HWM Singapore – August 2019

Very little diff erentiates the
WH-1000XM3 and its predecessor,
but that’s actually a good thing as
there wasn’t much to  x to begin
with. The ear cushions are slightly
deeper this time, and there’s a less
pronounced headband arch for
better wearing comfort.
Battery life is
excellent - the
WH-1000XM3 will
give you 30 hours
of wireless playback
with ANC activated.
But now you also get
the option of USB-C
charging, which
greatly improves
the fast charging
capabilities of the
headphone. The
WH-1000XM3 gets  ve hours of playback
from a 10 minute charge, whereas
before you’d only get 70 minutes.
However, the greatest improvement
comes from the new dedicated
noise-cancelling chip Sony calls the
‘HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1’.
This improves the noise-cancelling
performance and adds a dedicated
Sense engine that automatically adjusts
the ANC mode to your surroundings.
And there’s also a feature that lets you
adjust which direction the sound seems

to come from; a sort of virtual

surround sound.

The WH-1000XM3 is noticeably

more bassy than the previous version.

So much so the headphones literally

throb when there’s a heavy beat on! This

works well for dance tracks like Daft

Punk’s Get Lucky, as the bass pushes

the track along nicely.

Too much bass can easily

overwhelm a track, but

the WH-1000XM3 has the

 nesse to hold it in check so

it never overwhelms Pharrell

Williams’s vocals.

We next went to Tonight,

Tonight by the Smashing

Pumpkins to see how the

headphones handled the

dynamics of the piece,

most notably the transition

from the intro to the verse, where the

lead acoustic guitar takes over the

refrain. This was well-handled, with all

the instruments rendered with good

naturalness.

Finishing off with a quieter piece in

Lady Gaga’s I’ll Never Love Again, we

put the highs to the test, as this piece

is centred on a single piano and Gaga’s

vocals. This lacked just that last bit of

sparkle, but the quality of the mids really

brought the emotional quality

of the track out.

Great noise-cancelling

capabilities.

Bass is too heavy to be

accurate.

With Sound Position Control, you

can make it feel like sound is

coming from another direction.

Adaptive sound control

automatically adjusts ANC based

on your surroundings.

ATA GLANCE

FREQUENCY

RESPONSE

4Hz-40kHz

BATTERY LIFE

30 hours (Wireless

andANCenabled)

QUICK CHARGE

5 hours after

10 minutes

WEIGHT

255g

PRICE

$549

AUGUST 2019 | HWM 59