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Amazon discounts Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones ahead of Black Friday 2019

Sony WH-1000xM3 headphones

You don’t have to wait until Black Friday to take home a fantastic pair of wireless noise-canceling headphones at a discount. Amazon has knocked a staggering $72 off the Sony WH-1000XM3, which just so happen to be the best in the business, dropping them down to only $278.

So, what makes the Sony WH-1000XM3 so fantastic? Everything about them, really. You honestly won’t find a better blend of performance, features, and comfort — even if your budget can take you to the moon and back — so much so we awarded them a coveted 4.5 out of 5 stars in our full review.

We praised their wonderful noise-canceling capabilities, which aren’t beyond masking static sound coming from vehicles like an aircraft, but also noises radiating in an office environment, such as the whirr of a Starbucks-grade coffee machine and the bellowing laugh of a six-foot-something co-worker.

Sound quality is at the high level one would expect from the best noise-canceling headphones on the market, with our own Caleb Denison noting: “Studio recordings sound intimate and impeccably produced, as they should, while live music recordings sound wide, expansive, and highly immersive.”

Interestingly, the Sony WH-1000XM3 manage to clear the one hurdle that tends to catch most noise-canceling headphones: Battery life. The cans can last for up to 30 hours (yes, you read that right) on a single charge — and that’s with both Bluetooth and noise-canceling enabled the entire time.

Can’t stand the out-of-the-box audio preset that most headphones force you to use? You’re in luck — the Sony WH-1000XM3 come with with a companion application that lets you alter the strength of the noise-canceling and tweak everything from the bass and treble to the overall direction of the sound.

The Sony WH-1000XM3 sits at the top of our list for both the best wireless headphones at the usual $350, so with $72 off they’re a no-brainer. Worried about Amazon dropping the price further on Black Friday 2019? Amazon said the deal is valid through December 29, so you should be just fine.

After something a little different? Take a look at our list of the best Black Friday headphone deals.

Bargain hunters on the lookout for more unmissable deals should peruse our list of the best Black Friday deals. We’ll be updating it from now through the event, so we recommend making it your one-stop-shop for all the latest savings. More interested in Cyber Monday? We have a list for that, too.

Editors' Recommendations

Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds go after Sony’s wireless hi-res crown
Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro.

Anker's Soundcore brand of personal audio devices just released the latest in its Liberty line of true wireless earbuds, and the company seems to be throwing everything it has at them. The $170 Liberty 3 Pro feature a 30% smaller shape than their predecessor, the Liberty 2 Pro, plus they come equipped with active noise cancellation (ANC) and hi-res Bluetooth codecs, things the original version of the older model lacked. The Liberty 3 Pro come in four colors -- black, white, gray, and purple. If you buy them between today and October 14, you can save $20 at Amazon and at other retailers.

We were blown away by how great the Liberty 2 Pro performed. We only noted a few drawbacks -- a bulky design, and some fiddly buttons. Soundcore was apparently taking careful note -- the Liberty 3 Pro are notably smaller (though they'll likely still stick out from your ears a bit), and the tiny physical buttons have been ditched in favor of touch controls. They also look decidedly more high-end, with a mirrorlike finish and chrome accents. Soundcore says they'll feel more comfortable thanks to the shape of the redesigned silicon earwings.

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Sony delivers the $100 WF-C500, its most affordable set of true wireless earbuds
Sony WF-C500 true wireless earbuds and case sitting on a table..

Sony, a company that has historically made very capable but very expensive true wireless earbuds, is now heading into more affordable territory with the $100 WF-C500, a set of earbuds that compete with Jabra's $80 Elite 3. Sony's previous lowest-priced earbuds were the $130 WF-XB700. It also announced its latest full-size noise-canceling wireless headphones, the $250 WH-XB910N. Both models are available for pre-order today at Sony.com, Amazon, and Best Buy.

Compared to Sony's other true wireless offerings like the WF-1000XM3, WF-1000XM4, and WF-SP800N, all of which possess advanced features like active noise cancellation (ANC), transparency mode, in-ear detection, built-in Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, and in the case of the XM4, wireless charging, the C500 are relatively bare-bones. They're still compatible with Sony's Headphones app, and they benefit from Sony's Digitial Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE), which helps to restore lost high-frequencies in compressed digital music. But otherwise, there are few bells or whistles.

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The best back-to-school gift is noise-canceling headphones. Here’s why
Man in cafe working on a laptop wearing Sony WH1000-XM4 wireless over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones.

Lindsay has a research paper on the laws of thermodynamics due at 1:00 p.m. sharp the next day so she's holed up at the school library because, by all accounts, it should be the quietest place on campus to get her work done. Unfortunately, Chad and Karen are two tables over giggling at memes on Reddit and the noise is driving her crazy. She pops in her aging Apple AirPods, but the battery is trash and, besides, they don't do squat to shield Lindsay from Karen's high-pitched giggles.

If only Lindsay's folks had known that noise-canceling headphones are the single most important tool for a good education, then perhaps they would have opted to get her a set of Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 or Sony WF-1000XM4 headphones as a back-to-school gift instead of an ergonomic laptop backpack, which is doing a great job of preventing Lindsay from experiencing premature sciatica, but doing absolutely zero to help her get her work turned in on time.

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