Sony WH-XB910N Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony WH-XB910N have a very similar look to the Sony WH-XB900N. They have a fairly minimalist design but look cheaper and more plasticky than the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless. They come in a few color variants: 'Black', 'Grey', and 'Blue'.

These over-ears have a very comfortable fit. They feel lightweight and don't clamp too tightly on your head. The ear cups have a good range of motion to accommodate larger heads. Their padding on the ear cups and headband also feels fairly nice on the skin. However, if you have glasses, getting a more comfortable fit can be harder since the arms can rupture the padding's seal on your head. If you have big ears, they can also touch or rub up against the driver fabric.

These over-ears have good controls. They have a mix of physical and touch-sensitive controls, which are easy to use. The physical buttons on the left ear cup are clicky, while the touch-sensitive surface on the right ear cup is responsive. There are voice prompts for switching between 'Ambient' mode and ANC, as well as beeps when registering touch commands and using the buttons. The headphones will also tell you which device you're connected to. Unfortunately, the location of the power button makes it easy to accidentally touch it when you're putting on or taking off the headphones.

On the left ear cup:

• Power button:
• Single press: Tells you the battery percentage.
• Press and hold for two seconds: Turns the headphones on and off. Also enters Bluetooth pairing mode when turned on.
• ANC/Ambient button: Cycles between ANC on and 'Ambient' mode, which allows you to better hear your surroundings without turning off your audio.

On the right ear cup:

• Swipe up: Raises the volume.
• Swipe down: Lowers the volume.
• Swipe forward: Skips to the next track.
• Swipe backward: Skips to the previous track.
• Double-tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and declines calls.
• Place hand on right ear cup: Enters 'Ambient' mode.

They're not the most portable, but that's normal for over-ear headphones. They're bulky, although their cups can swivel to lay flat, and they can fold to save some space. They also come with a carrying case to help store them in your bag when you're on the go.

The carrying case is great. It's mostly cloth material, which feels sturdy. The zipper fully closes, which helps secure the headphones from the elements.

These headphones have good build quality. They're mostly solid plastic with faux leather padding. Their hinges also differ from the Sony WH-XB900N Wireless since their headband extends down to the yokes. However, their plasticky design looks and feels a bit cheap, especially compared to the similarly designed, more high-end Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless. The yokes also feel a bit weak and prone to damage over time.

The Sony WH-XB910N have a decently stable fit. They'll stay on your head if you listen to audio at your desk. However, they'll fall off your head if you use them while headbanging or working out.

• Sony WH-XB910N headphones
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• 1/8" TRS audio cable
• Carrying case
• Manuals

The Sony WH-XB910N have an extremely bass-heavy sound profile. They deliver intense thump, rumble, and boom to mixes, which is good if you like genres like EDM and hip-hop with heavy basslines. At the same time, vocals and lead instruments are very harsh, while sibilants like cymbals are piercing. However, this sound can be very overwhelming for most users. If you wear glasses or have thick hair, you can also lose a lot of bass as these features can break the ear cup's seal on your head. We could also feel low frequencies rumble on our glasses, and it felt like the drivers were touching our ears. On the upside, their app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound to your tastes.

These over-ears have satisfactory frequency response consistency. They're prone to inconsistencies in bass and treble delivery. If you have thick hair or glasses, you may especially notice a drop in bass. Their treble delivery is also somewhat sensitive to the headphones' fit and positioning on your head. As a result, you'll need to take the time to adjust their fit each time you use them to receive a more consistent sound.

The Sony WH-XB910N's bass response is overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, and boom. It's pleasing if you want to feel the bass in songs like Die For You by the Weeknd, which already have a heavy bassline. Some users may find this sounds very overwhelming, especially as the extra bass also muddies vocals and instruments.

Note: Their bass delivery can vary depending on fit, seal, and positioning. This response represents the average, and your experience may vary.

They have mediocre mid accuracy. There's overemphasis from the bass into the low-mid, making vocals and lead instruments sound muddy and cluttered. While the mid-mid is fairly flat, the high-mid is very overemphasized, so the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments are overly honky and harsh.

The Sony WHXB910N's treble accuracy is passable. Our unit's left and right drivers are slightly mismatched in the low-treble range. However, overall, the response in this range is fairly neutral, so vocals and instruments sound detailed. The mid-treble is very overemphasized, and sibilants like cymbals are very harsh.

Note: Treble delivery can vary depending on fit and positioning. This response represents the average, and your experience may vary.

Their peaks and dips performance is sub-par. There are many large peaks, indicating that the headphones struggle to control their sound profile. A large peak across the bass range adds extra thump, rumble, and boom to mixes, while a deep dip between the low to mid-mid thins out vocals and lead instruments, pushing them to the back of your mix. Another peak in the high-mid makes vocals and lead instruments very harsh, while a dip in the low-treble hurts their comprehensibility. A steep peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like S and T sounds very piercing.

Sony makes a lot of headphones, and their mid to high-end offerings generally have solid imaging performances, which indicates their quality control and ergonomics. As a result, sound objects like voices are accurately placed in the stereo image. Although imaging varies between units, our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in amplitude and frequency response, which keeps the stereo image stable. There is a peak in the group delay's low-bass, and if you're wearing glasses, you'll feel a lot more rumble than if you aren't wearing them. There are also a couple of peaks in the phase response's mid-to-treble range. While the mid-range peaks aren't noticeable with real-life content, the treble range ones skew the audio to one side.

The passive soundstage is poor. The soundstage seems wide but unnatural and as if coming from inside your head. Since they have a closed-back design, you'll perceive their soundstage as closed-off and less spacious than open-back headphones.

Unlike the Sony WH-XB900N Wireless, these headphones don't support Virtualphones Technology (VPT), a discontinued spatial audio feature. You can set up Sony's 360 Reality Audio via their companion app by analyzing your head and ears. This feature helps create a more 3D sound to help immerse you in your audio. However, it's only available on compatible apps like TIDAL and Nugs.net.

They have an okay weight harmonic distortion performance. There are a few peaks at moderate volumes in the mid and treble range, which can affect the clarity and purity of your audio. However, those peaks in the mid range affect a small number of frequency bands, which can be hard to spot with real-life content. The peaks in the treble range will be easier to hear since the one in the low-treble is wider, but keep in mind that we lose our sensitivity to the treble range over time.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The full range noise isolation performance is alright. With the ANC on, they can block out a bit of boomy noise but don't really filter out low rumbling noise from bus engines. The headphones' ANC does a better job with midrange noise, like traffic, than the Sony WH-CH720N Wireless, but the performance isn't as consistent. We expected the headphones in ANC mode to perform the same or better than the headphones' passive abilities in the treble range. Interestingly, though, with ANC enabled, their noise isolation performs worse with high-pitched sounds like clattering dishes and shrieking subway brakes.

A note about the bump in the low-bass: it's not audible when worn by people and appears to result from the testing rig's interaction with the headphones materials. Fortunately, you won't have this issue when you listen on them.

Their noise isolation in common scenarios is middling. The ANC mainly works best on high-bass and midrange sounds. With ANC enabled, the mode makes airplanes and offices more tolerable but doesn't filter out environmental sounds evenly. Low-pitched ambient din and rumbling construction on the street will still reach your ears, and the high-pitched sounds from the office kitchen aren't blocked very effectively.

As noted already, turning on ANC negatively impacts the headphones' ability to block trebly noises. Meanwhile, the bump in the bass range is the result of the testing rig's interaction with the headphones and isn't reflected in their actual use.

These headphones have a 'Wind Reduction Mode' you can access through the companion app. The mode helps to mitigate the 'anti-noise' produced from wind interacting with the ANC microphones, which is fed back through the headphones as an annoying popping sound. This mode performs fairly similarly across wind angles. However, leaving on the 'Wind Reduction Mode' when it's not windy can negatively impact the overall noise isolation performance.

The Sony WH-XB910N's leakage performance is very good. Leakage is mostly in the mid-range and sounds fuller than that of in-ears or earbuds. However, the overall amount of leakage falls below the noise floor of an average office. As a result, you can listen to your audio at high volumes in a moderately noisy environment without worrying about disturbing others around you.

Their integrated mic offers an alright overall recording quality. Your voice sounds clear and bright, although there's a bit of distortion present. People on the other end will understand you clearly.

The mic's noise handling performance is decent. Moderate ambient noise around you will drown out your voice. As a result, whoever's on the other end of the line won't hear you as clearly.

These over-ears have excellent battery performance. Although advertised to last 30 hours continuously, we measured over 39 hours. Keep in mind that battery life varies depending on usage. That said, they're equipped with an adjustable auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when unused. You can also use them passively via their 1/8" TRS cable.

The Sony|Headphones Connect app is great. You can activate ANC on or off, adjust the 'Ambient Noise' level, and remap these controls onto the headphones. The app offers 'Adaptive Sound Controls' as well. This feature lets the headphones detect your actions and automatically switch between ANC on or an ambient noise level. There are modes: 'Staying', 'Walking', 'Running', and 'Transport'. You can also turn on 'Wind Noise' to reduce this kind of sound while listening to audio outdoors.

If you want to customize their sound, the app offers a graphic EQ and presets. You can also adjust the auto-off feature, control audio playback plus volume, turn off touch controls, and see your connected devices. You can adjust notification and voice guides as well as set up 360 Reality Audio, which is a virtual soundstage feature designed to create a more immersive sound by analyzing your unique ear shape.

These headphones come with a 1/8" TRS to 1/8" TRS cable. They also come with a USB-A to USB-C cable to charge them. This USB cable doesn't support audio, though.

The Sony WH-XB910N's Bluetooth connectivity is good. You can pair them with up to two devices at a time, but unlike the Sony WH-XB900 Wireless, they don't support NFC pairing for quickly pairing your headphones to your device. That said, these headphones support Sony's proprietary codec, LDAC, in addition to AAC and SBC codecs. Over Bluetooth, these headphones have high latency, so your audio and visuals won't be in sync if you're streaming video. Some apps and devices compensate for latency, though. However, if you listen to music or podcasts, LDAC provides higher-quality audio than SBC, and you won't need to worry about latency.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full compatibility. However, if you want to use them wired, they only support audio via analog.

These headphones are compatible with the PS4 and PS5 consoles when connected to the controller via analog. However, you can only receive audio.

The Sony WH-XB910N only support audio when connected via analog to your Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S console's controller. You can't use the mic, though.