Experience using Sony WH1000XM5 as a daily driver
Sony WH1000XM5 redefined the way I listen to music. I would love to share my experience and how I make the sounds better.
It has been five years since I used marshal major II In-ear headphones, and I am still impressed with their sound, especially when I boost the sounds using Software Boom3D.
Unfortunately, my marshall headphone is about to die. After two years of usage, the Bluetooth is not working anymore, so I used a wired cable. And the cushion and headband cover is already defective.
I decided to find replacements for my marshall major II. I want to find the best choices that are worth buying and at least last longer over four years ahead.
I have been watching youtube reviewers and reading reviews about the best headphone from https://www.soundguys.com/ and https://www.rtings.com/.
At that time, I was thinking about getting an XM4, bose 700/qc45, or Airpod Maxx, but suddenly there was Sony XM5 that would be open for pre-order in my country.
I felt impressed and doubted simultaneously, but after watching and reading the reviews, I decided to check out the pre-orders.
The reason why I choose Sony XM5 is that I like the sounds. It seems to balance, the bass is punchy, but you could also hear the clarity, and it sounds wider than XM4 (Listening to it from binaural audio from a YouTuber review).
I also consider the noise cancellation and the microphone since I will use them for work. And I thought if I picked up XM4, launched two years ago, the quality might decrease after three years.
Finally, it shipped to my house after waiting for two weeks of pre-orders. I got SRS-XB13 as a bonus as well! Thanks, Sony! Amazing!
Sony XM5, after a week of usage.
Let me share my experience using Sony XM5 as my daily driver. I will break it down into a few concerns.
Design & Materials
Pros:
- I love the simplicity of the Sony WH1000XM5. It's a sleek and beautiful design!
- I have an Asian head, and it is comfortable for me to use it for many hours. It feels light on my head, and after a few hours of use, I sometimes forget I'm wearing headphones.
- I like how they use reusable materials, including their box. No useless plastic, after all.
Cons:
- The materials are fingerprint magnets and are very hard to clean (because of the matte texture). The silver ones may be a better choice. It requires constant cleaning to look ok. For me, I use cleaning fluid and microfiber to clean it.
- You can't put it on your neck when you want to take it off temporarily.
ANC
I'm unfamiliar with this technology, but I would love to quote what soundguys.com said.
“you’re going to want to use noise cancelling headphones in any situation where you might encounter loud noise because it protects your hearing. If you crank your tunes up to drown out the world around you, it’s possible that you’re deafening yourself slowly. In order to avoid doing this, a set of noise cancelling headphones makes your music far easier to hear and prevents the need to turn your music up to a high volume.” https://www.soundguys.com/why-you-should-buy-noise-cancelling-headphones-19702/ & https://www.soundguys.com/noise-canceling-anc-explained-28344/
As far as I experience the ANC, I feel impressed, I no longer max the volume out when listening to music, and I do love how Sony XM5 blocks the noise of my exhaust fan very well.
But I wouldn't say I like the auto-things. I cannot set up the ANC manually because of the AI processor. I often found the ANC give me a different result, less quality than before, especially when I take off the headphones or put them idle and use them again.
Sony needs to put back their ANC manual adjust. I heard a lot of complaints from the Reddit forum and youtube reviewers.
Sounds
I like the base sounds of the Sony WH-1000XM5. Everything is balanced, and it will be handier to tune up. However, I cannot use the base sounds because it lacks the KICK. So I use EQ to find my perfect sound.
EQ PRESET
Here are my EQ settings if you would like to try them. But remember that there is no golden EQ that works for all kinds of music.
Custom 1: Rock/Metal genre/jazz
Custom 2: Mostly general/Techno/Rnb/dance/pop (sometimes piercing and too aggressive, but you could reduce it on the 2.5k channel)
AutoEQ
Another way to tune the EQ is by using an app that supports AutoEQ. Its focuses on the equalization of headphones from frequency responses. And it sounds fantastic! I have become more confident with my choice.
The good news is that AutoEQ is multiplatform and could be working on your PC/Laptop and mobile devices, including android and IOS.
There is a bunch of headphones results from an expert reviewer that you could quickly load and use https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results.
Since Sony XM5 is typically a new headphone, I can only get the settings from soundguys.com, one of the expert audio reviewers.
You could go to the article and find the sound quality section. Then you can read the equalizer part from here https://www.soundguys.com/sony-wh-1000xm5-review-71783/.
I download their text files, and then I load them on Wavelet.
Make sure to connect your headset first, play the song and then touch on the wavelet power button. Then AutoEq menu will appear.
Note: AutoEQ helps to fix the base sounds of Sony WH-1000XM5, especially on frequencies responses and you could also try to open the sony EQ preset and pick the sound that you would like to.
Do you feel your Sony WH-1000XM5 sounds poor on your Laptop/PC?
I experience these issues when I connect to my Laptop/PC. It is because I don't tune the EQ, and it is also because of the poor quality of Bluetooth receiver settings. Unfortunately, Apple seems to hide features where users can choose audio quality for Bluetooth.
Here are a few tips from me as a Macbook pro user:
- Make sure your Bluetooth settings are set to AAC codec. How do you check it? First, open Console from Applications. Then on the search bar, put the keyword Codec and press enter. Then disconnect and connect your Bluetooth headphones again, and search A2DP configured on the list.
If you got the message AAC-LC, then congratulations, you are on the correct settings. However, if you found the result in SBC, you might need to set the ACC-LC format settings.
Open your terminal and run these commands.
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true
Restart and reconnect your headphones. You are now on AAC-LC format.
Do you feel constant cut-outs when you change the audio signal to LDAC?
I feel you! To use LDAC, you need to quick settings in your android. But don't worry, you could follow my setup.
Enable developer options on your smartphone, then go to developer options and scroll down to Bluetooth settings.
I just set the Playback Quality to Best Efforts then the constant cut-outs issues disappear.
Do you sometimes feel the audio is poor when streaming the music?
I'm not sure, but sometimes when I stream the high-quality audio on Spotify, the vocal sounds weird, sometimes not. I tested with the same song, and when I downloaded the song, the issue disappeared. It might seem because of my internet, or maybe it is because Sony needs to process the sounds that couldn't be optimal if it streams the audio.
Overall, even though I need to do a handful of settings, I don't regret having Sony WH-1000XM5 as my daily driver!
As a software engineer, I understand and need to wait until Sony can optimize their algorithm over their software updates!
Hope this help!
