Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Sony Premium Noise Cancelling Wireless Behind-Neck in Ear Headphones

Top positive review

Best in its class

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018

These headphones are the most complete I have ever owned. I wanted wireless headphones that were small enough fit in a narrow pocket in my backpack, so the gigantic over-ear ones were out. I needed something with excellent battery life that would also work in wired mode, so most earbuds were out. I needed excellent sound quality and noise canceling, but most top brands are quite expensive. Lastly, I wanted something that would vibrate for phone notifications.

I was upgrading from the WI-C400, the lowest model in this line, and I expected to have to compromise on one or two of my requirements, but these headphones tick every single one of the boxes. They are solidly built compared to most neckbands. They work perfectly in wired mode, have decent battery life, and charge quickly. I listen mostly to metal and hard rock, and the sound quality is excellent, especially once you configure it to your liking using the companion app. I take public transport to work, and these block out almost all the engine noise inside the bus. I got them when they were discounted for Cyber Monday, but after using them for a week, I would pay even the full price.

After living with them for around a month, I can say that they are quite well built; they took some splashes one time I was caught in the rain without an umbrella, and they suffered no functional or cosmetic damage. I wish the battery life was longer, but this is a minor niggle; I rarely exhaust the battery even over 2 days. The only annoyance is that there are no dedicated forward and backward buttons, and the volume buttons do not perform these functions when long pressed. You have to tap the play button twice to forward and thrice to go back. I sometimes find this difficult to do when my hands are frozen and/or wrapped in gloves.

10 people found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Rene Berber

Disappointing.

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2018

I returned the first ones I got, I just couldn't believe that Sony would make a product that didn't perform as expected, or have such poor quality control.

But the second ones are exactly the same: NC does nothing. Having the headphones on, or off, makes no difference.

This are not my first NC headphones, they are the 4th I own, have used them for a long time. 2 of those are Bose's, which work very well, just don't age gracefully. The previous I bought are also Sony, MDR-1000X, which are very good, but not as good as the Bose's.

The WI1000X/B are well designed, easy to use, and do have excellent sound if you have the equipment that can produce it; LDAC with my mobile phone, which is also a Sony (Xperia XZ), works perfect.

But when it comes to Noise Cancellation (NC), nothing, these model does nothing. Knowing NC very well I went through NC optimization, resetting the unit, changing the ear buds to the foam ones, using the (Android) app to fiddle with all the settings... no change at all.

Funny thing is I opted for this brand/model because the similar product by Bose has a bad reputation since their first version had a firmware bug... that made NC useless, if I remember correctly. And you can't change the firmware on these things.

Bottom line: Not worth the money.

12 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Mad Scientist

Best in its class

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

10 people found this helpful

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Eric Leachman

These headphones rock!

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

I bought these headphones to use in an environment where there is constant grinding, compressors, hammering, and other loud noises occurring quite frequently. Its been just about a year or so now and these headphones are still trucking.

I won't comment too much on sound since I'm not an expert (and other reviews cover it in depth) but these headphones sound very good. Easily one of the better sounding headphones I've purchased even among Klipsch and Bose.

The ANC on these works wonders and significantly mutes louder noises even without music. The range is okay but not exceptional. You're probably looking at around twenty feet or so before the sounds starts cutting out - less if you have walls in the way. This isn't generally a problem.

The battery is great on these. They last me a full nine hours at work and an additional couple hours after and it has yet to falter. This is constant music playing the whole nine hours. The battery has yet to falter or be unreliable. I don't know what I would do if they couldn't last a whole shift!

These headphones are surprisingly durable. I try to take good care of these headphones but due to the nature of my work they see some action every now and then. They are exposed to dust, small particles of flying debris, chemicals and occasionally get thumped by heavy objects i might be carrying. Despite all that they have yet to falter. They aren't scratched, the cords are still in great condition, and the earbuds still look/sound great as long as I stay on top of cleaning them. My only real complaint is that the dust cover is so tight I had to use needles, pins, or nails to pry it open (I'm too clumsy to do it with my fingers) and due to my abuse its a little loose now. Keep in mind I charge them every day and that dust cover is still working, just a bit loose.

Great build quality, great sound, and great battery life.

Helpful

Stephen D Pearl

Solid in-ear Noise Cancellation that gets *much* better with replacement foam tips.

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

I own and regularly use a pair of Bose QC15 headphones and I love them. They aren’t going to beat some of the newer designs for pure audio performance, but they have traveled over 100,000 miles with me in the air and have helped me keep my sanity over the drone of jet engines and nearby fussing children. The QC25 and QC35s are better in most respects, (better NC, more texture to the audio), and the Sony WH-1000XM3s are better sonically and with NC but not as comfortable on the head (IMHO), but none of them are what I would call “discrete.” They sit on top of your head screaming to the world, “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOU!”

So I set about hunting for a pair of more discrete, in-ear NC headphones that would get me as close as possible to the right balance of NC performance, audio quality, and extended-wear comfort. As you can imagine, it’s not a particularly crowded field. I fact, I only found 3 or 4 that even attempted to add NC to the in-ear form factor. Bose, of course, had the QC 20 and 30 series, but the funky shaping of the buds and the silicone “wedge” never quite fit my odd-shaped ears.

Then I stumbled upon a, “What have I got to lose?” purchase. I found a pair of “Like New” condition Sony WI1000x in-ear NC headphones on Amazon for a shocking $124.00. These are usually sold on sale at $249, so with Amazon Prime it was a no-brained risk. As advertised, they arrived in a plain box but with the carry bag and accessories intact. They were indeed “Like New” with no visible signs of wear or damage.

Before I put them on, however, I did one thing that made my entire experience that much better. I use Misodiko foam tips on all my in-ear headphones. Some people swear by Comply, but I find the Comply foam to be too stiff for my ears.

On first use, I updated the firmware, downloaded the Android App, and explored. Now I can tell your that “most” of the Android App “tweaks” are just silly. Who is going to wear NC headphones and care in the least whether the sound feels like it’s coming from behind you? Silly. Air pressure adjustments might help those who travel by jet, but I found it more annoying than useful. And at first I found the “Ambient” NC adjustment more gimmicky than truly useful. (I’ll get back to this in a moment.). As for audio quality, they are “not horrible,” but about what you’d expect from a headphone that’s about NC first and audio second. The audio quality in it’s raw, un-tweaked form is reasonably full, mildly warm, and strong in the highs, but lacking somewhat in low-end punch. It’s not annoying, but it’s also not memorable. And the Android App tweaks can only do so much to adjust the performance curve. The changes are incremental, not ground-breaking. Oh yes, they can be worn with a USB cable tether if the power runs out. It works, but it also doesn’t charge while it works, so it’s strictly for emergency use only.

Nevertheless, with the Misodiko foam tips the isolation improved dramatically. The performance of these headphones with the stock silicone tips vs the Misodiko is night and day. With the silicone tips they are only marginally better than wearing a pair of noise isolating Bluetooth earbuds. In fact, I would go so far as to say if you plan to just use them included silicone buds, don’t bother buying the WI1000x for the NC feature. In stock form the noise isolation is so poor as to be little more than a pair of glorified LG Tone Pros.

Add the foam tips, though, and you are within striking distance of Bose QC15s. Not the higher line models like the QC25 or 35s, but the first gen QC15s. The foam tips provide a significant bump in isolation and permit the Sony NC to block the usual assortment of fan noise, engine noise, and other irritants that you typically buy NC Headphones to block.

But last night... Last night I ran these through the *ultimate* test of NC prowess. I wore them to a 117db rock concert at the Giant Center in Hershey PA. Christian artist Toby Mac was the featured performer after *4* opening acts. (Yes, it was a LONG night!). If you’ve never heard Toby Mac, think Justin Timberlake with more moral grounding. ;) And the concert was as loud as you would expect. From the concourse I registered 115db A band peaks on my calibrated SPL app. If you don’t know what that means, trust me, it’s LOUD.

At first, I didn’t use the 1000x. Instead, I used my go-to “concert” hearing protection, a pair of generic, silicone tip noise isolating ear plugs that drop overall levels about 12db but do so while injecting a non-stop buzziness in the lows and minds. They’re useable, but not ideal.

I decided before leaving the house, however, to bring my 1000x headphones. Just before Toby Mac came on, I knew the sound levels would jump so I fired up the 1000xs, put the earplugs back into their case, and inserted the 1000x in-ears with the Misodiko foam tips. As the concert progressed I played with a variety of settings until I found the sweet spot. I tried the “Ambient” mode, tweaking settings to focus on vocals and adjusting the slider from 1 to 15 to see just how much clipping I would experience as the NC engine tried to make sense out of the 120db C-band bass frequencies vs the vocals. in the end, I just set the NC to full and experienced the BEST hearing protection experience I have EVER had at a rock concert. I heard every vocal with crystal clarity. I experienced a subjective 20db-ish overall drop in the audio level to the point where I felt the pounding bass in every pore but it never overwhelmed the overall balance I heard in my ears. As an audio engineer who has protected his hearing for the past 38 years, it was the most enjoyable concert experience I’ve had in the past decade. I actually *enjoyed* the concert and didn’t worry about my hearing being damaged by the overpowering pressure levels in the room.

Was it perfect? No. It was *not* like listening to a “loud stereo” in my head. Some frequencies were completely lost. The music felt more dead than alive in my ears. Losing so much base meant that I was saturated with mids and highs most of the night.

But if you want a “decent” set of NC in-ear headphones, (with the caveat of lower noise isolation than true, over-the-ear cans), good day-to-day audio reproduction, flexibility of a variety of settings to tune the experience to your taste, and the by-product of solid hearing protection for those rare occasions when you hit an ear-splitting rock concert, the WI-1000x makes a solid choice.

Final recommendations/observations:
1) Get foam tips. It doesn’t matter whether you swear by Comply or Misodiko, either is better than the stock silicone tips.
2) Battery life is strong, but not up to over-the-ear standards. 9 hours is about right.
3) Durability will be an issue. Unlike the LG Tone Pros with the retracting buds, the Sony “tuck-the-cable” feature is kludgy and results in the buds dangling sideways against your lapels when the cables are stuffed into the headset frame. Weird.
4) Comfort is so-so. if you don’t wear a collar, you’ll feel that stiff, unforgiving frame hanging against your neck. Again, the LG Tone Pros that I used to use were more comfortable to wear for extended periods, but they lack NC so I am resigned to the trade-off.
5) Aftermarket tips can fall off easily, so stock up if you go with foam tips.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rene Berber

Disappointing.

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

12 people found this helpful

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Par4DaCourse

Very good noise cancelling. Excellent sound quality. Incredible bluetooth range.

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Review based on pairing with a LG G8 smartphone. I estimate it reduces outside noise by 1/2 vs wearing the earbuds that you get with your phone. Sound is excellent. Bluetooth range is amazing (I estimate the unobstructed range to be well over 50 ft). Indoor phone calls were clear on both ends from indoors (have not yet had calls outdoors). The pause/play/skip/answer button is nicely located on the bottom of the neck band. Only issue, a very minor one, is that the vol up button should be located above the vol down button, but it didn't take long to get adjusted to it. One comment is that pairing with a different device may give different results.

Update 9/20/2020: I've been using these headsets for Zoom meetings for a couple months, now. I've noticed during audio testing, that although the speakers sounded great, the microphone sounded muffled. The mic quality on my Logitech C270 three feet away is much better than the Sony mic a few inches away. So, for Zoom meetings, I use Logitech for the mic and Sony for the speakers.

Helpful

samUwell

Was... key word being was, great earphone

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

Bought these in August of 2019 and now, here, Nov 2019, they are pretty much dead. It started in the right ear with casual cracking noise and then went downhill from there. Now, from what everyone tells me while on the phone is that I am going in and out. The second I turn off the headset, everything is fine.

When they were working, they were really good. The sound was very impressive even if a little low. I am not sure if it is headphone companies or the personal music devices (phones) that are doing it but one of them is making it where I cannot get the sound to go up very high. I like the sound to go loud and it appears that someone is creating a governor somewhere to keep the sound from going beyond a certain decibel.

I know that the Totalitarian European Union created a law stating, "No one needs to listen to music that loud" and forced personal music players to conform to their Nanny Statist crap and apparently, instead of creating a personal music device for the overly protected prisoners in the EU, they created 1 model for all of us.

That being said - the sound from the earphone were really good. I am tempted to get another pair or try a pair of the Bose.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Crypto

Premium price but lack of premium features

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

Overall, these are great noise cancelling earbud headphones. I travel a lot, and set of noise cancelling headphone/earphones are a must to cut out airplane noise and babies crying. I also use them in cafes to drown out the noises and the cafe music so I can listen to my own music or podcasts. I find them very comfortable, and the battery life seems to be as advertised (10+ hours), which is great for those long flights. It's unfortunate that you can't charge these while using them (same with the Bose) for those flights longer than 10 hours. I also find these earphones comfortable to nap with while in ear on long flights. I find over the ear headphones extremely uncomfortable, so I'm glad there are noise cancelling earphone options such as Sony's. The earphones also support corded headphone jack (cable is included and plugs into the USB port of the earphones), which I thought was a nice bonus feature over the Bose for devices that don't support bluetooth. But I've found that I rarely use this feature. I anticipated using it with in flight entertainment, but most carriers now support streaming movies to your device during flight, which is a better option anyway. I did use it a few times when the video and audio seemed out of sync on my iPad when using bluetooth with these earphones. I'm not sure what is to blame: the iPad, bluetooth, iOS apps, the Sony earphones, or some combination of these. Oddly, sometimes there is severe audio/video sync issues and other times it's barely noticeable. Fortunately, using the audio cable and not bluetooth seems to correct the problem, but it shouldn't be a problem in the first place.

My major annoyance is the difficulty with using these earphones with multiple devices. I use the earphones with my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Air. Sometimes switching devices is a chore. When I try to select the Sony earphones in the bluetooth settings, they momentarily switch over, but then it disconnects (stays connected to the previous device). I usually have to disable bluetooth on the device that it is already connected to. And sometimes that isn't enough. When that doesn't work, I have to conduct the bluetooth pairing process all over again on the device I'm trying to move the earphones to. This is simply not acceptable on a $300 pair of earphones/headphones. I also own a pair of Jaybird BluebudsX, and they very seamlessly switch over once I select them in bluetooth properties with a very cheerful "device switched" message. I also tried a pair of Apple earpods (by the way, horrible in flight because you can barely hear them over the plane noise), and no issues switching devices with these either. However, I am on an all Apple ecosystem, so it would be pretty bad for Apple if they didn't work smoothly on Apple devices. But the Apple earpods have their own quirks.

Given the lack of ability to charge while in use, and more significantly, the difficulty with switching devices, I have to rate these a bit lower than I would have otherwise. It's simply not acceptable at a $300 price point. Otherwise, they are great, comfortable, and the noise cancelling feature a godsend on long trips.

9 people found this helpful

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Joel R Petersen

Excellent Headphones at a great price/value

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

While some won't like the neck band, for traveling on airplanes and such, a neckband, in my opinion, is best. Fumbling around with separate ear pieces, I found, to be a pain. A single, integrated headset is far easier to manage. More importantly, the ANC on these is superior. I think they might even be better the the Bose QC35 I once owned and sold off to a friend. These are far lighter, cooler-temp (my ears sweated like crazy with the Bose) and far easier to hear ambient sounds like the flight attendant yelling at me to buckle up. All in all, a great product. Also, the seller's description was totally accurate. If I had one minor complaint, this headset must be charged with the supplied micro USB cable, or a similar cable that is designed for "charging". I found out that not all are and had a heck of a time getting them to charge at first because I was using one of my many standard micro USB cables. Thanks Sony and Phototech!

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pithspectre

Functionality is superior, comfort not so much.

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

I compared these to the Bose Quietcontrol 30 headphones.
I'll start out by mentioning that these headphones are far superior to the bose when it comes to functionality.

CONTROLS: Sony is superior.

Sony: These headphones have all of the controls embedded into the base of the unit itself. All of the controls, power, volume, noise cancelling, play/pause are easily available and easy to find on the base just by running your fingers along the base until you find the control you want. The fact that they are on the base makes it easy to reach up and adjust everything and you know right where those controls are and you have a solid object to hold on to.

Bose: All the controls are on one of the headphone wires leaving them dangling. When you wish to skip, play/pause, adjust volume or noise control you are left fumbling around with a dangling wire control. This is really annoying! You can't just reach up and press a button, you have to grab the wire controls, feel around for the volume or noise control, then awkwardly adjust as desired.

NOISE CANCELLING and EAR BUD COMFORT: Bose is superior

Sony: The noise cancelling on these headphones is pretty solid but the way the headphone sits in your ear requires you to adjust it several times to get them to seat in your ear just right to provide optimal noise control. I believe Sony’s noise cancelling is very close to quality of the Bose but the earbud design fails. I had to really press these into my ear to drown out ambient sound. Because I had to press them in tight to make a seal and avoid sound bleeding in, they were uncomfortable after a while. Moving around a lot will loosen them from your ear and I found myself constantly adjusting the placement of them. The ambient sound mode pretty much drowned out the music and made the room sound like it was a giant tin can. Ambient sound worked better with the noise cancelling turned off entirely.

Bose: You really can’t get a better design for the earpiece. The silicon ear piece is designed to pretty much just lock into place and it stays put. The intuitive shape/design of the earbud places it in an ideal position that doesn’t move around and provides optimal sound control by creating a seal that doesn’t allow much noise to bleed in. Noise cancelling by Bose is pretty much the standard every company should aspire to reach. I believe 50-60% of the noise cancelling superiority is simply the shape and comfort of the earbud itself. There is no ambient setting on the Bose, there is a separate volume adjustment specifically for the noise cancelling.

SOUND: Sony is superior.
Plain and simple: wireless + earbuds = tin can sound.
Sony: Sony wins this category for only one reason. The companion app on the phone has an equalizer which allows you to adjust levels to your specific tastes. The app has some interesting presets that sound nice but you can customize your own.
Bose: You only get your standard ear bud sound.

COMPANION APP: Sony is superior

Sony: The companion app has amazing options. You have a ton of controls and interesting settings and the equalizer tops the list. I won’t go into the details of the app since you can download it for free and see for yourself.

Bose: You can control the noise cancelling and well, that’s about it really. Very lame.

Verdict: If you want good functionality buy these and you won’t be disappointed. I do recommend them. If I could take the comfort of the Bose and attach those earbuds to the Sony I’d use the Sony product over Bose.

73 people found this helpful

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Wuji

Good ANC In Ear Headset with Sub-par Software Experience

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

I didn’t receive this product as those Vine free product, I bought this with my own money and I am being very objective here. I travel very frequently (every week) and rack up 100k+ airline miles every year, so this review will be based on using the headset primarily in an airplane. I have used this product for about 1 months (about 10-15 trips).

The good:
Light weight, easy to pack in any luggage or brief cases; sit comfortably on your neck; unlike Bose QC35, which I also own, you can turn your head to sleep on the airplane because these are in ear headset (you can’t really turn your head with QC35 in the airplane seat because it will rub against the head rest); doesn’t mess up your hair because it is not over the head; decent (compared with QC35) ANC function; good music quality (I am not HiFi by any mean, and plus on an airplane you don’t need that awesome of a sound quality).

The bad:
Bad software - I have a Google Pixel XL2, an iPhone and an iPad, I am going to say Android has the best experience, but they all suck. First, an iPad app doesn’t even exist, so you can only connect to an iPad by getting an iPhone version through Google search; second, the iPhone app can’t find your headset after each use, you have to pair it every time as a new device; third, this is a design flaw I guess, due to lack of a hardware ANC on/off switch and the intent to preserve power, the headset will turn off automatically if not connected to a phone; what this does to me is when I fall asleep on the airplane without the headset connected, I will hear “power off” in my ear and hear all the noises; had to turn it back on manually, very annoying.

Other:
In terms of ANC, it is not as good as QC35 due to design choice, which is absolutely understandable. I no longer use QC35 because it messes up my hair. It’s slightly worse, so you need to be aware of this before making the choice.

I am still trying to figure out the ambiance sound button on the right ear side, not sure if it is that useful.

Conclusion:
I like the physical product, hate the software, and I think the only comparable product on the market is the one from Bose QC30. If you don’t like the big cans (Bose QC35), this is the best choice you can get as of Dec 2017.

12 people found this helpful

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Sony Premium Noise Cancelling Wireless Behind-Neck in Ear Headphones - Black (WI1000X/B)

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