sound quality is excellent and the noise cancelling very good. My only gripe is that the ear tips get dirty and start falling apart rather quickly and replacements are difficult to get hold of and are rather expensive (£27!)