Review on Wireless headphones Sony WH-1000XM4, silver by Micha Skolimowski ᠌

Name: Wireless headphones Sony WH-1000XM4, silver
Item: Wireless headphones Sony WH-1000XM4, silver
Rating: 5

May 02, 2023

I didn't expect the quality to be so high.

Headphones are very ambiguous. There are pluses, there are minuses. From me - rating 5. But this is my rating. I have wanted this particular model for a long time, the factory frequency response of these ears suits me 1 to 1, plus top-end noise reduction: in general, this is all I needed. Problems with PC wiretapping, I'm ready to solve. A library of lossless tracks is present. For others, their shortcomings can result in a very unpleasant aftertaste from spending a decent amount on a device that they will not be able to use as they want or as advertised.
Therefore my advice is:
1) If you are ready to put up with the minuses, an extra overpayment + solve the conventions with connecting to a PC / you won’t listen from a PC - take it, the device is awesome.
2) If you are not ready to overpay, plan to use them only for PC / listen to music from streaming mp3 services - don't waste your money. You won't get everything you pay for, physically.

Pros

1. There is a tight case-case for transporting headphones in the kit. 2. Very nice materials, the headphones are tactilely pleasant and cool in appearance. 3. The design is very cool: they fold as compactly as possible, sit well on the head and do not put pressure on the ears. 4. Crazy noise reduction. The model can already be said to be a pensioner, but even by modern parameters it is a very very worthy ANC. The new model is better, but there are some nuances. 5. Very decent sound. With nuances, however: they are bassy, for an amateur, but this is corrected by the equalizer. The headphones respond well to adjustments, a convenient equalizer in the application, and what is important: they remember the settings, they will be set the same on all devices. 6. Support LDAC. The difference between AAC, SBC on lossless tracks is present in the places where it should be. Do not listen to the "analysts" that BT is not about lossless. Technically, since BT 4.0, it supports a stream of 1 Mb / s. In 5.0, which the headphones support, this is 2 mb / s. LDAC is 990kb/s.

Cons

1. Overpayment for the brand and extra "knickknacks". Adaptive noise reduction, 360 audio, transparency, dialogue mode. All this looks cool, playing around for the first time will do, but most likely you will cut it down after a while. 360 audio is quite an interesting thing, but paid, not supported by all streaming audio services, and I wouldn’t say that it’s just wow. The same transparency and dialogue mode work very ambiguously. And why? If you listen to music, then you listen to music. Dot. And you don’t talk to someone and don’t listen to who is mumbling in the background. 2. Lack of support for AptX in any form. I partly understand the manufacturer: they want to promote their codec, maybe there were some nuances with the supply of chips, but 1 fig - the absence of this codec in the ears for such money is a failure. Phones, players, fortunately, many support LDAC out of the box. But if you have a PC on Windows and they were bought for it - congratulations, you gave a lot of money to nowhere. Or you will pay more, because Windows does not know how to LDAC out of the box. Yes, now there is a custom firewood with LDAC support. Yes, there are external sound cards or receivers with LDAC support. But it's all money, money. Firewood - 1k. But you need a modern BT receiver. And payment in American presidents = rf card you will not pay for them, albeit with a ridiculous price tag. External devices are generally a separate category of expenses, the price tag is not humane at all, maybe to buy expensive ears and buy a cheap device - well, this is facepalm. As a result - a bunch of hemorrhoids for your extra money. 3. Microphones for conversation are average. Not to say bad, not to say "wow" (everything is much better in the new model). Dumb average. Therefore, I write in minus. 4. When traveling on a 990kb/s LDAC connection, you can catch friezes and sound slippage. In general, this is not a drawback, because miracles do not happen - a high-speed codec is less noise-resistant. Keep this in mind if the headphones are taken for "travel". I rarely caught this, but there is a fact, I consider it necessary to mention it.