Sony WF-1000XM3 Earbuds Review — Always Wander

I’ll get this out of the way right up front – because this is the first big reason you buy a premium pair of earbuds. They sound fantastic. They truly do produce some lovely sounding audio. It’s rich, has a nice stage, and you don’t have trouble hearing little bits of instruments or voices. Honestly, it’s pretty impressive. Really. These are the best sounding earbuds I’ve ever used. I can’t say I’ve used any of the ultra high end ones, but generally speaking, these are some of the best that a regular consumer would buy. I love the sound they are producing and am totally happy with that. It’s a huge win. On top of the pure sound, they also support a higher quality sound codec (AAC), and also use a type of up-scaling for compressed sources if you like (can be turned on in the app). All that leads to a superior sound experience.

Now reason number 2 you would be considering these – the active noise cancellation. For true wireless earbuds, this is a very new phenomenon. In fact, until recently, I don’t think there were anybody other than Sony producing them. Apple has of course just released the Airpods Pro model, and because every mobile article ever now has to at least mention Apple products because a lot of people just assume they are the best thanks to the marketing, I’ll discuss that in it’s own section. But the short – Sony is king on this. Even vs. Bose. I was very, very pleased with the ANC on these. It’s VERY important that you get a good seal on the fit, as with any earbuds, and when you do there is a noticeable bump in the ANC performance. I think you need to be realistic though – earbuds are not going to have the same noise cancelling abilities as full on, over the ear headphones. They just aren’t. The feature on these though – is still impressive. I would like to point out that you should expect them to be handling more of the PASSIVE sounds: rumbles, droning, farther away voices, etc. They can’t stop the ACUTE noises: loud talking right next to you, loud bangs etc. Those will be muffled a bit, but they don’t disappear. They can’t work magic. On commutes: the street noise and train noise drops significantly (though not arriving and departing trains of course). Sounds faded away outside my office on 23rd in Manhattan (including background voices) and Brooklyn streets were super quiet. For traveling: I also tested these out while wandering, of course. That’s what I’m here for. In the lounge, they did a good job of driving most noises to the background. The overhead TV got more distant, people’s footfalls fell away, and general here and there noises were mostly gone. Lounge was quiet though, to be fair. As for walking in the airport itself, I’d say similar experience to the on-street performance. On the plane, they worked great to block out the noise of the plane and many of the voices, but not the loud announcements. I’d call them a big success in terms of size to performance ration. Again, they knocked most of the passive noises right down.

Beyond those huge pieces, I was very happy with the touch controls. In a lot of earbuds, it’s very much a gimmick. I hate to say that, as someone that loves tech, but it’s true. All sorts of cheap headphones have it. In the Aukey True Wireless earbuds that I reviewed, it was ok but a bit spotty in everyday practice. Not here. The touch panel was obvious and easy to find without looking (which is how it works when in your ear), it recognized my finger presses every time. Quick and easy, it worked great. Play/Pause, Ambient sound mode, etc. Never had an issue. And holding the Ambient Sound button cuts music and amplifies the environment around you to hear things like cashiers, train announcements, flight attendants, etc. It’s like super hearing, awesome.

The Bluetooth performance was great too, which I’ll add onto later. Battery performance was very strong as well. While I didn’t do any scientific drain test, my usage with commuting and at work for music and phone calls over the course of a week has not led me to plug the