So the new Sony WH-1000XM5’s have some very important upgrades on them like better active noise cancellation, better sound, better feeling leatherette, and better sounding microphones… but their all new design is a bit of a problem. But today we’re going to compare the WH-1000XM5’s to both the Bose NC 700 and Bose QC45’s. And I’m actually very excited to talk about the Bose QC45’s today cause after a recent firmware upgrade, they did get a measurable ANC performance, which was a huge surprise and a welcomed one as well.
Now regarding pricing, the new WH-1000XM5’s retail for $400, that a 50 dollar increase from their predecessors. Now the NC 700’s also used to retail for $400 when they first came out… but they now retail for $380 on a regular and also keep in mind that these are the oldest headphones here. They came out all the way back in June 2019. But then there are the Bose QC45’s which came out in fall of 2021 and they retail for $330 and they routinely like to go on sale for $280. And personally, I think that if you’re looking for a pair of ANC headphones to travel with… the Bose QC45’s are now my top pick. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these headphones up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first, we gotta quickly address the all new design on the Sony 1000XM5’s. The XM5’s have completely departed from the XM4’s design and instead… they have a similar design to the Bose NC 700’s. Except, Sony’s take is much bulkier than Bose’s. But the really important thing is that neither of these two headphones are fully collapsable like the QC45’s and Sony’s previous headphones. And the fact that the XM5’s aren’t fully collapsible, means that they’re going to have a larger carrying case than a pair of headphones that are fully collapsible like the QC45’s. But the thing is, even though the NC 700’s have a similar style case to the XM5’s… the XM5’s case have a significantly larger foot than the NC 700’s and its significantly thicker as well. And for me, this case is board line unmanageable and it makes traveling with these headphones a big hassle especially since I’m so accustomed to traveling with either my XM4’s XM3’s and now Bose QC45’s. Now the NC 700’s case isn’t as small as id want it to be… but its still manageable at least. But overall, if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to constantly travel with… among many other reasons, the QC45’s are my top pick here cause of its smaller case.
But with the case out of the way, lets focus on the headphones themselves. Now from a materials standpoint, the XM5’s are using recycled plastic on the ear cups that have a slate feel to them and we’ve got plastic arms on the headbands. Plainly said, the XM5’s don’t feel very premium. Where as with both the QC45’s and NC 700’s, they feel much more premium and sturdy by comparison. With the QC45’s we’ve got a mostly plastic body that has a smooth finish to it and we’ve got your classic clicking headband. But then there’s the NC 700 which also have smooth plastic ear cups… but what makes these headphones look and feel very premium is that they have and exposed stainless steel headband and underneath the headband, there’s a whole lot of padded silicon which feels great. My main problem with the NC 700’s is that when you try to extend this headband… these ear cups don’t glide gracefully at all. Where as Sony’s approach is much smoother by comparison. But finally, we have to directly address the leatherette on these headphones. Now sony has always struggled with their leatherette on their 1000X series, it has always felt very plastic-y. However, with the XM5’s this leatherette feels much better. Now if doesn’t feel supple or have any grain to it like the leatherette that you’ll find on either of Bose’s headphones… but it feels much smoother. The easiest way for me to explain the new leatherette on the XM5’s is that it feels a little bit like silicon but with less friction. Overall the leatherette on the XM5’s is a big improvement and I like it… But Bose’s leatherette still feels more premium.
But now, lets talk about fit. Now all of these headphones are big head approved, But the XM5’s do have the most amount of clamping force here… where as the QC45’s have the least amount of clamping force here. So if you’ve got a big head and or if you prefer a loser fit, then the QC45’s are the way to go. And over all, the QC45’s are the most comfortable headphones here for multiple reasons. Now first off, the QC45’s are the lightest headphones here weighing in at 234 grams… and I would categorize these as ultra light weight. Then, surprising the XM5’s weigh in at 250 grams… even though they look pretty bulky… and I would categorize these as light weight. And finally there are the NC 700’s which weigh in at 274 grams. Which I would categorize these as average. Overall, having a pair of light weight headphones is going to contribute to overall comfort cause they’re much easier to forget that you have on. But then there are the ear pads. Now both of Bose’s headphone have wide and very deep ear pads… so they’re going to have no problem accommodating very large ears or ears that stick out a lot. Where as with the XM5’s… not so much. Now these earpads have a very wide diameter to them… but they’re very shallow… and they are more shallow than both the XM4’s and XM3’s. The ear pads on the XM5’s are so shallow that they press down on my average sized ears… and after awhile it does get uncomfortable. But the biggest issue with the XM5’s is its very thin and minimally padded headband. With the XM5’s I can only wear these headphones for 45 minutes tops, cause at the 45 minute mark they create a hot spot on the top of my head and I just gotta take them off. And this is very unfortunate cause hot spots have never been an issue for their predecessors. Where as with both the QC45’s and NC 700’s hot spots aren’t an issue with these headphones, so I can wear either of these headphones for hours on end without any problems. The headband on the QC45’s has a decent amount of surface ear with a decent amount of padding… and then there’s the NC 700’s headband which has a lot of padding and since its silicon this headband just does and amazing job confirming to your head and dissipating any pressure. So overall, I gotta say that the QC45’s are the most comfortable headphones here cause they’re the lightest, they have the least clamping force, they have roomy ear pads and their headband doesn’t create a hot spot on the top of your head. And even though the NC 700’s are 24 grams heavier than the XM5’s… which is noticeable… they’re still way more comfortable that the XM5’s cause of their roomier ear pads, and hot spots aren’t an issue what so ever.
And finally, I also want to quickly point this out and I know that its completely subjective… but the XM5’s just look so bulky when they’re on your head. Now I’m not the biggest fan of the bulbs headband on the NC 700’s… but they look much sleeker than the XM5’s by comparison… and finally there’s the QC45’s which look the most normal.
But now lets talk about tech specs, now I will admit that this is an area where the XM5’s do out preform bose. The XM5’s have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on and if you were to use them with their ANC turned off, then they can go for as long as 40 hours. And overall, the XM5’s have very good battery life when compared to the rest of the competition.
But then there are the Bose NC 700’s which have an advertised battery life of 20 hours with their ANC turned on. And even though a battery life of 20 hours is doable… it is a little low when compared to the rest of the competition. However, with the NC 700’s you can also use them with their ANC turned off and extend their battery life that way, just like how you can with the XM5’s.
But then there are the Bose QC45’s which unfortunately, you still can’t use with their ANC or ambient mode completely turned off. But with their ANC turned on these headphones have an advertised battery life of 24 hours. Which is average. But I still wish that you could use these headphones with their ANC turned off so that you could either extend their battery life or take a break from their cabin pressure if you’re in an area where you don’t need or want active noise cancelation.
But in order to charge these headphones up, they all charge via a USB C port as they should… but the XM5’s also have much better fast chargning numbers here than the bose. With the XM5’s if you charge them up for 3 minutes from a dead battery they are going to get you 3 hours of playback time. Where as with both bose headphones if you charge them up for 15 minutes the QC45’s will get you 3 hours and the NC 700’s will get you 3 hours and a half. So defeinetly fast charging is something that bose needs to work on especially for commuters.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these headphones can be connected to 2 devices at the same time which is great for power users… and when it comes to over all performance, all of these headphones have zero latency across the board whenever you’re watching a movie of videos whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device. And when it comes to audio codecs, both the QC45’s and NC 700’s have support for SBC and AAC. And AAC is going to get the job done whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device. But the XM5’s have support for SBC, AAC, and Sony’s on LDAC which is their in house high res audio codec. But if you want to take advantage of LDAC you need to be an android user and you’re only going to be able to be connected to one device at a time.
But thankfully, all off these headphones still have an audio jack… and I am thankful for this cause I was worried that either Bose or Sony would copy apple when they removed the audio jacks on their headphones… which I feel is a foolish decision. The only thing that you gotta look out for here is that the XM5’s are using a 3.5 millimeter audio jack where as Bose’s headphones are using a 2.5 millimeter audio jack.
And also, you can’t use the USB C port on any of these headphones as a wired connection… and you can’t use any of these headphones while they’re charging… but they can all be used passively.
But now lets talk about sound quality. Like I mentioned in the full review… the XM5’s have slightly better instrument separation on them so they sound a little more open than the XM4’s and XM3’s. However, they do have a little less physicality in their bass… so you’re not going to get as much kick out of them as you would with the XM4’s or XM3’s. However, the XM5’s still have way more phsycialty in their bass than both the Bose QC45’s or Bose NC 700. So if you’re someone that just needs that kick in their bass, then the XM5’s are still the way to go here. But even though the XM5’s do have better instrument separation than their predecessors… the XM5’s still don’t sound anywhere near as open as either the QC45’s or Bose NC 700. So if you’re someone that still wants something with the better instrument separation… then either of Bose’s options are the way to go. However, one very important detail that I have to point out here… is that in the new firmware update that the QC45’s got that I mentioned at the top of the video… they now have an adjustable EQ just like the NC 700’s. Now you can go in and raise the bass on either the QC45’s or NC 700’s… But even if these headphones had their bass set to ten… you’re not going to get as much physicality out of them as you would with the XM5’s. Overall, personally I like how the QC45 and NC 700’s sound… but I can understand why some people will feel that these headphones sound flat… its not that they’re actually flat… you just don’t physically feel their bass. So for that reason I still maintain that the XM5’s are people pleasers cause whether you like a neutral or vocals focused EQ like on the Bose the XM5’s should deliver… and if you like a more bass heavy EQ, then the XM5’s should deliver as well… even though they do have less bass than their predecessors.
Now when it comes to the media controls… both the NC 700’s and XM5’s have touch pads. Now both of these touch pads are easy enough to use… but Sony’s touch pad is better for a few reasons. First off it is larger so its easer to use… and its a little more accurate as well. With Boses touchpads sometimes it does miss inputs. But most importantly, with the Sony you can swipe and hold to continuously raise or lower your volume. Where as with Bose’s touchpad, for every step you have to do a swipe. But then there are the QC45’s which are still using physical buttons… and for someone people this can be a deciding factor just cause they don’t want to have to deal with touchpads.
But something the XM5’s have that the bose don’t are wear sensors. So if you take these headphones off they’ll automatically pause your music, and when you put them back on they’ll automatically play your music. Now personally I don’t care for wear sensors on my headphones so I usually just turn that feature off.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones… like I mentioned earlier, the 1000XM5’s are back to being the kings of active noise cancelation… after being dethroned by the AirPods max for the last year and a half. However, I’m also very excited to talk about the active noise cancellation on the QC45’s cause after their 2.0.4 firmware update… they got a measurable improvement in their active noise cancellation. But so that you can see for yourself, we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
So like you may have just seen, the QC45’s block out noticeably more noise than the NC 700’s… very curious given that the NC 700’s are billed as being more premium than the QC45’s. But then, there are the 1000XM5’s which block out more noise across the board. And they really excel when it comes to blocking out higher frequency sounds. However, the thing with the XM5’s is that they now have noticeably more cabin pressure than their predecessors and they even have a little more cabin pressure than the QC45’s. Where as the NC 700’s have the least amount of cabin pressure here. Now the XM5’s have less cabin pressure than the AirPods Max, so they don’t give me headaches… but the QC45’s have a little less cabin pressure. So personally for me, I try to find a balance between cabin pressure and amount of noise blocked out. And even though the QC45’s do have some cabin pressure to them… they block out almost as much noise as the XM5’s. So even though technically yes, the XM5’s block out the most amount of noise here… personally I prefer the ANC on the QC45’s. And this is coming from someone who has always been fairly sensitive to cabin pressure.
But now, lets talk ambient modes. Now all of these headphones have an ambient mode. Now none of these ambient modes sound as natural as the AirPods Max ambient mode… but they sound very natural nonetheless and they don’t have any constant hissing in the background. However, with the QC45’s you’re stuck with one ambient mode setting… now it sounds fine… but you can’t adjust it to your liking like you can with these other two headphones. Now overall, the ambient modes on all of these headphones are good… but they’re not as good as the XM4’s or XM3’s ambient modes for 2 key reasons. First of which… all of these headphones do pick up a noticeable amount of wind noise when walking out doors. Where as the microphone array on the XM4’s and XM3’s do a much better job of rejecting wind noise. But then there’s also the active ambient mode on these headphones. With both the XM4’s and XM3’s if there’s a sudden loud noise they’re going to automatically turn off your ambient mode and save you from going deaf like this.
So like you may have just seen… when the XM4’s detected that loud noise they turned off their ambient mode and when the loud noise stoped they turned it back on. Where as with the XM5’s… they don’t do this.
So like you saw, with the XM5’s they turned off their ambient mode but then turned it back on and then back off and back on again. Hopefully sony fixes this through a software update. But then there’s the QC45’s which almost gets it right… but they’re a little to linens on the back end
So the QC45’s got it right the first half… but then the send half was a bit of a problem. But I will say the QC45’s did better than the XM5’s. And finally there are the Bose NC 700 which don’t react at all.
Bose NC 700 Active ambient mode
So, like you saw, the NC 700’s just let in everything. So overall, the ambient mode on all of these headphones are decent but they all have room for improvement and none of them are as good as the XM4’s and XM3’s.
But now lets talk about the extra little features that these headphones have. Now the XM5’s have Sony’s speak to chat feature which works a little like this.
But personally, I’m not a really big fan of speak to chat because it is very easy to accidentally active. If you’re talking to yourself very quietly that can activate it, if you’re singing along to your music, that can activate it, if you start laughing that can active it, and on rare occasions loud enough outside noises can activate it. So that’s why I don’t use it.
Personally, I prefer to use quick attention on the XM5’s and Bose NC 700’s have a similar feature called conversation mode. Basically they also wyou to quickly lower the volume of your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can quickly talk to someone without having to take you’re headphones off, like this.
Personally I prefer Bose’s method, cause once its activated you can let go and your hand is free, where as with the sony you gotta keep the touch pad covered the whole time which does get uncomfortable and awkward after awhile. My only gripe is that unfortunately the QC45’s don’t have this feature… and I feel that bose can very easily add this feature through a firmware update.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now all of these headphones have usable microphones for phones calls… but I am going to have to say that the Bose QC45 sound a little hollow. And like I mentioned in my full review… this is actually an area where the QC45’s got a downgrade from the QC35.
But then there are the NC 700’s which have better clarity…
And I actually can’t believe that I am going to say this… but the XM5’s have the best clarity here. But I do have to point out that there is some slight hissing in the background.
But what’s really impressive is the way these headphones deal with ambient noise, cause right now we have some road noise playing in the background. And if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise… but if we switch back over to the XM5’s, its greatly reduced.
Where as with the NC 700, its not reduced as much and you can clealerly hear it in the back ground.
And then there are the QC45’s where you can hear even more road noise and my voice sounds a little hollow as well.
However, when it comes to blocking out chatter, the QC45 do a decent job.
And the NC 700’s do a slightly better job as well.
But then there are the XM5’s which are blocking out the most amount of chatter, cause if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter… but if we switch back over to the XM5’s it is greatly reduced. So after 5 generations… sony finally has a better sounding microphone than bose.
But with all of that being said, there are some notable upgrades found on the Sony 1000XM5’s. Like I just said, they finally have a better performing microphone than both of Boses headphones cause they manage to block out more ambient noise. The ANC on the Sony 1000XM5’s also block out more noise than both the QC45 and NC 700. They have more phsycialty in their bass. They have a longer battery life than both of Bose’s headphones, and they have a few extra little bells and whistles as well. But unfortunately, the Sony 1000XM5’s really fall flat when it comes to comfort and connivance. And I think these two qualities take president above all when considering ANC headphones. Unlike these other two headphones, you can’t wear the Sony 1000XM5’s for hours on end cause their thin and minimally padded headband does create a hot spot on the top of your head… and their shallow ear pads are not for everyone. And then there’s just their bulky design and huge case. It might not seem like a big deal, but traveling with this case can be a really hassle and its the first issue that I noticed with the XM5’s given that I am so used to traveling with either my XM4’s, XM3’s, and now even my QC45’s. So personally for me, the Bose QC45’s are now my top pick when it comes to recommending ANC headphones. They have a super small, they’re super comfortable, and they should fit almost anyone without any problems. The QC45’s also block out almost as much noise as the XM5’s with not a whole lot of cabin pressure, and they also have decent battery. Not to mention, the QC45’s are more affordable than the XM5 which is a very nice plus. But the QC45’s do have their issues like a sub par microphone for phone calls, I wish they had a conversation mode, I wish they had an adjustable ambient mode and I wish that you could simply turn off their ANC. But still, I would reather go with the QC45’s than have to put up with the XM5’s. And finally, there are the bose NC 700. I think these headphones are in a very strange place. They’re billed as being more premium than the QC45’s, but the QC45’s out perform them where it counts most. Fit, ANC, Battery life. Personally I wouldn’t pick up the NC 700’s… but I’m really looking forward to the NC 700 Gen 2.