Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are still outselling the newer WH-1000XM6 model, more than a year after Sony introduced the WH-1000XM6 on 15 May 2025 as its intended successor.
The WH-1000XM5 remains the first pair recommended to anyone asking about noise-cancelling headphones, and it is now available at a discounted price. AliExpress is currently listing the model at 184.40 euros, down from 248.99 euros, when the coupon code RAZONES20 is applied.
The reason is straightforward: almost nothing that makes the WH-1000XM5 good depends on which generation it belongs to.
Two processors that have not aged
The WH-1000XM6 introduced a new QN3 processor and twelve microphones, an upgrade Sony has promoted as the headline change in its newer model. That is a genuine improvement, and there is no need to dramatise it. What matters more is what stayed in the older model, because it is far from an afterthought.
The WH-1000XM5 runs two processors working simultaneously, the V1 and the HD Noise Cancelling QN1, alongside eight microphones split four to each ear cup, plus a 30mm diaphragm moving air behind each driver. That combination is what established this line as the benchmark for active noise cancellation, and it remains unchanged inside the same headband, regardless of any firmware update Sony issues for the newer model.
That is why the upgrade path is so clear cut. Someone moving on from a Sony WH-1000XM3 or an XM4 with a worn-out battery, or from mid-range headphones with compromised noise cancellation, notices the difference on the first day on the train. Someone who already owns the WH-1000XM5 has no real reason to look at the newer model, since it performs today exactly as it did yesterday.
Eight microphones and LDAC support
The noise cancellation on this line is not built to impress against sudden, obvious noise. It shows its value against the steady hum of office air conditioning, the rattle of a train carriage, or a colleague who has been on the phone for twenty minutes. That flat, constant type of sound disappears almost entirely, and it is also the kind that wears a listener down most over the course of a day.
Sound quality benefits from support for the LDAC codec, which on Android devices lets a phone send considerably more data to the headphones than the standard Bluetooth codec allows, up to 990 kbps. LDAC will not fix a badly encoded MP3, but with a decent source the difference becomes clear as soon as strings or a piano enter a track. One buyer said that after trying the headphones with the LDAC codec, the sound was wonderful.
Comfort over long stretches matters just as much, and that is where the 250-gram weight and soft leather cushions come in, holding up through the third hour of a flight without the ears asking for a break. Another buyer described the headphones as very comfortable, even after wearing them for several hours in a row.
30 hours of battery and fast charging
Sony rates the WH-1000XM5 for up to 30 hours of battery life with active noise cancellation switched on. In everyday use, that means a long return flight with a full film fits comfortably into one charge, as does a week of commuting, and the battery only needs attention once every several days, which is exactly what a daily-use pair of headphones should deliver.
For moments of forgetfulness there is fast charging: three minutes plugged in adds three hours of playback, just enough to rescue a morning after leaving the headphones uncharged on a desk overnight.
What the WH-1000XM5 will not get
What buyers will not get is the list of features Sony rolls out for its newer headphones going forward, since the company's focus is now on the WH-1000XM6. Anyone who wants to always own the latest version should look elsewhere. But anyone who wants to hear nothing of the outside world for six hours straight has had that since the WH-1000XM5 launched, in May 2022.
Sony now has a newer model to sell, and will naturally push it. But the real question is not which headphones are newest, but how long a good product takes to stop being good. For the WH-1000XM5, that clock has not started yet.
