[Sonic Defender]

Not true, Sony 1000XM3 is not for bass head.

It's the music label fault, they intentionally boosted the bass heavily. Albums like the newest A Star Is Born OST, Drake Scorpion, Ella Mai and so on albums SQ was Bass-Head tuned.

Not my experience, the bass is way too elevated for anything, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, jazz, anything. I think the 1000xM3 is absolutely brilliant once the bass is trimmed back, but it absolutely requires trimming back unless you like quiet playback levels. Once you listen louder, mine is always at full volume, you simply must cut the bass unless you like really bloated, muddy bass, IMO. Once trimmed, the xM3 is as I said brilliant sounding and a complete pleasure to listen to.

 

[NewForce]

That's a ridiculous statement. Most albums sound bass heavy with these headphones whereas they sound fine with QC25, QC35 and the PX. Even previous versions of sony WH1000X or X2 sound ok.

Bose and Sennheiser also known for tight bass aka light bass.

When I play my fusion jazz, jazz, folk classic, heavy metal like ACDC Led Zeppelin and even Michael Jackson original CD ripped FLAC, the bass the XM3 bass sounded just right, maybe slightly more.

Whereas playing those Drake and so on Pop CD, all of them sounded Bass Head tuned, the bass needed to reduce by as much as -8dB.

 

[Sonic Defender]

@NewForce well, that somewhat explains it, I would also assume you listen at very moderate levels. Trust me, turn the volume up loud, don't adjust the bass at all and tell me it sounds like the bass isn't bloated, it is, very much so. I love bass, I listen to plenty of heavy bass electronica as well as music that has heavy bass. I have owned the TH900, Z1R, TH600, Z7, D7000 and a few other bass capable headphones. The xM3 is absolutely far too bass emphasized. I have to repeat myself each time as I wouldn't want people to miss out on this wonderful sounding headphone so just trim the bass back if you find it bloated, anybody who is reading this thread and considering the xM3. It is killer good once the bass is taken care of. The treble is to die for, I find the mids sweetly emphasized so if you like slightly forward vocals with a strong bass background and articulate treble that meshes with everything, this is the portable for you. Leave the bass stock, turn up the volume and you have bloated, muddy noise.

 

[NewForce]

Not my experience, the bass is way too elevated for anything, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, jazz, anything. I think the 1000xM3 is absolutely brilliant once the bass is trimmed back, but it absolutely requires trimming back unless you like quiet playback levels. Once you listen louder, mine is always at full volume, you simply must cut the bass unless you like really bloated, muddy bass, IMO. Once trimmed, the xM3 is as I said brilliant sounding and a complete pleasure to listen to.

Hmm.. Perhaps I play XM3 in 50-60% volume sounded just right for me. With XM3 great ANC, I do not need to play too loud to override the environment noises around me

 

[qba3d]

Just wanted to share some thoughts after few weeks with XM3.

First I think the bass is really elevated. Second I really think it is fixable with EQ, specially if You are within AAC like I am. I did an EQ:
https://files.fm/u/5s94a5fu
and even today did a A/B with XBA-Z5 and well they are far from the same fidelity, but they are really not in a different universe here, playing TIDAL HIFI->DragonFly RED->XBA-Z5 vs IphoneX, TIDAL-> AAC->EQed MDR-1000XM3. Also, one important thing to me is that from what I checked the EQ is kept valid through my IphoneX or Ipad Pro unchanged so if You set it up for BT it should work on all devices that let EQ to be applied. Obviously I would love them to have more bite in mids, I would love the bass to be sharper a bit, I would love the highs to wisper more but, for NC these are amazing and I really love them. After, Bose, H9, H9i, PX ( love here ) , these are by far the best NC BT headphones I tried.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Just wanted to share some thoughts after few weeks with XM3.

First I think the bass is really elevated. Second I really think it is fixable with EQ, specially if You are within AAC like I am. I did an EQ:
https://files.fm/u/5s94a5fu
and even today did a A/B with XBA-Z5 and well they are far from the same fidelity, but they are really not in a different universe here, playing TIDAL HIFI->DragonFly RED->XBA-Z5 vs IphoneX, TIDAL-> AAC->EQed MDR-1000XM3. Also, one important thing to me is that from what I checked the EQ is kept valid through my IphoneX or Ipad Pro unchanged so if You set it up for BT it should work on all devices that let EQ to be applied. Obviously I would love them to have more bite in mids, I would love the bass to be sharper a bit, I would love the highs to wisper more but, for NC these are amazing and I really love them. After, Bose, H9, H9i, PX ( love here ) , these are by far the best NC BT headphones I tried.

You can easily drop the bass more than that. I dropped about 190Hz by about -4db, 125Hz by about 3db, and I believe that around 50db I dropped it by about 2db. These are rough estimates just by looking at the EQ in Onkyo HF Player. Try dropping the bass more to sharpen it up. Additionally, turn the clear bass off altogether and see what just an EQ adjustment can do. I guess when using Tidal you are limited (or I think so) in what EQ can be used. I do have Tidal, but I own all of the music that I can handle in terms of listening on the go anyway so I just load stuff on my phone which does allow me to use different players and some have great EQs built in such as Neutron or HF Player.

 

[m1ku]

Not true, Sony 1000XM3 is not for bass head.

It's the music label fault, they intentionally boosted the bass heavily. Albums like the newest A Star Is Born OST, Drake Scorpion, Ella Mai and so on albums SQ was Bass-Head tuned.

But it felt like they boost the frequency because the time when I paired it with my phone, almost every song I listen to sound a bit bassy than I usually know

 

[dweaver]

OK, I am using a Samsung S9 and playing the built EQ just plain sucks as changing 1 setting seems to affect the whole sound spectrum instead of what your actually changing.

So forced my phone to use AAC and then set the headphone app eq like qba3d suggested and that is way more useful! I as the effect seems to actually on change what I really want to adjust! Who knew settling for less might offer me more .

Gonna play around with this some more...

 

[Sonic Defender]

OK, I am using a Samsung S9 and playing the built EQ just plain sucks as changing 1 setting seems to affect the whole sound spectrum instead of what your actually changing.

So forced my phone to use AAC and then set the headphone app eq like qba3d suggested and that is way more useful! I as the effect seems to actually on change what I really want to adjust! Who knew settling for less might offer me more .

Gonna play around with this some more...

AAC actually has pretty solid specifications so it really can and does sound very good, in my experience. I would also strongly encourage you to try the free version of Onkyo HF Player. The only functionality it is missing from the unlocked version is the ability to play DSD files, so in other words, it isn't missing anything you could ever hear anyway. Really nice player and it has caused me to abandon my once beloved Neutron.

 

[buzzlulu]

Also, one important thing to me is that from what I checked the EQ is kept valid through my IphoneX or Ipad Pro unchanged so if You set it up for BT it should work on all devices that let EQ to be applied.

So if I understand this correctly you are adjusting the EQ from within Sony's iOS headphone app and the settings are holding whether you play songs from Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music etc.?

 

[NewForce]

@NewForce well, that somewhat explains it, I would also assume you listen at very moderate levels. Trust me, turn the volume up loud, don't adjust the bass at all and tell me it sounds like the bass isn't bloated, it is, very much so. I love bass, I listen to plenty of heavy bass electronica as well as music that has heavy bass. I have owned the TH900, Z1R, TH600, Z7, D7000 and a few other bass capable headphones. The xM3 is absolutely far too bass emphasized. I have to repeat myself each time as I wouldn't want people to miss out on this wonderful sounding headphone so just trim the bass back if you find it bloated, anybody who is reading this thread and considering the xM3. It is killer good once the bass is taken care of. The treble is to die for, I find the mids sweetly emphasized so if you like slightly forward vocals with a strong bass background and articulate treble that meshes with everything, this is the portable for you. Leave the bass stock, turn up the volume and you have bloated, muddy noise.

Today I've crank the volume to the max, none of those original CD ripped flac tracks bass sounded bloated. So can confirm all the newer pop CD was Bass Head tunes. No wonder so many people who listening to those downloaded pop songs mostly keep complaining XM3 bass are heavy, the fault is actually the downloaded pop songs.

 

[329161]

Today I've crank the volume to the max, none of those original CD ripped flac tracks bass sounded bloated. So can confirm all the newer pop CD was Bass Head tunes. No wonder so many people who listening to those downloaded pop songs mostly keep complaining XM3 bass are heavy, the fault is actually the downloaded pop songs.

So you're saying all headphones that sound balanced with modern pop are light in bass?
You're entitled to your opinion of course, but you're just about the only one in this thread or any review I've seen that doesn't think the xm3 are bass boosted.

 

[NewForce]

So you're saying all headphones that sound balanced with modern pop are light in bass?
You're entitled to your opinion of course, but you're just about the only one in this thread or any review I've seen that doesn't think the xm3 are bass boosted.

Even Sennheiser Orpheus is light bass headphones.

BTW, how will you describe the bass play in a 5" woofer bookshelf speakers and the one play with 12" woofer floorstanding speakers? Balanced and Bloated bass?

 

[buzzlulu]

Anyone compare these new Sony's to the B&O H9i? I passed on the Sony M1 and M2, did not like the Bose Q35, and ended up with the B&O H9's for airplane travel
(here I am speaking strictly for use on an airplane - for regular Bluetooth non ANC my vote still goes to the B&W P7W).

I swapped the H9 for the H9i as I felt there was a significant enough improvement. Is the ANC on the H9i as good as Bose or Sony - no. Is the sound better with ANC - I thought significantly so.
Now curious to know how the M3's will compare to the B&O H9i when on an airplane. If the sound is as good then they could be a no brainer - as I know the Sony ANC is much better.

 

[qba3d]

So if I understand this correctly you are adjusting the EQ from within Sony's iOS headphone app and the settings are holding whether you play songs from Tidal, Spotify, Apple Music etc.?

Yes, from what I experienced, totally. It seems that weather Your BT codec is not LDAC, the settings You set via Your phons Sony App is being applied to the headphones at all time. It becomes a default EQ for headphones. Something like H9i have.

Anyone compare these new Sony's to the B&O H9i? I passed on the Sony M1 and M2, did not like the Bose Q35, and ended up with the B&O H9's for airplane travel
(here I am speaking strictly for use on an airplane - for regular Bluetooth non ANC my vote still goes to the B&W P7W).

I swapped the H9 for the H9i as I felt there was a significant enough improvement. Is the ANC on the H9i as good as Bose or Sony - no. Is the sound better with ANC - I thought significantly so.
Now curious to know how the M3's will compare to the B&O H9i when on an airplane. If the sound is as good then they could be a no brainer - as I know the Sony ANC is much better.

I had H9i and ANC was actually great both on street and airplane to me, but comparing to Sony mk3, it was no where near to my ears. My H9i sounded really bad, harsh sibilant highs, super treble focused, total lack of bass. Saying that they were the most comfortable of all I find Sony to be better on both sound and ANC side of things.