So its late 2024 and both the Sony 1000XM5’s and Sony 1000XM4’s are my top picks if active noise cancelation is very important to you… specifically if you plan on flying a lot with your headphones, cause thanks to the atmospheric pressure sensors in these headphones… both the 1000XM5’s and the 1000XM4’s block out way more noise than other ANC headphones will at cursing altitude. Both the 1000XM5’s and 1000XM4’s block out noticeably more noise while flying than the Bose QC ultra, Bose QC, Sennheiser Momentum 4’s, AirPods Max, Sonos ACE, and so on.
However, both the Sony 1000XM5’s and Sony 1000XM4’s have gotten new firmware updates recently… and the Sony 1000XM6’s have been leaked… and now people are saying that they are noticing degraded performance on their 1000XM5’s and 1000XM4’s… and this wouldn’t be the first time that this happens cause other companies have been caught doing a similar thing in the past to make their new headphones look better. So today we’re going to be measuring the ANC performance on both the 1000XM5’s and 1000XM4’s before and after being updated and they have been manually calibrated as well… and I can say that I was able to measure a slight performance difference.
Now these ANC tests were done in a controlled environment, calibrated microphones, and these headphones blocked out the same audio samples. Now before being updated, the Sony 1000XM4’s were running their 2.5.0 firmware, and afterwards they were updated to the current 2.6.0 firmware. And the Sony 1000XM5’s were running firmware 2.1.0 and afterwards they were updated to firmware 2.3.1. So first we’re going to jump into the 1000XM4’s ANC test.
XM4 ANC
So with the Sony 1000XM4’s, when it comes to blocking out road noise, or low frequency sounds, I feel that performance here is identical. And in general, constant low frequency sounds should be super easy to block out for any pair of decent premium ANC headphones. But what separates good ANC headphones from great ANC headphones is how they manage to block out random higher frequency sounds, AKA chatter. And I actually feel that the 1000XM4’s are doing a slightly better job of blocking out chatter after being updated. Which is good cause chatter is something the XM4’s struggled with compared to the XM3. But overall, I feel that the performance difference on the XM4’s isn’t super noticeable post update, but technically they are doing a better job.
But then there are the Sony 1000XM5’s and I feel the performance difference here is more noticeable, and I feel that its a mixed bag, but we’re going to go ahead and jump into the ANC test.
XM5
So with the XM5’s I think there is a more noticeable performance difference here before and after the update. When it comes to blocking out road noise, I feel that the XM5’s aren’t doing as good of a job with the new firmware update cause they are sounding a little more high pitched when blocking out that road noise. However, when it comes to blocking out chatter, the XM5’s are doing a better job of reducing that higher frequency spike. So in short, the XM5’s are blocking out a little less road noise but they are doing a better job of dealing with chatter. But regardless, the XM5’s are still blocking out a lot of road noise when compared to other ANC headphones. So with the XM5’s, I wouldn’t say they their ANC performance has been degraded after the firmware update… but I would say that a compromise was made. They block out a little less road noise but they block out a little more chatter.
And now we’re going to jump into the ANC test between the XM5’s and XM4’s running their latest firmware updates.
VS ANC test
So like you may have just seen, as expected, the 1000XM5’s block out more noise than the 1000XM4. Its the natural order of things. And as of late 2024, both the XM5’s and XM4’s are my top picks if ANC is super important to you cause they block out the most amount of noise with minimal cabin pressure. And cabin pressure hasn’t changed on these headphones after their updates. Which is good. But what really makes these headphones special are their atmospheric pressure sensors which will adjust the ANC on these headphones to perform better while flying. So both the XM5’s and XM4’s are going to block out way more noise than other headphones from Bose, Apple, Sonos, and so on.
But then theres the question about the Sony 1000XM6’s. Yes they have been leaked, but personally I wouldn’t expect them until spring 2025. So if you’re looking for a pair of ANC headphones and you want a solid deal, I think that it would be safe to pick up either the XM5’s or XM4’s right now in late 2024.