Sony WF-1000XM6 Review: Yes, These Wireless Earbuds Sound That Good

Being the champ ain’t easy, but it does have its perks. One of those perks is that, to be the champ, you’ve likely already built the foundation for future success. In Sony’s case, part of that foundation is its 1000-series earbuds and headphones, specifically the wireless earbuds, the WF-1000XM5.

When those earbuds launched way back in 2023, we called them “the best wireless earbuds you can buy,” which is high praise, but also well earned—they were smaller, had better active noise cancellation, and sounded better than their predecessor. That’s great for anyone in the market for new wireless earbuds, but it also means that any successor has big shoes to fill.

Well, three years later, it turns out that a successor is here in the form of the Sony WF-1000XM6, and they usher in good news for both Sony and audiophiles alike: these wireless earbuds rise to the challenge.

And the Grammy goes to…

This installment in the WF-1000-series earbuds promises to do a few major things, and one of those promises is delivering better sound—an important part of a device that you’re going to be using to listen to music and podcasts literally all the time.

According to Sony, the WF-1000XM6, this time around, are tuned in collaboration with “Grammy winners,” specifically mastering engineers. Which Grammy winners? I do not know. But based on my testing of the wireless earbuds over the past week, I’m going to take Sony’s word for it. They sound great.

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In terms of sound quality, these wireless earbuds are even better than the Technics EAH-AZ100, which were arguably my favorite-sounding wireless earbuds of the past year. The Sony WF-1000XM6 sound organic, clear, and nuanced across genres, and while you can adjust the EQ in Sony’s companion app, I felt no need to do so since the tuning sounded great right out of the box. Midrange frequencies are a particular highlight, especially when listening to rock music. Guitars sound clear, present, textured, and well-placed in the mix.

The bass tuning is also to my liking. There is no overpowering, artificial-sounding amplification, but the low end still has presence and power when it’s desirable. Comparing the WF-1000XM6 back-to-back with the Technics EAH-AZ100, I can’t help but feel like the Technics sound just a little flatter at times, where Sony’s tuning never misses—you’re going to hear each note, muddiness be damned.

It’s hard to say where the great audio comes from—the drivers or the tuning—but Sony’s WF-1000XM6 do feature Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE) Extreme, which is Sony’s upscaling tech designed to enhance audio that’s compressed and played over Bluetooth. Whatever magic is happening behind the scenes, the results speak for themselves.

If I had to deduct any points in the sound department, it would be because the WF-1000XM6 don’t get particularly loud. This may sound like a weird complaint, but I live in New York City, and sometimes cranking the volume can be the difference between tuning out the subway and having to listen to an agitating train ruckus. Still, that’s hardly enough for me to call the WF-1000XM6 anything other than great when it comes to sound quality.

Same word-garble name, but different look

If there’s one thing that fans of the WF-1000XM5 will notice immediately, it’s that the WF-1000XM6 look a bit different. Unlike Sony’s 2023 earbuds, the WF-1000XM6 are a little less bulbous, and according to Sony, they’re 11% slimmer than the WF-1000XM5. That design tweak definitely makes them look a little less obvious in your ears, but I can’t say I’m an enormous fan of the shape and look. There’s nothing deal-breaking here, but I still think the Technics EAH-AZ100 have a little more style to them and feel slightly less bulky when I wear them.

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The case also gets a redesign and is made of the same matte plastic as the earbuds. There’s nothing to lose your mind over here design-wise, but I do like how clicky the top is when you close it. Like basically every other charging case out there, it has a USB-C charging port and a button on the back for pairing.

Sony says it designed the WF-1000XM6 to be more ergonomic and fit better to the contours of the ear, but I can’t say that I was blown away by the comfort. I’m not saying these wireless earbuds were necessarily uncomfortable, but I don’t think they moved the needle for me. That being said, everyone’s ears are different, so there’s a chance that when you put them on, you’ll have the proverbial Cinderella moment. A perfect fit! For me, however, they’re about average.

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One thing I don’t love is the ear tips, though. I tried all four sizes Sony provided, but none felt too tight in my ears. Maybe it’s the shape? Or the design of the earbuds themselves? Even Sony’s companion app seemed to agree, telling me—no matter which size I was using—that the fit allowed ambient sound in. Don’t get me wrong, they never felt like they were going to fall out of my ears or anything, but the fit of the ear tips is still pretty important, especially when it comes to ANC.

That brings me to my next point…

Good ANC, but not the champ

Another big selling point of the WF-1000XM6 is the improved ANC. The WF-1000XM6 now come with a new noise-cancellation processor, the QN3e, and an additional microphone (bringing the total to four) to help assess your sound environment and cancel out frequencies accordingly. With those tweaks, Sony says the WF-1000XM6 are capable of cancelling up to 25% more noise than their predecessor, especially frequencies in the mid-to-high range, aka the ones you’re most likely to encounter on a regular basis.

I admittedly don’t have much experience with the WF-1000XM5, which makes a direct comparison tricky, but I do have plenty of experience testing other wireless earbuds. Based on my sampling of the rest of the field, I’m going to classify the WF-1000XM6 as better than average in the ANC department, but still not the best. In my obligatory subway test, I was still able to hear some ambient noise on the train—enough to spur me to crank the volume up on my earbuds. It still managed to block out quite a bit of noise, though, and certainly more than recent competitors I’ve used like the Nothing Ear 3 or the Pixel Buds 2a.

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When it comes to my favorite ANC wireless earbuds, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (2nd gen), though, I’m afraid Sony doesn’t quite take the cake. Bose still has the best ANC on lock to an almost concerning degree. When I wear them on the subway in New York, I can barely hear my surroundings. Awesome! Scary, a little. But awesome!

With that said, there’s a chance that you may have a different (possibly better) experience with Sony’s WF-1000XM6. As I mentioned before, the ear tips don’t seem to fit my ear shape perfectly, so perhaps too much air is getting in and ruining the superb ANC Sony has designed. I can’t swap out my ears, so I can’t say for sure, but it’s something to note here for sure. Generally speaking, I still find that Sony’s newest earbuds deliver when it comes to ANC, even if it’s not quite as impressive as their sound.

A good call from Sony

Remember those microphones I mentioned before? Well, ANC isn’t the only thing in their purview. Another highlight of the WF-1000XM6 is calling, and there is a trio of technologies in the buds that enable it. One of those is a bone conduction sensor. That may seem like a weird inclusion, but it makes sense when you consider that half the battle of software-enhanced calling is actually recognizing your voice. By using bone conduction, Sony is able to determine when the voice heard by its microphones is actually coming from you and then singling out that voice for clarity on the other end.

In addition to its bone-conduction sensor, Sony is using “AI beamforming” to direct its microphones at your mouth and software-based noise reduction to silence ambient background noise. The result, I’m told, is a pretty damn good call in terms of clarity. To test the WF-1000XM6, I FaceTimed a few of my good friends and asked them to rate my call clarity afterward. The average between three people was about 8/10. Not bad at all! I still prefer not to take calls with wireless earbuds in, but if I’m going to, the call quality better be good.

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If you’re the type of person who takes longer calls (or just listens to a lot of music), you’ll also be happy to know that the battery life on the WF-1000XM6 is solid. Sony advertises about 8 hours of battery life for the wireless earbuds with ANC enabled, and my testing suggests that’s accurate. After about 4 hours of continuous listening at high volume, the WF-1000XM6 dropped from 100% to about 56%. This isn’t as impressive as the Technics EAH-AZ100, which I’ve been comparing to—those get 10 hours of battery with ANC on—but 8 hours is above average, especially for buds with solid ANC. The charging case is on the not-so-impressive side in terms of battery and tops out at 16 hours total.

Feature-wise, the Sony WF-1000XM6 is about the same as its predecessor. There are touch controls on the earbuds for play/pause, track skipping, and turning ANC off or on (those work just fine). There’s also a companion app where you can adjust the earbuds’ EQ, assign new tap controls, and set options like having them tell you the date and time when you put them on or autoplay.

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Sony’s app also has a “Scenes” feature that lets you set routines for your earbuds, so they know when you’re commuting or running and automatically start playing music or podcasts. Unfortunately, this feature requires a learning period that I wasn’t able to complete before writing this review, but it’s a unique feature among companion apps, to say the least. I don’t think most people would find something like Scenes revolutionary, but it’s always nice to have the option to play around with it if you want.

Is it time for an earbud upgrade?

Sony’s WF-1000XM6 might not be the best in every category—but in the areas that matter, they excel. Sound-wise, these might be my new favorite wireless earbuds, and while they don’t unseat Bose on ANC, they’re still more than solid—especially if you’re comparing to the previous generation of flagship Sony earbuds. And with great calling and good battery life, Sony’s WF-1000XM6 should be on the radar of anyone who’s looking for a pair of wireless earbuds that knock the fundamentals of any pair of wireless earbuds out of the park. If sound is your priority, Sony might have made the hit you’ve been looking for.