Sony WH-1000XM6 noise canceling headphones pass through the FCC

25 January 2025
They seem to be slightly redesigned.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • M5C
  • 9 hours ago

GuyGigu , 26 Jan 2025What better headphones do you suggest that are better then ... moreMy alternative to Sony: fitted IEMs and a DPA headset. Sure, isolation and cancellation are two separate beasts, and IEMs give a ton of isolation. For travel use a single-channel inline XLR with USB-C and 3.5mm monitor jacks. (Shure makes one, it's neither the best nor the cheapest option.) For sitting at a desk? a proper interface. Ambient sound is as easy as pressing the monitor button for the DPA. There are wireless, rechargeable IEM drivers and mic packs. It's a more expensive setup but more flexible. I've fully moved on from the WH1000.

On the engineering side: nRF54H20 or the nRF54 that came out before that. Nordic gives you bleeding edge Bluetooth---spec compliant---plus some of the best microcontroller documentation around. With Armv8.1-M, you can fully take advantage of security features (both for securing listener data and for preventing firmware reverse engineering).

I'm no expert on acoustics, so I'm spitballing here: Sony does directional microphone array research with their hotshoe fake shotgun mics, I'm sure they could find a good way to capture higher frequency phase information at the ear than currently, and with a fast enough CPU/DSP and well-written routines (likely their biggest limitation right now) they can get the higher frequency sound to the driver in the several dozen microseconds needed between array and driver. If their hi-freq problem is too much added noise then leave the choice up to the customer. Add a beta toggle and warning, "experimental higher freq cancellation; may cause adverse sound quality".

(The cancellation doesn't go high enough to ignore someone's crying baby without playing audio. I'd set that as a goal for my engineering team and de-prioritize all other choices except durability/comfort---an orthogonal goal.)

Getting rid of touch controls (replacing with an analog dial and a few low-profile push switches) would be an excellent way to free up CPU cycles to guarantee each interrupt fires on time. Also, you can get the right volume on a dial every time in less than a second without the need for a screen or volume beeps! Lock HSP/HFP behind an advanced setting so it's never the default, use any of the expired BT codecs for better mic quality (or just LDAC, and show users how to enable this on their devices) which is what the majority of consumer pro audio gear is doing (Rode, Sennheiser, Shure, that three-syllable company that rips off everyone's designs, etc.)

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    • theli
    • nDJ
    • 9 hours ago

    Dgksgjstjsykdyj, 18 hours agoPlease tell me it's gonna have buttons instead of the ... more+1 for the no touchpad pls.
    I installed the horrible app just to deactivate those.
    Uninstalled the day after as it is really horrible. Who thought the user wants an app to read all the messages on whatsapp as they come.
    So better spend some time on the app and remove the touchpad and you'll have a great product:)

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      • Tanishq Hooda
      • IBJ
      • 17 hours ago

      Hopefully they won't be as fragile as xm5

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        • Dgksgjstjsykdyj
        • TpB
        • 18 hours ago

        Please tell me it's gonna have buttons instead of the touchpad, im so done with that, had more than 10 misinputs, like volume pausing and speak to chat, by my wet hoodie from just standing and walking

          do you think this means they'll stop production on the 4s? they're my favorite headphones of all time, I should try to get a second pair before they're gone. my first pair is maybe 4 years old and still kicking strong.

          I'd consider the 6s but I'm scared the hinge will be as prone to breaking as the 5 is. I've seen too many horror stories

            Hello !
            Any news for the future WF-1000XM6 (I prefer) summer 2025? Note that Technics has published these new EAH-AZ100

              • G
              • GuyGigu
              • 0qB
              • 26 Jan 2025

              Anonymous, 25 Jan 2025Ugh. Mediatek, always two steps behind Nordic nRF when it c... moreWhat better headphones do you suggest that are better then the Sony's?

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • pQ7
                • 25 Jan 2025

                Ugh. Mediatek, always two steps behind Nordic nRF when it comes to patches and functionality. Cutting edge is 5.4, and the XM6 will use a BT 5.3 chip. Sony almost certainly hasn't resolved Hands Free vs Stereo quality issues or connection distance despite being a market leader in headphone development, thus having some say in the Bluetooth spec. They could also innovate with multi-device receiving or audio passthrough/device hopping, but that would require actual engineering effort. Oh. And either support LDAC (write drivers for all OSes, provide dongles, figure out who to charge for licensing) or drop it. Useless proprietary nonsense!

                Overpriced in Europe.

                Touch controls have been a catastrophe for generations. Probably still not foldable/fully rotatable.

                USB-C audio endpoint?? Make the sound cancellation work properly while connected to a smartphone (via jack OR USB-C, especially apps that don't properly utilize Android's noise cancellation feature set). Microphone via 3.5mm a la TRRS? (Brownie points if this interfaced properly with Alpha cameras and other power-via-3.5 products that they develop, or if they made a USB-C to 3.5mm that is friction-held at the USB side without compromising feature set.)

                Achieve higher cancellation frequencies? (Yes, sound directionality and wavelength is a limitation of physics, but human knowledge of physics has steadily advanced.)

                Advances in battery life are "meh". Power banks are cheap. If you're going to mash a 4000 mAh battery inside, enable USB-PD bi-directionally.

                There is so much more Sony could be doing than "new hinge, slightly weird new color, slightly newer processor"

                  • b
                  • but
                  • ALv
                  • 25 Jan 2025

                  the horsepower of the nvidia 5090 is starting to get pretty good at noise cancelling, no headphones can handle it particularly well

                    The biggest problem of xm4 and xm5 was automatic ANC, basically removing less noise than xm3 in a lot of situations.
                    Let's hope new one gets better.

                      By the looks of things, they will keep the refresh cycle, like they did with the XM3s and XM4s, only spec bump, the design seems the same. I do hope they change the hinge design though, the ones on the XM5s dig into your chest after a while and they can be pretty uncomfortable around your neck

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • r3b
                        • 25 Jan 2025

                        Good

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