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Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones
“WH-1000XM4 headphones blend sophisticated styling with exceptional comfort. Super-soft, pressure-relieving earpads in foamed urethane evenly distribute pressure and increase ear/pad contact for a stable fit.”
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When you want to shut out the world, few things are as bad as sound leaking through your headphones. In our experience, the Sony’s WH-1000 series has some of the best active noise cancelling (ANC) money can buy, and they’re currently discounted to their lowest price yet.
You can grab Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones for just $228 in the US, netting a 34% discount. The UK has a slightly slimmer deal, chopping 14% off to bring the pair down to £197.99. Both are the best prices we’ve spotted in each region, and you get a choice of black, silver, or navy.
These cans will connect to pretty much any device out there through USB Type-C or wirelessly through Bluetooth 5.0. You can even connect two wireless devices simultaneously. Sony estimates that you’ll get up to 30 hours out of them before needing to juice them up.
While Bluetooth can connect with older versions, you’ll want to make sure your connecting device has the newest version possible whenever latency is important. That’s not much of an issue when it comes to music, but it can make a big difference when gaming.
The 40mm drivers and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) diaphragms push frequencies ranging from 4Hz all the way to 40,000Hz. That might sound technical, but it’s a wider soundstage that doesn’t miss a beat. Edge-AI even helps upscale compressed digital music files to make them sound even better, which is a blessing given wireless connections add some compression. And if you’re not happy with the sound, you can change the equaliser using Sony’s smartphone app.
As we mentioned, these are superb at noise cancelling. Sony uses its proprietary Sense Engine to detect your activity and the environment around you, adjusting active noise cancelling levels so things don’t sound like you’re underwater.
Wearer detection notices when you’ve removed your headphones and automatically pauses whatever you’re listening to. This way, you don’t end up with 36,000 hours on your Spotify Unwrapped, like yours truly. You can also skip and pause playback using on-ear controls, or hover your hand over the right cup to activate conversation mode, letting you hear the room around you.
WH-1000XM4s are Sony’s last-generation technology, hence the fantastic price. The brand’s latest WH-1000XM5s are also 18% cheaper at $328 in the US and 12% off at £279 in the UK. These sport the same features with an updated headband that limits mobility a little, Bluetooth 5.2, stronger ANC, and around 35% better battery life. We’ll leave it up to you whether that’s worth the $100 jump or not.
Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones
“With two processors controlling eight microphones, Auto NC Optimizer for automatically optimising noise cancelling based on your wearing conditions and environment, and a proprietary driver unit, WH-1000XM5 headphones are industry-leading at noise cancelling.”
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All of these items are on Amazon Prime, where subscribers get free delivery. Check out the benefits included in an Amazon Prime membership, because you might just find it’s worth it.
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