THE EMPIRE
Hey team
So we’ve had a heap of awesome electronics through to play with lately – here’s we’re looking at the 1000XM2 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones, The last ones I tried were the JBL E65’s Which I rather liked however at a lesser price point – As per full disclosure -These were sent to us by sony for a limited time for the point of independent review.
There is no shortage of options when it comes to wireless headphones these days, everyone’s making them and everyone’s making big claims around them. ” Best noise cancelling” ” best bass ” those sorts of things. Now as I said the JBL’s were nice and gave a great sound. But these being another $200 more, are they worth it?
I think the first question we need to ask ourselves is, What are they going to be used for? As I understand it, or perhaps foolishly assume, A lot of people that buy these sorta things are going to be using them with their mobile phone. Using these with your mobile phone presents a very interesting issue – This is for any external device but bare with me. Ya’l have tried to turn up the music to get more volume and you’re phone has likely said ” hey that’s loud, its bad for your ears” generally before its anywhere near close to enjoyable volume right? Well that is a mobile phone thing, I assume so you can’t sue them when you go deaf. But also limiting your listening pleasure in terms of volume which is a bit naff. But we’re gonna come back to this later.
As far as fit and aesthetics – these ones came in the ” gold ” colour which to me seemed more like a champagne colour more so than gold, which is of course very popular at the moment, the beige colour tones seem to have made it back to trendy lately from what used to be exclusive to housewives who can’t be assed colour matching anything anymore. And black – which is a kinda black / gunmetal awesome colour and would have been my choice easily. That being said, they look very slick in either colour buttons are neatly tucked out of sight yet not out of reach – other buttons are completely non visible giving a sleek and simple looking package – Buttons for connectivity and a 3.5mm jack can be found at the very bottom. The headset comes in a trendy travel pouch and even came with an airplane 1>2 3.5mm adapter for those jet-setting around, nice touch! – Alas it did not come with the USB charging cable I had to use one of my own – I’m unsure if that was a mistake on their part or if it actually doesn’t come with one, I’m sure it would but I didn’t get one. Also of note, a 3.5mm cable is included in the package – I think it would be about 3-4 feet I didn’t actually measure it but plenty for being at the computer or using wired to a device in a backpack etc.
For fitment – my large dome was well clung to by these headphones – a solid headbanging session with some quality local heavy metal kept them on my head with little to no movement but also importantly, didn’t feel like my head was in a vice at all – overall comfort 10/10 – its actually easy to forget you’re wearing them
Specs
DRIVER UNIT
40mm, dome type (CCAW Voice Coil)
INPUT(S)
Micro USB, Stereo Mini Jack
FREQUENCY RESPONSE
4Hz-40,000Hz
FREQUENCY RESPONSE (ACTIVE OPERATION)
4Hz – 40,000Hz
Also has NFC and passive operation abilities
Features
Some of the features on this unit were very impressive. I have a set of ear defenders for shooting, they have a little mic in them and a battery so they can relay voices and other sounds through the defenders and as soon as a certain DB level is reached ( gunshots trigger it) it turns off the inbuilt speaker. This unit has something like that but far more advanced. Its called ” Adaptive Sound control” and it was set to this when I first put them on and I was dicking around trying to connect to phones and things of that nature – I noticed I could hear even the smallest sounds like tapping on my phone button with the headphones on, Thinking to myself ” these noise cancelling headphones don’t cancel shit” – Little did I know I’d had it in a mode that relays external sounds on purpose – a tap of a button and I couldn’t hear a thing – to the point where I cracked my computer speakers to see just how well they cancel noise and I’d have to give them a solid 9/10 for the sheer amount of noise they can block – Turns out these features are customize-able and have various smart settings for different environments.
Buttons for volume and track skipping do not exist – instead there is a ” you need to read the manual to know its a thing” thing where the right side of the outer ear piece is actually a large touch pad that can be tapped or swiped for various tasks – this means a cleaner finish on the product but it also means you have to read the manual to know its there- which I did.. for once.
Battery life I can only go off claimed as I didn’t run it down – supposedly its 10 mins of charge for 70 mins of playback with a total life per full charge of 30 hours – Again that’s claimed and we can’t confirm
So all important – how do they sound?
Well – as I touched on earlier, it depends on the source – I paired these up to my phone piece of cake and cracked me up some korn – The clarity is very good however the volume at max on the phone and the headset was really only just enough for me to enjoy them for something like a gym session where I need to work myself up and get in that zone with the use of some very very heavy music – and we all know that THAT kind of music has a minimum volume which again, at max phone and max headset volume might be boarder line acceptable for some people. This was my real gripe I had with these. – It’s not actually the headphones fault – its entirely down to the source.
I plugged them into my computer – pulled up the same song – and holy shit balls can these things pump out some volume – at 75% on my source it was almost unbearable BUT – clear and full – This indicates that the headset can take and reproduce a huge signal and do it with a great amount of clarity – the bottom end was huge – the high ends were clear and even at levels that someone like me has trouble listening to – they are clear – that in itself is impressive and would need to be granted a solid 10/10 for sound. Of course we tried some other music and phone calls and those things all went well – but me being me and somewhat selfish I was very focused on what I would use them for – in a nutshell – smashing loud heavy metal at the gym paired to my phone.
So in conclusion – These headphones are brilliant – amazing sound in a slick stylish package. My only concern is the source. aside from that these are possibly the best headphones I’ve had the pleasure of using hands down. Oh there is just one more thing. They are $579.95 – a pretty penny but if the aforementioned huge quality sound and style are important to you – have at it – It’d be out of my price range for something like this but ya know.. dreams are free
Of course questions welcome if there is anything I missed – either here on the social posts of ours where you saw this – For more info you can check out the sony page on these HERE
until next time team!
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