Audio Hardware Reviews

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I thought it might be cool for us to share thoughts on various bits of “audio hardware” we use day-to-day or maybe have encountered - that means things like headphones, speakers, hi-fi’s, digital audio players, turntables, phono cartridges, microphones, DAC’s, computer soundcards etc.

I’ll kick things off…

Sony WH-1000XM5 Bluetooth Noise Cancelling Headphones
So over christmas I bought some XM5’s to replace my ageing and battered XM3’s.
For years and years I struggled to find a set of headphones that I could enjoy - issues with comfort or them needing to be driven by something more beefy than the 3.5mm line out of an iPod or smartphone.

With the general trend of moving away from headphone jacks, I began to search around for a pair of bluetooth headphones, and as anyone knows the cheap end of the headphones market is awash with poor quality headphones, so I decided to shell out on my XM3’s which I fell in love with after a short demo at my local electronics retailer.

4 years later and my poor XM3’s began to show various issues and problems, but they’ve had a good run being used for nearly 7 hours every day. So I went ahead and bought the XM5’s.

I’ve now had my XM5’s for just over a month and here are my thoughts.

Good Points

  • Pretty comfortable out of the box; I’m of the belief you have to “bed in” any headphones from continued use and the foam ear cups will then form to the shape of your noggin. Luckily it was after about day 3 the headphones felt right on my head.
  • Great sound quality; one of the things I enjoyed about my XM3’s was how great they sounded. I’m beyond the age of wanting the fillings in my mouth rattled out of my skull from sub-bass, but there are times when I definitely want to feel the low frequencies of music. No audiophile, I don’t have that kind of money, but I find the audio generally well balanced across various genres and the added EQ available when using a compatible smartphone is also beneficial
  • They look pretty stylish; I don’t want headphones that are too bulky or stand out, they’re here to serve a simple purpose and not bring undue attention. I feel that the XM5’s in the grey/black colour I opted for do that perfectly.
  • Easy to use; the Bluetooth seems to behave well and stay connected to a device without any issues, setting up the headphones with the Sony companion app is also really simple even for a novice user
  • Battery life; considering how long I wear the headphones, battery life is really good, often meaning I only have to charge them every 2 days or so and can do it overnight (the XM5’s like the XM3’s do not allow you to charge and use at the same time sadly)
  • Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) is still really great; I’m sure someone out there will tell me some other manufacturer does ANC even better but I find my XM5’s do a perfectly suitable job in removing unwanted exterior noise while out and about without becomming dangerous (I personally don’t want to become deaf to the outside world while wearing the headphones)

Bad Points

  • Infrequent audio loss; not entirely sure what is happening and if its a firmware issue on the headphones or the bluetooth transmitter used on my PC (as this only really happens while using that device) but very occassionally audio will just stop, I’ll get a click in the headphones like someone had unplugged the line cable. Windows thinks the device is connected, and the only way to resolve is to power down and back up, after which things resume without issue
  • Squeaky hinges; I kind of recall having this issue with the XM3’s and eventually the noise went away, sometimes when walking around with the XM5’s I can hear the hinges (as the phones fold flat) moving very slightly, which often can overpower the music. It is quite cold at the moment in the UK so the ambient temperature might be causing this effect.
  • Not entirely portable; although this is more of a complaint from my buddy who also uses XM series headphones from Sony, these phones do not fold into themselves, but simply fold flat. This means they take up more space than previous models in a rucksack or bag.
  • No voices! Just Bongs! the XM3’s used to talk to me all the time (Power On, Power Off etc.) but the XM5’s now make different bonging noises to confirm power on, off, connect or disconnect which is all great but I can barely distinguish which is which! You do get a vocal read out of battery level from quickly pressing the power button on the left ear cup however.
  • Touch controls suck! This is more for any Bluetooth headphones I’ve used, I absolutely hate the touch controls. I tried them on my XM5’s but after day 4 I turned them off entirely, it was too easy to slightly touch them in the wrong position and skip a track, or pause the music

Here’s a photo of them if you ever see them in a catalogue or in a showroom:

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I’ve got the WF-1000XM5, which are the bud-brother of these cans and believe they share a codebase iirc. I came from the XM4s, which had a similar issue, and am down to the conclusion that they are essentially “crashing” due to load, or some other software fault. I find it happens most often (but not always) when they try to announce something, like the mid/low battery warning tones.

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The set of my dreams.

Denon DCD-A110

Limited 110th Anniversary Edition CD Player with advanced design

https://www.denon.com/en/product/cd-players/dcd-a110/DCDA110.html

cd
cd790×609 45 KB

Denon PMA-A110

Limited 110th Anniversary Edition 2 Ch. 160W Integrated Amplifier

https://www.denon.com/en/product/amplifiers/pma-a110/PMAA110.html

amp
amp791×502 40 KB

Monitor Audio Hyphn

https://www.monitoraudio.com/en/product-ranges/hyphn/hyphn/

Frequency Response (In-room, -6dB) 18 Hz - 60 kHz

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Thanks for this review! I’m not yet in the market for new noise-canceling headphones, but your post inspired me to upgrade my doing-stuff-around-the-house headphones from an aging, disintegrating pair of Panasonic RP-HT21 headphones ($8 USD, and with a style I can only describe as “1980s Walkman”) to a new pair of Sony WH-CH520 headphones ($38 from B&H).

With the disclaimer that (obviously) nobody has ever accused me of being an audiophile, I’m quite happy with the sound quality of the WH-CH520s – more bass than I expected, particularly from on-ear headphones. I’ve used the integrated microphone for a few phone and video calls without people on the other side complaining, too.

My biggest fear at this price was that Bluetooth support would be awful, but it seems reliable so far when paired with a Chromebook (as soon as I gave up on pairing over BLE and used good old-fashioned regular Bluetooth). The box advertises “multipoint connection”, but I’ve only used them with a single device so I can’t comment on that feature. They charge over USB-C and the battery life is allegedly 50 hours, although I haven’t put that to the test yet either.

The biggest selling point for me is that these are wireless, so I’m unlikely to drop my laptop on the floor again due to a cable snagging on a doorknob while I’m walking around. :grimacing:

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DAC and Headphone Amplifier · Streaming Media Receiver · Local Playback All in One Unit, FIIO K17 Is Officially Released!

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https://www.fiio.com/k17

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This doesn’t seem to be a review :slight_smile: I will keep the post, but please post only stuff that actually belongs in the future.

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Can it be a review from the Internet, not mine?

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No - the whole idea is that people in the community giving their personal opinions/thoughts/experiences about audio hardware they are currently using or have used previously. Not reposting random reviews from elsewhere, if you want to do that start another thread for it.

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So I got something new the other day.

After probably nearly 5 years of not having a portable bluetooth speaker, I finally caved an realised I wanted one so I can easily listen to some music while doing my gardening (or more likely falling asleep in the sun!).

As many probably feel the same, the Bluetooth portable speaker market is a bit of a minefield of good looking devices with terrible specification. I wanted something that would have good sound, be reliable and not break the bank!

I initially looked at the Anker Soundcore range, but after watching a few videos felt that although they were very portable they were not really what I was after. I then had a look at the next tier up in price (£50-100) and it was a toss up between a JBL Flip 6 or a Sony ULT Field 1.

I had “fondled” the ULT Field 1 in a John Lewis around Christmas but couldn’t get my phone to connect to it to test sadly (due to EVERYTHING HAVING BLUETOOTH!). I liked the size and general build quality. The last JBL product I had (which were a pair of bluetooth in-ear buds that were part of a promo with a phone) left me a bit sore as they exclaimed “EXTRA BASS” and yet were extremely flat sounding; although I have heard good things about the Flip range from reading online.

It was about £10 difference and in the end I went with the Sony, continuing my general preference to the brand for portable audio gear. I also generally preferred the strap setup which looked a bit more robust than the JBL Flip’s, and considering I would be taking it outside a fair amount I wanted something that wouldn’t break a few months in.

So a short bank holiday trip to the shop and feeling £100 lighter, I unboxed my new bluetooth speaker, powered it up and connected it.

It had nice clear tactile rubber controls on the top, and although it has the dreaded bright blue LED’s there’s none of that silly RGB nonsense that everything seems to have these days. The shape of the speaker could be described as a slightly square cylinder (a bit bigger than a can of beer) and means that it happily sits on most surfaces without rolling about uncontrollably; so much that I think you might even get away with using this in a car possibly.

The entire speaker is wrapped in a nice fabric, and in the colour scheme of choice (mine is black). It’ll be interesting to see how this fabric holds up over time in terms of picking up dust, scuffs and various other marks but it seems to be made of a material that seems durable.

On the top back of the speaker you have a pretty thick cord handle with a little bit of elasticity. You can easily untie the knot and then re-thread the cord around something else to hang the speaker from a branch or post. I like how it is fully removable, meaning that if for any reason it did break it can be easily replaced.

On the back is a little rubber hatch with a USB C charging port; no aux or TF slot here sadly, as I think those connections are rather untrendy these days. They would also likely make the waterproof nature of this speaker a little more tricky. As for battery life I haven’t had to charge it yet and it’s still going with the original charge, so I have high hopes for this. Sony seem to use good quality cells in the headphones I own of theirs, so I hope for a similar quality here.

It’s certainly not the lightest speaker going but not back breaking heavy. OK to go in a rucksack but not your jeans pockets.

As for audio, what really matters, the sound is rather nice all told although I think some people might find the “ULT” mode a little too bass heavy. As the speaker comes it has two modes “normal” which gives a rather flat neutral sound and “ULT” mode which to those of us with regular back pain is the modern “Loudness” button you might see on an old stereo. I personally don’t mind such features on small audio appliances like this, but I can appreciate some might be turned off by such a feature.

Luckily if you download the app you can unlock two other modes, Custom and Stamina. Custom gives you a three-band equalizer (Bass/Mid/Treb) to fiddle with, and Stamina is the same as normal but doesn’t go very loud and is there to prolong the battery life.

I personally have been using the speaker at about 30% volume and find that to be pretty suitable certainly if sitting about 1-2m or so from the device. At higher volumes it can easily fill a room or small garden (like mine!). At full volume, and when using “bass heavy” music like hip-hop or EDM, the audio quality is a bit meh as the bass and treble seem to fight each other; but I doubt I’ll be using it at such volumes.

The final note is that it has a little party piece with exposed woofers on the left and right which visibly “pulse” when at high volumes; I’m not sure if these do much for the audio quality and might be more of a gimmick.

As you can probably tell I’m pretty happy with this so far, with my only real complaint being that if you switch between the sound modes via the speaker button it makes a stupid “wooshing” sound which really cheapens things and is annoying; sadly there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn this off in the app.

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