Sony XB950N1 Extra Bass Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones, Black

Over the course of a month of testing, I purchased this along with five other popular/high-end headsets: Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless, Skullcandy Crusher Wireless, SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless, Beyerdynamic MMX 300 2nd Generation, and Sony XB550AP (at the bottom of this review I compare the Sony XB950N1 against those five products). After a long and arduous experience of trying everything out, I can say with confidence that I love this headset and it achieves the best sweet spot for those who want to both game and listen to music.When I'm doing competitive gaming I connect a V-MODA BoomPro Mic (picture attached) so that I can use a mic and have perfect 0-latency sound. It turns this fantastic headphone into a fantastic gaming headset. IMPORTANT NOTE: when you first plug the wired connection in, the headset always turns itself off by default. Yeah, it'll work fine that way, but you lose the extra bass and noise reduction. But guess what? If you just turn the headset on again it enables the extra bass and noise reduction WHILE WIRED! Maybe this is obvious to some people, but it was a total revelation for me. It was a literal game-changer.I listen to everything from orchestral/vocal tracks to hard rock and dubstep. I play games with rocket launchers but I also need to hear quiet footsteps in the distance. I want high-fidelity sound quality with good clarity but I ALSO want to have high amounts of bass. I want amazing sound but was NOT looking for the bland "neutral" EQ that sound producers and audiophile purists consider perfect. I can understand why they want that perfectly faithful precision, but I wanted a headset that brought the thunder with extra oomph without sacrificing sound quality.With the extra bass feature turned on the XB950N1 puts out nice deep SOLID bass that doesn't distort the rest of the frequency response. The headset has no problem putting out subwoofer-quality bass that vibrates your ears. It doesn't struggle at this or need "encouragement" from 3rd party EQ settings - it's what it was designed for and it does its job extremely well. Most importantly, it does this without losing the high end or letting bass spill into the mid-range which causes a muddy sound. It does indeed bring the thunder without sacrifice. It's the only headset out of all the headsets I've tried where I can honestly say I took it out of the box, turned it on and it just had the perfect stock EQ. I can listen on my PC or cell phone and songs sound exactly the same with zero effort needed. No fiddling with settings, just play and enjoy. For those who are less of bass-addicts, you can always install the phone app and reduce how much extra bass the headphone delivers or even set it to reduce bass.The noise cancellation is a really nice perk. I didn't realize how much noise the air conditioning and cars driving past the house made until I disabled the feature (it's on by default) and suddenly heard all that white noise. I quickly enabled it again. With this feature on, the quiet moments in games are dead silent, making it easy to hear the softest of footsteps and just improving the overall immersion in music. I can only imagine how useful this will be at the airport. I've heard from other reviewers that the noise reduction is about 90% as good as the noise reduction on the WH-1000XM3.COMPARED TO COMPETITORS:Skullcandy Crusher Wireless: technically has heavier bass at its max bass setting, but if you crank it up it does so at the expense of bleeding into the mids and suffocating the highs to the point that it sounds like you're in the bathroom of a concert rather than out on the stage. The headset sounds great with the bass slider at around 50%, but also is the most uncomfortable headset I have ever in my life worn. It felt like putting a steel bear trap on my head from how much it clenched into my jaw muscles. I'm 160 pounds, 5'10", so pretty average body, pretty normal head I'd say. Not sure why it hurt so dang much but wow.Corsair Void Pro RGB Wireless: Felt great, had a nice loose fit with breathable mesh. Has good wireless range. Didn't have NEARLY enough bass, not even close to enough, no matter what I tried. It has a really nice mic, but I'm leaving a short review on this comparison because not having bass is an immediate no-go from me.Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Generation): This is a really expensive wired-only headset that retails at $450. And yeah, of course it sounds good. In fact, it sounds perfectly faithful, which is to say, it has that neutral frequency response. Instead of thundering bass, you just get regular bass. You don't get "larger than life"... you just get "life". You can use an EQ to crank the bass up and make it sound boomy but it feels like a struggle against what the headset wants to do. Even when I had everything set for hard bass I don't think it had a blend that sounded as nice as the XB950N1. This isn't the fault of the headset, it's just the case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless: Man. I reallllllly love the wireless tech on this thing. It has a really snazzy base unit that has a LCD to control the EQ, sidetone, etc. Makes it easy to connect to PS4, PC and phone at the same time, has great range, feels comfortable, has a cool dual-battery feature so you never run out of juice. But.... the bass, it's just like the Corsair Void Pro... it isn't nearly enough. The drivers just aren't made to put out heavy bass, even with the EQ set to max bass it's pitiful compared to the XB950N1. It's a shame, cause I love everything else about the headset.Sony XB550AP: This is the wired version of Sony's extra bass headphones. So for someone like me who games wired you'd think it'd be a no-brainer right? Well no, first of all cause I like being able to just pick up my phone and jam out without dragging clunky cords around. I don't care how I look in the privacy of my gaming room but I DO like looking decent in public, lol. Second, with the power on and the extra bass effect turned on the XB950N1 puts out noticeably better bass than the XB550AP which lacks the feature. The XB500AP is a fine headset, and if you fine-tune the EQ you can get very close to the XB950N1. However, the XB950N1 still takes 1st place especially with the bluetooth and noise reduction built in.FINAL WORD: I researched for days and bought/tested/returned way more headphones than I ever wanted to in search of perfection. This headphone becomes a perfect wired gaming headset when combined with a V-MODA BoomPro (you could also use an Antlion ModMic) and also operates perfectly in bluetooth mode for music listening or if you prefer to game that way. Be aware you can't use the built-in mic while gaming over bluetooth, it's just for taking phone calls with (this is a limitation of bluetooth) so you'll need a separate mic. However, if you want high-quality thunderous bass + crisp & clean audio, the ability to go wireless on your phone and wired while gaming, this thing is an absolute beast. Just remember to power up the headphones AFTER plugging in the wire, that way it stays powered up and gives you the extra bass :)

> Robust sound with tangible, satisfying low-end that can be adjusted._Sound isn’t flat or balanced, nor is it meant to be. These headphones are built for dynamic audio with bass that kicks hard when you want it to, similar to Beats Studio headphones._The Bass Effect itself is pretty impressive and being able to adjust it easily is great because I’ve always found the wired versions of the Extra Bass line a little too heavy out of the box, especially when switching between different sources._I keep the Bass Effect at 0 for most listening, which makes turning it up even more satisfying when you really want that knock. Turning it up to 10 has literally sent a shiver down my spine when it first tickles my ear drum, which is something I definitely haven’t had in any other headphone. It’s almost like a SubPac for your head, and one day I hope to be brave enough to use both at once._The app you can download to customize the sound is simple (Surround Mode, Bass Effect, Noise Cancelling controls) but handy—could have used a full-on equalizer, but it’s not a deal breaker and isn’t affecting the score here.> Exceptional wireless performance._Not much to say here, since Bluetooth basically either works or doesn’t, but the range and ease of use on the Bluetooth is pretty impressive._Swapping between different sources—iPhone, iPad, Macs, PS Vita—is surprisingly easy and reliable, and the range is better than any other Bluetooth device I’ve used before. I probably got about 40-50 feet away from my computer in my open office before I got any sound chop. Awesome.> Solid noise-cancelling at a lower price point._Between the thick padding on each ear and the active noise cancelling feature, these headphones do a great job of keeping outside sound out of your listening experience._I haven’t flown with them yet, but between my busy office, riding the bus and walking on busy streets, I’m consistently impressed with how well they block noise._I find them more effective than the Beats Studio Wireless (and they don’t get that horrible bass oscillation when they’re covered or close to something) and while they don’t quite hit it like the Bose QC35 set, they more than make up for it with bass that doesn’t blow out and get muddy past 30% volume.> Balanced design and build._When it comes to the features that aren’t in the title, there are some really nice touches on a design and build that feels very Sony, for better or worse._The headphones are mostly (or all) hard plastics that feel super sturdy while keeping everything light. The ear cups are extremely comfortable to me and I’ll wear them for hours at a time without any discomfort. They also rotate a bit so they can sit nice and flat on a surface, or balance nicely on top of your head if you like that panda look while you take a break or listen to someone talking to you._All of the buttons—power, bass, noise cancelling, volume, music—feel great and are varied enough that learning them by touch is really easy._Wired use is great too, although a bit of a bummer that you have to use the specific cable that comes with it. I have a lot of cables like it, but haven’t found one that can trick it into going into wired mode. It doesn’t support in-line controls, but I prefer the dedicated controls on the headphones anyway._Battery life is honestly kind of incredible—between a few hours of noise-cancelled listening each day and several hours powered down in between, I didn’t have to charge these things for a week before it told me the battery was getting low. I listened for a few more hours after that before plugging in and never ran into an issue._As long as you’re remembering to power down between listens, you’ll probably get better battery life than Sony even lists in the product features. After having multiple sets of headphones that need to be charged daily, these kind of blow me away.> Minor nags, because you have to._Honestly, not a lot to pick apart about these headphones for me, at least nothing that’s a deal breaker for me in any way. They don’t have the bass wobble of the Beats Studio Wireless, or the low-end swamp of Bose QC35s, and the price point makes them a lot easier to swallow than those two._One thing I don’t love is the look of the headphones when they’re actually on your head—they’re a bit wider in the headband than I like (probably to get the right angle on the thick ear cups) but that actually works really well inside of a hood or over the top of a PSVR headset, so it’s not a huge deal._The other thing is that while she sounds really nice, the lady who announces the Bluetooth, power and bass status when you press their respective buttons could have just been short, electronic tones instead of voice samples. You might be able to turn this off, but I haven’t been bothered enough to look for that option yet._Other than those two super minor gripes and the lack of full EQ in the Headphones app, I really can’t find much to hate on when it comes to these headphones.If you’ve made it this far in this overly detailed review, here’s the summary: buy them.