Sony’s fourth generation of wireless noise-cancelling headphones has been eagerly awaited by the entire audio industry for months. Sony headphones Singapore has officially announced the WH-1000XM4, which will be available at select retailers and online stores starting August 7, 2020. Its price is 549 Singapore dollars. At the convenience of Sony Singapore, we were able to get our hands on the headset before the official launch for an early review.
Sony describes the new WH-1000XM4 as a headset designed to enhance your daily life, offering the best noise cancellation performance to date and ready for any event. Whether you’re working at home, commuting to work, or relaxing in a coffee shop, the WH-1000XM4 will allow you to immerse yourself in sound while intelligently assessing your surroundings. Since 2018, Sony’s WH-1000XM3 has been able to do this, and the WH-1000XM4 has just been tweaked a bit to be state of the art.
What’s new in the WH-1000XM4
In terms of design, the WH-1000XM4 is similar to the WH-1000XM3, but with some minor changes such as changing the button lettering from “ANC/AMBIENT” to “CUSTOM” and embossing the “NFC” logo instead of printing it! The left ear cushion has a worn look. You can see the distinctive black sensor on the left ear cushion to determine the degree of wear.
In terms of features, the new WH-1000XM4 is known to be equipped with the famous QN1 HD noise reduction processor. In addition, the new Bluetooth audio system picks up and adapts to music and noise over 700 times per second. The QN1 HD noise reduction processor uses a new algorithm to perform real-time noise reduction processing. Naturally, it reduces more midrange noise and overdrive than the WH-1000XM3. I don’t have the M3 at hand, so I’ll have to take their word for it. It must be more expensive, right?
Another new feature is DSEE Excessive, which more accurately recovers the sound lost during digital compression. This is accomplished through Edge-AI, which analyses the music in real time, identifying devices, musical genres and specific components of each track to recover overly altered sounds lost in compression. From my listening results, the highs are extended and airy, and the violin solo comes alive. It is very refined, but the discerning listener will hear the difference. Otherwise, the DSEE Excessive does not alter the balance of the sound, so I allow it by default.The Sony headphones Singapore WH-1000XM4 does not support the aptX audio codec, only LDAC, SBC and AAC.
New “Converse Tokyo” for headphone professionalism
The new feature of the WH-1000XM4 and the headphone set is Converse-To-Chat. When the user starts talking, the headphones automatically pause the music and activate the ambient sound for 30 seconds or for a configurable time via the smartphone app. I was very impressed with the intuitiveness of the controls. You can resume music playback earlier by double-tapping the corresponding earpiece. Quick pickup is a current feature, and I don’t remember if it was faster than previous models, but from the moment you put your finger on the corresponding earpiece, activation seems very quick.
These two options make the WH-1000XM4 the most technologically advanced ANC headset available and completely enhance the enjoyment of using the WH-1000XM4 in public. When I open my mouth to speak, the headset intuitively switches to ambient sound without having to lift my hands. Converse to Chat is a market-leading feature, and with this launch, Sony takes another step in the evolution of the Fast Consideration feature, which I’m sure many manufacturers will emulate in some way.
Next, the Sony WH-1000XM4 has a motion detection feature that pauses the music when the headphones leave your ears. It uses a proximity sensor placed in the left earpiece to improve detection and avoid false positives.
The Sony WH-1000XM4 can also connect two devices simultaneously, all through a smartphone app. Once activated, the audio codec will probably be downgraded to SBC. You can also see the name of the machine displayed in the smartphone app.