There is a lot of competition at the top end of headphones and Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) technology, with the last few years mostly being dominated by Sony and Apple battling it out for the top spot. Well, Sony’s latest release, the Sony WH-1000XM5, is possibly one of the best headphones on the market when it comes to audio quality and ANC. While that does mean that they can get quite expensive, you can actually get a pretty significant discount with this deal from Walmart that knocks it down to $328 from $400.
Why you should buy the Sony WH-1000XM5
Where the Sony WH-1000XM5 truly stands out is in its ANC, which is by far the best on the market, even beating out the AirPods Max, which is impressive considering how good the ANC is on the Max. It’s also good in almost any scenario, from the clinks and din of a coffee shop to the deep yet whining noise of an airplane engine, so it’s great if you tend to spend a lot of time outside of the house. The only place where the Sony loses out to the AirPods Max is the transparency mode, which is only slightly better on the Max, although the automation for the ANC and transparency modes on the XM5 is still pretty excellent.
As for audio quality, Sony does an excellent job there, too, and even though the drivers are smaller than the WH-1000XM4‘s they actually sound a lot better, which is an impressive achievement. The lower frequencies are powerful but not overwhelming, while the soundstage feels a bit fuller in the sense that you can better distinguish various instruments. Of course, that does have the unintended side-effect of departing from the XM4’s bass-forward sound and, therefore, goes for a more neutral sound, which might be a disappointment for those who prefer the bass-heavy sound of the XM4. That said, the XM4 is still an excellent option, so they are still worth grabbing if you like a more bassy sound.
Overall, it’s hard to understate how excellent the Sony WH-1000XM5 are, and if they’ve piqued your interest, you can grab a pair from Walmart for just $328. On the other hand, if you’d rather stick with the older XM4 or just go for something else altogether, check out some of these other great headphone deals as well.
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