Sony tackled several pain points of the successful WF-1000XM3 with the recently released WF-1000XM4. The somewhat cumbersome oval-shaped design was overhauled, while the Japanese company further increased the listening time. Sony also claims that these fully wireless in-ears attenuate ambient noise better. High time for an extensive review. Does the pricey Sony WF-1000XM4 live up to the high expectations?
Sony WF-1000XM4
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.2 (sbc, aac, ldac)
Audio Driver 6 millimeter neodymium magnets
Frequency range20Hz – 20,000Hz
Listening time 8 hours (12 hours without active noise cancellation)
Water resistant IPx4
Weight 7.3 grams per in-ear
Charging case weight 41 grams
Colorways Black or silver
Website www.sony.nl
7 Score 70 
- Pros
- Splash-proof housing
- Stay put
- Excellent active noise cancellation
- Extensive app
- Negatives
- Ear irritation during long listening sessions
- No volume control by default
- Modest bass response
- Pricey
In contrast to its predecessor, the round design of the WF-1000XM4 looks slightly more compact. That translates into a lower weight of 7.3 grams per earbud. Despite the smaller housing, audio drivers of six millimeters have been incorporated into the listening devices as usual. A plus is that the housing complies with the IPx4 standard, so that the in-ears are resistant to splashes and sweat. That makes the product now also interesting for athletes. In the modest product box, Sony provides a small charging case, USB-c charging cable and three sizes of foam earplugs.
wearing comfort
Without a high wearing comfort, the numerous functions of these new in-ears are of course worth nothing. Initially, the musical earplugs fit like a glove, because the exchangeable foam earplugs fit well. Unfortunately, during long listening sessions, the reviewer in question experienced some irritation at the edges of the hearing opening. Unfortunately, using a different size of foam earplugs did not improve the situation. All in all, the housing of the WF-1000XM4 feels a bit hard. After a short twist, the earplugs sit firmly in the ear, so that they remain in place during physical activities.
Pairing Bluetooth devices is very smooth. Tap both earbuds for five seconds to connect them to a mobile device. The next time you take the earbuds out of the charging case, they automatically connect to your smartphone. The listening time on a single battery charge is about eight hours. In short, a two-hour improvement over the previous generation. The charging case also has a capacity of 24 hours, so you can charge the batteries of both Bluetooth earphones anytime and anywhere. After five minutes of charging, you can listen for another hour. If you remove the in-ears from your ears after a listening session, the music playback will stop automatically.
Active Noise Canceling
During the first listening session it takes a while to find the controls. Press the right in-ear once to pause or resume the music. If you tap twice or three times, you go to the next or previous song respectively. In addition, you can also directly answer an incoming phone call. Strangely enough, the in-ears do not offer a volume control by default, so you need the source device for this. With the left in-ear, listeners enable active noise cancellation. The bluetooth earphones use the new V1 chip to calculate an anti-noise. With success, because for in-ears standards, ambient sounds are largely omitted. One condition is that you put the earplugs relatively deep in the ear opening, otherwise disturbing ambient sounds will still reach your ears. Unfortunately, the increased pressure gives a higher chance of ear irritations.
Sony Headphones App
High-end Sony headphones and in-ears are compatible with the Headphones app. It contains extensive options. For example, the app automatically links the degree of active noise suppression to physical activities, such as standing still, walking, running and transport. In addition, get new firmware updates and check the remaining battery capacity of the in-ears and charging case. Furthermore, the 360 ​​Reality Audio function actually offers a more spacious sound. A disadvantage is that popular music services such as Spotify and Apple Music do not support this function. Subscribers of Deezer HiFi and Tidal HiFi can use it. Finally, you can link another function to the touch sensor in the app. Instead of playback control, you can still use the right sensor for volume control, for example.
Audio quality
The sound of the Sony WF-1000XM4 is pleasant to the ear, with the highs and mids in particular coming to the fore. Bass tones remain somewhat behind in the sound reproduction. Incidentally, the Headphones app offers various pre-made equalizer settings to adjust the audio reproduction, although there is no setting that results in a good audio balance with sufficient bass. Because of the use of tiny audio drivers, most in-ears suffer from this shortcoming.
The WF-1000XM4 still does not support bluetooth aptX, because Sony prefers its own ldac codec to display audio streams in better quality. According to the manufacturer, this codec processes three times as much audio data as regular Bluetooth connections. In practice, this will only help listeners if the source device also supports ldac.
Conclusion
The improved active noise cancellation, splash-proof housing and extended battery life are the main features of the new Sony WF-1000XM4. Interested parties will pay a lot of money for this with a suggested retail price of 280 euros. A critical remark is therefore in order. Although the fit is good at first, the hard earplugs probably lead to ear irritations for some listeners. It is also difficult that the housing does not contain a volume control as standard. Only if you are willing to give up the standard playback control function or active noise cancellation, you can still assign volume control to one of the touch sensors. Finally, the bass reproduction is disappointing. The question is therefore whether the high recommended retail price for these earplugs is justified. After all, you can purchase quality over-ear headphones for less money without the aforementioned drawbacks.
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