Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's basically all a trick... These are $150 headphones Sony xb910n's with a low quality boom mic. Now let me tell you why they absolutely aren't xm4's or xm5's or even xm3's which is what they want you to think. This review goes in the following order... 1- intro (up above sorry, it was important to say that first) 2- Summary of everything written below 3- Spatial or 3D audio quality & accuracy & general audio quality 4- Noise Cancelling 5- Conclusion [Section 2 Summary] Only 19db of noise cancelling puts them on par with $120-50 Sony xb910n's with the same sound profile as well. Sadly those won't connect to a PS5 because...? The Pulse 3d headphones from Sony don't have noise cancelling but do have slightly better audio quality which also means better 3d audio even if it's not nearly as good as Atmos headphone simulated 3d audio. The Pulse headphones also block only 9db less without noise cancelling, technically enough that outside sound won't interrupt you at even half volume. It's mic is also much better as the audio from this mic is quite poor quality especially if the room has noise like an air-conditioner, fan, or others talking. [Section 3- Spatial audio and general audio quality & how it works] I'm an audiophile so I buy lots of headphones and gaming headsets so of course I bought a pair of these and was excited for their arrival only to end up returning them because they actually sounded worse than the Sony pulse 3d headphones which already had average frequency range accuracy due to no EQ and surprisingly poor 3d or spatial audio considering it was a huge talking point for Sony also about time since their competition & PC gaming has had it for 8+ years. Why and how did Sony drop the ball here? Let's talk about it... I had my ears measured by Sony themselves at a demo event before the pulse headphones had come out. There was a rep setting up a display at a local audio store so I took advantage of the opportunity. Based on measurements and some audio tests I was capable of hearing simulated 3d audio from a stereo source and I perfectly matched the PS5 default profile (hooray) and while I by far prefer traditional surround sound especially when there are also height channels for that true all around you effect there are times when headphones are required to enjoy a game or movie. Times like late at night or early mornings or if my wife is working from home, it's also better for friends in an online game if they don't hear your game audio at 90s cell phone quality on top of their own audio... So I will use headphones in those situations and if possible I'd like them to have good 3d audio and good frequency range. So If I had to put a number to the algorithm Sony is using for spatial audio vs the industry standard which is Dolby Atmos over Stereo headphones I would say it's about 30% less accurate if you don't consider height. So just a circle around you BUT if you consider above or below I'd say 40% less accurate. So if I put you at the center of a bubble and you could float there or I just sat you down and I had software that could trigger a sound from anywhere around you then asked you to point every time you heard various sounds or asked you to track the path of a sound as you heard it by pointing and following you would be off roughly 30-40% using Sony's algorithm. With Atmos you would be off by about 10%. Now it's possible Sony will improve their algorithm but it's been nearly 3 years and I don't think there have been any changes. It also doesn't help that games need to support pulse 3d audio for any effect other than stereo and so far not many games actually do. On the flip side with Atmos there is no support required from the content. The algorithm is excellent at taking a stereo source and adjusting the level of each sound to trick the brain into hearing things that aren't really there. It's definitely something I hope they work on more as I love PlayStation exclusives developed by Sony studios. Compared to devices (both single and multi driver) using formats like Atmos, DTS:X and a couple other 3d solutions with the most shocking being Windows Sonic on any cup style headphones $40 and beyond they are all more accurate at nailing the position of a sound. That is pretty odd. The simple answer for all this are the frequencies Sony focuses on which are low frequencies, they lean into bass a bit too heavy handedly and that hurts higher frequency response when you are talking about headphones with 1 driver. The more in depth reasons are below.. For simulated 3d audio you need to nail high frequency accuracy and be good with mid range frequencies because it's significantly easier for the human ear to tell what direction something like foot steps or an average a car is coming from than it is to quickly locate something with lots of low frequency sound (aka bass) and bass has been Sony's focus for years speakers & headphones and they do it well but they do it at the expense of accuracy for mids and highs. Its also due to how these sounds vibrate the bones in your head ever so slightly and bass tends to override everything else. This is an issue for 3d audío from stereo headphones because often times sound cues draw attention to something or you might need to be able to hear footsteps in a game like call of duty or cars in a racing game so you know without looking where they are located with a high degree of accuracy. People using other types of 3d audio (in cross play titles or users with surround sound) will have an advantage over someone using Sony's format every time but MOST important is the fact that audio coming from the wrong place breaks immersion at worst or enhances it greatly at best. It's your eyes vs ears, when things match up or come close enough you end up more immersed in the world the sights and sounds create instead of feeling detached or even distracted. You would be better served shutting pulse 3d off and letting the game engine handle it via the stereo mix or use a different solution for 3d audio, unfortunately Sony blocks other formats in games like Atmos and j believe DTS:X as well but thankfully there are other ways to handle it so just set a game to headphones and you're likely in better hands... Yes this defeats the entire purpose of 3d audio and headphones that claim to produce it but it is what it is. The good news is the pulse3d Sony headphones could do Atmos fairly well on PC but when I tested these on PC with Atmos there was an issue but it should be fixed by now. Unfortunately using Atmos isn't free and you need to buy a license for $20 but that license will be yours forever. If only Sony would support the format too even if it meant you paying the fee instead of them. Now with positional audio out of the way let's move onto Noise Cancelling... [Section 4- Active Noise Cancelling, these aren't xm3, 4 or 5's] This is done by using exterior microphones on the headphones to record what's going on around you and then use the opposite sound waves from the headphones speaker to cancel most of that sound out. So far the best Sony has done at an affordable level is the xm4's which slightly beat the xm5's due to their ability to block things of all frequency at a nearly equal level where the xm5's are great at voices but not so great at things like air-conditioners or wind and mid range intermittent but repeating sounds The xm5's are also slightly better than the xm4's at blocking low frequencies but the 4's win when it comes to mids & highs. For some basic comparison... the Sony xm5's block 29 db overall, while xm4's block 30db but the frequencies they block are more common in an interior setting which make these headphones severely lacking in ANC (or Active Noise Cancelling) and they are actually based on the $150ish (probably less these days) Sony xb910n's which I confirmed by comparing their noise cancelling, sound ranges and features along with internal design and external mics. They both block 19db of sound EXACTLY and both focus on low and mid frequencies with kinda ok high frequency blocking but you would be best served if they focused on blocking low & high as they are easiest to hear The fact that they are based on a pair of $150 (probably less now) Sony ANC headphones that also can do 3d audio via various formats and will connect to almost any device wirelessly or wired makes their price absolutely unacceptable. This however being Sony means they won't work on PlayStation unless you use them wired via controller but that means no 3d audio. Very consumer friendly of them... I understand wanting to sell the higher priced item but they shouldn't block lower priced one's when they are fully capable of the same thing. Male your high end kit actually worth the asking price, don't force people to only have 2 options. [Section 5- Conclusion] Go with the pulse3d if noise cancelling isnt absolutely necessary, they are significantly cheaper and when at half volume they block out most sound anyways (9db without audio which is only 10db less than these). It's either that or buy a different brand altogether but I wouldn't recommend these unless they were $175, 200 at most but considering everything $150 is where they belong and only because they added ANC even if just barely more than normal headphones also block by covering your ears. They are an older design with a new shell and a low end voice chat boom mic.. very low end. Friends could hear my Dyson bladeless fan on setting 3/10 and it was 9 feet away & not pointing anywhere near my direction. It's too sensitive and needs to be higher quality for the asking price. Really that's the issue here... What you get for the price. At this price they are a truly bad value and feel like a bait & switch thanks to the WH1000XM series they resemble despite being in the xb900 series. I've seen so many people comparing them to that series from Sony. I understand why... They look sort of look like them, they are in that price range and made by the same company. I was fooled into buying them but then I started using them and could hear things I couldn't with my xm3-5's. Then I got out a pair of xb910n's I had been holding onto as emergency backups and they matched in every way.... I couldn't believe it.