Sony ULT WEAR Wireless Headphones Review

While the Sony ULT WEAR are the first of the ULT product line, their design bears some resemblance to other Sony wireless over-ears, like the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless and the Sony WH-CH720N Wireless. They feature a sleek, recycled plastic design with yokes integrated into the ear cups. This integrated design, coupled with a monochromatic color scheme that's punctuated only by a silver Sony logo on the headband, makes for a unified aesthetic. They come in three color variants: 'Off White,' 'Forest Gray,' and 'Black.'

These over-ears are comfortable. They're as lightweight as the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless and feature large plastic ear cups that sit nicely on your ear. While they can clamp your head quite tightly, this is mostly mitigated by plush, soft earpads. However, the earpads are so soft that they can cause some fatigue in parts of your head over time, especially if you have a larger head.

These headphones have a large array of controls that are spread across a touchpad on the right earpad and three physical buttons. For users that have a visual impairment, there's even an indent carved into the left ear cup so you can tell right from left. The touch surface is large and responsive, making it easy to register commands, but the physical buttons are almost too responsive and located in a place where they can easily be accidentally pressed. There are audio prompts to acknowledge various functions, like powering on/off, pairing status, battery level, ANC mode, ULT mode, and min/max volume. It's worth noting, however, that the user guide that comes with these headphones is extremely long and dense, so finding out how to perform simple commands can be a challenge.

On the left ear cup:

Power button:

• Press once: Checks battery level.
• Press-and-hold: Turns headphones on or off. If you continue to hold this button past turning the headphones on, you'll enter Bluetooth pairing mode.

ULT button:

• One press: Cycles between ULT 1, ULT 2, and ULT OFF (ULT 1 for a deep bass sound and ULT 2 for an even bassier sound).

ANC/Ambient Sound button:

• One press: Cycles between active noise cancellation mode and ambient sound mode (which uses the mic to filter in some external audio).

On the touchpad on the right ear cup:

• Double tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends a call.
• Swipe forward: Skips to the next track.
• Swipe forward and hold: Fast forwards through your track.
• Swipe backwards: Skips to the previous track.
• Swipe backwards and hold: Backtracks through your track.
• Swipe up: Turns the volume up incrementally.
• Swipe up and hold: Turns the volume up continuously until you release.
• Swipe down and hold: Turns the volume down continuously until you release.
• Cover the ear cup with your palm: Enters quick attention mode, which turns down all audio and increases the volume of ambient sound.
• Cover the touchpad with one finger: Activates voice assistant for duration of the hold.

As with other over-ear headphones, these headphones aren't very portable. While they can swivel to fold flat, they'll still take up quite a bit of room in a bag. Thankfully, they come with a great carrying case that can help you bring them with you on the go.

They come with a great circular carrying case that's made of a soft tweed-like material that's reinforced to better protect the headphones. There are two compartments to store cables and other accessories. You can see a picture of the interior here.

The Sony ULT WEAR Wireless have a good, sturdy build quality. They're made of high-quality recycled plastic with solid hinges and yokes. The ear cups are large and comfortable, but their stiff material means that users with glasses or thick hair might struggle to achieve a solid seal. The ear cups are covered in a comfortable, spongey material, which is also used on the headband. It's possible to see how this material might lose some of its springiness over time and become less comfortable. As with most other wireless over-ears, these headphones don't feature any kind of IP rating for protection against dust or water damage. While you can purchase replacement earpads online, not all the parts are easily replaceable, as with the Fairphone Fairbuds XL Wireless.

These headphones are more stable than the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless. They'll stay in place as you move around in your daily life, including jogs and light exercise. However, they're liable to tilt and lose their seal if you need to break into a sprint to catch your bus.

• Sony ULT WEAR headphones
• 1/8" TRS cable (125 cm / 49.2 inches)
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable (21 cm / 8.3 inches)
• Manuals, warranty, and 360 audio subscription
• Carrying case

The Sony ULT WEAR have a sound profile that's defined by their powerful bass response. We tested them with the ULT mode off, and they're positioned somewhere between the bass-forward sound signature of the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless and the extremely low-end focused Sony WH-XB910N Wireless. There's plenty of thump and rumble on tap that can be further boosted via the two stages of extra bass available via the ULT button. The mid-range is pleasant and well-tuned, adding plenty of detail and clarity to vocals and lead instruments. However, the treble range is noticeably inconsistent. The lower part of this range is recessed, while the high-end is overemphasized. As a result, sibilants can sound dull or piercing depending on their pitch. On the upside, you can always adjust the sound profile via the graphic EQ and presets.

Interestingly, using these headphones with a wired connection tames the bass frequencies somewhat, resulting in a different sound profile that some users will prefer. There are also notable changes to the sound profile when the ANC is enabled and when the microphone is activated.

These headphones have very good frequency response consistency. If you can achieve a solid fit, you'll experience consistent audio delivery across different listening sessions. However, they form somewhat of a tight seal on your head, so if you wear glasses, it's possible that this will affect the consistency of bass delivery.

The Sony ULT WEAR Wireless have alright bass accuracy. Their bass response is boosted across the entire range, so basslines and kicks are emphasized in your mix. On songs like 'I Used to Love Him' (feat. Mary J. Blige), the bassline and lower frequencies of the breakbeat sound visceral but lean towards being boomy, which detracts from individual note definition.

The mid-response is outstanding. The response is well-balanced across the entire range, resulting in the detailed and balanced reproduction of vocals and instruments. There's a very slight bit of overemphasis in the low mids, which can add some warmth to snares and bass overtones. There's also a slight dip in the high-mid that slightly thins out the upper harmonics of vocals.

The treble accuracy is disappointing. The response is inconsistent across the entire range. The low treble is very veiled, resulting in a loss of definition in the upper harmonics of vocals. This extends to the lower part of the mid-mid, after which the response peaks. As a result, lower-pitched sibilants, like S and T sounds, can sound dull and lispy, but higher-pitched sounds, like cymbals, can be bright and piercing.

The Sony ULT WEAR have an alright peaks/dips performance, meaning they mostly follow their own sound profile. There's a sizeable peak in the high bass that adds warmth and punchiness to kicks and basslines and is followed by a dip in the low mid that can remove some overtones from bass guitars and other lower-pitched instruments. A slight peak brings the upper harmonics of vocals into focus. However, this is followed by a huge dip in the low-treble that can make sibilants sound dull and lispy. Finally, there's a very large peak in the mid-treble that can add shrillness and excessive brilliance to higher-pitched sibilants, like cymbals.

The higher-end Sony headphones that we've tested have performed well when it comes to imaging, which is representative of the brand's commitment to quality control and ergonomics, and these headphones are no exception. Their L/R drivers are well-matched when it comes to group delay. They're also well-matched regarding phase, amplitude, and frequency response, which helps accurately localize objects within the stereo field. While there's a slight mismatch in the amplitude at the very top of the frequency range, it's within a band that we lose sensitivity to with age, so it's not noticeable in real-life content.

The passive soundstage performance is poor. These headphones have a closed-back design that struggles to facilitate audio interaction with your outer ear. As a result, they create a soundstage that sounds small and closed off, lacking the immersive quality of open-back headphones.

These headphones are compatible with Sony's 360 Reality Audio feature, which can help create a more immersive, 3D listening experience using Digital Signal Processing (DSP). It can even analyze your ear to adjust audio to suit your unique ear shape. However, you'll need to be subscribed to a compatible app, like TIDAL or Nugs.net, to take advantage of this.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. There's a slight peak in the low treble at regular listening volumes, but it's difficult to hear unless you're an astute audiophile. Otherwise, other frequencies fall within good limits, so audio reproduction is clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test the Sony ULT WEAR Wireless. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

The Sony ULT WEAR have an amazing full-range noise isolation performance. While they're not quite as effective in this regard as the flagship Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless, they do a great job of blocking out external noise across the entire frequency range. Their ANC system offers a similar level of attenuation against bass-range noise to the XM5, which is great for blocking the sounds of passing bus engines. While they're not quite as adept at blocking out higher frequency sounds, like car horns and street noise, they'll still insulate you from these noises and allow you to focus on your tunes. There's even an Adaptive Sound Control function that recognizes common environments that you visit and adjusts the ANC levels to match your environment.

These over-ears do a remarkable job of blocking out kinds of external noise encountered in common day-to-day scenarios. They can effectively attenuate the sound of rumbling plane engines, the scrape of chairs, and the chatter of co-workers in an office. They're also great at reducing the noise of a busy street.

This test allows you to hear how much voice is blocked out by the ANC system. Depending on your needs, you may want to block out all sounds or block out most sounds aside from voices.

If you want to use the voice passthrough mode on these headphones to hear your conversation even more clearly, we found a noticeable increase in the volume of voices. You can hear recordings of different voice types while using this feature below:

• Male Voice 1

• Male Voice 2

• Female Voice 1

• Female Voice 2

Wind noise is hard for the ANC system to counteract as it directly interferes with the microphones, often producing a high-pitched squeal. While the headphones don't have a dedicated wind noise feature, they do have a wind noise reduction structure built into the mic itself that helps reduce some of this unpleasant noise.

The Sony ULT WEAR have an alright leakage performance. Leakage is present across the entire frequency range but is particularly prominent in the mid-range, so leaked audio sounds relatively full-bodied. If you like to crank up your tunes, others situated close to you may hear it, especially in quieter environments.

The Sony ULT WEAR Wireless have a decent mic recording quality. There's a high shelf in the response, which means your voice lacks airiness and can sound a little closed off. That said, the rest of the range is quite balanced and doesn't have the bass roll-off that's present in the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless' integrated mic, for example. As a result, your voice will sound natural and easily understandable to whoever's on the other end.

The integrated mic has an impressive noise-handling performance. It does an excellent job of separating your voice from moderately noisy environments, so you'll be easily understood if you need to take a call in a co-working space, for example. While it still performs well in noisier environments, like a train station, some louder background noises will find their way into the microphone's signal.

The Sony ULT WEAR Wireless has an excellent battery life performance. The manufacturer advertises 40 hours of continuous battery life with the ANC enabled, which can be stretched to 50 hours if it's disabled. However, we measured slightly more than this at 44 hours with the ANC enabled. There's even an auto-off timer that can help you preserve battery life by powering down the headphones after a period of inactivity. The manufacturer advertises a quick charge feature that gives you 90 minutes of battery from a three-minute charge. However, battery life tends to vary on use so your experience will differ.

These headphones use the Sony | Headphones Connect app, which will be familiar if you've used other wireless Sony over-ears. It's a great app with a huge array of features and parameters to adjust, which you can see in action here. The app gives you control over everything from the sound (via graphic EQ and presets) to ANC and Adaptive Sound Control (which adapts the ANC based on your location and activity). You can also re-map certain physical controls, though the possibilities here are limited. For example, it's possible to create a hotkey to turn on Spotify by pressing the ANC/AMB button twice, but you won't be able to re-assign this as a single-press command.

These headphones come with a 125 cm (49.2 inches) 1/8" TRS analog cable that you can use to support a wired connection. However, you can't use the integrated microphone if you use this connection type. Latency is extremely low when using the headphones passively with this connection type, and it's only slightly higher when they're powered on and connected via the audio cable.

These headphones have excellent Bluetooth connectivity. They support LDAC for high-quality audio streaming and Bluetooth multipoint, so you can connect with up to two devices simultaneously. That said, you can only use LDAC if you have disabled multipoint connectivity in the app, so the two features are mutually exclusive. The headphones support Windows Swift Pair for Windows 10 and Google Fast Pair for seamless integration with Google devices. Latency levels are good when using the default SBC codec but slightly increase when you switch to LDAC, so you'll likely experience lip sync issues when using this codec to watch videos. However, different apps and devices will compensate for latency differently.

The Sony ULT WEAR have full audio and mic compatibility when connected wirelessly to Bluetooth-enabled PCs. You can also use the 1/8" TRS cable, but you'll only receive audio and can't use the mic.

These headphones can only receive audio when you plug their audio cable into your PlayStation controller's AUX port, so you'll need a separate mic to communicate with your teammates.

These headphones can only receive audio when you plug their audio cable into your Xbox controller's AUX port, so you'll need a separate mic to chat with friends.