B&W PX, Bose QC35, Sony MDR, or Bose QC30

I tested on my phone using YouTube and there wasn't any lip sync issue but then again, the lip sync issues with the TV aren't consistent. The problem isn't always there and the lag can range from slightly out to embarrassingly bad. Not sure if I tested YouTube on my phone for long enough.

However, there's some reports on the web I've found where even the Sony 1000MX3s also have an issue on another LG 2018 set, so I'm starting to think it's the TV.

Apparently you can connect another Bluetooth transmitter, get the TV to output PCM to the transmitter and this improves the lag to acceptable levels.
I think it's related more to Bluetooth limitations when connected to tv or av receiver (some of them can send signal to headphones). You would need aptx on TV I think to have it working properly. I checked with my qc35II and I have lag as well and also it breaks connection often.
 
Hey, no need to apologise :)

It looks like the XM3s are difficult to get hold of at the moment. I sent my XM2s back today so I've gone back to using my old DJing headphones (Sennheiser HD25-1 II) and they really show how good the XM2s were at blocking noise out!

Looking forward to hearing about your experience with the XM3s.
Hey I’ve managed to pick up a pair of the mx3 here in Abu Dhabi for around £20 cheaper than the uk.
I will try and test the range out and see if it auto connects back once in range.

But so far absolutely loving the headphones, noise cancelling is so much better than the Bose QC35s. The Sony app makes the headphones much better as you can really fine tune the noise cancellation and also a few other options.

I’ll come back with more of a better review, just at a restaurant here in Abu Dhabi so using their free WiFi. But so far it’s miles ahead of the Bose and the bass is superb on them although I’ve turned the bass down lol.
 
Hey I’ve managed to pick up a pair of the mx3 here in Abu Dhabi for around £20 cheaper than the uk.
I will try and test the range out and see if it auto connects back once in range.

But so far absolutely loving the headphones, noise cancelling is so much better than the Bose QC35s.

But so far it’s miles ahead of the Bose and the bass is superb on them although I’ve turned the bass down lol.

Glad to hear that since the QC35s are obviously the only other contender :) If you could test if that auto-reconnect, that would be massively helpful, thanks!

You're using them with an iPhone, right? I have a Pixel 2 at the moment so I can use LDAC which sounds fantastic, but I'm toying with the idea of trying an iPhone XR which means I'll use to use AAC instead. Not sure how much of a downgrade that is, if any.
 
Glad to hear that since the QC35s are obviously the only other contender :) If you could test if that auto-reconnect, that would be massively helpful, thanks!

You're using them with an iPhone, right? I have a Pixel 2 at the moment so I can use LDAC which sounds fantastic, but I'm toying with the idea of trying an iPhone XR which means I'll use to use AAC instead. Not sure how much of a downgrade that is, if any.
Ok I’ll try and do the test for you, if I don’t get a chance then definitely next week as I’ll be back home so can test them properly.

Yes using the iPhone xs with the headphones. As I’m using Spotify but at a high rate, the music does sound better. Obviously not got an android so couldn’t possibly answer that question.
 
Ok I’ll try and do the test for you, if I don’t get a chance then definitely next week as I’ll be back home so can test them properly.

Yes using the iPhone xs with the headphones. As I’m using Spotify but at a high rate, the music does sound better. Obviously not got an android so couldn’t possibly answer that question.


No rush. I appreciate it :)
 
Glad to hear that since the QC35s are obviously the only other contender :) If you could test if that auto-reconnect, that would be massively helpful, thanks!

You're using them with an iPhone, right? I have a Pixel 2 at the moment so I can use LDAC which sounds fantastic, but I'm toying with the idea of trying an iPhone XR which means I'll use to use AAC instead. Not sure how much of a downgrade that is, if any.
Hey bud, so got back yesterday and didn’t get a chance to test the auto reconnect that you wanted me to test out for you.

Managed to get some time to try it out this morning and sadly once it loses connection from Bluetooth it wouldn’t continue to play my music. What I did is leave my iPhone XS in my room and played my playlist from Spotify and went around the house. Connection was good and stable but when I went outside in my backyard, connection got a bit sketchy. My backyard is around 100 ft long or thereabouts. I could still listen to my music but it was breaking up. Then it lost connection completely but soon as I went back in, the headphones gave me a beep and said Bluetooth connection is on but no music as it had paused it.
So not sure if that’s what you were after, once I got close to my phone I just pressed play and music filled my ears lol.

So in a way it does reconnect but it wouldn’t continue playing my music till I physically pressed play.

To be honest I always have my phone with me so the above test wouldn’t really pertain to me. But as long as I stayed in my house it played perfectly well. So I could keep my phone upstairs on charge then walkabout the house with music still playing.

Mind you the range is insane even though I was outside in my backyard it played my music albeit cutting out every so often.

Have to say on the flight back to London, I used them and it drowned out pretty much everything. The seat in front of me had a kid crying constantly but instantly drowned out when I put my headphones on. Still could hear him but it was bearable compared to not having them on.

The Sony 1000mx3’s are brilliant, the amount of fine tuning you can do within the app is just superb ie you can adjust the noise cancelling so that you can still have ambient noise coming in and adjust it to your like. The feature of cupping the right ear pad where it turns your music down so you can hear what’s going on around is immense. Gotta hand it to Sony for that wicked little feature.
Only thing I don’t like is the left ear pad touch controls, I found they don’t work very well to be honest and can be flakey unless you get the gestures spot on etc.

For me I’m glad I chose the Sony’s over the Bose. They may not be as premium as the Bose but having tested both of them out. I can safely say the Sony’s blow the Bose away both in terms of sound quality and features. Bose really need to pick up their game with their next iteration of the QC35s, that’s if they do otherwise Sony are just going to keep taking their crown away.

Anyhow that’s my review on them, expensive yes but oh so worth it.

Any other questions feel free to ask and I’ll try and answer them as best as I can.
 
I have both the Bose and the Sony, had the Bose for a while and picked up the Sonys while I was in the USA to test on the plane on the way back.

The Bose have good noise cancellation and are comfortable... but the not-amazing sound quality has always bugged me.

The Sony's are absolutely brilliant! The noise cancelling is like nothing else I've experienced... a big step up from the Bose & the audio quality is a massive improvement over the Bose. Plus the touch controls are so intuitive... I didn't even know they had that feature, happened upon it by accident & learned it within minutes.

I tried the B&Ws in store a while back & found them incredibly uncomfortable... to the point I didn't even try playing any music through shame... shame as I like B&W audio.
 
I have both the Bose and the Sony, had the Bose for a while and picked up the Sonys while I was in the USA to test on the plane on the way back.

The Bose have good noise cancellation and are comfortable... but the not-amazing sound quality has always bugged me.

The Sony's are absolutely brilliant! The noise cancelling is like nothing else I've experienced... a big step up from the Bose & the audio quality is a massive improvement over the Bose. Plus the touch controls are so intuitive... I didn't even know they had that feature, happened upon it by accident & learned it within minutes.

I tried the B&Ws in store a while back & found them incredibly uncomfortable... to the point I didn't even try playing any music through shame... shame as I like B&W audio.
That was my first impression of them as well, audio quality and NC is far above what the Bose are capable of. Plus the app is much more feature laden than the Bose.

The touch controls on the left ear cup probably do take some time getting used to. I only tried it a few times and it didn’t really work for me, might need to get the gestures right I guess.
 
Last edited:
I'm sure I missed some... but the main ones came naturally... pause, skip track, volume control & quick shift to the mode to listen to flight attendant.

Will check out the manual at some point to see what else there is.

And yes, the app is really good... I like the feature where it can tweak the NC depending on surrounding air pressure... great for things like airplanes.
 
Then it lost connection completely but soon as I went back in, the headphones gave me a beep and said Bluetooth connection is on but no music as it had paused it.
So not sure if that’s what you were after, once I got close to my phone I just pressed play and music filled my ears lol.

Hey,

Thanks very much for getting back to me. That's exactly what I wanted to know! I fully expected the music to pause (in fact that's what it should do so that you don't have music playing out of the phone's speakers). The XM2s would almost never reconnect automatically when in range, so it looks like they've fixed that issue with the XM3s.

I'll hold out until Black Friday and see if there's a special offer on :)
 
Hey,

Thanks very much for getting back to me. That's exactly what I wanted to know! I fully expected the music to pause (in fact that's what it should do so that you don't have music playing out of the phone's speakers). The XM2s would almost never reconnect automatically when in range, so it looks like they've fixed that issue with the XM3s.

I'll hold out until Black Friday and see if there's a special offer on :)
Ok glad to hear that my test answered your question. Sorry it took some time to try it out.
 
So looks like Microsoft have entered the high end wireless NC headphone market.

Just released their own surface wireless headphones with NC. Same price as the Sony and Bose.

Might go and have a look at them at some point. They seem pretty interesting to say the least with some neat features.

Linky here:https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/surface-headphones/8nrm8dz2zw43

Not that I’m looking to buy them for myself as I’m still happy with my Sony’s. But the missus wants a pair so might take her and see if she likes them and if not I’ll just get her a pair of the Sony ones I have.
 
I've had xm2 for the past year, absolutely fantastic headphones and away to upgrade to xm3. LDAC is well worth it. Even aptxHD to LDAC is noticeable. Recently got an m5 8.4 and Huawei have disabled LDAC, probably due to them developing their own codec. Going to unlock it today and install Pie just so I can get LDAC back!
 
Do the Sony XM3s work as a microphone headset when connected via USB?

Basically, can I use them for conference calls at work...currently I switch between a crappy mic headset and my B&W P5s. when I need to use skype..
 
Just test out a colleagues XM1s to make sure it doesn't suffer the same problem as the PX's with glasses...absolutely fine.

My only problem with these NC headphones is that they don't sound any better than my trusty B&W P5s, usually sound worse in fact with NC on. Trade off I guess, but maybe the XM3s are better.

Think I'm gonna treat myself to the XM3s
 
Got my XM3s :)

So much more comfortable than the PX's, *much* lighter. Fits over glasses no problem (the PX's bass completely disappeared).

Sound is much improved over the XM1s, which had a loose, wooly bottom end. XM3s are nice and tight, been giving them a good workout. Sound is maybe a little bright for my tastes but I have the EQ if want to tinker.

I think I prefer the sound to the B&Ws as well, a little more open....but maybe that's because they aren't cushing my head.
 
Do the Sony XM3s work as a microphone headset when connected via USB?

Basically, can I use them for conference calls at work...currently I switch between a crappy mic headset and my B&W P5s. when I need to use skype..

The USBc is just for charging. You either use the XM3 bluetooth or wired using the 3.5mm.

I'm loving my XM3, I used to have the XM1 when they first came out but sent back as they creaked and never bothered again until now. I do find I acclimatise a bit too much, thinking to myself, this noise cancellation ain't so great before removing and realised it's bloody loud on the tube.
 
Back
Top Bottom