Sony INZONE H9 Wireless  Headphones Review

The Sony H9 look similar to other headphones in the INZONE lineup. The design is reminiscent of the PlayStation 5; however, the black accented hinges, white housing, and mic on the 'White' variant make them look basically identical to the mid-range Sony INZONE H7 Wireless. The other color choice, 'Black' is monochromatic. They also have LED lights around the hinges. While they aren't customizable, they glow white when you're connected via the wireless dongle and blue when connected via Bluetooth.

The Sony H9 are decently comfortable. They're lightweight, and unlike the Sony INZONE H3 or Sony INZONE H7 Wireless, they have leatherette ear cup padding instead of cloth, which feels soft against the skin. The padding on the headband is comfortable, and the headphones have a better range of motion to help accommodate a wide variety of head shapes. That said, if you have a small head, you may find the headphones to be large, even when set to the smallest setting. If you have big ears, they may also touch the ear cups. Wearing glasses can cause a rubbing sound against the pads, which can be annoying.

The Sony H9 have great controls. There are a couple of physical buttons that let you adjust your settings on the fly, and most are decently easy to use. There's an infinite volume wheel on the left ear cup. It beeps to let you know when you've reached minimum and maximum volume. You can also flip the microphone up to mute yourself, and there's a click to let you know when you mute or unmute, so you don't need to worry about accidentally turning on the mic. There are ring lights near the hinges that flash white when you're in dongle mode and blue when you're in Bluetooth mode. While there are different chimes to let you know when you've entered Bluetooth mode vs. pairing mode and Bluetooth mode off, the flashing LED lights can be hard to decipher as they flash quickly at first, but then only flash in sets of two when ready to be paired. It can also be hard to tell whether you've adjusted the 'Game' or 'Chat' mix by feeling alone. On the upside, there's a lot of feedback to help you know which settings you've changed.

On the left cup:

• ANC button:
• Single press: Access ANC on, off, and 'Ambient Sound' mode, which lets you hear your surroundings without taking the headphones off of your head.

On the right cup:

• Game Chat button:
• Single press: Depending on whether you press on the 'Game' or 'Chat' side of the button, you can incrementally adjust channel mixing to hear more (or less) of one audio channel.
• Bluetooth button:
• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Skips to the next track.
• Triple press: Skips to the previous track.
• Power button:
• Single press: Access ANC on and off. However, you can also add 'Ambient Sound' to this control via companion software.
• Press and hold: Turns the headphones on and off.

The Sony H9 have a bulky design that's slightly larger than the Sony INZONE H3. While the ear cups can swivel to lay flat, they still take up space on your desk. Even their default position takes up a lot of room. They also lack a carrying case to help protect them when you're not using them.

The Sony H9's build quality is satisfactory. They feel better built than the Sony INZONE H3, thanks to their different, more durable hinge design and leatherette ear cup padding. They're also a little bigger than the H3. However, their mostly plastic design feels a bit cheap, especially given their price point. The headphones will survive occasional impact damage without too much of an issue, though.

The Sony H9 have mediocre stability. Thanks to their leatherette ear cup padding, they grip more tightly onto your head than the Sony INZONE H3. However, they can still move around if you tend to make intense head movements while gaming. You won't experience this issue if you don't move around while gaming.

• Sony INZONE H9 Wireless headphones
• USB wireless dongle
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• User manual
• Stickers

The Sony H9 have a very similar sound profile to the Sony INZONE H7 Wireless when connected via the wireless dongle. They have a boomy, warm sound profile that's great for bringing out sound effects in gameplay. Dialogue and instruments sound harsh, while sibilants like hi-hats are piercing, though. Luckily, you can customize their sound to your liking using their companion software's graphic EQ and presets.

We noticed that these headphones sound different depending on whether you're connected via Bluetooth or wireless dongle. Bluetooth audio lacks thump and rumble. It also sounds muddier and harsher compared to the same audio from a PC or PS5 when using the USB dongle. The difference is most noticeable when listening to music as bass-heavy sounds like Blinding Lights by the Weeknd sound muddy and thick. However, when gaming, this sound is better suited for gaming as explosions and footsteps are distinct from the rest of your game's audio, making it easier to spot these audio cues and feel more immersed. It seems like the dongle is applying an EQ to help improve their audio quality, and you can see a comparison per device and connection here.

The Sony H9's frequency response consistency is mediocre. Although they have ANC, it seems like it doesn't improve bass delivery, and you can experience a lot of deviations, especially if you have thick hair or wear glasses. These headphones are also prone to inconsistencies in treble delivery, depending on fit, positioning, and seal. Overall, it's important to take the time to ensure a good fit to get a more consistent sound each time you use them.

The Sony H9 have passable bass accuracy. Your gameplay has extra thump and rumble but intense punch and boom. While this can help bring out sound effects like footsteps in games like PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, the extra bass can muddy vocals and lead instruments in music.

The Sony H9 have satisfactory mid accuracy. There's overemphasis coming from the bass range into the mid range, which muddies and clutters vocals and lead instruments. That means when you're playing games like Kentucky Route Zero, the male vocals and banjo throughout the whole song, Long Journey Home, lack separation and sound jumbled together. Another bump in the high-mid makes the upper harmonics of these sounds harsh.

These headphones have sub-par treble accuracy. At the start of the low-treble, vocals and lead instruments are adequately bright, but a dip at the end of this range veil the upper harmonics of these sounds and weaken their clarity. In the mid-treble, sibilants like cymbals are piercing and painful.

The Sony H9's peaks and dips performance is mediocre. It's very even, and there are a couple of steep dips and peaks accross the spectrum. A peak across the mid to high-bass adds extra punch and boom to mixes, though it can overwhelm vocals and lead instruments. A dip in the mid-mid pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of your track, while a peak in the high-mid to low-treble makes the upper harmonics of these sounds harsh. A deep dip in low-treble veils vocals and instruments while a peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Sony H9's imaging performance is excellent. This manufacturer tends to have good quality control when it comes to drivers. As a result, their left and right drivers are well-matched. Although there's a small but somewhat wide peak in the low to mid-mid, which can skew audio towards one driver over another, it's difficult to hear with real-life content, and it won't be an issue while gaming. Objects like dialogue and sound effects like footsteps are accurately placed in the stereo image.

The Sony H9's passive soundstage performance is poor, which is normal for closed-back headphones. The soundstage seems wide, but unnatural and as if sound is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. It also seems closed-off and lacking spaciousness, especially when compared to open-back gaming headphones like the Astro A40 TR Headset + MixAmp Pro 2019.

The Sony H9 are compatible with Sony 360 Spatial Sound. This feature analyzes your unique ear shape via photograph to create a more immersive sound. However, once set up, you can only turn this feature on or off. To set this feature up, you need to use the Sony 360 Spatial Sound Personalizer app on your smartphone to set up the virtual soundstage on PC. We didn't notice a significant difference whether this feature was on or off, though.

These headphones are also compatible with PlayStation 5's 3D Audio, which is found on the 'Settings' page. This spatial audio feature can help add depth and directionality to sound effects like footsteps and voices. However, we also didn't notice a big difference between on and off.

The Sony H9 have a satisfactory weighted harmonic distortion performance. There are a couple of peaks: in the low to mid-mid, there's a peak at high volumes, but it's hard to hear with real-life content. Another peak in the low-treble is more noticeable at moderate volumes than high volumes but isn't too noticeable, either.

These are the settings used to test the Sony H9. There's also a physical toggle for the 'PC' and 'PS5' on the wireless USB dongle. We set this switch to 'PC'. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Sony H9's noise isolation performance is good. They have an ANC system, meaning they can block out more background noise than the Sony INZONE H3. While they don't reduce as much overall ambient noise as causally designed noise cancelling headphones like the Razer Barracuda Pro Wireless, they can still cut down a wide range of sound. They can filter out ambient chatter as well as reduce the high-pitched hum of computers or standing fans. They do a mediocre job of cutting down bass-range noise like the low rumble of car engines, which can be disappointing if you tend to game near open windows with traffic outside.

The Sony H9's leakage performance is decent. Escaping audio is concentrated primarily in the mid to treble range. However, the overall leakage isn't too loud overall, and if you like to listen to audio at high volumes, you won't bother others around you.

The mic's recording quality is okay. Although the Sony H9 are the most premium headphones in the INZONE lineup, their mic has a worse recording quality than the more budget-friendly Sony INZONE H3, even after firmware update 01.002.005. However, wired models tend to perform better in this regard than wireless models, as they receive audio directly from the source, resulting in less data loss. Still, the H9's mic does an alright job of capturing your voice, so you sound clear and natural, although a bit bright. There's a bit of distortion present, but whoever you're talking to will have no problem understanding you clearly.

Keep in mind that although the H3's 'Recorded Speech' file has white noise present, this noise is due to the mic picking up sound coming from the speaker inside our dummy head. However, this model has a noise gate that can cut out that sound.

The mic's noise handling performance is great. The mic has a noise gate that's always on, which helps to block out background noise when you're not talking. Overall, the mic can separate your voice from moderate background noise. If you game near an open window with a lot of traffic outside, others around you will still hear your voice clearly.

The Sony H9 have a great battery performance. They're advertised to last 32 hours with their ANC on, but we measured over 22 hours with the dongle connected to a PC and smartphone. That said, battery life can vary depending on usage. There's an auto-off timer to help conserve battery life, though, and you can customize the timer in the companion app. You can also use the headphones while they're charging, but you need to be connected to a device via Bluetooth or dongle as the headphones can't pass audio via their charging cable.

The Sony INZONE Hub is a great app with a lot of different features. However, keep in mind that you can't transfer your presets to the PS5. There are different profiles you can create and customize so you can move between different saved presets. You can turn the ANC on, off, or access ambient sound and adjust this setting via a slider. You can also access a 10-band graphic EQ, presets, and spatial sound. There's dynamic range control (DRC), which automatically balances the volume of your content between 'High', 'Low', and 'Off', as well as dedicated microphone controls like sidetone and gain control. You can even turn the LED lights around the hinge on and off or adjust the settings so ANC turns on or Bluetooth is enabled when you power the headphones. You can switch the Bluetooth connection quality if you want to prioritize sound quality or a stable connection.

The Sony H9 have great Bluetooth connectivity. You can connect them to your smartphone and console at the same time, which is great if you want to stream audio via Bluetooth while gaming using the wireless dongle. Keep in mind that you'll hear sound for both devices at the same time, so it's good to use the chat mix feature to help adjust audio to your liking. Bluetooth audio also has poorer sound quality than the dongle's audio. It can be disappointing if you prioritize listening to high-quality music while gaming; however, it will be less of a problem if you just want background music.

These headphones support SBC codec, but their latency is very high, so if you want to game on your PC, you're better off using the dongle and not Bluetooth. Their latency is lower on iOS and Android devices, so you won't notice significant lip-sync issues if you're streaming video.

The Sony H9 have excellent non-Bluetooth connectivity. The included USB dongle has lower latency than the Sony INZONE H7 Wireless, so your audio and visuals stay in sync while gaming.

These headphones come with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. However, you can't use it to pass audio. The headphones don't have an AUX port like the Sony PULSE Elite Wireless, so you can't use them with an audio cable.

The Sony H9 are fully compatible with PCs via Bluetooth. You can also use the USB dongle with full audio and mic compatibility.

The Sony H9 have full audio and mic compatibility with PlayStation consoles when using their USB dongle.

The Sony H9 have a wireless USB receiver. It has a toggle that allows you to switch between PC and PS5 mode. However, it doesn't offer any inputs.