Sony Extra Bass WH-XB900N Bluetooth headphone review: Good sound, major thump, and noise cancellation

Sony’s Extra Bass WH-XB900N noise canceling Bluetooth headphones sound nice, are low-latency, and do job at blocking out undesirable sound. At $250, these headphones are hardly low cost, however the telephone app EQ means that you can dial up ridiculous quantities of bass and tailor the general sound, and there are design thrives galore. 

Design and specs

The WH-XB900N’s are massive, over-ear, closed-back headphones (with porting) and considerably modest in look. That’s to not say they’re unattractive; they’re simply not designed to name consideration to themselves. In addition to the all-black mannequin, there’s additionally a with delicate blue highlights (as proven under). 

Sony

The headset includes a pair of built-in buttons: one for energy/pairing and one other you could program to both management the noise mode (ambient sound on, ambient pontificate, and noise cancellation) or invoke Google Assistant or Alexa. I left it on noise management after confirming that the latter operate works.

Additional performance is on the market by way of contact gestures carried out on the surface of the precise cup. Swipe as much as improve quantity, all the way down to lower it, and swipe or double-tap to reply or grasp up calls. Swiping and tapping the ear cup could get you some unusual appears, nevertheless it’s form of enjoyable, to not point out intelligent.

Sony

The XB900N includes a 3.5mm jack for the provided male-to-male 3.5mm cable. If you need to watch motion pictures in your aircraft’s leisure system, that’s factor. There’s additionally a Type-C USB port for charging the headset. Accumulating a full cost takes seven hours, in response to Sony. I used to be a bit nonplussed over that till I learn that these puppies are rated to run for 30 hours between fees with noise cancellation on, and 35 hours with it off. For headphones that weigh solely round 9 ounces, that’s fairly candy.

You can join the XB900N’s to the telephone by way of Bluetooth or NFC, and the Sony app facilitates the Google and Alexa setups, in addition to extra superior settings for the noise cancellation and ambient sound. As I discussed, there’s additionally an EQ on board so you’ll be able to dial up fairly a little bit of bass, in addition to tailor the general sound to style.

Sound and efficiency

I’m usually predisposed in direction of the best way Sony EQ’s its headphones; I’ve used them for years with the occasional open-back Sennheiser thrown in. So it was no shock that I favored the best way the XB900N’s sounded out of the field, with one exception: a tad an excessive amount of bass. That’s simply remediable with the Clear Bass management on the equalizer web page. I additionally discovered myself upping the two.5kHz band a bit, however usually leaving the 400hz, 1kHz, 6.3kHz, and 16kHz bands alone. Sony gives a quantity or presets, and there are two customs presets you…