While they support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio and Dolby Atmos music tracks on Tidal, the setup process is a little ridiculous: you’ve got to take a photo of each ear in Sony’s app, images the company says are deleted after 30 days, to “optimize” the sound. And while it may not be a huge upgrade over its predecessor in terms of performance, it's definitely more comfortable to wear.Not that I expected them to, but the 1000XM4s can’t keep up with Apple’s ecosystem advantages that exist between the AirPods Pro and iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The long and short of it is, despite some relatively minor issues I encountered with the adaptive noise canceling (perhaps they'll get fixed with a firmware upgrade), the Sony WH-1000XM3 is a top-notch headphone. I'm not sure what happened, but I had to manually reactivate the noise-cancellation. But I hadn't touched the button (that button can also be programmed to activate Google Assistant if you have it installed on your device). You can toggle off noise canceling by pressing a button on the left ear cup. For instance, I'd be walking in the streets and all of a sudden I'd hear a little ding, my music would cut out, and the noise-canceling would turn off, allowing ambient sound to leak. The only issue I encountered was that sometimes the adaptive noise canceling would randomly shift gears. Sony's Headphones Connect app allows you to tweak all these features. The atmospheric pressure optimizer, which is designed for plane use, is currently unique to this headphone and the WH-1000MX2. As before, the features are supposed to help you better tailor the sound to your environment. Like its predecessor, the headphone features adaptive noise-canceling, atmospheric pressure optimizing, ambient sound control, an equalizer and surround and sound position control. I've worn it in the streets of New York and underground on the subway, as well in the air for a cross-country plane ride to and from Seattle, where I got an early look at Microsoft's Surface Headphones. I didn't experience quite as dramatic an improvement in performance as Sony suggests, but after my initial tests it's apparent that the WH-1000XM3 certainly measures up to Bose's noise canceling and arguably surpasses it. He didn't have any real complaints about the sound. Steve can be hard on Bluetooth headphones but had positive things to say about the WH-1000XM3: Nice treble, warm, natural midrange and bass that was deep but also defined. I gave the headphone to Steve Guttenberg, who writes CNET's The Audiophiliac column, for a listen. Overall, the headphone is clean-sounding for a Bluetooth headphone and sounds nice and open (for a closed-back headphone anyway). But the bass doesn't get boomy, it's just muscular. There is some bass push - I found myself wanting to lower the volume on one our test bass tracks, Alt-J's 3WW, to tone things down a bit. Sony reps told me this model has the same drivers as its excellent MDR-1AM2 headphone, and I think this sounds better than the Bose QuietComfort 35 II: it sounds more natural with a little better definition, clarity and strong, punchy bass. It reserves a spot for the short USB-C cable as well as the included headphone cable - yes, you can use this as a wired headphone, great for the plane's in-flight entertainment system - and it sounds great in wired mode. And the carrying case is slightly different. The exterior finish on the ear cups, where you'll find the touch controls, is smoother.
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