Sony’s WH-1000XM4 brings better noise cancellation and multi-device pairing

Sony has finally updated their noise-cancelling headphones with the new WH-1000XM4.

“Our industry-leading noise-canceling has continued to wow the world, and this new model takes that incredible technology even further,” said Mike Fasulo, president, and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics North America. “Sony was the pioneer behind noise-canceling technology back in 1995, and that 25 years of experience has helped us drive the industry forward and offer best-in-class audio products.”

Despite the mouthful of a name, Sony’s 1000X family of headphones has been one of the best active noise-canceling headphones on the market. The headphones have 40mm drivers that should make them sound great.

The WH-1000XM4 has basically the same design as the XM3 from 2018 including the same QN1 HD Noise Canceling Processor. The new headphones do have a new Bluetooth Audio SoC that senses music and noise at 700 times per second.

The Edge-AI feature will “accurately rebuilds audio lost during digital compression for a full-fidelity experience.”

For battery life, you’re looking at around 30 hours. There’s a quick charge feature that gets you 5 hours of playback time in just 10 minutes of charging over USB-C.

Some other features of the WH-1000XM4 include:

Speak-to-Chat: “This innovative new feature enables users to have short conversations without taking off their headphones. By simply saying something, the headphones will recognize the user’s voice and automatically stop the music to let in ambient sound so they can conduct a conversation.”
Adaptive Sound Control: “This function senses where a customer is and what they’re doing and adjusts ambient sound settings for the ideal listening experience. Over time, Adaptive Sound Control learns to recognize frequently visited locations such as the workplace, gym or favorite café, and tailors sound to suit the situation.”
Precise Voice Pickup: “The WH-1000XM4 features new Precise Voice Pickup technology, which controls five microphones in the headphones optimally, and performs advanced audio signal processing to pick up voice clearly and precisely for hands-free calls and Speak-to-Chat”
Seamless Multiple Device Pairing: “The WH-1000XM4 can be paired with two BLUETOOTH® devices at the same time”
Fair Pair: The WH-1000XM4 also supports Google’s helpful new Fast Pair feature
360 Reality Audio: “The 360 Reality Audio listening experience immerses users in music as if they were right in front of their favorite artist.”

The WH-1000XM4 will be shipping in the next few weeks with pre-orders beginning today. The headphones cost $499 CAD ($349 USD) and come in black and silver.