Sony WH-1000XM3 measurements and thoughts

In case anyone else also missed it, the WH-1000XM4 now launched.
From what I could gather, the new features are:

• Automatically pause when you take them off
• Stay connected to two devices at once
• Newer chipset - might mean better noise cancelling

Supposedly the sound is also more refined, but I don't trust What Hi Fi, considering they gave 5* to just about every Chord DAC. Anyone heard first-hand?

For me, multi-connection is super useful, but the real issue is the signature is pretty horrible for music - it desperately needs EQ. For dull meetings and Netflix it's OK, and the NC is already plenty good enough. If Sony would allow us a multi-band EQ on the device itself and also be able to have LDAC enabled at the same time, that would already be a 9999% better product. Or just fix the damn Olive curve and have a halfway sensible tuning right out of the box.

The touch panel controls kinda suck too, for music playback. It's easily confused between volume up/down and next/previous track swipes. Also, tapping twice on your own eardrum to pause is just annoying.

 

Have you tried the last update? I have a feeling that it changed the tonality of the XM3. The ANC was improved for sure.

 

I wrote a few impressions on another forum that I will translate and copy paste here (as i did for a channel on youtube as well). I also did some minor changes:


FIrst i would STRONGLY advise people to try them. Many airports have these on display (less the QC35ii). Having XM4, NC700, QC35II and having had the XM3 (which were sold) i can maybe give my thoughts here.

Sound-wise, for music the QC35II and NC700 are both superior, for my tastes, to the XM4/XM3. I still hear the Sony's as really bloomy, which is something that i was hoping to be fixed in this new iteration. I do understand why some prefer the Sony's sound, believe me i do, as my gf which is the one using the Sony's on her daily commute.

Voice wise there's not competition for the Bose, according to my colleagues they are definitely the superior ones there. Now one might think "omg Bose fanboy" and quite the contrary. Although i prefer the Bose overall, they are lacking in several areas like imaging, features (focusing more on the XM4 at this point) and app reliability.

The Bose 700 app is hit and miss (as u stated) and it's definitely bad. The touch controls on the XM4 are SO MUCH BETTER than the XM3 but i prefer physical buttons myself. Also i live in a cold country and i hope they fixed the situation where the touch controls would freak out with very cold temperatures. This happened with the XM3 and there are reports of similar situations on other cold countries (Sony even had that info in their support forum last years after several complaints).

Now one would assume that i prefer the NC700 but i don't, i actually use the QC35II, simply because they can do phone calls properly, they are more comfortable, to me, than both 700 and XM3/4 and they don't have the bloominess of the Sony's (seriously i can't hear it for more than 1 hour until it bothers me).

Comfort i get pretty ok with everyone of them but the QC35ii do fit me better than the XM3/XM4 and 700. The later are awkward when they sit on my head, the clamping is weirdly distributed and gives me hot spots but the Sony's makes my ear sweat a lot and i really dislike that. Also because i changed pads on the QC35II these ones are fluffier and i don't sweat as much from my ears. In a smaller note, aesthetic-wise i love the NC700 but they, if u have the same head shape as mine, they may look very weird on you.

The headband protrudes sideways in a very awkward manner and, as well, they are not portable as the rest of the aforementioned headphones. ANC-wise i do prefer the 700 than the XM4. This was obvious during my last 4 hour plane flight to PT. During the flight i could hear less the airplane, which is what usually bothers me the most, although the voices were not as faded. This is a personal preference but i prefer like that and so did my gf.

Overall the best one, for the majority of people, i would say is the MX4 because it does several things right and not much wrong, following by the QC35ii, if you don't mind it's "faded look", while these are the best bang for the buck, by far, imo, since you can find them use for as low as 150€, which is like half of the XM4.

One would assume, that i would prefer the 700 but, unfortunately, there are too many compromises with that model, which, hopefully, will be fixed in a 2nd version.

TL; DR -
Music - 700>QC35II>XM4/XM3 (i would say the majority would prefer the Sony's though, as my gf does)
ANC - 700>xM4>QC35II>XM3
Calls - 700>XM4/QC35II>>>XM3
Aesthetic - 700 > XM4/XM3 >>>QC35II (it looks very outdated now)
Comfort - QC35II>>>XM4 /XM3/ 700
Features - XM4>XM3>>>700>>>>QC35II
Portability - XM4/XM3/QC35II>>>>>>>>>>>>>>700
Bang for Buck (New or used) - QC35II >>XM3>XM4>>>700

Hope that it helps.

 

I got a used set of XM3 to give as a gift. I only had them on for a few seconds to check function so I won't comment on sound, but these are surprisingly light, very comfy, and the ANC is surprisingly good. I was seasoning my new carbon steel pan on the stovetop, so I had the exhaust going full blast, two big fans going, windows open with construction outside, the TV on, and with the ANC turned on it numbed almost all of it out. That said however, I did have a very slight "pressure" feeling like some ANC give me, but this is highly personal from person to person. I have Sennheiser Momentums and AKG noise cancellers that do not cancel as much noise, but they do not have that pressure feeling.

If I had to comment on the sound, with the ANC on things did feel kinda choked? lacking dynamics? it was really hard to get a sense of sound when I was in the the daze of "whoa everything is so quiet" mental dissonance.