Sony WF-1000XM3

[What Hi-Fi?]

With a fine sense of musicality and effective noise-cancelling, the WF-1000XM3s set a new benchmark for true wireless earbuds.

Sony WF-1000XM3 : Read more

 

[msboon]

These earbuds do sound great. Unfortunately I found they suffered from bad Bluetooth connectivity, particularly in crowded places where lots of other people are using Bluetooth devices (e.g. Victoria station at rush hour). There is constant stuttering and break up of the connection. I’ve now tried two sets of these and both have the same problem, which makes them pretty much unusable for commuting. I‘ve taken both back for refunds and now use Apple AirPods pro which don’t suffer from this problem at all.

 

[simonali]

WHF review - 5 stars. Amazon reviews - 3 and a bit. Do these magazine reviewers actually leave their listening room to test this type of device properly i.e where it is supposedly designed to be used?

 

[zaisaipai]

Unfortunately I found they suffered from bad Bluetooth connectivity,

There is a setting in the app - connection stability vs sound quality. Did you try the connection stability preference in a crowded place?

 

[zaisaipai]

WHF review - 5 stars. Amazon reviews - 3 and a bit. Do these magazine reviewers actually leave their listening room to test this type of device properly i.e where it is supposedly designed to be used?

If you look in detail - many of the ratings on amazon are not relevant anymore.
With recent firware updates the experience has much improved. And YES, after last upgrade you can even use the earbuds as handsfree for phone calls

 

[simonali]

But what you're essentially saying is that the buying public were used as beta testers for a product that didn't work as it should and the manufacturer has had to roll out updates based on that public testing. I don't think that's good enough!

 

[msboon]

There is a setting in the app - connection stability vs sound quality. Did you try the connection stability preference in a crowded place?

Yes I did but no difference. In any event why should I be forced to compromise on sound quality because these earbuds can’t maintain a stable connection. Others (e.g. AirPods pro) don’t seem to have ‘this problem.

 

[msboon]

If you look in detail - many of the ratings on amazon are not relevant anymore.
With recent firware updates the experience has much improved. And YES, after last upgrade you can even use the earbuds as handsfree for phone calls

Well the experience certainly didn’t improve for me. In fact I first noticed the unstable connection problem after the most recent firmware update.

 

[Faastwalker]

These earbuds do sound great. Unfortunately I found they suffered from bad Bluetooth connectivity, particularly in crowded places where lots of other people are using Bluetooth devices (e.g. Victoria station at rush hour). There is constant stuttering and break up of the connection. I’ve now tried two sets of these and both have the same problem, which makes them pretty much unusable for commuting. I‘ve taken both back for refunds and now use Apple AirPods pro which don’t suffer from this problem at all.

I've just bought a pair of these direct from the Sony (Aus) shop. Wholly unimpressed. They do sound great, if you drive them into your ears deep enough. Tried all the buds & only one size actually held them in place sufficiently for a decent sound.

I'm also getting sound drop-outs & popping. It's really bad. I'm not sure if they are faulty? Have spent hours fiddling around with App settings, trying in different locations etc. They seem to work best if I'm sitting. On the move they are terrible. Sounds like I'm jogging with an old CD Walkman!!

I'm also not impressed with the noise cancelling. Seeing as I have them driven so far down my ear canal it's probably dangerous (not to mention uncomfortable) I would have thought it should work fairly well. But it doesn't seem much good at all. Again, when sitting at home it's noticeable. Out and about I'm not even sure if it's on or not. I keep checking the App - Ambient noise reduced to zero ........ so how comes I can hear everything with my music playing?!

I've contacted Sony support. But I think I'm going to be asking for a refund. These have put me off wireless headphones. First pair I've bought. Thinking of just going back to wired. This is just not good enough for such an expensive pair of headphones. I'm just stunned What Hi-Fi rated them so highly! :-/

 

[Perbo]

I bought theese after reading the review because I wanted a flexible listening solution.
They sound absolutely terrible, have no frequencies below 500Hz and terrible harsh treble.
I've tried all equalising settings; there's now way theese deserve the high rating.
My IPhone speakers sound a lot fuller and better.
I have the Sony WH1000xm2 'overear' which are decent, the XM3 are useless and can only be used to informative 'speech' - not music.
Don't buy without right of return.

 

[zunexxx]

I bought theese after reading the review because I wanted a flexible listening solution.
They sound absolutely terrible, have no frequencies below 500Hz and terrible harsh treble.
I've tried all equalising settings; there's now way theese deserve the high rating.
My IPhone speakers sound a lot fuller and better.
I have the Sony WH1000xm2 'overear' which are decent, the XM3 are useless and can only be used to informative 'speech' - not music.
Don't buy without right of return.

Howdy, I was considering buying these, but now I mean leaning more over to the airpods pro, do you have any recommendation for a good pair of TWS with noise canceling?

 

[Perbo]

I wouldn't recommend any 'in ear' for musicality but for speech functionality I would choose integration...I have an IPhone and therefore AirPods Pro.

The WhatHifi review of Sony WF1000XM3 have put me off trusting recommendations in the future

 

[gusq2000]

With a fine sense of musicality and effective noise-cancelling, the WF-1000XM3s set a new benchmark for true wireless earbuds.

Sony WF-1000XM3 : Read more

So disappointing with this device. I updated firmware and still bad
The volume is so low. My Wired iPhone earplugs are almost twice as loud
It drops out every few songs and restarts
The noise cancellation??? I went for a walk and I could hear every car going past, wind and everything else. I had noise cancellation on and toggled Ambient noise on and off...made no difference
I changed the earbuds...made no difference
Overall the get 2/5 in my book

 

[AlexB]

hello dears, sound is good, but try to receive the phone call when you listening some music or even not listening - iphone mic will be not connected, and you have only to do such connection manually... just try. i tried different iphones - same result, unfortunately, latest ios, latest f.w for sony. pity

 

[AlexB]

hello dears, sound is good, but try to receive the phone call when you listening some music or even not listening - iphone mic will be not connected, and you have only to do such connection manually... just try. i tried different iphones - same result, unfortunately, latest ios, latest f.w for sony. pity

yes, and forget to tell you - where is noise cancelation?? i didn't find anything workable for ios.

 

[AlexB]

yes, and forget to tell you - where is noise cancelation?? i didn't find anything workable for ios.

also i wrote and call to sony support - and even put them in service center. no news - sony support recommend ask to return to point of sales. very simply!

 

[GraemeM]

Hi can these connect to more than one device at the same time?

 

[Annie]

Do not buy these headphones, particularly if you want a functional microphone. Not bad earbuds, but it lost the bluetooth connection constantly so useless for zoom meetings etc. Zoom mic wouldn't register at over 38%, and Windows Input controls couldn't hear it at all. Lots of people complained they couldn't hear me. Complete waste of money, and they weren't cheap.

 

[YiG]

Been using the XM3s for a couple of weeks now and in all honesty I've had very few issues with them. They came with firmware 3.1.2 out of the box which I was surprised by and to be fair the tips, while there is plenty of choice, aren't the best for my ears. Ordered some azla sednaearfit crystal tips and they are brilliant, way better quality and a really good seal, took peoples advice with sizing and got a size smaller than I usually use, ML instead of large. They do a lot more increments than most so instead of the usual XS/S/M/L they do a small and large variant of each size i.e. MS/M/ML.

Only had a couple of dropouts in the time I've had them despite having plenty of Bluetooth and WiFi 2.4/5GHz devices around the house. Admittedly the call quality isn't the best, when talking to my other half she says I sound fine but while her voice comes through fine on the right bud, the left drops in and out a bit. Other than that they have been pretty good, my only real complaint would be Amazon.. a couple of days after receiving them they dropped the price from £150 to £130 and wouldn't refund the difference, they told me I would have to return them for a refund then buy them at the lower price 🙄

 

[DanB]

Seriously starting to question what hi-fi's judgement on products...and especially those that win awards. Either you don't test them fully or....well....I won't say the other for the fear of reprisal. These headphones have 3 major issues that you can easily discover after a week of use....or a quick Google:

1. Major Bluetooth issues connecting to windows 10 pc/laptop - constant drops (check other online resources for exact same issue across the board)

2. No idea how you missed this in your original review....in the dark (this is when you notice it bigtime) the headphones continually blink their blue light with no ability to disable it. Fine if the missus has had a few sherry's and comatose, not so great for the other 364 days.

3. Zero support from Sony to fix the above issues or provide an app to control the headphones through windows

Would be great to know how you (don't) fully test these products and how you (don't) update the reviews/awards when issues are highlighted. Mind-blowingly basic elements missed......not for the first time recently.

 

[Alantiggger]

I have these and they are Brilliant !
Bought via a Black Friday deal for £70.00, amazing sound and I luv em. So