If you want to listen to what I’m listening to while typing out my review, you can spotify it here (Ben Howard, great album)
I’ve been walking around our neighbourhood (within the allowed limit, folks) for the last month or so wearing the Sony H910n over-ear headphones and working out what I wanted to tell you about them! I will admit, this one has been tricky for me, I typically wear my Sony WH-1000XM3 (now superseded, but I love them) over-ear headphones everywhere and I’ll say straight off the proverbial bat, the H910n aren’t quite as comfortable as my XM3’s but they’re also fifty dollars less expensive, so we can live with that, right? This was a comparative gripe and only because I typically wear the XM3’s which are a little softer in the over-ear padding department, the H910 feels a little stiffer and as I wear glasses for reading, when I have them on, and a mask, then my H910n’s the pressure tends to build up in weird places, where the XM3’s don’t seem to have the same problem.
The H910n h.ear series wireless noise cancelling headphones sit below the premium XM4 range, but they certainly pack a punch! Now, we’re not a hugely technical audio review website, and to be fair, the H910n has been out a good while now, but they’re still available all over the internet and they’re still a very competitive mid-range over-ear offering.
For a headphone in this price range, what stands out to me the most (aside from the sound, but we’ll come to that) is the noise cancelling! Similar to my XM3’s the noise cancelling on these Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones is quite amazing! I mean, I’ve not been able to take them on any flights with any (mine!) screaming children, but I’ve sat with my two children on their school zoom calls, both competing to be the loudest person on the planet, I’ve used them to listen to a podcast while sitting in the same room as my wife watching a film that I’ve seen 12 times (I sound like a horrible person, I’m not, honest!) and while they’re not quite what the XM3 (or the XM4) are in this department, they’re certainly no slouch!
But Simon, how’s the sound? I said I wouldn’t be too technical, and so I won’t! But I will say that the soundstage isn’t quite that of the XM3, perhaps in part due to the 25mm drivers in the H910 headphones compared with the 40mm in the XM3? The bass is a little reserved, in a lot of the music I’m listening to right now, that’s just fine! The mids are clear and the highs crisp – they’re not a super-muddy bass-fest like the old “Beats by Whoa there basss!” I used to listen to (they were great on the tube in London, the bass blocked out everything including the mids and highs!), and they’re not quite as warm as the Denon AH-D 600’s that now reside in the cupboard. They’re a good enough balance for regular listening tastes.
These headphones have a touch sensor on the side of the earcup, so if you pull a cool 90’s DJ move and put your hand over the cup, the music volume drops and you can hear the ambient noise around you – think ordering a coffee, though I prefer to remove my headphones when ordering coffee, it’s free to be polite you know (thanks, mum!) you can also adjust the volume by sliding your finger up or down the headphone cup, forward or backwards to change tracks, and a swift double tap will pause your music or podcast. They charge via a USB-C plug on the left ear cup, where you’ll find the power button (long press to join a bluetooth network) and the noise cancelling selector button.
These Sony Noise Cancelling Headphones have a quoted 35 hour battery life and I’ve not run them for a straight 35 hours, I have used them for days and days – not continuously, but a few times a day – and have only run them out once or twice, and when you do run them out, a quick 10 minute charge gives you a couple of hours! Supporting LDAC over Bluetooth, DSEE HX (Upscaling) and HiRes Audio (Better than CD quality, which really comes down to your source and connection quality) these headphones are like a well spec’d Swiss army-knife of sound.
I will say I didn’t like them right away, as I pointed out earlier the fit is slightly less cushy when compared with my much loved XM3’s but they have grown on me and I’d say if I wasn’t so fortunate as to have my WH-1000XM3 headphones, I’d happily keep these as my daily NC headphones! For the regular person that enjoys their music or podcasts and wants a decent amount of quality in their music, and a good level of noise cancelling (You know, for when we can fly again, and the family in front has three year old twins that are ‘really excited’ about being on a plane!) these are a great set of headphones from Sony! Thank you, Sony, for providing these for review.
The Good:
- Sound Quality at Price level
- Build Quality is great!
- The app allows a good level of adjustment.
The Less Good, but still fine (I didn’t really find any ‘bad’):
- Comfort when worn for a long time.
I can highly recommend the H910n headphones and award them a 4 of 5 possible stars!
