Sony WH-1000XM4C Review: Still Kind of Goated

What’s old is new once more. Sony has officially resurrected its WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones by slapping a “C” on the end. With that extra letter come a few perks worth noting; the $300 WH-1000XM4C have a new sound and a slightly new look.

I never used the original when it was released all the way back in 2020, but if the re-do is anything like the WH-1000XM4 of yore, then I can see why Sony thought this pair resurrection-worthy.

A reboot, not a remake

Many things are the same in the WH-1000XM4C as their predecessor, but the sound is not one of them. Sony says it’s upgraded the sound profile in this reboot, and though I’ve never tried the original from six years ago, I really like what the WH-1000XM4C is putting down now.

The stereo separation is excellent. I started by listening to some Latin jazz, and the tracks were panned left and right in a way that was almost jarring at first. Whatever Sony did with the sound profile in this generation, I’m a fan of it. My go-to test tracks like Steely Dan’s “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” sounded nuanced and crisp.

The default EQ is on the brighter side, which I like—higher frequencies like lead guitars and backing guitar sounded especially good, as did vocals. The low end wasn’t the biggest and most powerful, but I’m a fan of wireless headphones that emphasize mids and highs over the low end, so that’s no issue in my book.

In non-rock genres, the WH-1000XM4C sounded good, but maybe slightly less impressive than rock genres with tracks and vocals across a greater number of frequencies. I listened to “Da Funk” by Daft Punk and was pleased but not blown away—maybe it was the lack of punchy low end that I mentioned earlier. Either way, the verdict for me is that this is an excellent-sounding pair of wireless headphones that I think will impress most people, especially for the price.

At $300, the WH-1000XM4C are competing with flagship wireless headphones like Nothing and its Headphone 1, a pair of headphones that I like. Sound-to-sound I think the Headphone 1 pale in comparison to Sony’s offering.

It’s mostly good news on the audio front, but unfortunately, calling on the WH-1000XM4C is as mediocre as most pairs of wireless headphones. While my voice quality was fine, the person I called reported being able to hear a lot of background noise. Ultimately, they rated the call quality a 6.5 out of 10.

Borderline Elite ANC

Noise cancellation might not be one of the categories that Sony is highlighting in the WH-1000XM4C, but it’s still a bright spot in this pair. The WH-1000XM4C use the same chip as the first generation, but you wouldn’t be able to tell unless I told you.

I wore the WH-1000XM4C on the subway and on busy New York City sidewalks, and the ANC blocked out a good deal of noise. Not quite as much as the flagship WH-1000XM6, but still a lot—I would say more than enough for most people. Sony also seems to have dealt with some of the hissing caused by ANC that people experienced in the last generation. I didn’t notice any unwanted noise when I was listening to music with ANC or just hanging out with the wireless headphones on my head.

Just like ANC modes, transparency was also fairly solid on the WH-1000XM4C. Listening to my surroundings didn’t sound super tinny, and it definitely made everything more audible. I still think more expensive wireless headphones like the AirPods Max 2 have better transparency, but I find the WH-1000XM4C serviceable.

Compared to similarly priced wireless headphones like the Nothing Headphone 1, I would say that the WH-1000XM4C are a step above when it comes to ANC, so if that’s a major priority for you, these might be a better investment.

Outside of ANC and transparency, there aren’t many features to talk about. The WH-1000XM4C now have a 10-band EQ, which is nice if you’re the type of person who wants to granularly adjust that sort of thing. There’s also Bluetooth 6.0, which should make connections more stable. In my testing, I never had any connection issues, so I guess it’s working properly.

These wireless headphones use Sony’s DSEE Extreme, which is the company’s upscaling technology that can automatically clean up crappy audio quality, though you have to enable this in the app. I don’t often notice a huge difference when I have any of Sony’s DSEE iterations enabled, but your experience will depend on what you’re listening to—it works best on very compressed audio, and I tend to use hi-quality streaming on Spotify.

There are a few nice-to-haves, including a 3.5mm headphone jack if you want to listen to wired audio, and touch controls on the right earcup. I don’t normally love touch controls, but I think Sony does them especially well. You can either swipe or tap on the right earcup to do things like increase volume, switch tracks, and play/pause, and it has just the right amount of sensitivity. It helps that the WH-1000XM4C are generally nice to the touch, too.

The outside of the earcups is a kind of matte plastic, which is a great tactile experience. The look is pretty rad, too. I’m a big fan of the new lavender color, and while the WH-1000XM4C aren’t small, they’re a lot smaller than other wireless headphones. They’re also very comfortable—the ear cushions are nice and plush, and the pleather felt nice on my ears.

If there’s one minor gripe with the build, it’s the headband adjustment, which is a kind of clunky experience. You have to exert a decent amount of force to get the headband to click into different grooves, which isn’t the worst thing in the world but isn’t as smooth as some other pairs I’ve worn.

The biggest knock about the WH-1000XM4C is probably the battery life being downgraded from the last generation. Instead of 30 hours with ANC on, the WH-1000XM4C get 27 hours of battery life with ANC. That’s not an egregiously low battery life, but it would have been nice to see a little more.

I tested the WH-1000XM4C battery myself with an hour straight of ANC playback, but unfortunately Sony’s SoundConnect app doesn’t give me an exact battery readout—it only moves in increments of 10%. Because of that, I can’t really give an exact read on the battery life, but after a test of playing music for an hour at 50% volume, Sony’s app tells me the wireless headphones were at 100%.

A rewarding reboot

On the one hand, it may seem a bit lazy that Sony just rebooted an old pair of wireless headphones, but once you use the WH-1000XM4C, you get why. The ANC is great, the sound is even better, and small touches like a new lavender color make them feel refreshed, if not altogether new. Plus, at $300, they outperform similarly priced pairs of wireless headphones like the Headphone 1 in sound and ANC, so if those are priorities for you, the WH-1000XM4C are worth considering.