Sony WF-1000XM3 Industry Leading Noise Canceling Truly Wireless Earbuds Headset/Headphones with AlexaVoice Control And Mic For Phone Call, Black

UNBOXING: The first thing to do is to find the correct fit. This, like it has always been for in-ear buds, is a trial and error process. Out of the box, Sony provides you with six pair of tips - 3 pairs of silicone ones and 3 pairs of memory foam ones. I have large ears with almighty ear canals, and based on my past experience with other in-ear buds, I went for the large memory foam tips. These turned out to be too big, and the earphones dangled precariously off my ears. So I swapped them with the medium foam tips; this gave me the perfect and the most comfortable tip. The next thing I did was pop the earphones back into the case, and the case to a power supply so that both the case and the buds charged to 100%. I already had the companion Sony Headphones app on my phone, but if you don't, you can download it. Once they were charged, I launched the Sony Headphones app, went through the connection wizard, tapped my phone on the case (NFC) and that's it. They were paired - a very hassle free, and a no tech challenge process, which anyone can do. Bluetooth connectivity was perfect. I could roam around anywhere in my 1 room kitchen apartment without losing connectivity. Once these babies were paired, I popped them into my ear, and then launched the companion app to configure them. CONFIGURATION & PLAYBACK: Right out of the box, this pair provides a very neutral sound-stage with clear mids, though the highs can be very tinny and the lows quite muffled. This might make some people to take the knee jerk reaction of returning them as they do not sound all that well for the price. Well, don't, and have patience. Configure them to suit yourself, and that's how you'll get the best out of them. Configuration depends on the kind of music you listen to, and hence this step is critical. Personally, I'm not beholden to a particular genre, which makes this stage of the onboarding a bit difficult. I launched the Youtube music app, and started cycling through some of my favorite songs in the metal, pop, vocal, reggaeton, hip-hop, EDM and trap genres. To give an idea: I cycled through songs by Pink Floyd, Paradise Lost, John Legend, Post Malone, Nicky Jam, Alan Walker, Lil Nas X, Skrillex, Flosstradamus, Fever Ray, Florence + The Machine & Eminem. And post that, I went to work with the Equalizer, tweaking it while cycling through the same songs to find the perfect blend of settings that can achieve the sweet spot of a great sound-stage applicable to all these genres. My final equalizer settings for the slider bars: +4, +2, -2, -2, 0 with Clear Bass set to +8. I found that these settings gave me the best sound-stage across all the genres (of course, these won't be perfect for any one genre, but it is either that, or tweak them according to the genre that you listen to). I also set DSEE HX to ON, since this allows for the audio stream to be upscaled to simulate a high resolution stream - a good to have feature if you listen to streamed audio like I do. With the afore mentioned settings, I found that I retained the clear mids, but I was also able to deepen the lows and make the highs sound natural. USAGE: The drivers do taking some burn-in, and I started hearing a slight upgrade in quality after the first 10-12 hours of use. This was the same for my WH-1000XM3s, which sound absolutely wonderful after 4 months of use. While this pair is great on the ears while traveling (I sweat quite a bit, and the over-ear cans become uncomfortable for me), I'd still prefer the WH-1000XM3 if I'm at my desk working, or if I'm in an airplane traveling, because there is definitely some ear fatigue (which is typical for in-ears). The fit, once you have achieved it correctly as described in the first part of this review, is secure, and I did not feel any risk of these falling off. I would definitely not take this pair out for jogging or any gym exercises, since they are not water resistant, and the fit is not secure enough to handle strenuous activities of jumping, running, etc. CONCLUSION: All in all, this is a great pair, and well worth the price, if you have the patience to configure them according to your specific use cases. I highly recommend both the models from Sony, both are winners in my book, and I hope to use them for many years. PS: If you use the Tidal app, it's probably a good idea to go through the 360 degree music setup. I don't, and hence I didn't.

I’m going to reveal the XM3 operating secrets that Sony’s horrible documentation won’t tell you about. I spent *hours* on chat with Sony’s tech support. Turns out Sony’s own support doesn’t know this product too well and they mostly misguided me. Here’s what you must know to be a happy XM3 customer: 1. Earbud Fit: It’s 100% true: You must have a tight ear canal fit to get the benefit of Sony’s excellent noise cancelling. I can’t emphasize this enough. Sony’s gives you lots of ear tip options and don’t assume both ears need the same tips. If you’re hearing ambient noise from one or both earbuds in full noise canceling mode, you need to install bigger / squishier ear tips. Put in the earbuds with the Sony logo facing down , push in, and rotate forwards to parallel (90 degrees turn up). 2. Pairing. When you open and take out the buds they go into pairing mode…but good luck getting a second device to pair. The trick: Put the earbuds in your ears and press on both buttons simultaneously for ~7 seconds until you hear the pairing announcement and now you can pair with another device. 3. Getting Noise Cancelling All The Time: The Sony Headphones app (at least on iOS): What an option overload of an app. Sony gives you all these location options to automatically select what kind of noise cancelling you want (from full, to variable, to none). Technically the left earbud button lets you cycle between noise canceling/ partial / none but I found it was too easy to turn off noise canceling, so here’s what you do: First, you must ensure that the XM3s are “Connected” on your iPhone. Go to Settings / Bluetooth /Device List and select the WF-1000XM3s. If you have other devices paired to the XM3 in proximity, like your Apple Watch, you’ll need to *manually* select the XM3s on your iPhone. You’ll hear about the connection status in your left earbud. Once connected to your iPhone, launch the Sony Headphones App. IF YOU WANT FULL NOISE CANCELLING ALL THE TIME: I suggest turning the “Adaptive Sound Control” off and using the “>” to set more options. Next to “Detection of Actions” and * the App lets you set four settings for noise canceling. You can decide what to do but if you want full noise cancelling on in all cases, you then turn on Ambient Sound Control and select full Noise Canceling by moving the slider button all the way to the left for each of “Staying” “Walking” “Running” “Transport”, but please note, you might not want full Noise Canceling for some of those activities and Sony gives you that option, including automatic switching based on location (which I turned off). BUT PLEASE NOTE: This noise-canceling-all-the-time setup *deactivates* your ability to cycle between noise canceling modes via the left earbud so if you want to hear ambient sounds you’ll need to press and hold your left earbud. 4. Full Reset. To do a factory reset, you put the buds back in their fancy case and hold down both buttons until you get fast red flashes and then release. You should see blue flashes and you’re done. The buds can pair with 8 devices but only one at a time. It’s easy to go from iPhone to Watch and back…on the Watch you need to select the XM3s from the menu when prompted. Note that the Sony Headphone App will not connect to your buds if they’re bluetoothed to another device (like your watch): You have to go back to your Bluetooth device menu on your iPhone (Settings / Bluetooth / My Devices ) and manually select the WF-1000XM3s (likely towards the bottom of the list). Otherwise, these are elegant devices that stay put (I’ve never even come close to having them come out at the gym) and the sound quality is terrific as is the noise cancelling at the noisy gym. Sony’s packaging is just like Apple’s: A beautiful thing to behold…just too bad there’s not a cheat sheet for basic operations / issues included!! Good Luck and hope this helps.

So I have had these for 2 weeks now. After watching and reading multiple reviews I set myself up for a bit of disappointment. Although the reviews were all positive there are a few things I did not anticipate when I started using them. This is the first Bluetooth earbud I have ever used so I can’t compare to any other products. Wired earbuds yes, and I have tried a pair of Airbuds a family member has for about 3 minutes. Definitely not a substantial amount of time to use as a comparison. I have a Note 10+ phone and was thinking of trying the Samsung buds at first. I was more excited about the Sony’s for the noise cancelling features. I went for the Sony’s just for that feature more than anything else. I’m not a hardcore music junky so sound quality was not a issue in my buying discresion. Pro's The noise cancelling feature is fantastic. I work in a manufacturing plant with 35 machines making noise all day long. I sit with my back to a wall which reverberates the machine noise. Our operators use compressed air to blow off parts repeatedly every few minutes. Pop these bad boys in and they tune out around 90% of the sound. For this reason I will not return them. The only things I noticed it could not noise cancel were random sounds (rain, forklift beeping and high wind noise). Sound quality is quite good. The preset EQ is tuned very well and I'm sure you will find one that suits your desire. They feel and fit good in my ears. Light weight and do not move around or slide out during the course of the day. I do not run so I can not say they would stay in while exercising. Battery life is acceptable and they charge up very quickly. I wear mine for around 6 hours a day. During lunch I charge them and they seem to be good for the rest of the day work and my commute. Con's Spotty connections. It is a bit annoying to hear them drop out a few times an hour. The drop only lasts for 1 second but still, I expected something better. Microphone is horrible. I'm on the phone a lot during the day. Almost everyone complains they can't hear me clearly in the shop environment. When I go outside with less noise people still have a hard time hearing me. No volume control on the default setting. You can change that in the app but at the loss of other functionality. I seriously wish there was a sliding touch sensor along the bottom side to adjust sound. It is a pain to have to grab the phone to control volume. If you listen to music at a low level and receive a call, I have to pick up the phone to bring the call volume up. If you have the music louder and a call comes in, the ringer is very loud in your ears. You can adjust this in the phone system setting easily enough but I find it inconvenient to have to turn the ring volume back up when not using the earbuds. Button location is large but not exactly where my fingers naturally go. I tend to have to try and find it on the second attempt. I want to touch the front of the earbuds but the button is near the back. Seems a bit awkward to me. Connectivity to some non standard devices has been disappointing. My computer has Bluetooth so I thought it would be cool to get sound from it to watch Youtube or a news video during my lunch or break. Well, sadly it will pair but my Bluetooth seems to only be for file transfers. I can not get sound transmitted in Windows. I can buy a dongle to solve this problem but I would rather not. I was really disappointed when a Sony product could not connect to another Sony product. If you think pairing these earbuds with a PS4 would be the best... sorry they are not supported. Again, I can buy some dongles to "MAKE" them work but who wants to do that? Sony not supported by Sony? What's up with that? The case is a bit large. I think the design could have been refined. Seems like there is a AA battery in the bottom of the case to give you an idea of what I think should have been sized down. Additionally the lid could have been thinned down as well. The last annoying thing. When you take a call it deactivates the noise cancelling feature and puts the earbuds back into ambient sound mode. This is frustrating to say the least. I want to hear the caller and not the outside sounds. I have to assume this is a safety feature so you don’t get hit by a car while walking. I would prefer it stay in noise cancelling mode but that is just my opinion. Last thoughts. Would I recommend them to a friend? Probably not. I would recommend trying some other brands. Maybe ask a coworker or friend if they wouldn't mind letting you test out whatever they use.

Headphones are mission critical for me. Due to gun violence I have acute PTSD. Headphones (along with some Bruckner and Bach) reduce my hyper-vigilance. The more isolated I can be from what is going on around me, the better off I am - be it Whole Foods or just the walk to Whole Foods. I read a few comments criticizing the ANC. Those folks do not know how to use the app. All the way to the left is noise cancellation. I find complete isolation (or back these would go). ANC is first rate. Yes, I know, there is an inherent danger to walking around effectively deaf to the world. I'll cope. One minor issue: Tapping the left earbud toggles the ANC: On, Ambient Sound and Off. The selection returns a voice confirmation that I find impossible to understand. Keep in mind that you can do this through the app. First thing you want to do is bring these to a full charge. The app will apply a firmware update but it is fussy about the amount of charge required to do so. There is a "360 sound" configuration which you should skip the first time around. You'll need a great deal of patience, and maybe a Xanax, to set it up which involves taking pictures of your ears — seriously. Moreover, there doesn't seem to be a supporting Android app. The charging case is magnetic so the earbuds seat correctly every time while allowing easy removal. The Android app is a bit buggy which is the worst thing I can say about these buds. While the buds stay connected the app keeps disconnecting for some strange reason. The app does not have to run to use the earbuds. If you close the app the earbuds retain whatever settings were in place. Sound is fantastic. I find it improves by turning off the Dolby processor. An equalizer is available through the app. Google Play Music starts automatically when the buds are removed from the case. You can connect to multiple devices but only one at a time. Again, the sound is very rich with good bass and clear high notes. I had good results with Wagner. Miles Davis and some 60s hard rock. I might be a senior but I am still a geek. I gave up reading manuals around Redhat 8. This is an exception. You really should read the manual. The included manual is impossible to deal with. Fortunately, on Sony's website, you will find a comprehensive "Help Guide" that is easy to read. Sony provides enough pairs of tips to fit every conceivable ear size (and then some). Best bet is always the largest set that you can use without being uncomfortable. Sony did cheap out on one thing: The damned C-Cable is about six inches in length. They also figure that everyone has enough adaptors at this point (they are correct) so none is provided. Bottom line. Premium performance is in line with the premium price. My last set of ANC ear buds were half this price. This is the first pair of truly wireless buds I have had. I must say that it is nice to get that thing off my neck. The downside is some loss of convenience.

What I love: 1. Sound quality: amazing, I mean very clear and they have a lot of EQ options to really tune the sound. As a basshead, bass is very solid on Clearbass +8. 2. Noise cancellation: ANC is top-notch. When listening in a bathroom with a ceiling vent, you wouldn't even know the vent is on. You can hear voices speaking on full noise cancellation but they're very muffled and even on 0 volume I need to take them out to hear what someone is saying to me if they're not speaking that loudly. 3. Quick charge: I think you get like an hour of battery for 15 minutes of charging. Really nice when you're taking a little break during studying or something and want to juice these up a bit so they don't die. They've only died on me once after a super long study session. What I don't like: 1. Connectivity is garbage. I have all Apple devices and it's pretty rough. Switching between my Mac and iPhone can take a solid 10-15 seconds. Half the time I take them out of the case and put them in my ears, only one side connects, prompting me to put the one ear back in the case then back into my ear. Sometimes they just refuse to connect and will disconnect randomly. Also, every time you put them you have to listen to "power on...battery fully charged...bluetooth connected." EVERY TIME. It gets really annoying when you're trying to be quick. Airpods beat these in terms of smoothness and how quickly they can switch back and forth and how stable the connection is. Sometimes they'll connect to my Mac and the balance is automatically set to only one ear and I have to go into system preferences and change it back to the middle. 2. Battery life is okay. I don't even listen to music that loud, but ANC will definitely kill these pretty quickly, so beware that you will not be able to go for four hours straight without some charging in between if you're using full noise cancellation. 3. Waterproofing: these are NOT water resistant or waterproof, or even sweat-proof. Be careful using these at the gym if you sweat a lot. You can't wear them in even the slightest drizzle of rain. This isn't a huge thing, but it rains a lot where I live and it gets annoying when you're walking around campus or wherever and can't put them in because it looks like it's about to rain or is raining a bit. I used to wear my earpods in the rain and this is a big nuisance. 4. Call quality: call quality isn't that bad on your end. It's not awful for the other person either but any type of noise is LOUD for the person you're speaking to. A creaky door that you open, a keyboard, a loud car in the background... People will always ask "what was that sound?" because they pick up a lot of things. Also, during calls they sometimes disconnect randomly and then when you have to take them out and switch to speakerphone, they'll reconnect and you'll make the person repeat what they just said again because your headphones decided to just randomly disconnect and reconnect. 5. Ear tips: three sizes of rubber and foam. Foam ones are normally my go-to, but the ones that come with these are not great. They don't stay in well and don't isolate as well as the silicone ones. I've tried every size and roll them up to form to my ear as well with little success. OVERALL: best true wireless earbuds on the market for sound quality and ANC. The major pitfalls of these are where the Airpods Pros take the cake, because Apple products are super quick and smooth together. That still isn't enough for me to switch, since I'm an audiophile and will take the sound quality of these over Apple any day. But if speed and convenience is more important to you than sound quality and ANC, I would not immediately jump to these. Passthrough mode on Airpods is comparable to these, if not better. If you made it to the end of this, thank you. I've owned these for six months and wanted to be completely fair. Great headphones, but far from perfect.

I just want to start off by saying WOW! I couldn’t wait for my Sony WF-1000XM3 headphones to arrive, and when they arrived today I couldn’t wait to get them out the box and get them in my ears. Opening the box I knew by packaging that everything was packaged so well that nothing would be broken and that’s always a relief. The headphones were snuggly tucked into packaging along with the charging case. Numerous ear accessories for many different ear sizes, along with the charging cable and manual were tucked underneath. Once I downloaded the application to my smartphone setup was a breeze. Everything was step by step and you’re walked through. Having numerous different brands and styles of headphones I will say these are the most advanced pair I own. There are so many options and accessories. I was able to set an equalizer that suites my listening needs and wants. You’re able to set it for when you take on out it’ll pause your music. And you even have options to use Alexa or Google Assistant, which I’ve yet to explore. I will say I was not disappointed when I connected my phone to these headphones! The clarity is amazing! From vocals, each individual instrument, and the deep bass, I was truly blown away! I work in an industry where sound is very important. An industry being arenas and theaters. I will say these are by far the nicest headset I’ve every had and can’t wait to explore the many more options these have to offer. From hands free calling, battery life, Alexa and Google Assistant. Having had a couple days now to explore I can truly say that I am blown away about every aspect of these headphones. I haven’t ran into any issues losing my media when paired with the Bluetooth, I’ve been able to go about doing chores around the house without carrying my phone around and haven’t encountered an instance of losing my media. And I have been able to go about doing lawn work as well! I’ve had these headphones for days now and have yet to charge them and have put hours of listening in and am still at about 50% battery life! As with other headphones I’ll go to put them in the next day and encounter the they need to be charged message and have to postpone my tasks at hand. Lastly there are zero distractions with the noise canceling aspect of these headphones, it’s like being in the recording studio live with every track that I’ve listened to. And they fit snuggly! I honestly have yet to find a flaw with these headphones! -Chris353

Update to this review: Sony released version 2.0.2 of the firmware for the WF-1000XM3 earbuds a few days ago. This allows me to pair the headphones with Windows 10, but they still have problems: Glitchy Audio on Windows 10: When listening to music on the WF-1000XM3 earbuds, I hear intermittent glitches in the audio. These glitches are similar in sound to the skips in a record. These glitches come at random times, but are occurring at a frequncy of aproxximately every 30 seconds to a minute, though sometimes more frequently than that. I'm sure that the problem isn't the computer, because when I switch to listening through my other earbuds (a pair of Jabra Elite 65t units), the music is glitch-free regardless of which playback source I'm using. I'm also sure that the problem isn't wireless connectivity, because I'm sitting within three feet of the computer. When paired to my iPhone, there are fewer issues (less frequent glitches) but there are still some glitches occasionally. Unable to pair successfully to two devices at once: When I pair the WF-1000XM3 earbuds to both Windows 10 and to my iPhone at the same time, I'm not able to use them correctly. They do not connect seamlessly with both devices. My expectation is that I can listen to audio on the computer, and then if a phone call comes on the iPhone, then it it should switch automatically to the call on the iPhone. This does not work. I can either connect actively to one device or the other. Whereas the Jabra Elite 65t's do both at the same time, problem-free. Microphone quality is still very poor: Same as in my prior review (below) - When making a call to another person through, for example, Skype, the sound of my voice into the microphones is poor. Failure to respond to touch commands: These WF-1000XM3 use touch-sensitive pads which do things like initiate pairing, stop/start playback, and activate noise canceling. When I try to press the pads to do these things, it does not always work. It's weird because they respond with a beep noise when I touch them, but then the command is not issued. So I know the headphones registered that I pressed them, because I hear the beep, but they just don't do the thing they were supposed to do. Example: Press right earbud to pause playback. Expected: Beep sound followed by the playback pausing. Actual: Beep sound, but playback doesn't pause. Another example: Press and hold both earbuds for 7 seconds to initiate pairing. Expected Beep sound followed by a voice prompt "Bluetooth Pairing". Actual: Beep sound but no voice prompt saying "Bluetooth Pairing" and no pairing was initiated. Summary: Good points still exist for these headphones, covered in my older review below, but do not buy these headphones if you intend to connect them to a Windows computer, or if you intend to use them for voice calls. -------------------------------------------------------------- Original review before firmware version 1.3.7: Problem 1: These WF-1000XM3 earbuds are in dire need of a firmware update, because they have connectivity problems with Windows 10 computers. Initially when I got these, I was able to connect to the computer with both voice communications (Skype meetings and such) as well as connecting with high quality stereo music. However now, it no longer works with the stereo music, and now it only connects with low-quality mono voice call quality. Stereo music does not work at all on the computer (though it still works on my iPhone). Problem 2: Sony has abandoned firmware updates for these. At the time of this writing, the WF-1000XM3 earbuds are at firmware version 1.2.3, and Sony made a firmware update to 1.3.0 which was supposed to solve the Windows 10 stereo audio connectivity problem. However you cannot get this update! When you attempt to make a firmware update by following the instructions on the Sony web site, nothing happens, it does not initiate the update. If you look closely at the Sony web site screen there is a message in small print: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but this software update has been temporarily suspended. We are working on the issue and will release a new update as soon as possible. (09-24-2019)". That message has been there on the web site since over a month ago. I'm still waiting, and I predict I'll be waiting forever. Problem 3: The microphone quality of any voice calls you make with the WF-1000XM3 is very poor. When I join a Skype meeting using my computer, the sound of my voice is too quiet, with very low quality, and frequently drops out below the noise floor. Basically, I'm unintelligible unless I shout. Also I cannot control the gain on the earbuds' microphone to turn it up so that my voice is louder to prevent dropouts. I don't know if this is fixed in firmware updates, since I cannot get firmware updates (as described above). By comparison, I also own a pair of Jabra Elite 65T wireless earbuds, and their voice call quality is fantastic (though those don't have active noise cancellation). Good points: The active noise cancellation is nice. Despite the other problems, I can still use these earbuds in my noisy open-office area to reduce the environmental sounds and listen to music, as long as I pair them to something that isn't Windows 10. The stereo music sound quality is good (when it can connect and it works). I found the music to be full and rich when it works. Note: I am pretty sure that these only support the older Bluetooth music protocols, I don't think they support the APTX music protocol, so don't expect them to have low latency at the same time as high quality. The way that these earbuds slip into their charging case is nice, they have little magnets which snick them into position and it feels really good. I tested the battery life, and these do last the advertised 5 hours with noise cancellation turned on (a bit longer, actually, when new). They also quick-charge from the charging case nicely, going from zero to 70% charged in a surprisingly short time. So if you want to use them for an entire day at work, or on a long airplane flight, you should do OK if you pop them back into their charging case any time that you get up from your seat. Conclusion: Don't buy these WF-1000XM3 earbuds if you intend to use them to make voice calls or Skype meetings, since your voice going out to the other people will be terrible. If you want these earbuds for other reasons, such as the noise cancellation, then check to see if Sony has fixed their firmware update problems first.

These are awesome. The sound quality is superb and from what I've been told the microphone is great too. I've used these almost everyday since purchasing them for both work conference calls and everyday chores and they perform exceptionally. Sound - I probably don't need to express how great the sound quality is considering other reviews, but it really is awesome. The noise cancelling does a very good job for an earbud (compared to over the ear headphones they certainly let some noise in, but it is still exceptional). The ambient sound setting is pretty rad, admittedly I haven't really experienced this on other bluetooth earbuds, but I found it pretty neat. Allows me to perform tasks without worrying I'm missing the outside world. Comfort - Initially I found them a little uncomfortable, but they came with some alternative earbud - cushion - things that are made out of some type of foam that are awesome. It takes a little getting used to with the act of placing them in the ear - though Sony does provide instructions on the proper way to do so. Controls - The button controls on the earbuds are a little odd, particularly on the right ear where you can start / stop music or calls. I've found it a little too sensitive where if I adjust may hair it may mess with my music. Also the headphones sense when they are in ear (not sure if this is business standard) which means at times if you take out one earbud to provide your full attention; and accidentally squeeze the earbud too tight, your audio will start up again as if it were in ear. Overall I'm not going to knock the product on this as all this seems more like something quirk then a real nuisance. Though this may be more an issue for others. Case - Some will probably take issue with the carrying case as it is a little large, but it doesn't bother me much, be sure to look at the specs if it is a concern. Battery life - As mentioned I use these ALOT, so its hard to say if the battery simply doesn't last long or if I'm just using them too much. Feels like they will need a charge about 2/3 the way through my day (so like 4-5 hours). Personally, I take more issue with the battery life of the case itself a bit more as the only way to see how much is left on the case is through the app. I really would not have minded if the earbuds just mentioned the case life when first placed in the ear as they do regularly, but maybe this is a more complex than it sounds. At any rate, having to use an app to view case batterylife isn't my favorite, so occasionally I'll find myself with dead earbuds simply for lack of confirming the case has any juice left. Overall - Super solid purchase, really couldn't be happier.