Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones ups the ante with brilliant sound

Now that headphones offer us brilliant sound, what new frontiers can there possibly be?

Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise cancelling headphones.

Now that headphones offer us brilliant sound, what new frontiers can there possibly be?

This question was in my head when trialling Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones. Excuse me for using such a long product number, but that’s how Sony names them. We’ll just call them the M4, the fourth generation of this great premium headphone range.

Generation three, the M3, already offers strong and clear sound, supports noise cancellation and deals with different types of ambient sound.

The M4 also offers very high quality sound with tone rick treble and strong, distortion free bass. The unit is lightweight and the ear cups are comfortable to wear.

Looking around the headphones, there’s a USB-C charging port at right and an on-off switch and customisable button on the left earcup.

If you guess that automation with AI is on the cards in 2020, you’d be right. The M4 adjusts ambient sound settings depending on your location and also actions: sitting, standing and moving.

Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise cancelling headphones

For example it can allow through more ambient noise when you are walking down the street, but offer full noise cancellation when you’re sitting. It can build a portfolio of locations and your preferred audio settings.

You may want a degree of background noise at the gym so you can be aware of the environment around you. Sony says it can learn these settings over time.

All of this is configured through the Sony headphones app that you download from the Apple App and Google Play stores.

AI is a clever idea but can be inexact. For example, there are standing situations where I might want some background noise, such as waiting at the traffic lights walking to the park, and others where I don’t want it. I might momentarily stop walking and stand watching some ducks in a local pond, and want full noise cancellation to continue.

Sony says it has beefed up noise cancellation with two microphones on each cup taking in the ambient sound. It says a system-on-a-chip adjusts the music and noise at more than 700 times per second. It’s a frequency well beyond what any mortal could detect. Nevertheless noise cancellation works well.

It says the M4 also is capable of rebuilding the audio lost during digital compression.

Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise cancelling headphones

There’s a new function that I can say is a standout: speak-to-chat. If you suddenly find yourself in a conversation while listening to music, the earphones can be set to switch to ambient mode automatically when you start speaking. You don’t need to fiddle around with controls.

You can set the headphones to automatically switch back after 15 seconds, 30 seconds or a minute or just double tap the right cup. You can toggle all this functionality in the app. It too works well.

There is a catch. If you start singing along to your favourite tracks with this feature on, the music stops, as I found out. You’ll need to toggle the feature off.

The M4 is designed to handle 360 reality audio which caters to more spatially focused music; you are more conscious of the direction of different instruments and voices.

Curiously, Sony encourages you to take a photo of your ears as part of the set-up routine so it can analyse your ear shape.

The app offers an equaliser and you can optimise sound for different atmospheric pressures, for example when flying.

The app has a tutorial to help you get across the touch sensor controls. These controls are confined to one earcup – the right side. That can be a good thing as it means there are less standard gestures to remember.

Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless noise cancelling headphones

You double-tap to swap between play and pause, or to receive or finish a call. Alternatively you tap and hold to summon your voice assistant. There are a couple of swiping gestures – forward and back for the next and previous track, and up or down for volume control. They are simple – even I can remember these.

If you need to quickly listen to an announcement, you can slap the right cup and the music cuts out so you can listen to surroundings. It could be a loudspeaker announcement. It’s instantaneous.

These gestures are generally reliable, although I noticed you need to swipe a few times to go from sotto voce to forte in volume control.

There is one customisable button on the left-side. By default, one press manually toggles ambient sound/noise cancelling. It’s up to you to choose the functionality.

Sony promises 30 hours of battery life from a single charge with noise cancelling on and up to 38 hours with it off. Quick charging offers five hours of playback from ten minutes of charging. You certainly won’t be running out of battery quickly.

The headphones come in a stylish zip case complete with charging cable and a cable for wired connection. There’s an adaptor for plugging the headphones into an airline sound system.

The M4 is certainly one of the quality headphones of the year. It comes in black and platinum and sells for a recommended $549.95.