Get Them Here: Sony ULT Wear: https://amzn.to/3XrVsa0
So these are the Sony ULT Wear headphones, and just like the rest of Sony’s ULT line up… Sony has been refining and improving all of their products. Now even though these headphones have an all new and much simpler name… these are actually the successors to both the Sony XB910N and Sony XB900N headphones. So if you’re in the market for a pair of Solid mid tier ANC headphones, or if you’re thinking about upgrading from the Sony XB910N or Sony XB900N… lets see what the Sony ULT Wear’s are all about.
Regarding pricing, the ULT wear have a retail price of $200, not bad at all. However these headphones are starting to go on sale now for $180, a solid pick up if you ask me. And these headphones are great for constant commuting on the bus, and I think that these are amazing for the gym. Nonetheless if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first lets talk about the included case. The ULT Wear come included with a decently small hard shell carrying case, and this case is going to have no problem keeping your headphones safe even if you stuff them into a cramped back. Where as the XB900N, these headphones come included with a carrying pouch, not ideal. Now the ULT Wear’s case is the same size as the XB910N’s case, however the ULT wear’s case feels more premium cause the fabric has a more textured feel to it and this case is stiffer than the XB910N’s case. Overall, the ULT Wear come included with a great case that great to travel with cause its small, much smaller than the XM5’s case, its more in line with the XM4’s case, Bose QC, or Bose QC Ultra… and more importantly its a lot better than the sad excuse of a case that you get with the Beats Studio Pro’s or Beats Solo 4’s.
But with case out of the way lets talk about the headphones themselves. Now from a design and material standpoint, the ULT wear are very different from both the XB910N and XB900N. Now from a design standpoint, the ULT Wear have ear cups the pivot and swivel a lot, the headband clicks into place, and these headphones still have a fully collapsible design which is why we have such a small case. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like Sony is going to continue down this path of lay flat headphones after all of the criticism that they got from the XM5’s. But also from a looks standpoint, the ULT Wear have a much subtler look to them compared to the XB910N who’s headband was very bulbous. The ULT Wear have return to a more subtler look like with the XB900N. But then there are the material differences here, the ULT Wear are now using recycled plastic. Where as the older headphones heres are using new plastic, so the plastic body panels on the ULT Wear feels a little less dense than the plastic found on the XB910N and XB900N. Naturally some people are going to feel concerned about the overall durability of these headphones… but given that I have been using these headphones for the last month and half, and I have had zero issues durability wise, and I have also had zero issues with the recycled plastics found on the both the WH-CH720N and Sony XM5’s and both of these headphones are over a year old now, I don't expect durability to be an issue for the ULT Wear. But also, theres the padding on these headphones, the leatherette on the ULT wear feels very similar to the leatherette found on the XB910N and it feels a lot better than the leatherette found on the XB900N. But the foam inside of the earpads on the ULT Wear is a little stiffer than the foam found on the XB910N and its a lot stiffer than the foam found on the XB900N.
So overall, when it comes to fit and comfort, the stiffer ear pads on the ULT wear does a better job of creating a seal with your head. But also, since the foam on the ULT Wear is stiffer, that means that the amount of surface area coming in contact with your skin is less, which means the earpads on the ULT Wear do a better job of staying cooler for longer than the earpads found on the XB910N and a much better job than the ear pads on the XB900N. And in general, the earpads on the ULT wear are a lot more spacious than the earpads found on the XB910N and XB900N, so if you have large ears or ears that stick out, these should have no problem fitting you. But then theres the clamping force on these headphones, just like before the ULT wear have a neutral amount of clamping force, they aren’t too tight and they aren’t too lose and these are big head approved. And even if you have a big head and you like to wear hats, these will have you covered as well. And finally theres the weight on these headphones, the ULT wear weigh in at 255 grams, which is below average for a pair of premium ANC headphones… but the XB900N weigh in at 254 grams and the XB910N weigh in at 252 grams. But honestly, you’re not going to notice this 2 or 3 gram difference. The important thing is these headphones are very light weight so you aren’t going to feel them shifting around when you’re walking around with them on and they are easy enough to forget that you’re wearing them if you’re sitting at your desk or laying in bed. But overall from a design standpoint the ULT Wear keep their very functional design cause they’re fully collapsible, I think they look a lot better than the XB910N cause their headband isn’t as boulbs, and when it comes to fit, the earpads stay cooler for longer, the ear pads are lot of more spacious, these headphones are still light weight and they’re still big head approved. So the ULT wear are a pair of headphones that you can easily wear for hours on end.
But now lets talk about tech specs. Regarding battery life the ULT Wear are the same as the XB910N. These headphones have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on… or they can go for as long as 50 hours with their ANC turned off. Overall battery life on these headphones is good and its great for commuters and flyers, but I would have liked to have seen an increase in overall battery life performance.
But when it comes to charging these headphones, they charge via a USB C port as they should and when it comes to their fast charging numbers, if you charge these headphones up for 10 minutes from a dead battery they are going to get you 5 hours of playback time, not bad at all.
However, this UBS C port is strictly used for charging these headphones. Unfortunalty, you can not use the USB C port on these headphones as a wired connection like you can with some other headphones out there. But thankfully, the ULT wear still have a 3.5 millimeter audio jack and they come included with an audio cable, so you can use them with a wired connection that way. And I know this sounds very basic but I do have to point this out cause some companies are starting to remove the audio jack on their headphones as a cost cutting measure, or they sell you the audio cable separately.
But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity these headphones can be connected to two devices at the same time regardless of eco system, which is good if you’re a power user cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another. So you can easily jump from your iPhone to your windows PC.
And when it comes to performance these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether youre using an iPhone or an android device… and when it comes to audio codecs the ULT Wear’s have support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC which is Sony’s own in house high res audio code. However, if you want to use LDAC you have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC… but also, if you decide to use LDAC then these headphones can only be used with one device at a time, and LDAC does take an additional toll on the battery life. Cause these headphones have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their ANC turned on… but thats with AAC… cause with LDAC you’re going to get 25 hours of playback time.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. First off, the ULT Wear no longer have as much head rattling bass as either the XB910N or XB900N. And for those who may not know, the XB900N actually have more bass than the XB910N. Now, the ULT wear’s still have a lot of bass, more bass than your normal pair of headphones… but I would no longer consider the ULT Wear to be a pair of bass headphones for those Monster Drinking, greasy haired, over stretched T-shirt collar wearing bass heads. With Sony’s new ULT lineup of speakers and headphones Sony has really been focusing on improving the instrument separation, and clarity of their sound, and even though their sound still has a lot of bass, its mostly on the audible side now. Now even though the ULT Wear no longer has the same head rattling bass as either the XB910N or XB900N, if you were to set these headphones to ULT2 and crank the Clear Bass up all the way to 10, you’re still going to get some physicality out of them. But the main upgrade on the ULT Wear from either the XB910N and especially the XB900N is that they sound a lot more open, they have better clarity, and even if you were to use these headphones with their bass cranked all the way, they’re still going to manage to sound balanced and the vocals are going to be very well defined as well. And even though the bass on these headphones is mostly on the audible side now, its extremely precise and tight and bass roll off is not an issue what so ever, so even if you have the bass on these headphones cranked up high, their bass doesn’t muddy the rest of the sound. Personally, I like using these headphones when their set to ULT 2 and I like cranking the clear bass all the way up. But you can always make these headphones sound however you want cause you can just go in and either choose from a few premade EQ’s or you can make your own… but theres also the ULT button which has two levels to it. First theres ULT 1 which is going to increase the bass on whatever EQ you’re already using… but then there’s also ULT 2 which is going to increase the overall sound pressure of these headphones so everything is just going to sound more powerful. More intense mids and harder hitting bass. So overall from a performance stand point the ULT Wear sound a lot more open and they have much better clarity than their predecessors, and these headphones still have an above average amount of bass to them thats going to be a lot of fun for normal people and these have more than enough bass to satiate normal people… however, if you’re a bass head, then these no longer have the head rattling bass that you’re looking for.
Now when it comes to the media controls on these headphones, just like before and just like Sony’s more premium ANC headphones, the ULT wears have a touch pad and this touch pad is very accurate and its very easy to use. You can swipe front or back to skip through your music and you can swipe up or down to raise or lower the volume of your music. And as a pro tip, if you swipe up and hold you can continuously raise or lower the volume. Overall the touch pad on these headphones is easy to use, however there can be some accidental inputs from time to time.
But what is new here is that the ULT wear have wear sensors. So if you take these headphones off they’ll automatically pause your music and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. Now personally I don't use the wear sensors on my headphones, but they’re there if you want them.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones. Now the ULT wear have a new V1 processor for their ANC… and the ANC on the ULT wear block out a lot more noise than the ANC found on both the XB910N and XB900N but so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
ANC Test
So like you may have just seen, the ULT wear block out a lot more noise than both the XB910N and XB900N… which is to be expected. Now even though the ULT wear have their new V1 processor which is helping us block out more noise than its predecessors… this V1 processor does not have an atmospheric pressure sensor in it like with the XM4 and XM5. So even though I feel that the ANC on these headphones is going to be great for either blocking out noise at the gym, or on the bus, or in the cafeteria… if you plan on flying a lot with these headphones, they can help, but they aren’t going to preform as well as Sony’s more premium ANC headphones. But when it comes to the overall cabin pressure on these headphones that not a problem and the ANC on these headphones doesn’t change how these headphones sound all that much. Overall the ULT wear block out noticeably more noise than its predecessors and their ANC is going to be useful for multiple situations.
But also, theres the ambient mode on these headphones. Now with the ULT wear you can adjust how much noise these headphones let in, which is great. But my favorite thing about the ambient mode on the ULT wear is that it sounds super natural. I actually feel that the ambient mode on the ULT wear sounds more natural than the ambient mode on the XM5’s and it almost sounds like you’re not wearing headphones. Plus I also really like the placement of the microphone array on these headphones cause this microphone array does a really good job of rejecting any wind noise when you’re walking out doors. And finally, the ambient mode on these headphones is the active kind, meaning that is theres a sudden loud sound like either barking or if a siren rolls by, then these headphones are going to automatically turn off their ambient mode and protect your hearing from getting blasted like this.
Active ambient mode
And then when that loud noise stops they’ll turn their ambient mode back on. And the good thing about the active ambient mode on these headphones is that its a lot more sensitive and faster to react than the active ambient mode found on both the XM4 and XM5’s. But then theres quick attention on these headphones, and basically when you fully cover the touch pad they’ll automatically 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 remove your headphones like this.
And then when you let go the headphones will go back to normal again. Now I love when headphones have this type of feature cause its very useful especially if you’re traveling or commuting with these headphones. But I dont like that you constantly have to keep this touch pad covered cause this does get uncomfortable and awkward after awhile. I feel that sony should change it so after you have the touchpad fully covered for over 5 seconds they’ll automatically lock themselves in quick attention mode and this way you can have your hands free. And when you’re done you can deactivate quick attention by double tapping on the touch pad. Regardless, even though I think quick attention can be improved, its still a great feature to have.
Mic XB900N Quite Room
But finally heres the microphone test, now Sony has always struggled with their microphone on their headphones.
Mic XB910N Quite Room
But with their last few headphones Sony has been improving
Mic ULT Wear Quite Room
And right now I feel that the Sony 1000XM5’s have the best sounding and best performing microphone out there for phone calls… and I feel that the Microphone on the Sony ULT Wear sound better than the microphone on both the XB910N and XB900N while in a quite room.
Mic ULT Wear Road Noise
However, when it comes to noise pollution, the ULT wear aren’t doing the best job here cause even though they are trying to block out this road noise, there is a considerable amount of interference going on with my voice.
Mic XB910N Road Noise
Cause I feel that the XB910N’s have the same amount of interference when it comes to blocking out road noise.
Mic XB900N Road Noise
Where as with the XB900N, these aren’t even trying to block out this road noise, they just let in everything.
Mic XV900N Chatter
And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter, these headphones are just letting in everything and my voice just sounds far away.
Mic XB910N Chatter
Where as with the XB910N these are trying to block out this chatter, but there is some interference going on with my voice.
Mic ULT Wear Chatter
And its the same thing with the ULT wear, they are also trying to block out this chatter but there is some interference going on with my voice. So overall I do feel that the microphone on the Sony ULT wear sounds better than the microphone on both the XB910N and XB900N but I would rather take phone calls with these headphones while in a quite room.
But with all of that being said, the Sony ULT Wear is a refinement and improvement of Sony’s mid tier ANC headphones. From a design standpoint I like that sony has gone back to a most subtle design similar to the Sony XB900N, and it has kept its fully collapsable design which gives us access to a smaller carrying compared to lay flat headphones. From a comfort standpoint the ULT wear have more spacious ear cups and the stiffer padding in these ear pads helps these ear pads stay cooler for longer, making them more comfortable for longer. And from a performance standpoint, the ULT Wear block out significantly more noise than both the XB900N and XB910N, their ambient mode sounds a lot more natural and their microphone array does a much better job of blocking out wind noise. But then theres their sound, the ULT wear sound a lot more open and they have a lot better clarity than their predecessor… and they still have an above average amount of bass for a pair of headphones. But the bass on these headphones is now mostly on the audible side. Now you’re still going to get some kick out of the bass on these headphones, but don’t expect the head rattling bass that bass heads look for. Nonetheless these headphones still have a lot of bass and they should make most people happy and more importantly, these do sound a lot better then their predecessors.