Sony WH-1000XM4

Disappointing purchase. After purchase Sony retail price dropped 25%, at least now not pretending to be a premium product. Volume low even using connect app. Noise cancelling the best feature, really good if you want silence. Bluetooth wont connect to Denon hifi or new Sony TV. 12 months old and obsolete, next to useless. Going in the bin, no more Sony. Good ear warmers in winter but uncomfortably hot in summer. Show details

Noise cancelling is good however after 4 months the battery gets drained within 2 hours. I used the product probably 25 times. Goes from 100 to 10% within 2 hours Then charges within 30 min to 100%. Sent to Sony for repairs. Apparently no issue. Returned the product and the battery discharges rapidly. Will give them a chance to resolve. If not i will lodge a complaint to ACCC. Show details

Yeah use know me for my love. No love here. Quality product no doubt. I write my reviews based on fact. Fact is the touch function on this almost $500 unit is dam well none functioning. Mad as a cut snake . Everything else. TOP THE LINE. can't hear anything but my music . ...but after a few hours I figured it out. Cramming all the functions… Read more

into one spot was not wise. The battery holds charge amazingly. Great product. Just the touch function is well . Touchy .

No Good – I used to enjoy using my earphones on the weekends, but they've stopped charging. Today is December 23, 2024, and I need to buy a new pair. Officeworks informed me that the service repair process takes about four weeks , but it will take around two months to get a response. My experience with these earphones has been terrible. The quality is… Read more

poor, and I believe Sony shouldn't charge so much for them. I won't comment on Sony's customer service, as everyone knows it is also very disappointing.

If you have the budget, I recommend buying Bose earphones instead. They offer better quality, and if something goes wrong, Bose provides excellent customer service.

Extremely Fragile making them far overpriced – These would be a great product if they weren't so fragile. A very common problem with them are the hinges breaking which is not covered by warranty. I only use them during my flight to and from work. Twice a month for 1.5 to 2 hours at a time. I received them for Christmas so 6 months old and the hinge has already broke and so very easily. Sony… Read more

quoted me over $500 AUD to repair them. For the amount of money you pay for these things it's most definitely not worth it. I'm extremely disappointed with them

Good headphones with minor flaws – I purchased the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones as I read good things about them. They are an impressive piece of audio technology and the sound quality is top-notch, providing a rich and immersive audio experience that is sure to please most audiophiles. The noise cancellation feature is highly effective, making these headphones ideal for use in noisy… Read more

environments or while traveling.

The battery life is commendable, easily lasting the quoted 30 hours. The headphones are also quite comfortable to wear for extended periods, thanks to the plush padding and adjustable headband.

However, there are a couple of aspects that could use improvement - the ear cups had noticeable creases in the padding, which was disappointing considering the overall quality and price point of the product. While this does not affect the sound quality, it does detract from the aesthetic appeal of the headphones. And also the lack of spatial sound support is another letdown albeit minor.

In conclusion, the Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones deliver in terms of sound quality and features, but the creased ear cups and lack of spatial sound are minor letdowns. Despite this, they remain a solid choice for those seeking high-quality noise-canceling headphones.

Despite the reviews, This is my best audio purchase I've ever made – I'm very surprised to see such harsh reviews on these headphones, professional reviewers highly praised these headphones and is what lead me to buying these headphones 2.5 years ago. Many users here have cited issues with charging, which is something I too occasionally experience... But to me the pros outweigh the cons significantly. I have had… Read more

consistent heavy use of these headphones for almost 2 and a half years and a total use time of 206 hours. And since that time I've experienced consistent high quality balanced sound on all music types, battery life and other features I've appreciated such as the dual bluetooth connection and touch pad. The app it comes with is quite useful compared to some other brand's garbage-tier software. (Hi Sennheiser)

They are very comfortable to the extent of long usage while exercising or staying on for several hours at home.

- Cons Yes the charging issues are true, admittedly I've learned to check if its charging by feeling the charging port for heat to confirm it is in-fact charging after a few minutes, and have caught it like 1 out of 20 times...

- The pausing when taken off feature no longer works on my headphones (rip)

- the speak to chat function is god awful, many times it would initiate phone calls simply when I was having conversations with my headphones somewhere else.

Mostly great, but – I am overall happy with the comfort and quality of the headphones, especially the noise cancelling capabilities, but when I use the headphones in a bus or car, there is an annoying level of audio "shaking" and distortion. I don't know how else to describe it. This happens on a standard road. I have raised this issue with Sony and I was instructed… Read more

to change a setting, but the issue remained. As I mostly use my headphones for travelling, I am a bit dissapointed with this experience. Even my $10 earphones do not do this and is not to be expected from such an expensive and highly rated pair of headphones.

They don't stay connected and you can be doing something and they just disconnect for no reason. I was talking on the phone to my daughter one day and they just disconnected, she even remembers it. You are watching a video and you pause, they disconnect so you have to connect them again. They just disconnect for not reason. It happens at least… Read more

once a day and it drives me mad.

Contacted Sony, sent them back to Sony. Oh they can't find anything wrong with them. Seriously, did they try using them for at least a day? I imagine not. They had the headphones for two days, my guess they didn't do anything. They are now out of warranty, so it's my bad luck.

I would never, ever, buy another Sony product. I have always heard their customer service is bad, and it really is. So now I will be stuck with headphones that just disconnect when they feel like it.

Good sound, below average usability – Was told these were one of the top headphones available approx a year ago and which I agree the sound quality is up there the usability is rubbish. Used for the gym and every time your towel or arm lightly brushes the side of them it changes song. Using the noise cancellation is ok as long as it’s not too noisy eg riding on a bus or plane where… Read more

the headphones make a loud banging noise. I did return them and got them sent away for free to Sony and came back fine but still had the same problem. Good headphones if you are just sitting inside listening to music but if you intend to use for anything else I would look at something else, especially for the price point.

Has an annoying feature – Good points are: Comfortable, can wear all day (can't say that about my other headphones). Noise cancelling is good. Sound quality good to my ears. Bad point and what motivated me to give this review is that it has the really annoying feature that if I laugh, cough or speak to someone while wearing the headphones while watching youtube, it pauses… Read more

the youtube video. This is really, really annoying. If it weren't for that I would give it 4 stars. Also the battery doesn't last if you use it all day. I received as present not sure its worth the price I see it sell for.

Fantastic sound, shame about it's charging! – Absolutely wonderful headphones across numerous measures, in particular comfort and sound quality, however almost immediately they had issues charging. I.e wouldn't. For some reason upon connecting the USB charging cable the headphones would simply not charge. Occasionally their charge light would illuminate for ten seconds before disappearing.… Read more

Even leaving the headphone plugged in for hours would result in them still being 'low battery's. There's hacks available on YouTube that provided a temporary fix, but this issue has been an absolute pain since purchase. I purchased mine in another country and I chose not to pursue chasing up the warranty out of communication difficulties. Despite that, for their cost, this issue is in acceptable, and one year and one month in the seem to now not want to charge at all! I feel absolutely ripped off spending over $500 for a years use.

Great sound and noise cancelling - Crap for Samsung tv – Loved the sound quality, noise cancelling was best against similar priced brands, could not keep sync with New Samsung TV so useless for my purpose. Fit was excellent, Nice soft earpads. I now have Bose headphones, I can't rate the sound quality difference, but Sony has better noise cancelling, but at least the Bose works with my TV Show details

Broke after 5 months due to corrosion, Sony wont replace – These headphones were great for the 5 months they worked. They stopped charging after 5 months and I took them back to jb hifi who sent them of to be assessed. They were assessed as having corrosion on the charging port and I was told my warranty is voided. Seems like a scam, I only wear them in a vehicle or inside. I am very disappointed spent… Read more

$400 on them and feel I've been ripped of by Sony and jb hifi, I suspect they are using corrosion as a way to blame the customer to hide the sub par build quality.

6 months of use, now unusable! - cause: corrosion on charging board, voiding warranty – These are awesome headphones, but seem to be ridiculously sensitive to moisture from the atmosphere. I have been told by Sony authorised repairers, that my headphones have a corroded charging board. The headphones were only six months old, when I found that they suddenly refused to charge using the supplied USB cable. I returned the unit to… Read more

JB HIFI, they sent them away for assessment to an authorised Sony repaired. The report was that Sony refused to repair the corroded board. I looked after my headphones as if they were my baby and were used only in a public library and at home for piano practise. Whilst I loved using these for a short time, I am disappointed with Sony and their decision to not go ahead and rectify the issue for me!

In conclusion, I am not happy Sony, I do expect a little better from a world leader in electronic goods.

Disappointed – Experienced similar "won't recharge" six months after purchase. As others have reviewed here, warranty void due to moisture corrosion as diagnosed by Sony service department. This product is not fit for purpose. Possibly a design flaw in humid, sun tropical locations and during exercise. Sound and noise cancelling good. I don't intend to replace or pay over $300 for repair or recommend this product. Show details

Decent headset – I bought them last year and below are pros anf cons in my opinion: Pros: 1. Noise cancellation capability is prrtty good and are suitable specially in noisy envoironment e.g. airports, train station etc. 2. The range is fairly decent and I can walk around the house(bathroom, kitchen) with headset stays connected. Cons: 1. They heatup and you… Read more

feel in your ears which means you can't keep them for long such as walk, running, gym. 2. Over the time battery has reduced to nearly half although its still decent but I wasn't expecting such sharp decline in performance within a year.

Do NOT buy these headphones!! – After only 10 months ownership of my Sony WH1000XM4 at a cost of $400 they ceased to recharge. Still under warranty, I had them sent to a Sony repair centre only to have them sent back with a message saying that corrosion due to moisture was detected, therefore voiding my warranty. No offer to repair was given so I now have a useless pair of… Read more

expensive but worthless dead headphones. For the record I'll say that I was very happy with the quality of sound, noise cancellation and other great features. I've always kept them in the case when not in use. I've used them regularly during long walks and perhaps some sweating around the ears has caused moisture to penetrate and render them useless. If that's the case it's not good enough for a top of the range product at this price point from Sony. My previous headphones, not Sony, which cost less than half that price under the same type of use lasted me for 5 years and still working well! Since my issue I have seen numerous other reviews of this model with the same issues and exactly the same poor response from Sony. I will not be purchasing anything else with the Sony brand on it.

Poor product, and worse service by Sony – Don’t buy Sony products. I spent a lot of time selecting these headphones, in the end trusting various reviews and also an actual in shop listening test. Unfortunately the Sony headphones broke down within a month (started ear drum hurting loud squealing sounds). JB-HiFi were efficient in returning the headphones to Sony for service who wrote… Read more

back stating that the headphones had been damaged by the user and that Sony refused to honour the “warranty”.

Given that I only use them in bed and have looked after them exceptionally well (they are in pristine shape with no marks whatsoever) I was very disappointed to experience this corporate avoidance of responsibility by Sony.

The headphones sound was, when working well, on a par with the Bose units sound and price wise.

Alas instead of enjoying music I am taking Sony to VCAT, where at least i can tell the public how Sony and the retailer refuse to accept responsibility for products they sell.

In summary

Looks 9/10 Sound 7/10 when working. Reliability and quality 1/10 Sony Corporate Culture 0/10.

Save your money and buy a better built headphone than Sony products. As extra protection preferably buy from a retailer that, unlike JB-HiFi, directly guarantees its product.

Whilst I was very impressed with JB-HiFi’s processing of the case I was not impressed with the ultimate Pontius Pilate avoidance of responsibility.

I will never buy a Sony product again.

Premium price and advertising, basement reality.

Excellent with an iPhone, horrible with a Samsung TV – WH1000XM4B are great if you want to use them with an iPhone. Be careful if you want to use them with a Samsung TV. They have an absolutely horrible bluetooth connection with Samsung TVs. Scratchy sound, drop outs, L-R imbalance. SONY says to set connection as a priority or perform a factory reset which does nothing at all. Seems like it's a compatibility issue which is a fairly common complaint on product review sites. Show details