Day 82: Today's Pick — Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones

I have, in the last decade, owned approximately five pairs of "premium" over-ear noise-cancelling headphones. The Bose QC25, the QC35, the QC45. The Apple AirPods Max. A pair of Sonys whose model number I cannot remember. The pair I currently own and reach for first, six days out of seven, is the Sony WH-1000XM5 — and I want to talk both about why and about the small, real ways in which they are imperfect.

First, the headline. The noise cancellation on the XM5 is, in 2025, the best in any consumer headphone I have tried. Sony has been refining this trick for several generations now, and the XM5 is the version where the noise cancellation crosses a particular line and starts to feel less like "muffling" and more like erasure. On a recent flight from Newark to Vienna, I put them on at the gate, hit the noise-cancellation toggle, and the entire 7E concourse — which had been a hum of beep-beep carts and gate announcements and a cellphone playing a YouTube video — vanished. Not muffled. Vanished. I checked twice that I had not somehow accidentally muted the world. The cabin engines on the flight itself were, similarly, gone. I watched a movie at conversational volume. I slept.

This is the killer app. If you fly enough, or you work in a noisy office, or you live in a city with a window that faces a road, the XM5 will, without exaggeration, change the texture of your life. There is a way that ambient noise wears at your nervous system that you do not consciously feel until you suddenly turn it off. Putting these on for the first time is like that.

Now, the music. Honest take: the XM5 is a good sound, not a great sound. The bass is forward but not bloated. The mids are slightly recessed; the highs are crisp without being harsh. Compared to the older Bose QC, the Sonys have more apparent detail; compared to a really good wired pair (Sennheiser HD 600s, say), they sound like Bluetooth headphones, which they are. If you are an audiophile who needs your headphones to be primarily a music device — get a wired pair and a small amp. If you are 95% of people, who use headphones for podcasts, music, video calls, and flights — these are perfect.

Other practical wins. 30-hour real-world battery life. (I charge mine roughly weekly.) Multipoint pairing — you can be connected to your laptop and phone at the same time and switch seamlessly. The transparency mode, which lets ambient sound back in, is the best in the business and lets you hold a brief conversation without removing the cans. Voice quality on calls is solid; I've taken meetings on these without complaint. The build feels nice — soft synthetic leather, light frame, generous earcups.

The flaws, because there are flaws. Sony, when they redesigned the XM5 from the XM4, removed the fold-flat hinges. The earcups now swivel but the headphones don't compact down. As a result, the included carrying case is roughly the size of a baking sheet and lives in your bag like a piece of furniture. This is a real downgrade. The XM4 case fit in a coat pocket. The XM5 case fits in a tote, and only because tote bags are roughly infinite. If you fly carry-on, plan accordingly.

Other minor gripes. The touch panel on the right earcup is occasionally over-sensitive — adjusting your hat will pause your music. The auto-pause-when-you-take-them-off feature is great when it works and infuriating when it spuriously triggers. There is no aptX HD support (Sony's LDAC, when it works, is fine). And, for my big-headed friends out there, the headband adjustment maxes out roughly at "median adult skull"; if you have a generously sized cranium, try them on first.

Pricing: $399 retail, $279–$329 on sale. They go on sale at predictable intervals, especially around major shopping holidays. Don't pay full retail unless you need them tomorrow.

A final word. Headphones are personal. The XM5 will not be the right headphones for everyone. But if you have ever worn a pair of headphones on a plane and thought "this is fine, but the engines are still there," the XM5 is the upgrade that closes that last loop.

It is, in the simplest sense, a small portable silence. That, in 2025, is a luxury worth $300 or so.