To new levels

Review: Sony WH-1000XM6 - The best has become better

From the start, we have high expectations, and it must be said that Sony lives up to them. Even though they were already the best.

Erik Mörner

Published 22 May 2025 - 10:13

Improving further when you are already the best is a difficult task. Sony has established itself for many years and this particular headphone series as the best on the market. They have been praised by us and others primarily for the noise cancellation, which is the best you can get, but also for the sound. If you have an Android with support for it, it becomes high-resolution in LDAC format, and with an iPhone that only runs simpler AAC, which is more low-resolution, Sony can still improve the sound through its DSEE Extreme technology to restore some of the detail that has been lost.

But how good can the headphones be when we have already praised the predecessors and the generation before them as the best and almost magical? It has been almost three years since Sony released the previous model, and before that, the M4 model came out in the autumn of 2020. When I compare the two models, I can state that the noise cancellation, for example on an airplane, is about one-fifth more effective according to my estimate during a flight. Sony has also made some cosmetic changes in the new model and improved design and fit, as well as a bit of how you control the headset with buttons and gestures on the ear cups.

Similar but improved in several areas

Even though Sony themselves say that virtually every detail has been improved compared to before, we can state that much is similar. A look at the outside reveals that we have received a separate on and off button, something that was previously combined with the noise cancellation button. The headband has also been widened so that it does not press against the head during longer listening sessions, and the folding mechanism that allows you to fold the headphones when transported has been reinforced with metal. As before, a small carrying case is included where you can keep the headphones when you are not using them, and that case now has a magnetic lock, instead of the previous zipper. This, we are told, is the result of an accessibility workshop Sony's designers had and is intended to make it easier for those with limited mobility to open the package.

Looking at the inside, the headphones have also received a number of improvements compared to the M5 model, which explains how both music sound, noise cancellation, and call sound are better than in the predecessors. The WH-1000X M6 has a new chip, a noise-cancelling processor that is said to be 7 times more powerful than the one in the predecessor, improved speaker element, and significantly more microphones, both on the outside and inside. They contribute to noise cancellation as well as to better call sound.

Aiming for as much as possible

Sony works with noise cancellation so that it always does its best to remove as much ambient noise as possible. You cannot adjust the amount of noise cancellation. However, which in practice has the same effect, you can choose when and how much ambient sound you want. That is, if you want to hear, for example, birdsong, passing traffic, specific voices, or other sounds when you are outside, so as not to be completely isolated. It can even be managed automatically, and this is where the accompanying app comes into play. In addition to software updates, it also manages a wide range of functions and customisations, but it is probably the headphones' main weakness. Partly because it has so many functions that it easily becomes confusing, but also because several of the supposedly smart functions that are supposed to automate usage do not work particularly well.

Let's start with what's good in the app. It includes an equaliser so you can adjust the sound to your preferences. In addition to predefined options, you can listen to any music in a small step-by-step guide and have it played back with different settings where you choose which one you prefer. After a few steps of this, a customised equaliser is created for you, which you can then save. A smart way that lets you customise without requiring any expert knowledge.

Smart detection quite unsmart

Other smart features work less well. Most notably when the headphones are supposed to adjust the ambient sound according to where you are and what you are doing. The idea is that when you, for example, are walking, you should get a setting where you hear cars and surroundings for safety reasons, while if you then sit on a bus, for example, you get more uncompromising noise cancellation. Thankfully, you can set preferred properties for each situation, but it still works poorly. Stop, transport, walk, and run are the different modes. I can choose, for example, that I want noise cancellation without ambient sound when I'm sitting in public transport (transport) but let through voices and that I want ambient sound and to hear traffic and surroundings when I'm walking. The problem, however, is that the headphones are still bad at identifying the situations. When I'm on the subway, it thinks I'm "stopping", that is, the mode that should be used if I'm sitting in a quiet room. When I take the escalator, it thinks one time that it's "transport", the next day in the same subway, the situation is interpreted completely differently. I simply find it easiest to turn off this automation and instead manually activate ambient sound when needed. For the noise cancellation is effective. When I'm out walking with noise cancellation on, it's important to be particularly vigilant not to be surprised and collide with a bike or something else.

Besides the app, I can also control quite a bit from the headphones. On one earcup, I can swipe forward and backward to change tracks and up and down to adjust the volume. If you've activated it in the app, you can also mute the microphone by pressing a button twice, which is convenient during video meetings or regular voice calls. The headphones can also detect when you speak and automatically pause the music so you can have a short conversation. It waits a few seconds so you can also hear the response from the person you're talking to, but I notice that sometimes when I clear my throat or cough, it also causes the music to pause. Even occasionally when I hum along to the music or, of course, when I talk to myself.

The adaptation of sound and settings based on where you are and what you're doing works better than in previous models, but I still think it adds little value. The automatic interpretations and choices made are simply not smart enough. The sound profile and whether noise cancellation or ambient sound should be active shift depending on whether I'm standing still, using public transport, walking, and so on, but the result is rarely what I would have preferred. The headphones often choose to let through sounds I don't want or need to hear, like noise from construction work I pass by or an airplane flying over me. Therefore, I choose instead to manually switch between modes when warranted.