Sony WH-1000XM5 Premium Noise Canceling Headphones, Auto NC Optimizer, 30-Hour Battery, Alexa Voice Control, Midnight Blue

Awesome headphones. I've owed Beats, JBL, Technics, and several others, including an earlier version of these from 10 years ago. Ive had ear buds, on-ear and over-the-ear headphones. I spent hours researching and actual purchased and returned 5 other brands before purchasing these. These are perfect. The best sound quality, ease of use and very comfortable. Noise canceling is very good. I enjoy tight bass and spatial range of sound..listening to all different genres of music...rock, jazz, classical. Yhese headphones bring out the subtle nuances and provide very enjoyable quality of sound and comfort. Controls took some getting used to but work perfectly to increase/decrease volume, rewind/fast forward. Hands free call are queit and mic is excellent. Includes hard case. Fairly compact but I just stash them in my backpack when traveling. Have flown all over the country as well as to Europe and South American and these are my go-to headphones. Highly recommended.

I recently bought this XM5 as a perceived upgrade from my old XM3 bluetooth cans. I had held off this purchase, thinking that by now Sony would've released the XM6 by now. But no, Sony decided to continue making and selling the XM5. Tired of any further waiting for something that might not happen anytime soon, I finally caved and bought the XM5 when Amazon put the price back under $300 for the October 2024 Amazon Days.The first thing I noted was how CHEAP the packaging and the accompanying accessories were for this XM5. No stout carrying/storage case this time around. The headphone's boxed packaging might appear to be about Sony trying to be environmentally conscious and being "green", but I suspect that Sony was more about SAVING some green by cheapening up their packaging costs. Even at a discount price, the rudimentary unboxing process made me feel a bit cheated.However after charging up the XM5, I have to admit that in the end it's really only about the user experience with the headphones. And I must confess that it's pretty great, a definite step forward from the XM3 from two generations before. The XM5 is definitely more comfortable for me than the XM3, which itself wasn't all that bad to begin with. I still loathe the swipe controls on the right earpad, but at least I god used to them during my years of using the XM3.I have six plus decade old ears, so a LOT of the sonic range is now denied to my brain as my ears certainly don't perform like they used to. But I still can hear enough to say that acoustically the XM5 is a noticeable step forward from the old XM3. While initially the XM5 sound seemed a little colder and a bit on the sharp side, the soundstage imaging is better and more appealing to me, and detail recreation seems marginally improved over the older headphones. So far well-recorded live performances sound a bit more spatially realistic than what was possible with the XM3, and as the burn-in hours add up (roughly about 120 hours of burn-in so far), I suspect that these nuances with further blend, warm up and smooth out.I don't generally use over-ear wireless headphones for phone calls, so I can't really comment about this feature set of the XM5 when I used it with my cellphone. It does seem to work okay, and persons on the other end seem to regularly claim that they can hear me well enough.All in all I'm pleased with the XM5 so far. It sounds nicer than the retiring XM3 I had been using, and it fits my large noggin decently well. I do think that the headband is, if anything, a bit on the loose side. But that does seem to aid in making the XM5 wear as comfortably as it does for me. The XM3 was a difficult set to wear to sleep; any slight turn of my head at night often resulted in neck pain the next morning. I've not had this problem at all with the XM5. So far it's been a 5-star experience, and I'm looking forward to continuing to use these for the next few years.

Very good over the ear headphones. The best noise canceling headphones on the market to-date. Sony has knocked the ball out of the park with these headphones. I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a distraction free listening experience!

I agree with most reviewers regarding sound quality, being excellent, as well as noise cancellation and phone calls. Here's where these headphones fall short. I'm bald. The headband on these headphones after about 2-3 hours, hurts. I tried getting a pad for the headband that zips over the headband, that helped a bit, but still hurts. These things are just not well suited for extended use if you haven't got a lot of hair up top to pad the headphones. Otherwise, they charge quickly, they are pretty straightforward to use, and the app works pretty well. Just be careful that these things can hurt.