The DEFINITIVE Sony WF-1000XM5 Review & Comparison by an AUDIO ENGINEER

as an audio engineer with over 16 years of experience mixing for concerts bands and events my goal and responsibility is to make the most insane audio review on all of YouTube so this is a definitive and experiential comparison of the Sony wf-1000xm5s the Sony wf-1000xm Force the Apple airpods Pro 2 and the Bose Quite Comfort earbuds too and it's measured and captured with over five thousand dollars of high-end professional equipment that covers the entire human hearing range to help you make the best choice for your preferences now since this is an experiential and immersive review you'll want to make sure that you're wearing earbuds or headphones in both ears in order to get the full experience so I'll let you do that before we continue now these high quality recordings will not magically transform your listening device to them but they do provide the comparative differences between all of them for ANC transparency mode gaming performance call Quality and microphone quality in various situations and will listen to a variety of different musical styles I'll even let you hear my custom EQ settings for the Sony xm5s which you can gain access to by becoming a channel member so let's hear some of what it sounds like if you're wearing these earbuds and listening to music and each test in this video will start and end with the original reference track and then cycle through each earbud you'll see which earbud you're listening to by looking in the label up top foreign [Music] [Music] by the way just so you understand the flow of this video we'll listen to a song sample between each section of this video there are also chapters available so you can easily find your way around I promise that you'll come away feeling confident about which option is the best fit for your preferences of course if you want to purchase any of these there'll be links Down Below in the description and it does help support the channel if you use those links now if you're wondering why I'm emphasizing the xm5 so much it's not because I'm biased it's because it's the new thing at the time of filming so chill out for the song listen to the Reverb for the vocals the snare the sharpness of the hi-hat and the stereo spread from the Wawa sounds and let me know in the comments what you notice [Applause] [Music] you guys [Music] Sony has recently moved towards more sustainable materials and shrieking down the size of their products which we first started to see with the Sony link buds s this is a nice change from the massive wf-1000xm3s of the past they even managed to be even smaller than the xm4's case and slightly bigger than the linkbud's S case amongst the four the Apple airpods Pro 2 are the smallest with the Bose QuietComfort earbuds 2 being the largest I do really like the texture and feel of the xm5s but just a heads up that the case is prone to scuffs and marks but so far I've been able to wipe them off you may not see this as much on the black model but the black model will show more fingerprints so I prefer the silver or white color the xm5 also adds a pairing button to the case which the xm4 lacked which is definitely appreciated the airpods Pro 2 case is a bit more feature-rich because it has a speaker inside of it that can provide audible feedback and sounds so if you lose them and are looking for them that can come in handy it also has an air tag built into it so you can use the find my network to locate it one thing that I don't particularly like is how the earbuds themselves are partially glossy strangely the xm5s are insanely slippery and hard to get out of the case actually dropped it oh there you go a slippery little Goose but I got it while the airpods Pro 2 are glossy the earbuds are super easy to take out because you push from the back to take it out it's so easy that can just open it up without even looking grab it and put it in my ear on the xm5s this motion doesn't seem to be the intended motion nor does it work well because there's nothing to grip on now as you can see the xm5s are a little bit bigger than the bulb part of the airpods Pro 2 but notably smaller than the xm4s and the Bose QuietComfort earbuds too now this is not only obvious visually but also in your ear and how they feel now they feel pretty comfortable for me so that's my personal experience but my ears are not the same as yours the xm4s feel massive in your ears in comparison to the rest the Bose feel super secure because of the extra fins the airpods Pro 2 surprisingly feel like they're not in your ears without falling out and the xm5s feel secure while being very comfortable but it's important to know that it's mostly relying on the ear tip to hold it in for working out all of them are ipx4 rated I think the bows are the most secure option out of all of them but I haven't found any issues with any of the others in terms of feeling like they fall out or them actually falling out now having the proper size ear tip is important not only for the sound but to keep it secured in your ear the xm5s joined the trend of having an extra small ear tip and are made out of a really nice foam-like material rather than silicone so it not only provides a more snug fit but also a stronger passive noise cancellation unfortunately the xm5 stick out of my ear enough to make it uncomfortable to lay down on a pillow strangely though the airpods Pro 2 are quite comfortable when laying down even with that stem at least for my ears for the song pay attention to the clarity of the attack of the acoustic guitar strings but how Ford the mid-range is in the body of the guitar and the vocals when the nights get cold sometimes when I look over see you by a fire with your hands out in the open and I wonder if you're singing Autumn's song but if I'm singing all I must be singing on my own [Music] oh look we're in the maxim5 how weird as for battery life here's a helpful chart to look at that will show you that they're pretty much all the same with the airpods pro having the largest overall battery life and the Sony's having the longest per charge battery life as a whole all of them are at least long enough for a long flight with ANC on or to get through most of a workday and they have been fairly accurate in my actual use I honestly have no complaints about any of their battery lives all these charge quickly but the xm5s can get you an hour of playback time with a three minute charge compared to the xm4's 5 minutes and all but the airpods Pro 2 use USBC at the time of filming there have been some rumors that the airpods Pro 2 will have a refresh to swap out the lightning port for USBC so if that's true and you're watching that and it has been released how do you like it let me know in the comments hello you from the future in addition to charging over a cable all of them have wireless charging except for the Bose Quite Comfort earbuds too this is a bit of a frustrating Omission given that it is a flagship earbud from Bose and they have the largest case with the airpods Pro 2 it benefits from magsafe and will likely benefit from the qi2 charging standard coming in 2024 and that includes magnets that are essentially magsafe that means it will be compatible with a lot of wireless charging accessories that will be released in 2024 and Beyond hey by the way if you found this video valuable and want to help support the making of more of them the super thanks feature is enabled it's like giving you a tip thanks this track is quite revealing in how the mid-range is handled between each earbud as well as how it handles some of the higher end things like symbols in the snare pay attention to see if you hear one of them being a bit harsher than the other hold it to the night [Music] [Applause] [Music] for the xm5s interactions are mostly the same with the addition of a four tap feature to either turn your volume up or down which is greatly appreciated I think volume control is a make or break for me there are options for adjusting which earbud handles Ambient sound control and which handles playback control in the app unfortunately it doesn't allow you to assign custom actions for each type of tab so you're stuck with predefined presets overall I'm happy with the interactions on the xm5s but I prefer the swipe gestures found on the airpods Pro 2 and the Bose QuietComfort earbuds too which allow for swipe volume controls up and down on each earbud it just feels more intuitive over Taps and it's nicer for those of us that wear one earbud at a time as for connectivity the airpods Pro 2 are obviously amazing for Apple devices with quick pair and the Sony earbuds connect over Android fast pair and support the higher quality ldac codec on Android and Bose requires an app to work properly I will say that the Bose app is the worst part of that earbud because it's so inconsistent doesn't always work and it won't let you connect at times so Bose needs a fixed repairing process and connectivity and use Android fast here the xm5s have 85 percent of the features available just from connecting over Bluetooth and the interactions so the app isn't required for a good experience but the headphone app is essentially the same as before with ANC and transparency controls EQ adaptive sound controls based on what you're doing speak of the chat which will auto switch to transparency mode when it detects your voice and back to ANC when you stop talking a new head gesture feature which you cannot to accept a call or shake your head to reject it interesting there's also Multi-Device pairing which works fantastically well and there's a bunch more as a whole the Sony app is solid but wish I had more custom EQ bands beyond the five given for people like me as well as more granular controls for interactions I also would like more side tone control or the capture voice during a phone call feature that is intended to prevent you from feeling all plugged up into your head isolated from when you're talking on a call right now it doesn't feel like it's doing nearly enough to alleviate this sensation speaking of calls and microphones let's check that out after this next song this song is a mid-ranging warm and Soulful track listen to her vocals the electric guitar lines and the keyboard okay and together [Music] [Applause] [Music] in your mouth [Music] now let's test out how the microphones perform inside where it's quiet and outside in noisier areas anyways we'll also check out the call Quality experience and to help financially support videos like this I'll test out the mics while telling you how you can support me now I don't have a sponsor for this video because a whole bunch of Brands pass on it which I just have a feeling a lot of them will wish they had you can still help support videos like this that take me over 60 hours to make by checking out the service that I personally use called delete me I had a pretty scary experience a year or so ago where I was live streaming and someone started to share personal information about me in the chat and even started to share details of where I live I thought I was about to be swatted which terrified me it was one of the most violating feelings I've ever had and I just proactively called the police to let them know what's happening to try to you know prevent anything from happening they said that they would have to show up regardless if someone was to report something so I was a bit anxious but thankfully nothing happened and after that I made sure that it would never happen again you see I had this previous job at JP Morgan Chase in the fraud prevention department and my job was to find information on people let me tell you there's way too much information out there about you if you've opened up a phone plan about a house voted opening utility plan or numerous other things your information is out there here's the crazy part public information is way too public in the age of the internet I could easily find out someone's current and previous address their phone number family members age and More in as little as five minutes with only two pieces of information about you like your name and what city you live in so what's the solution well first we need some serious reform in regards to public information and second you can easily remove all that information with delete me it provides all the information that you provide and yes it is safe and then it uses that information and looks all over the Internet for those who are selling your information and sharing it and request that it's removed every single three months I tell my family and friends to use it my fellow content creators and I'm telling you that you should use it too I've been using it for the past year and I can't even find my personal information on the internet and I'm me it was my job to find people if you sign up with you'll get 20 percent off a plan and I'll get a little commission to help compensate for my lack of sponsors and here's a tip sign up for the two-year plan to extend that discount even longer that's what I did so help a brother out sign up and protect yourself your friends and your family using the link in the description or the QR code on the screen thanks to the real ones who signed up shared my link and helped support videos like this by the way all these phone calls were HD phone calls now we're next to a waterfallon which provides a lot of noise that the mics will have to filter out to focus on your voice how does it sound on the Bose now Sony told me that they added an AI chip and some sensors into the xm5s to tell when you're talking and this is based on the vibrations that it detects while you're talking and then that AI chip processes all that crazy stuff so in theory that means it should be able to filter out your external noise and capture the sound of your voice better so how do you do it and now we're next to a busy road as if you're walking to work I'm running things to say if I want to let you know that I'm really thankful that you're here I hope you're having a good day and that you're enjoying the video so far and that providing a lot of value here if it is let me know what you think in the comments I'll let you notice about each of the microphones and how they perform no this song has a lot of frequencies going everywhere so listen to how the high end and the mid-range changes between earbuds foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] generally using bluetooth earbuds isn't the best idea for games especially first person shooters or rocket League or you know things like that but they can be perfectly fine for most other games Sony has stated that they have improved their latency on the xm5s which is true but still has a bit of a delay the Bose is the worst in terms of latency and the airpods Pro 2 on an iPhone performs the best for this next song listen to the low end and the high end From The Snare and especially the hi-hats to hear how bright and sharp the high ends [Music] what's going on [Music] transparency mode is an extremely helpful feature that allows you to be aware of and engage with your surroundings without having to take out your earbuds and every one of these have varying levels of quality and can be enabled by a touch of a button an adjustment in the app or automatically enables when you talk like on the xm5s transparency has been a very exciting area of improvement over the last year with the launch of the airpods Pro 2 and the Bose quiet Comfort earbuds too these two have been the best options out there for transparency due to how natural they sound the question is how do they stack up with each other and how does the xm5 compare so we have some very fancy microphones here each one of these mice is a thousand dollars so you'll actually be able to hear how it sounds in terms of the transparency performance and the ANC performance compared to just saying hey it sounds good or sounds bad we'll be able to have some objective samples of how they're actually performing in different environments which is really cool okay let's do a transparency test right next to this water fountain foreign [Music] foreign [Music] okay now we're next to this busy road so let's see how it performs [Music] [Applause] [Music] now what's really interesting about transparency mode on the Bose QuietComfort earbuds 2 and the airpods Pro 2 is that the sound of your environment when you have in your ear kind of sounds a lot like the same as when you take it out there's no audible difference in volume there which is really convenient it adds to that really natural experience for transparency mode this song is from my personal friend Hannah Parrott listen to how Dynamic the track sounds the various layers of horns string sections and malloc percussion instruments [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you for many years Sony has been amongst the best out there for ANC or active noise cancellation going neck and neck with other brands like Bose and Apple so this test will be really fun to check out now for the ANC test we're next to this wire phone let's see how they perform [Music] now not all ANC is the same sometimes it's just a marketing point and it doesn't really do much or it does a lot and it's really effective like the options that we have in this video and some of them have different approaches some may focus more on the mid-range reduction which is where your voice tends to kind of reside or we'll focus more on the high end where you have a lot of ambient noise or things like water running so it really comes down to your personal preference and the approach that you prefer all right now we're out in an open field where there's a bunch of white noise and so we're going to try out the transparency mode and we have my friend Sydney over here that's going to help out with some of the talking samples hey oh listen to how each handles win how much of the voice you can hear in a and C mode and how clear and natural The Voice Sounds in transparency mode what's up Sydney what's going on Brandon aren't we like in Rome or something we are almost like Rome but not as cool Sydney have you ever seen the Bose quite go for earbuds too no this is actually my first time seeing these bad boys do you think uh it's kind of weird with the stubbies oh yeah it's like give me a thumbs up Sydney what do you think about the design of the xm5s I love it uh it's cool it's you know what I'm more fascinated with than the xm5s is just your entire testing setup you're you know it's classic you oh thanks you're a classy guy now the song is covered with a wide range of frequencies so listen to the high end and the mid-range for how it changes between earbuds [Music] ways [Music] now as you've probably noticed I haven't really shared a lot of my thoughts on the sound quality that's to give you more time to hear for yourself the objective samples and make your own conclusions but I know a lot of you want to hear my personal thoughts so here they are the Sony wf-1000xm5s really surprised me at first listen they sound good typically Sony's go for a very dark bass heavy sound that some have described as feeling like you're under a thick blanket this is not the case here the xm5s may be Sony's most balanced sounding wireless earbuds today avoiding the much darker and more congested Bassy sound that was found on the wf-1000xm4s it is still a bit more mellow and less Airy than the Bose Quite Comfort earbuds too in the airpods Pro 2 which some may prefer however it doesn't sound so mellow that becomes boring or muffled I assume you've been able to hear these differences in the song samples amongst the lineup the airpods Pro 2 are a bit closer to the standard called the harman curve that provides a Target sound that most people tend to prefer according to harman's research I tend to prefer a Harmon sound with some minor modifications so the airpods Pro 2 have been my preference for a while for wireless bluetooth earbuds but that changes with xm5s plus my custom EQ now the Sony headphones app does have an interesting feature that gives you the ability to create a custom EQ based upon some predetermined sound so you kind of tap around and choose what option you prefer and it continually narrows it down until you get a custom EQ personally I didn't really like the results of those but thankfully there is a five band EQ option that you can mainly arrange to get a more granular choice for you so I prefer that one a little bit more now speaking of custom EQ let me share with you my own after this song this song has a lot of Reverb going on listen to how forward the vocal sound the air and the Reverb from the vocals and how clean the low end sounds and let me know what you notice in the comments [Music] I need [Music] foreign [Music] with my custom EQ I still have to take the blanket off the sound and adjust the high end to give it more clarity and air and I was able to obtain more instrument separation a wider sounding Sound Stage more elevated and present vocals and a tighter more Punchy low end to be honest with my kasamiku this is my favorite sounding Warehouse earbuds out there with good ANC now unfortunately I can't show you the examples I want to do to copyright but can really hear the differences with my custom EQ on songs like Daft Punk's the game of love that has a lot of air and punchiness electric mantises Rose City for the expanded Sound Stage and Silent planets pinopathicon for a more aggressive sounding electric guitar and growling bass to name a few you can gain access to my custom EQ for the xm5s along with other headphones and earbuds by becoming a channel member and hitting that join button your support helps me put together videos like this that take me over 60 hours to make a whole week full of tuning and experimentation for the EQ and the ability to purchase the equipment and products to make content like this I even have special EQ for the wavelet app for those on Android for even more fine-tuned custom EQ that I think sounds even better and it's what I'm personally using while on Android now let's hear a sample of how the custom EQ sounds it may be a bit harder to hear the difference here compared to listening with the rear earbuds in your ears but pay attention to how mellow the vocals and symbols sound on the default EQ and how the custom EQ makes it a bit clearer and more punchy this is nothing to do me I'm about to lose my mind cause when I see you I really think I need you every single summer time seasons in between now the question is which one should you buy well if you are using an iPhone it's really hard to argue with the fact that there are a lot of ecosystem benefits that come with the Apple airpods Pro 2. if you want wires charging don't get the bows as for active noise cancellation it's pretty close between these two but I would say that in my observations it seems like the xm5 is the best one if you need the longest per charge option get either of the Sony's and if you need the longest overall battery life go with the airpods pro 2. as for transparency mode I think it's a toss-up between the Bose Quite Comfort earbuds too and the airpods pro too there are slight variances that may be there because your ear shape but yeah it's not that big of a deal if you want the best microphone that removes all of your surroundings the xm5 may be an awesome but I've noticed that it puts a lot in that environment I talked to Sony about this and they believe that it was an issue with the pre-production table that they gave me and it wouldn't be a few on retail use we'll have to verify that in the later video but for now that may be a deal breaker and I do have to say that the airpods Pro 2 sound really good on a Mac as for comfort in size it's really hard to argue with the airpods Pro 2 they feel like they're hardly in your ear but I will say that the xm5s they're pretty dang comfortable they're a really good upgrade from the xm4s and quite a bit more comfortable than the Bose if you want the best sound get the xm5s with my custom EQ or the airpods pro 2. as a whole the xm5s is a huge upgrade from the xm4 so if you have an xm4 earbud and you're looking to upgrade it's totally a no-brainer if you haven't purchased one yet don't even bother with the X and forces worth the extra price because there are so many advancements here that make it quite amazing from the size the way it feels the active noise cancellation the transparency mode that's so much it's a great upgrade from the xm4s but if you're not using the iPhone the xm5s may be the best option as for pricing surprisingly the airpods Pro 2 are cheaper than the Bose and the xm5s but you can find the xm4s for a cheaper price but I would not really choose this so for any of the other options this next song has a killer base on it pay attention to that the synth and the vocal Reverb and don't forget to use the links Down Below in the description if you want to purchase any of these [Music] here forever [Music] so which one do I prefer this is kind of an interesting question to ask because it really depends on which platform I'm using at the time I tend to use two phones at the same time Android and iOS so if I'm using an iPhone it's really hard to deny that the airpods Pro 2 are just like really great because of all the ecosystem benefits that find my feature the mag safe all that is really nice but you know if I'm using an Android phone I really like the xm5s these are probably going to be my go-to especially with my custom EQ it gets it just that sound that I really prefer and the active noise cancellation is really amazing the transparency mode not exactly the best amongst all of them but I can live with it and they're quite comfortable I love the battery life on it and it still has wireless charging unlike the Bose now thanks so much to Sony for sending out the xm5s for an unbiased review that did not have any sort of review writes or copy approval and they're seeing at the same time as you now how about some outtakes in the app to get oh God oh my God where how many do I have another nice thing about having a shooter is that weird you like really dumb stuff and like nerdy stuff like this if you don't like go around thinking you're some weirdo they're like oh they're just filming a thing so you know if you want to do like socially unacceptable and weird things just have a guy film it okay up the sensors you know tape is a lot better than neat airpods that had to use meat it's got a bunch of tea you know that's the cleanup that's happening oh he's taking it away oh hopefully that's not gonna just die somewhere on the carpet airpods Pro again take two it was like metal music and I was like that's not right I'm a metal metal

Channel: This is Tech Today

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Keywords: sony wf-1000xm5 review, sony wf-1000xm5 vs sony wf-1000xm4, sony wf-1000xm5 headphones, sony wf-1000xm5 wireless headphones, sony xm5 vs airpods pro 2, sony xm5 review, sony xm5 earbuds, Sony Wf-1000XM5 Comparison, Sony Wf-1000XM5 vs Airpods pro 2, Sony XM5 vs Sony XM4, Sony XM5 vs Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, Sony Wf-1000XM5 vs Bose QCEII, Sony Wf-1000XM5 Experiential Review, Sony Wf-1000XM5 Binaural, Sony Wf-1000XM5 Audio Engineer Review, Sony XM5 Audio Engineer Review

Id: gPkxuSnXmb8

Length: 32min 21sec (1941 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023