AirPods Pro vs Sony WF-1000XM4

[Love Divine]

Have an iPhone, MacBook, iPad, and that's not changing. I have Beats Solo3s from years ago but want something smaller.

Which buds win out? Battery and noise cancellation are important to me, as is sound quality. But how would the Sonys compare in terms of ease of use?

Thanks!

 

[auronrenouille]

[Deleted because I misread a model number. Oops!]

 

[adrianlondon]

I have the Sony headset

Headset? Is that the WF or WH?

 

[auronrenouille]

Headset? Is that the WF or WH?

You're right, I misread the model number! Sorry!

 

[adrianlondon]

I only noticed because I'm also curious about the new Sony earbuds. My main issue isn't noise cancellation, how seamless they change between devices, or even call quality (although that is second on my list), it's whether they'll stay in my weird ears!

Unlike many things one buys, earbuds are one thing I really need to try-before-you-buy but of course are often non-returnable under hygiene rules. I'd hate to buy a new pair of earbuds that a few people before me had tried on

 

[jjk454ss]

I’m curious about the Sony’s also. My AirPods aren’t staying connected and my AirPod Pros hurt my ears.

I am mostly looking for something with a great microphone for phone calls

 

[One2Grift]

Have an iPhone, MacBook, iPad, and that's not changing. I have Beats Solo3s from years ago but want something smaller.

Which buds win out? Battery and noise cancellation are important to me, as is sound quality. But how would the Sonys compare in terms of ease of use?

Thanks!

I’m 2 days in on my AirPods Pro. I think the sound quality is excellent. I haven’t used the Sony so I can’t compare. But unless you have an audiophile ear, I suspect sound quality will be excellent on both.
Call quality is excellent.
Noise cancellation isn’t something I’ve needed or tried yet
I haven’t had the issue the two posters above me stated they had. They’re comfortable in my ears. After a few hours of usage I barely knew they were there. I never lost connection walking around the house (concrete block house).

If you’re into the Apple eco, I’d strongly recommend the AirPods Pro. Setup is simple. And to test/play with it, I connected with the other devices signed into my iCloud account. Don’t discount that interop ease of use.
But if you’re just looking for good sounding buds to connect to a phone to play music/video, I do hear Sony is top notch also.

 

[vasquez]

I think these fulfill any battery life, noise cancellation and easy of use wants.

I just purchased a pair, earlier this week.
They were easy to setup, and customize and sound terrific. Noise cancellation is on part with over-the-ear headphones, but ‘ambient’ sound (transparency) takes some getting used to, considering apples feels like you’re not wearing any headphones at all, and these in-ear buds create that effect where your ears feel plugged.

I would definitely compare the fit of these to any of the shure in-ear monitors. Foam tips are similar and the way it sits in the ear feels the same. I initially had buyers remorse because of the cost, and losing some of the APP perks, but after dealing with the rattling issue, it is definitely an upgrade.

 

[sparksd]

I had the AirPod Pros and now have the Sony XM4's - and I love them. The sound is outstanding and the ANC is excellent, really being helped by the isolation provided by the new tips. I also have the XM3's and find the newer buds to be a good step up all around, particularly regarding size. Got rid of the AirPods.

 

[hajime]

Between the AirPods Pro and WF-1000XM4, which is better in terms of noise cancellation, comfort and easy of connectivity? Many Youtubers said the WF-1000XM4 is now the best but some WF-1000XM4 customers complained that those Youtubers were paid to give positive reviews. Better to ask fellow users in macrumors.

 

[sparksd]

Between the AirPods Pro and WF-1000XM4, which is better in terms of noise cancellation, comfort and easy of connectivity? Many Youtubers said the WF-1000XM4 is now the best but some WF-1000XM4 customers complained that those Youtubers were paid to give positive reviews. Better to ask fellow users in macrumors.

See my review above - I think they're great.

 

[hajime]

See my review above - I think they're great.

I read that the Sony XM4 has good battery life. How long does it take to fully charge the XM4 and the AirPods Pro from zero?

 

[sparksd]

I read that the Sony XM4 has good battery life. How long does it take to fully charge the XM4 and the AirPods Pro from zero?

Battery is so good that I've never run them down to zero. They seem to charge very quickly - a five-minute quick charge in the case gets about an hour of play time.

 

[hajime]

Battery is so good that I've never run them down to zero. They seem to charge very quickly - a five-minute quick charge in the case gets about an hour of play time.

Which device are you talking about?

 

[Minarets]

For just music, Sony are probably better as the sound is more customizable. If you use for business or talking, the Sonys biggest downfall is the speaker for talking. Sounds very digital.

 

[sparksd]

Which device are you talking about?

XM4. Never ran the AirPod Pro's to zero either before I returned them but they were fast on charging and battery life was good. I didn't like the fit or the sound. (Actually, I will never run a Lithium battery device to zero - it's bad for the battery.)

 

[mavis]

The WF-1000XM4's sound (especially <100Hz bass!) is vastly superior to the AirPods Pro, obviously. But I do miss the comfort of the AirPods Pro, and the Hey Siri functionality is great, too. I find myself fumbling with the touch controls on the Sonys, which is annoying. If I had to stick with just one pair, I'd reluctantly go with the AirPods, TBH. But it sucks, because I prefer the sound quality and customization of the Sonys.

 

[macphoto861]

One thing I like about my Airpod Pros is that it's easy to switch them between devices (computer, iPad, iPhone). How are the WF-1000XM4s in this regard? If they're connected to my iPhone and I want to use them with my iPad instead, how quickly can that be done?

 

[One2Grift]

The WF-1000XM4's sound (especially <100Hz bass!) is vastly superior to the AirPods Pro, obviously. But I do miss the comfort of the AirPods Pro, and the Hey Siri functionality is great, too. I find myself fumbling with the touch controls on the Sonys, which is annoying. If I had to stick with just one pair, I'd reluctantly go with the AirPods, TBH. But it sucks, because I prefer the sound quality and customization of the Sonys.

I had the chance to use/hear the Sony today. I wasn't using it on my own iPhone/Apple Music so a 1:1 comparison wasn't absolute (Spotify). No doubt they sounded really good -- with that I agree. But "vastly" different sound, the performance difference between the two is very great? And bass difference is beyond very great? No offense but that's quite an exaggeration. If we assume the Sony is the standard bearer score 10 (debatable), APP does not fall far from 10.

Unfortunately APP (or if you own the Sony) has made music listening so much more bland on my JBL, car stereo or over at neighbors listening to music. Music experience just isn't the same since regular APP usage.

 

[hajime]

Do you guys/ladies think AirPods Pro 2 would be the best of both current AirPods Pro and WF-1000XM4 worlds?

 

[macphoto861]

Do you guys/ladies think AirPods Pro 2 would be the best of both current AirPods Pro and WF-1000XM4 worlds?

I think one SIMPLE step Apple could take that would dramatically improve the Airpods line would be to implement an EQ. Yes, the Music app has EQ presets, and the "Classical" setting works pretty well for me on the APP (reduces the somewhat boxy lower mids / upper lows), but the problem is that I don't want that setting to apply when I'm using the APM, so I have to remember to change it. Having an EQ on the Airpods (so, in other words, stays with the Airpods when you switch devices) would be ideal, but also acceptable would be the ability to specify different EQ settings on a device depending on what output device you were listening through.

 

[mavis]

I had the chance to use/hear the Sony today. I wasn't using it on my own iPhone/Apple Music so a 1:1 comparison wasn't absolute (Spotify). No doubt they sounded really good -- with that I agree. But "vastly" different sound, the performance difference between the two is very great? And bass difference is beyond very great? No offense but that's quite an exaggeration. If we assume the Sony is the standard bearer score 10 (debatable), APP does not fall far from 10.

Unfortunately APP (or if you own the Sony) has made music listening so much more bland on my JBL, car stereo or over at neighbors listening to music. Music experience just isn't the same since regular APP usage.

Thanks for the reply. I absolutely stand by what I said (can't really use enough superlatives to describe the difference between the WF-1000XM4 and AirPods Pro in terms of sub-bass, specifically <100Hz bass.) What Sony calls "Clear Bass" in their app.

I put together a playlist of songs containing at least some beats in that frequency range, and then I did a spectral analysis of the songs to confirm my suspicions. lol ... Sure enough, the beats I was focusing on were all around 50Hz, which is a frequency that a lot of headphones simply can't reproduce well (in spite of the tech specs pretty much universally saying 20Hz-20,000Hz) ... there's just too much rolloff below 100Hz, or the bass that low isn't tight, or whatever. Those beats are present on the AirPods Pro, which is more than can be said for a lot of cheap headphones, but those same beats have an almost visceral quality on the WF-1000XM4. The Sonys are indeed vastly superior.

If you have a chance to test the Sonys again, I recommend tweaking the EQ using their Headphones Connect app; foam eartips tend to cause some roll-off with the higher frequencies, so at the very least you'll probably want to boost 16k and a little less of a boost on 6.3k ... I also increase "Clear Bass" to level 5, because I like that LF bass to really kick. Once that's all done, fire up some bass-heavy songs. But specifically, songs that have a nice presence in that 20-100Hz range. As I said, I've made a playlist on Apple Music which you're welcome to check out:

For an example of a specific song, you can take "This Could be Anywhere in the World" by Alexisonfire. I like this one because this is a genre you normally wouldn't associate with LF bass - I mean, it's post-hardcore/screamo. But as you can see in this frequency analysis, there is very pronounced LF beat occasionally throughout the song, at about 33Hz. On the AirPods Pro you can hear it, but with the Sonys, it kicks you upside the head. It sounds the way that kind of beat should feel, IRL. Does that make sense?

Also, I'd use something other than Spotify to do your testing, if possible. In my experience, Spotify rolled off the 20-60Hz range quite noticeably, compared to Apple Music. It's been almost two years since I tested it last, so maybe it was just a bug which they've fixed in the meantime, but yeah - when I tested it, I was not impressed.

 

[One2Grift]

Thanks for the reply. I absolutely stand by what I said (can't really use enough superlatives to describe the difference between the WF-1000XM4 and AirPods Pro in terms of sub-bass, specifically <100Hz bass.) What Sony calls "Clear Bass" in their app.

I put together a playlist of songs containing at least some beats in that frequency range, and then I did a spectral analysis of the songs to confirm my suspicions. lol ... Sure enough, the beats I was focusing on were all around 50Hz, which is a frequency that a lot of headphones simply can't reproduce well (in spite of the tech specs pretty much universally saying 20Hz-20,000Hz) ... there's just too much rolloff below 100Hz, or the bass that low isn't tight, or whatever. Those beats are present on the AirPods Pro, which is more than can be said for a lot of cheap headphones, but those same beats have an almost visceral quality on the WF-1000XM4. The Sonys are indeed vastly superior.

If you have a chance to test the Sonys again, I recommend tweaking the EQ using their Headphones Connect app; foam eartips tend to cause some roll-off with the higher frequencies, so at the very least you'll probably want to boost 16k and a little less of a boost on 6.3k ... I also increase "Clear Bass" to level 5, because I like that LF bass to really kick. Once that's all done, fire up some bass-heavy songs. But specifically, songs that have a nice presence in that 20-100Hz range. I've made a playlist on Apple Music which you're welcome to check out:

For an example of a specific song, you can take "This Could be Anywhere in the World" by Alexisonfire. I like this one because this is a genre you normally wouldn't associate with LF bass - I mean, it's post-hardcore/screamo. But as you can see in this frequency analysis, there is very pronounced LF beat occasionally throughout the song, at about 33Hz. On the AirPods Pro you can hear it, but with the Sonys, it kicks you upside the head. It sounds the way that kind of beat should feel, IRL. Does that make sense?

View attachment 1802558

Also, I'd use something other than Spotify to do your testing, if possible. In my experience, Spotify rolled off the 20-60Hz range quite noticeably, compared to Apple Music. It's been almost two years since I tested it last, so maybe it was just a bug which they've fixed in the meantime, but yeah - when I tested it, I was not impressed.

We will agree to disagree. Important to note regarding the Sony, in no way was I saying now or in my last post that the Sony were not good. The sound was great IME. Just my short experience I could tell this was fine audio. But "vastly" just isn't the case compared to the really great sound of APP.

Here's a take from the sound guys (I made sure to find someone who hasn't been shy from giving negatives to Apple)(they also have the response charts but I'll paste just the text. "Vastly" isn't something plenty would use in APP v Sony quality. Either way, cheers! )


"All of these numbers are hard to contextualize, so how this plays out in your music is that resonances from string instruments, for example, will sound twice as loud as run-of-the-mill male and female vocals. This can make you notice certain detail in your music that went previously undetected but may be annoying to those looking for a more neutral sound.

On the whole, vocals sound really good with either headset. If you want a bassier sound, get the Sony earbuds and if you want more accurate vocals and to be able to perceive more detail from high notes, get the AirPods Pro."

 

[mavis]

We will agree to disagree. Important to note regarding the Sony, in no way was I saying now or in my last post that the Sony were not good. The sound was great IME. Just my short experience I could tell this was fine audio. But "vastly" just isn't the case compared to the really great sound of APP.

Here's a take from the sound guys (I made sure to find someone who hasn't been shy from giving negatives to Apple)(they also have the response charts but I'll paste just the text. "Vastly" isn't something plenty would use in APP v Sony quality. Either way, cheers! )


"All of these numbers are hard to contextualize, so how this plays out in your music is that resonances from string instruments, for example, will sound twice as loud as run-of-the-mill male and female vocals. This can make you notice certain detail in your music that went previously undetected but may be annoying to those looking for a more neutral sound.

On the whole, vocals sound really good with either headset. If you want a bassier sound, get the Sony earbuds and if you want more accurate vocals and to be able to perceive more detail from high notes, get the AirPods Pro."

As I've said several times, I'm talking about low frequency bass, specifically. Look at the frequency analysis - 33Hz. That's LOW. Now A/B the AirPods Pro and the WF-1000XM4, and you'll see that the Sonys are vastly superior (You could even say that the Sonys are "jaw-droppingly" better - in fact, last week I let my AirPod Pro-owning friend try the Sonys, and yeah - her jaw literally dropped in astonishment when she listened to that Bonobo track on my playlist).

 

[One2Grift]

As I've said several times, I'm talking about low frequency bass, specifically. Look at the frequency analysis - 33Hz. That's LOW. Now A/B the AirPods Pro and the WF-1000XM4, and you'll see that the Sonys are vastly superior (You could even say that the Sonys are "jaw-droppingly" better - in fact, last week I let my AirPod Pro-owning friend try the Sonys, and yeah - her jaw literally dropped in astonishment when she listened to that Bonobo track on my playlist).

If the Sonys are that much better for you? You should enjoy them, no worries at all. We simply disagree on the difference between the two. However, you stated/I originally replied to your statement: "The WF-1000XM4's sound (especially <100Hz bass!) is vastly superior to the AirPods Pro"
You did not say only the low frequency performance(see above). However, if you're now saying the Sonys low frequency are the only thing that is vastly better? We still disagree with describing it "vastly" (but I'd also disagree that the high freq vocals are vastly better on the APPs. They are both great). But I'd concede after seeing the low freq testing from the AGs that Sonys perform better (but not vastly). If you think it is a very great difference? Our opinions differ.
Regardless, IMO one can't go wrong with either APP or Sony. But the APP also gives you the eco integration and IME(others will disagree) excellent hands free calling performance(though I suspect the Sonys will still be very good). That's important to me so it makes the APP the easy choice for me. To those that don't need or want eco integration, they can consider the Sonys (or even the AABs if price is important, among others). Using either one raises the quality of listening to music HUGELY. I suspect we can agree that much. Cheers...