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The best noise-less headphones (IMO)
Towards the end of last year, I wrote an article that looked at my favourite non-Apple tech items of 2023.
The top award went to my pair of Sony WH-1000XM5s which have become indispensable not just during downtime but during my work as well.
Pairing them with an orchestral playlist or some white noise allows me to focus entirely on my work. I don’t write without them anymore.
So, given all that, I thought I’d write a quick review to explain why they’re so good.
Background
I’m going to kick off by saying that I’m not an audiophile — although having got used to these, I was quite proud of myself when I was able to describe a pretty awful sound system in a car that we rented over the Christmas holidays.
Anyway, I digress. The point is that I’m no sound engineer, so don’t expect any technical deep dives into why these headphones sound so good. I just love them and I’m going to try to explain why.
Let’s get the basics out of the way first. At the time of writing, Amazon is selling the XM5s for £279. That’s almost half the price of Apple’s AirPods Max and around £50 cheaper than Bose’s equivalent (the Quiet Comfort Ultra) and I think the Sony’s sound better than either.
