Comparison: AirPods Max vs Sony XM4, Sennheiser Momentum and Bose NC 700

[decypher44]

Picked up my XM4 this morning. Got everything set up (but still playing with various settings). Holy cow!!! The sound is really, really good! Currently using manual eq (Bright with bass up). Been watching Netflix on my 2020 27” iMac - Lost in Space. Whoa!! The sound is incredible, and so far no sync/lag issues.

I’ve been using APP and Sennheiser 2. I’ll continue to use the APP for ultra-portability and for video chat or important calls. The M2 will be put away for backup. The XM4s will be used for music and video.

 

[adrianlondon]

I am not getting them, even if someone forced me too.

Buy them!
No.

Please!!!
No!

I'll pay for them.
NO.

I'll pay for them, and give you some money.
NO!

I'll pay for them, give you some money, and you can just throw them in the bin once I leave.
CAN"T YOU READ? NO!

I know, I'm just being silly. But they're really not that bad, although I don't own them either

 

[Mr.PT]

I would say that these pretty much raised the bat for over ear wireless headphones. No other headphones have raised the bat higher.


I was thinking the same. Bose was generally known for noise reduction, Sony, while good, is new to the quality NR game. They certainly haven’t ALWAYS been known for NR.

IMHO it’s more like they raised the price, not the bat...if you are OK considering APM against half price competitors...When compared against same price range products you may get disappointed though. While Bose had the lead in NR lately Sony has done a great job in catching up and to some even surpassing, but true it hasn’t be Always the case.

 

[lobeyonekenobi]

I just ordered and tested both the Sony WH-1000XM4 (XM4) and the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Wireless 3 (MW3). Both are good upgrades from my wired Sennheiser MOMENTUMs from 2012.

The XM4s have a better profile against your head; fewer protrusions and lower potential to knock them off or damage something else. They have better noise cancelling than the MW3s and are lighter too. The XM4s fold up more and pack in to a case about half the size of the MW3s.

Other than that I give the win to the MW3s. The ear-cups are larger and more spacious, ear pads larger and more comfortable. If you move your head or jaw too much with the XM4s the shifting will move your ear to block and significantly dampen the sound. That doesn’t happen with the MW3s, they sit more stable on your head even with a heavier weight. The MW3 build does feel nicer with the metal and materials quality.

MW3s have superior sound to my ear. The XM4s do a fine job, and push the mids/treble more for a lively fun sound. Great for rock or vocal fans. The MW3s seem to roll off the treble a bit more by comparison but they offer a deeper clearer bass and a bigger soundstage. Sounds have better separation and you can boost the mids/treble if you want with the Sennheiser Smart Control app.

Finally the XM4s fall down considerably in the on-device control department. They mostly use these barely responsive touch controls on a flat, unadorned surface. They were completely unreliable for me. Now a lot of us are used to limited control with AirPods and use phones/watches, but the controls need to be there sometimes. The MW3s have fairly easy to engage buttons on the rear of the right ear-cup. They have all the functions you’d want including multifunction play/pause/answer/hang up/battery info, voice assistant/pairing, volume, and noise cancelling on/off with transparency mode as well. Much better than the awful controls on the XM4s.

I’d highly recommend the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Wireless 3 headset if someone else is looking at this class of headphone. The are very capable and fully featured with sound that will compare well to AirPods Max, they come with a functional case and the cable accessories you would need. They will lack “Hey, Siri”, Spatial Audio, and automatic pairing, but the MW3s have simple Bluetooth pairing, automatic switching and multiple device support, noise cancelling and transparent modes, call audio routing with reasonable quality, and a very fast assistant/Siri button. They also have Alexa and Tile integration if you wanted to set those up. A good buy in my book.

This.

I have not listened to the other headphones TBH but I can speak for the MW3's and can say they are phenomonal in the sound department, I have the wired MW2s and they are easily the best sounding headphones I've had.

I've listened to the Bose (over-rated) and they are fantastic at ANC but the sound quality for me isn't there, normally it's the same for Sony.

The MW3s seem to have it the other way around, not so good at the ANC (but still good enough) but the sound quality, in my opinion is the best, not sure how the reviewer came to the conclusion in saying they are poor, no-one I have ever spoken to or read has ever described them as poor!!

 

[Mr.PT]

I do find it funny how people are upset that these $550 headphones are being compared to $350-$400 ones. When has Apples ever came to the market later, but cheaper? Maybe a few edge cases, but for the most part, there is the classic Apple Tax that most people are willing to pay. I was hopeful that these would be $350-$400, am I surprised at the $550 asking price? No.

I usually don’t mind the TAX as I feel there’s not a better alternative. In this case this is far from it, hence it’s getting compared to Half price competitors...ironically it’s getting Sony looking very appealing to some... I think 400$ would be OK, more than that you start to have though competitors.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I usually don’t mind the TAX as I feel there’s not a better alternative. In this case this is far from it, hence it’s getting compared to Half price competitors...ironically it’s getting Sony looking very appealing to some... I think 400$ would be OK, more than that you start to have though competitors.

I would imagine the likes of Sony are getting a spike in sales since all the reviews comparing theirs to Apples over the past week. It’s good PR I would say. Then there are the likes of me who have just bought the Soundcore Life Q30’s and am immensely happy. I could buy 9 pairs for the price of the AirPod Max and that really does boggle my mind seeing as how good they are.

 

[Mr.PT]

Don’t feed the troll LOL

Yes, but read the specs, it may help in your testing...

 

[C. Robert]

And just to be clear, you own a pair right? You've done extensive testing of the battery right to give such feedback against cheaper products right? OH WAIT! The part that I highlighted qualifies you to not have valid qualified feedback since you haven't even touched them. 🙄

I’ve used them and they’re horrible. I would never buy a heavy, safety ear protection looking headphones, stored in a bra case. Stick to your arguments and not attacking the person making their own comment.

 

[synergize]

Picked up my XM4 this morning. Got everything set up (but still playing with various settings). Holy cow!!! The sound is really, really good! Currently using manual eq (Bright with bass up). Been watching Netflix on my 2020 27” iMac - Lost in Space. Whoa!! The sound is incredible, and so far no sync/lag issues.

I’ve been using APP and Sennheiser 2. I’ll continue to use the APP for ultra-portability and for video chat or important calls. The M2 will be put away for backup. The XM4s will be used for music and video.

Give them about 20 hours of break-in and they will open up and sound even better. I got mine on Friday and they sound better each time I wear them...very nice headphones indeed, luv 'm!

 

[MNLondon]

Spatial Audio for Apple TV would be something real special.

I've heard Spatial Audio with AirPods pro on the iPhone and it's amazing. in fact, I love my AirPods Pro and compared with the Max, they are underrated! I'm almost tempted to buy a spare pair at £190, as a spare pair! I am getting a pair of the old Sony monitor headphones (the ones you see in studios around the globe) at £89 though.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

“Raising the bat” is a nonsense term, it means nothing. HOWEVER, if you say that AirPods Max raise the bat over all other headphones, you’ll get folks telling you how they absolutely do NOT raise the bat. No wonder why so many folks are writing news stories about these, you’ll get engagement regardless of what you say!

 

[C. Robert]

Best review for what they are.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

For those still think otherwise

That was an AMAZING video demo and evaluation! Thank you for sharing this—I've now found a new high-quality tech blogger to listen to and watch!

 

[meru890]

I think this is a really good review and covers everything. If you want the best you get the Apple. However you pay always way more for the last few percent improvements and and on top the apple premium tag I myself got the sony mx series and love it. Sounds and noice cancelling seems to be better on the AirPods Max but the case and the portability (not foldable) makes it an absolute no go for me. Even if they would cost 300 dollars I would pick the sony first. Not keen on spending that much mone while only listing to spotify and youtube If my sony breaks down I'll give it a shot in 1-2 years.

 

[The Game 161]

That was an AMAZING video demo and evaluation! Thank you for sharing this—I've now found a new high-quality tech blogger to listen to and watch!

Yeah was a brilliant run down...

 

[hot-gril]

You can turn off voice prompts for the NC700 in the Bose Music App, I agree it can get annoying

I hate that you can't get rid of the 3 Favorites and just have a disable/enable ANC option for the button as I don't really care for the transparency option. I have to manually set ANC off in the App which is annoying, because 0 in the favorites is actually just transparency mode and not ANC off.

I like the look of the Sony XM3/4 better and they definately do have better slightly better ANC (at least for me) but bought the NC700 because of the better mics/call quality and I didn't have the patience to wait for the XM4 which I hoped would have better voice/call quality but looks like they didn't really improve there.

Oh thanks, didn't occur to me to try the app. I'll go do that.

Yeah, tbh I didn't research the competition very much because I had a large corporate discount with Bose in particular.

 

[CosmoCopus]

I need a pair of these.

 

[benjo765]

Its a shame not to include some more boutique high-end cans, such as the planar magnetics from Audeze like the LCD-1 which are truly phenomenal. Frankly disappointed that Apple didn’t do anything more innovative than conventional dynamic drivers, cashing in on the branding or what?

 

[FriendlyMackle]

I think that, for most of the folks/places doing tech reviews, they just don’t have access to anything more expensive. And, since sound is subjective, they don’t want to spend that much OR wait to get more expensive ones in to do a “real” comparison because it really doesn’t matter. Folks that want them early have already ordered OR already have them. These early reviews are all about getting eyes/ad revenue (even folks that DON’T want them have likely read every single review, too!). In a few months, when there are reviews on the HiFi sites (for the market they’re actually in), no one will look at these early comparisons to Sony or Bose again.


I don’t know if 5.1 improves battery life by THAT much. I mean roughly 5 vs. roughly 6 hours (in some cases by just including a larger heavier battery)... I wouldn’t call that huge, really.

I think you should end up with an additional 1.5 hours of battery life — simply based on competing devices which had a new hardware release and the only significant change was 5.0 to 5.1 Bluetooth. My Bang & Olufsen E8 3rd Gen gained close to 3 hours of additional battery life. They do not have ANC — which probably would have reduced the increased life by half. But other similar size units (competing brands) and battery capacity with ANC have gained around 1-1.5 hours life per charge with the new 5.1 hardware.

I know that sounds like a small thing...but 1.5 additional hours on a 5-hour playtime is near 25%. Also, it is such a simple change (I believe) that for a premium price (even just the AirPods Pro), that is what Apple should be offering in all of their audio devices.

Also, I'm in no rush to buy anything new...I have more than I need in terms of audio. And I find that I really only use 2 pairs — my newest B&O E8's (Gen 3) and my B&O H9 (Gen 3). I know that these being Apple, I'm unlikely to find them on sale...ever, by more than $10-$20.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I think you should end up with an additional 1.5 hours of battery life — simply based on competing devices which had a new hardware release and the only significant change was 5.0 to 5.1 Bluetooth.

I did a quick search, and it seemed that most of the ones that offered ANC and Bluetooth 5.1 also were physically larger. Such that I don’t think we can say, for certain, that 5.1 would change playtime by much for something matching Apple’s size and weight, but I’m open to more searching. I would actually like it to find that 5.1 would make a difference that significant. It would bode well for future Apple products as the standard was introduced January of 2019, the AirPod Pro’s were introduced October that same year, the next versions would likely already be developed with 5.1 and all the benefits that would entail.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

As much as I love the look, that mesh headpiece looks difficult to replace and easy to rip.

For all the brilliance everywhere else (except for that ridiculous case and the weight), that would give me pause at this price point, particularly when it seems the competitors don't appear to have that issue.

 

[lowendlinux]

The internet likes these but I prefer my over ear headphones to be wired since the only place I really use them is at my computer attached to my DAC.

 

[The Game 161]

the more reviews that are out the more impressive people seem to be of them but again it's the price point which people come to which is fair enough. I'm sure people will say due to design this is why it's more expensive. apart from the awful case it is designed very well

 

[44267547]

I think this is a really good review and covers everything. If you want the best you get the Apple. However you pay always way more for the last few percent improvements and and on top the apple premium tag I myself got the sony mx series and love it. Sounds and noice cancelling seems to be better on the AirPods Max but the case and the portability (not foldable) makes it an absolute no go for me. Even if they would cost 300 dollars I would pick the sony first. Not keen on spending that much mone while only listing to spotify and youtube If my sony breaks down I'll give it a shot in 1-2 years.

The XM’s are such a great pair of headphones. The construction, the aesthetics, the way they feel on your head without being cumbersome and to ‘weighty’, everything just works together. The only negative thing I can say about Sony’s is that sometimes I think there’s too much technology the consumer won’t utilize completely. Otherwise, the XM’s are very well extorted for the price and have great zipper/hard shell case with additional storage.

 

[MecPro]

As a Bose 700 owner, this was interesting to me. I'll be honest, it doesn't sound like there is an absolute clear KO blow between these two.

I wish he listened to some hip-hop though, that's my main genre.