Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Sony is “the brand to beat” for ANC, and its XM5 headphones are $100 off

By Michael Bizzaco Published December 19, 2024

Reviewed By Digital Trends — Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones next to a laptop, mouse, and coffee cup. — Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

What is there to say about the incredible Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise-Cancelling Headphones that hasn’t already been said? These flagship cans were released a couple of years ago, and we here at Digital Trends are just as enamored by the sound quality, comfort, and rock-solid battery life today as we were when our review first dropped. We gave them a perfect score of 10 out of 10. And while it can be challenging to come across headphone deals for premium products like the WH-1000XM5, we did find this great offer:

For a limited time, when you purchase the Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise-Cancelling Headphones through Amazon or Best Buy, you’ll only pay $300. At full price, this model sells for $400. Our resident headphone expert, Simon Cohen, had this to say about the Sony XM5 headphones: “Sony proves once again that it’s the brand to beat in noise-cancelling headphones.”

Buy at Best Buy

Why you should buy the Sony WH-1000XM5

The Sony XM5 headphones are some of the best cans for listening to music, watching movies, and drowning out unwanted noise. With its advanced ANC system, you’ll stop being exposed to droning low-end sounds like bus and plane engines, construction crews, and HVAC systems. The XM5s will deaden workplace chatter, too, and the Speak-to-Chat feature automatically pauses media when you start talking.

The Sony XM5s delivers a warm, bass-friendly sound signature, and you can customize how the headphones sound via the Sony Sound Connect app. Other noteworthy features include wired and wireless hi-res compatibility and hands-free voice assistant controls.

We hope the Sony XM5s stay on sale for the foreseeable future, but this markdown could be gone tomorrow. That being said, today could be the best day to save big on this top pair of headphones. Take $100 off the Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise-Cancelling Headphones when you purchase today. You may also want to check out our lists of the best Sony-WH1000XM5 deals and best Sony TV deals.

Buy at Best Buy

Michael Bizzaco

Former AV Contributor

Michael Bizzaco has been selling, installing, and talking about TVs, soundbars, streaming devices, and all things smart home…

Topics

Audio / Video

Stop joining group projects with a blurry laptop webcam and buy one of these instead

Your laptop webcam is sabotaging your first impression. These five can fix it

I'm holding my Logitech C920 1080p webcam in my hands.

The webcam built into your laptop might be good enough for a quick call with friends and family. But its shortcomings become much harder to ignore when you are presenting a semester project, interviewing for an internship, or maybe if you're planning to stream for fun.

Laptop cameras also tend to sit far too low, especially when the computer is placed directly on a desk. Meanwhile, a dedicated webcam lets you position the camera closer to eye level. This improves the framing and brings larger sensors, better microphones, and more effective low-light processing.

Audio / Video

I desperately want a new classic Walkman, but Sony probably can’t give me one

Tech minimalism is begging for a new Walkman. Though rebuilding it may be close to impossible

Sony Walkman WM2011

Every few months, another piece of tech that seems obsolete crawls out of a drawer and becomes cool again. The age of minimalism has revived the popularity of iPods among younger buyers. Dumbphones have become an escape hatch from endless notifications. Similarly, digital cameras are dangling from bags again. Physical media keeps attracting people who want something they can actually hold instead of another frustrating subscription.

All of this makes it the perfect time for Sony to bring back the classic Walkman, which was a phenomenon during the 80s and 90s. I would love one. Give me a compact cassette player, physical buttons, and wired headphones. Keep the apps, notifications, and algorithms that shape your taste of music. No more AI assistants or personalzied feeds, just you and your Walkman. There is only one problem though. Recreating the Walkman that people love and remember, would be far harder than putting an old design back into production.

Audio / Video

Proton reveals how smart TVs track you and the escape situation is pretty grim

Modern smart TVs fingerprint your screen content at the chipset level.

Google TV applications on the Sony A95K TV.

Your smart TV may know far more about your viewing habits than you realize, even if you rarely use its smart features. In a new privacy explainer, Proton warns that many modern TVs quietly collect data about everything displayed on the screen and share it with manufacturers, advertisers, and analytics companies.

The worrying part is that escaping this tracking is becoming increasingly difficult because many privacy controls are buried deep in settings or enabled by default. Proton argues that buying a smart TV today often means accepting a level of surveillance that most people never knowingly signed up for.