[MrWalkman]

For anyone interested, the WH-1000XM3 service manual.

 

[mico1964]

It is a link to the WF-1000XM3 service manual.

 

[MrWalkman]

It is a link to the WF-1000XM3 service manual.

Corrected.

 

[SilverEars]

I recently started using the XM3 for sleep in noisy environments. It's really useful as it's amazin how much noise is cancelled. Reason for this is the battery life as TWS do not have as long of a battery life. I would prefer a very tiny ANC sleep buds with at least 8 hr battery life. That would be ideal.

I tried triple flange passive isolation, and it doesn't compare. XM3 is amazin for ANC.

 

[Sonic Defender]

The XM3 is also a great sounding headphone once you trim away the bloated, unbalancing bass. You can still leave plenty of bass, I think the maximum that I trimmed at any frequency (a FIR eq in Onkyo HF Player) was maybe -3dB. Really competent headphone, it just absolutely NEEDS to have some bass trimmed back, that isn't even an option. As someone who likes bass believe me, even so the bass in stock signature is an absolute mess.

One you perform a little sonic cosmetic surgery the potential of the design comes alive. Now that the XM4 is driving the retail price of it's predecessor down the price one can pay is a fantastic investment, IMO.

 

[WhiteFox01]

I think the XM3 is roughly the same level of ANC of the QC35 but sounds much better, though that isn't saying much.

 

[Gamerlingual]

The XM3 has way more noise canceling than the QC35.

 

[lambdastorm]

I've had both for 3 months now. NC wise the XM3 wins hands down, it cancels out more noise than the BOSE but not by much. Comfort is a big lose for the SONY. My ears get moist after about 30 minutes of use, while with the BOSE you can comfortably wear them for hours. Sound quality wise I actually much much prefer the BOSE. Sometimes I can't believe my SONYs are on LDAC, the bass isn't just bloated, it has very little depth. This leads to a sound that's very 2 dimensional and lacks depth. BOSE on the other hand, despite only using SBC, produces fantastic sound. Bass extension is absolutely perfect and the tonality is much more natural than SONY. One thing though, they say the QC35 supports AAC but i'm having trouble connecting to it via AAC. I use an OPPO and every time I try to switch to AAC it wouldn't let me. While on the XM3 I can switch between SBC, AAC, APTX and LDAC no problem. And I know it's using that protocol because sound cuts off for a second, and the headphone app tells you which protocol it's using.

 

[bedlamite]

Audio codecs and driver tuning are 2 different things. LDAC is a better performing codec than SBC or AAC, sure, but if the default sound signature is as flabby as the XM3’s (and the 4’s, for that matter), it won’t matter. EQ tuning can fix the bass, but turning on EQ disables LDAC….oh well.

The QC35 has an inoffensive sound signature, bordering on mediocre, but it does sound much more balanced out of the box. That, coupled with its unbeatable comfort, is why I‘m still hanging onto my 35s, while the XM3s were sold years ago. Don’t have the inclination to pick up the XM4s either.

 

[SilverEars]

Anybody has issues with lower mids bloat, I'd advice toning down Clearbass on the Sony app, and it seems to retain the EQ setting on the headphone when you connect to other devices without the app. Yeah, the bass isn't top quality or is the resolution of the sound. I like the tonality with the bass bloat shaved off. Your ears adjust to the lower resolution and separation, and once adjusted, it sounds better (brain burn-in). I have noticed that brain burn-in increases perception of resolution as well. It all depends on what prior earphone/headphone you were using before (It can sound bloaty if you listened to something lean prior). If you were using something just as warm, it doesn't require much brain burn-in and not as much difference noticed.

If somebody has a measurement rig, I'd like to see what Clearbass does when toned down.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Or even better, don't worry about a system wide EQ and simply use the excellent built in equalizers in proper playback programs like Neutron or Onkyo HF Player to name but two. The XM3 sounds fantastic when you use a real equalizer to tame that bass bloat. The sound change can literally be night and day. Not only does the bass bloat go away, but that has the effect of letting you now hear the other frequencies that were once being obscured by the bass. With well done equalization the XM3 can sound like a well tuned, contemporary headphone with better balance, but that very popular tilt towards bass extension and impact, which I absolutely prefer. Certainly for a portable headphone you need some emphasis in the bass. I do completely agree that the stock signature is a hot mess of bass.

You shouldn't hear any audible difference between LDAC and AAC or Apt X, all three are quite competent. And before anybody chimes in saying the sound is different with those Codecs, hold on, I believe that you believe sincerely that you hear a difference, but unless you are using: level matched, multiple trial, blind listening tests and being able to reliably hear a difference at least 90% of the time, so 9 out of 10 level matched, blind trials, you have no real evidence. Sighted listening tests are useless, and even worse when you aren't properly level matching them.

A related example, and relevant I think. Years ago I hosted a head-fi meet and I conducted a relevant blind listening trial to demonstrate that a 320 mp3 was audibly transparent as compared with a Flac master that it was made from. I had 7 young, enthusiastic head-fi members, including a girlfriend of one of the guys who came along with him. The same test track was used, and an excellent one for testing, One Trick Pony by Holly Cole. Each subject set the volume level that they were comfortable with that would be what they normally listened at. The equipment was the same and featured a NAD M51 DAC and a HiFi Man HE560 headphone driven from a custom speaker tap cable being used with the excellent NAD M3 integrated amp. In other words, the audio chain was excellent by any measure, completely capable of revealing mountains of detail. Two of the subjects swore how good they were at telling MP3s from lossless as they tested all the time, but by their own admissions they did sighted testing. The end results were not one person was able to do better than I think 55% detection, so completely guessing.

That is important as Apt X for example is capable of I think a bit rate of 360 so better than the 320 used with the test MP3 file. If people can't hear those differences you are very unlikely to hear the differences between well implemented Codecs. I would love to now do the same listening experiment but comparing Codecs. It would be interesting for sure. Even SBC can be well enough done and with well tuned headphones can be surprisingly good.

 

[SilverEars]

Well, I use it for devices that do not have any EQ, so the headphone retaining EQ in memory is a great feature. Although I would prrfer parametric.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Well, I use it for devices that do not have any EQ, so the headphone retaining EQ in memory is a great feature. Although I would prrfer parametric.

So switch when listening to music. It really isn't that much work and if you really prefer parametric, which of course you should, isn't it well worth the minimal effort? As well, is it mostly music that you listen to? If so I think it is pretty easy to justify the switching.

 

[Drewligarchy]

I must have been following this thread, so I got an alert when there was an update.

Anyhow, for noise cancelling bluetooth - I tried everything - and the best sound quality, by far (night and day), was the Master and Dynamic MW65. It's true that it's noise cancelling isn't quite at the level of the Bose and Sony (that said, it more than suffices when I use it in an airport or office). What I'm saying is the headphone and tuning is so far superior to every other bluetooth headphone on the market - for those that prioritize sound above all things, it's an easy choice. If you want the absolute best noise cancellation, than you want the Sony or Bose. However, to put it in context, I felt the sound quality of the Master and Dynamic beats the Sony and Bose by a much greater margin than the noise cancelling of the Sony and Bose vs Master and Dynamic. Yes, it doesn't have the codecs the others have. I use it with an iphone so I'm limited to AAC. While I believe codecs matter, they pale in comparison to the overall quality of the headphone. In other words, imo, the Master and Dynamic with AAC is night and day better than the Sony with LDAC. I have a decent number of flagship headphones at home, and it's the only one where I felt I was taking a portion of that sound quality with me. I absolutely love it.

Not my intention to come into a thread and disparage another headphone. If you love the sony or the bose, great. I'm simply suggesting to audition the Master and Dynamic (most Magnolia Best Buy's have them) so it's much easier than Hi-Fi headphones - before you make another bluetooth headphone purchase.

Just my two cents.

 

[SilverEars]

I must have been following this thread, so I got an alert when there was an update.

Anyhow, for noise cancelling bluetooth - I tried everything - and the best sound quality, by far (night and day), was the Master and Dynamic MW65. It's true that it's noise cancelling isn't quite at the level of the Bose and Sony (that said, it more than suffices when I use it in an airport or office). What I'm saying is the headphone and tuning is so far superior to every other bluetooth headphone on the market - for those that prioritize sound above all things, it's an easy choice. If you want the absolute best noise cancellation, than you want the Sony or Bose. However, to put it in context, I felt the sound quality of the Master and Dynamic beats the Sony and Bose by a much greater margin than the noise cancelling of the Sony and Bose vs Master and Dynamic. Yes, it doesn't have the codecs the others have. I use it with an iphone so I'm limited to AAC. While I believe codecs matter, they pale in comparison to the overall quality of the headphone. In other words, imo, the Master and Dynamic with AAC is night and day better than the Sony with LDAC. I have a decent number of flagship headphones at home, and it's the only one where I felt I was taking a portion of that sound quality with me. I absolutely love it.

Not my intention to come into a thread and disparage another headphone. If you love the sony or the bose, great. I'm simply suggesting to audition the Master and Dynamic (most Magnolia Best Buy's have them) so it's much easier than Hi-Fi headphones - before you make another bluetooth headphone purchase.

Just my two cents.

Not touching M&D's crap tunings. I got my HE6

M&D's ANC is a joke.