[dweaver]

I use my XM3 and older 100abn in LDAC mode with everything optimized for sound versus stability. My experience is I can get close to 10 meter away from my phone before i get breakup. I only get the occasional RF interference maybe once twice a day at most with periods of days with no issue. If I do notice any consistent issue starting to happen usually a restart of my phone solves the issue. I am using a Samsung S9 as my source.

 

[ryanmatic]

What would be people’s comparison between this and the PX in terms of sound quality? I know it is subjective but I would like to see how they fair with ANC off, on and wired.

Some brief observations, after a year with the PX and a month with the XM3:

• The PX sound nice and balanced after burn-in, and have a wonderfully detailed midrange; however, the mid-centric signature, wide soundstage, and soft treble produce a somewhat boxy, artificial presentation.
• After burn-in but without EQ, the XM3 is too bass heavy. With modest EQ (via the Sony app, if you’re using AAC), the XM3 sounds fantastic: it’s like they combine the detailed midrange of the PX but with the fun dynamics and extension of the P7W. EQ-ing down the bass also improves layering tremendously.
• ANC on the PX is somewhat effective, and sounds pretty good when set to Office. ANC on the XM3 is exceptional and does not noticeably affect the sound signature regardless of the intensity.
• The PX is disappointing when plugged in due to the amount of hiss introduced (especially with sources like a Dragonfly Red), and in my experience, the audio doesn’t sound much better anyway.
• The XM3 doesn’t exhibit any noise when an aux cable is connected, and audio quality does improve, but it’s still quite bass heavy and continues to benefit from source EQ.
• I don’t know how I ever got used to the PX earcups and headband—the XM3 is impossibly comfortable by comparison.
• I miss the auto-pause function of the PX. It worked 90% of the time for me and was quite convenient. The touch controls on the XM3 are good, and similarly work most of the time, but they aren’t as effortless as the PX.

I’m a longtime B&W fan as I appreciate their quality materials and house sound, but the flat/boxy presentation of the PX always bugged me to the point of overshadowing its technical ability. For that reason the P7W remains my favorite B&W headphone.

The XM3 is my first pair of Sony headphones, and although they’re too bass heavy out of the boxy, with some EQ they sound excellent. Combined with how comfortable and lightweight they are, I don’t find myself reaching for the PX anymore.

 

[aras]

Some brief observations, after a year with the PX and a month with the XM3:

• The PX sound nice and balanced after burn-in, and have a wonderfully detailed midrange; however, the mid-centric signature, wide soundstage, and soft treble produce a somewhat boxy, artificial presentation.
• After burn-in but without EQ, the XM3 is too bass heavy. With modest EQ (via the Sony app, if you’re using AAC), the XM3 sounds fantastic: it’s like they combine the detailed midrange of the PX but with the fun dynamics and extension of the P7W. EQ-ing down the bass also improves layering tremendously.
• ANC on the PX is somewhat effective, and sounds pretty good when set to Office. ANC on the XM3 is exceptional and does not noticeably affect the sound signature regardless of the intensity.
• The PX is disappointing when plugged in due to the amount of hiss introduced (especially with sources like a Dragonfly Red), and in my experience, the audio doesn’t sound much better anyway.
• The XM3 doesn’t exhibit any noise when an aux cable is connected, and audio quality does improve, but it’s still quite bass heavy and continues to benefit from source EQ.
• I don’t know how I ever got used to the PX earcups and headband—the XM3 is impossibly comfortable by comparison.
• I miss the auto-pause function of the PX. It worked 90% of the time for me and was quite convenient. The touch controls on the XM3 are good, and similarly work most of the time, but they aren’t as effortless as the PX.

I’m a longtime B&W fan as I appreciate their quality materials and house sound, but the flat/boxy presentation of the PX always bugged me to the point of overshadowing its technical ability. For that reason the P7W remains my favorite B&W headphone.

The XM3 is my first pair of Sony headphones, and although they’re too bass heavy out of the boxy, with some EQ they sound excellent. Combined with how comfortable and lightweight they are, I don’t find myself reaching for the PX anymore.

I'm also comparing xm3 to my P7W but there seems to be quite a bit of clarity and resolution difference as well as lack of bass definition on xm3. Would you mind sharing your EQ settings to make XM3s sound closer to P7W? I really like the noise canceling on XM3 but I don't feel like SQ is there coming from P7W.

 

[ryanmatic]

Sure. This is what I’ve been using:

To my ear, it’s similar to the P7W signature but with a bit less midbass.

 

[NewForce]

Bluetooth absolutely has the bandwidth to receive all my high bitrate compressed AAC and MP3 as-is, I believe the Bose can do this on the iPhone. So I don't think it is fair to blame Bluetooth for any shortcomings on Sony's part. I agree that with EQ the headphone does sound better than the Bose, but I also am not totally happy (given the premium price) and believe they should change the default signature and get back to work regarding Bluetooth!

W

Thank You everyone for your response

True, If I want to reduce bass I need to reduce around 200 Hz as from rtings I can see that bass is boosted in that range but Sony's App EQ starts from 400 which is not going to be useful

One more thing, Is Sony's App EQ is more of a hardware equalizer? because I feel it directly operates headphone's chip to adjust EQ and thats the reason connection is getting downgraded to SBC. Or is it just another DSP?

I start to think, maybe it's time for record label or song producer to,

1. Offer song in original flat frequency file.
2. Offer song in another bass heavy tuned version file, for Apple or Android phone users who's still using their low end original earpiece. At the same time provide the equalizer band number, which frequency was adjusted and by what dB
3. Offer CD sounds quality in original flat frequency

 

[fyleow]

Got my pair last week and have to agree with the others that the bass is way too boomy. On an iPhone EQ'd down to -5 on Clear Bass makes it much better and I wish these settings were stored directly on the headphones because having to EQ every device its connected to is pretty annoying.

I'm still trying to decide between these and a pair of Etymotic ER3XRs which have similar isolation, better noise quality at half the price. Getting a good seal and putting it on is a hassle though.

 

[Womaz]

I use my XM3 and older 100abn in LDAC mode with everything optimized for sound versus stability. My experience is I can get close to 10 meter away from my phone before i get breakup. I only get the occasional RF interference maybe once twice a day at most with periods of days with no issue. If I do notice any consistent issue starting to happen usually a restart of my phone solves the issue. I am using a Samsung S9 as my source.

Thank you for the reply. It got me thinking to try the HPs with my IPhone instead of my DX200. It works a treat and I have walked quite a distance away. So now I know its the DX200 which has the issue. A dilemma now though as they were bought to use primarily with the DX200.

After further investigation I cant use LDAC as its mainly for Sony players or phones.

 

[rkw]

The second is I dont like how often it changes mode......can i disable this.

What do you mean by change mode?

Also can i turn the touch control off??

No, if you mean the touch controls on the earcup.

I use it with my IBasso DX200 mainly to use offline Tidal albums. I have Tidal HIFI and I am not sure if I am maximising the sound quality. I have looked at posts about LDAC., etc but find myself a little confused.

LDAC requires Android 8 (Oreo). The iBasso website says that Android Oreo beta firmware is now available for the DX200. You would have to install this before you can use LDAC. You might also want to install the Sony Headphones app.

Last thing is I would like to pair then with my IPhone too and I did this, but when I went to use them with my DX200 after this I had to go through the whole connection process again. Surely they should connect automatically once I have set them up.

This is one of the biggest weaknesses of the XM2/XM3, and has been discussed quite a bit in this thread. To switch the connection, on the first device you have to manually disconnect from the headphone, then manually connect on the second device (just disconnect/connect, no need to redo pairing).

 

[Womaz]

What do you mean by change mode?


No, if you mean the touch controls on the earcup.


LDAC requires Android 8 (Oreo). The iBasso website says that Android Oreo beta firmware is now available for the DX200. You would have to install this before you can use LDAC. You might also want to install the Sony Headphones app.


This is one of the biggest weaknesses of the XM2/XM3, and has been discussed quite a bit in this thread. To switch the connection, on the first device you have to manually disconnect from the headphone, then manually connect on the second device (just disconnect/connect, no need to redo pairing).

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Very helpful.

It was the ambient sound control I was on about. I have turned this off .
I have already downloaded the Sony HP app and I have messed about with it a little. I may look at installing Oreo on the DX200, but I am not that good with technical stuff and I have added some firmware in the past that lest me use Tidal on the DX200 and I am loathe to jeopardise that.

 

[aras]

Got my pair last week and have to agree with the others that the bass is way too boomy. On an iPhone EQ'd down to -5 on Clear Bass makes it much better and I wish these settings were stored directly on the headphones because having to EQ every device its connected to is pretty annoying.

I'm still trying to decide between these and a pair of Etymotic ER3XRs which have similar isolation, better noise quality at half the price. Getting a good seal and putting it on is a hassle though.

Once setup through the app, I think EQ settings are stored on the headphones? No?

 

[willtim]

Once setup through the app, I think EQ settings are stored on the headphones? No?

Not if we want to use LDAC, in which case Sony's EQ is not available.

 

[329161]

So....I need to retract my previous opinion on the xm3. Previously I had only listened to them with music played by Poweramp. The sound was VERY thick and rolled off. Today I just used them with Foobar and the sound was WAY better balanced and transparent. Will give these more time, but suffice to say, I'm back in the game for these. My only concern - the sound quality, has been somewhat redeemed.

 

[mikp]

anyone direct compared v3 to v1 regarding sound and nc? I was going to test it in a shop, but they had demo units with some bluetooth cable attached and only sbc.

 

[Maddog510]

So....I need to retract my previous opinion on the xm3. Previously I had only listened to them with music played by Poweramp. The sound was VERY thick and rolled off. Today I just used them with Foobar and the sound was WAY better balanced and transparent. Will give these more time, but suffice to say, I'm back in the game for these. My only concern - the sound quality, has been somewhat redeemed.

Did you use the EQ on Poweramp?

 

[329161]

Did you use the EQ on Poweramp?

I tried but it didn't help. FYI I used foobar without eq and it sounded fine with the xm3 to me. I have heard opinions from others that Poweramp is a "dark" sounding music app. Others may say there's no difference in sound between music player apps.