SONY WH1000XM3 - better than QC35 in noise cancelling?

[Sonic Defender]

I have to admit, I have not heard the MW65 but I had on hand for several weeks the MH40 and it was dreadful sounding. One of the worst tunings I had ever heard, and I was shocked. I had read so many glowing reviews of the sound quality and I loved the looks so I was very biased towards enjoying them. When I first heard them I was so shocked at the poor, muffled, dynamics compressed signature that I checked my sources for some issues. Sadly it was the MH40. All show and no go I felt. That is why I would have an incredibly difficult time putting any money into M&D offerings. I suppose with Amazon I could take a chance and return anything, but man did the MH40 sound off to me.

 

[Odin412]

I'm still amazed by how good the sound cancellation of this headphone is. I always use it when flying and it really removes the drone of the engines and (most of) my fellow passengers. To my ears it sounds really good too - a long way from the first noise-cancelling headphones that sounded awful. With this headphone I can actually enjoy my music while flying!

 

[Ryrynz]

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.

This has nothing to do with the codec being used, it's just tuning and your hearing/preferences. If you're using XM's and haven't EQ tuned it to your liking you're doing it wrong.. IMO these headphones sound like ass unless you tweak them. I wish sony had a few more knobs to turn in this area.. but I'm happy with my tunings I found from a professional headphone reviewer's comprehensive audio analysis on them.

Weighing in on the noise cancelling.. AMAZING. I use them on the train and holy crap bro, incredible.

Wish they did some higher end versions with better drivers/tuning (no need to use EQ) and added comfort/lack of sweat build up.. I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

 

[Sonic Defender]

The drivers are probably quite competent, it is as you say dialing in the proper equalization that works for you.

 

[SilverEars]

This has nothing to do with the codec being used, it's just tuning and your hearing/preferences. If you're using XM's and haven't EQ tuned it to your liking you're doing it wrong.. IMO these headphones sound like ass unless you tweak them. I wish sony had a few more knobs to turn in this area.. but I'm happy with my tunings I found from a professional headphone reviewer's comprehensive audio analysis on them.

Weighing in on the noise cancelling.. AMAZING. I use them on the train and holy crap bro, incredible.

Wish they did some higher end versions with better drivers/tuning (no need to use EQ) and added comfort/lack of sweat build up.. I'd buy them in a heartbeat.

The XM3's highs are perfectly fine. They made the mistake of shelving the low-mids to bass too high, which was the big mistake. Tame that area, and it improves. Tonally wise, with the bass shelving lowered, my fav Sony tonal tuning (which isn't good on how they tune their stuff).

 

[jeyesam898]

The XM3's highs are perfectly fine. They made the mistake of shelving the low-mids to bass too high, which was the big mistake. Tame that area, and it improves.

Yep, agree with this. Only issue is that you have to use SBC if you want the EQ edits to be native to your headphone. Otherwise, you have to use on-device stuff.

 

[SilverEars]

Yep, agree with this. Only issue is that you have to use SBC if you want the EQ edits to be native to your headphone. Otherwise, you have to use on-device stuff.

Like I've stated, I've recently discovered that when you EQ on the sony app, that EQ sticks and you can use it to stream audio from BT devices like TV, etc.. that do not have EQ. This helps significantly!

 

[cowonaut]

A bit late to the party haha! Been away for a long time since I was so happy with my AKG K712 Pro, DT990 (RIP) and Superlux hd681 (modded with 3.5mm jack for gaming use with Vmoda Boom Pro mic), I had no real reason to read you guys for a few years.

Anyway, after falling in love with Panasonic RZ-S500W (super snug fit, awesome ANC, nice sound with AAC) and the ugly looking, wobbly sitting Soundcore Q30 (oob crap bass boomer, brilliant when EQ'ed right, also heavily modded), I wanted better ANC.

Long story short: after Bose fell out due to lack of EQ, I decided to get the XM3 and fell into a rabbid hole reading THIS WHOLE THREAD

So thanks for all the input and a couple of fun nights guys!

Anyway, today the thing arrived fresh (not) from ebay. Tested stock to get an idea of the ANC: brilliant and dancing circles around the soundcore.

Then washed the super-stinky foam and earpads. While the latter take a day longer to dry, I've inserted the foams back and removed the clip-on rings from the pads, and fitted the rings in a fresh pair or 30mm thick earpads I had laying around.
Of course, with pads that vaguely resemble the arm rests of an antique english leather sofa, the poor things sounded even shittier than they did stock. But hey, got big ears!

So just in case you've got big, hurting ears, too and an old XM3 lying in a corner: feel free to check the EQ settings attached and pair them with 30mm pleather pads (it's what I tuned it with).

I'm listening mainly soundtracks (Bear McCreary, Erik Ekholm, Arnaud Roy, A Shell In The Pit － check out Lamprey!, Ramin Djawadi et al.), classical (both orchestra and chamber), Blues, Indie (Calexico, The Family Crest), Avantgarde Indie (And The Wiremen) and the occasional Doom (Solitude Aeturnus, Warning, Cathedral) and Death Metal (Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick" is still my all time metal fave, next to Megadeth's "Rust In Peace" ) － should give you an idea where I'm coming from and what I'm looking for.

Will update when the stock earpads are dry and the cheap replacements have arrived, so I can get the mounting rings from those.

My goal is to make the XM3 as fun, detailed and wide-staged as possible to get close to my modded Q30 but with better ANC. Oob it sounded like ears fulla porridge tbh, but so did the Q30 and it turned out excellent for a closed-back.

 

[Ryrynz]

*Rabbit hole, unless that was deliberate word choice.. lol

Got the XM5s now, they aren't as "in your ear" which might be related to the smaller 30mm drivers..
Tried to tweak them to sound as close to the XM4 EQ, not sure how I feel about them yet, but it sure seems like they aren't causing me to sweat and they are more comfortable to wear.

 

[Sonic Defender]

@cowonaut Great choice, the XM3 is a very nice headphone once you trim away the bass bloat. You don't even need to equalize the other frequency spectrums. Once the bass is trimmed back properly, the other frequencies will be liberated and shine forth. Change one thing at a time and get used to that and if you feel the need, change something else, then change the next thing. I use Onkyo HF Player and the FIR Equalizer is very good. I would use something like that and absolutely skip the Sony App EQ. Not that it matters, but if you want to equalize, and you do to tame that stock bass mess, you can use a good player like Onkyo HF Player and still use LDAC. I don't think anybody on the planet would be able to reliably pick out LDAC from AAC in level matched, multiple trial, blind listening, but I digress. Assuming you care about LDAC, skip the Sony App and eq with a good player's built in EQ.

The bass bloat hides a very capable headphone and once you dial it back, but still leaving enough to have some tasteful warmth and impact, you will hear that the XM3 is actually a pretty nice little headphone with very good ANC. At least that has been my experience. I still have my XM3.

 

[cowonaut]

@cowonaut Great choice, the XM3 is a very nice headphone once you trim away the bass bloat. You don't even need to equalize the other frequency spectrums. Once the bass is trimmed back properly, the other frequencies will be liberated and shine forth. Change one thing at a time and get used to that and if you feel the need, change something else, then change the next thing. I use Onkyo HF Player and the FIR Equalizer is very good. I would use something like that and absolutely skip the Sony App EQ. Not that it matters, but if you want to equalize, and you do to tame that stock bass mess, you can use a good player like Onkyo HF Player and still use LDAC. I don't think anybody on the planet would be able to reliably pick out LDAC from AAC in level matched, multiple trial, blind listening, but I digress. Assuming you care about LDAC, skip the Sony App and eq with a good player's built in EQ.

The bass bloat hides a very capable headphone and once you dial it back, but still leaving enough to have some tasteful warmth and impact, you will hear that the XM3 is actually a pretty nice little headphone with very good ANC. At least that has been my experience. I still have my XM3.

Thanks! The weird looking EQ is due to the very large earpads I'm using. They change the sound alot. With the stock pads, the Q30 was still better sounding, bass goes deeper and is magnitudes faster, more precise. Also better instrument separation and stage. I'll keep that for home listening when I'm not sitting in front of my trusty old Canton GLE100s. Bought the XM3 for ANC, looks (the Q30 look stupid af on the head, have sub-par ANC and tend to fall off when looking down) and portability. But yh so far I'm pleased, albeit it doesn't wanna connect via AAC like my other Bluetooth headphones and inears do. EQ I prefer onboard so switching sources is more consistent. I think it will be my choice for reading in the garden when the nearby airbase is testing turbines, also for long train rides and office use instead of the Panasonic inears.

 

[cowonaut]

*Rabbit hole, unless that was deliberate word choice.. lol

Got the XM5s now, they aren't as "in your ear" which might be related to the smaller 30mm drivers..
Tried to tweak them to sound as close to the XM4 EQ, not sure how I feel about them yet, but it sure seems like they aren't causing me to sweat and they are more comfortable to wear.

Haha nice find! This rabid rabbit made a typo
I'll keep it for the laughs!