Sony WH-XB910N Wireless Headphones Review

The Sony WH-XB910N have a very similar look to the Sony WH-XB900N. They have a fairly minimalist design, but they look a bit cheaper and more plasticky than the Sony WH-1000XM4 Wireless. They come in two color variants: 'Black' and 'Blue'.

The Sony WH-XB910N have a very comfortable fit. They feel lightweight and don't clamp too tightly on your head. The ear cups have a good range of motion to accommodate larger heads. Their padding on the ear cups and headband also feels fairly nice on the skin. However, if you have glasses, it may be harder to get a more comfortable fit.

The Sony WH-XB910N have good controls. They have a mix of physical and touch-sensitive controls, which are easy to use. The physical buttons on the left ear cup are clicky, while the touch-sensitive surface on the right ear cup is responsive. There are voice prompts for switching between 'Ambient' mode and ANC, as well as beeps when registering touch commands and using the buttons. The headphones will also tell you which device you're connected to. Unfortunately, the location of the power button makes it easy to accidentally touch it when you're putting on or taking off the headphones.

On the left ear cup:

• Power button:
• Single press: Tells you the battery percentage.
• Press and hold for two seconds: Turns the headphones on and off. Also enters Bluetooth pairing mode when turned on.
• ANC/Ambient button: Cycles between ANC on and 'Ambient' mode, which allows you to better hear your surroundings without turning off your audio.

On the right ear cup:

• Swipe up: Raises the volume.
• Swipe down: Lowers the volume.
• Swipe forward: Skips to the next track.
• Swipe backward: Skips to the previous track.
• Double-tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and declines calls.
• Place hand on right ear cup: Enters 'Ambient' mode.

The Sony XB910N have mediocre portability, which is to be expected for over-ear headphones. They're bulky, although their cups can swivel to lay flat and can fold to save some space. That said, they also come with a carrying case to help store them in your bag when you're on the go.

The Sony WH-XB910N come with a great case. It's mostly made of cloth material, which feels sturdy. The zipper fully closes, which helps secure the headphones from the elements.

The Sony WH-XB910N's build quality is good. They're mostly made of solid plastic with faux leather padding. Their hinges are also different from the Sony WH-XB900N Wireless. However, their plasticky design looks and feels a bit cheap. The yokes also feel a bit weak and could be prone to damage over time.

The Sony WH-XB910N have a decently stable fit. They're not designed for sports use and can fall off your head with more intense head movements. However, they shouldn't move around if you're listening to audio at your desk.

• Sony WH-XB910N headphones
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• 1/8" TRS audio cable
• Carrying case
• Manuals

The Sony WH-XB910N have an extremely bass-heavy sound profile. They deliver intense thump, rumble, and boom to mixes. At the same time, vocals and lead instruments are very harsh, while sibilants like cymbals are piercing. However, this sound may be very overwhelming for most users. If you wear glasses or have thick hair, you may also lose a lot of bass as these features can break the ear cup's seal on your head. With low-bass audio, we could feel this frequency rumble our glasses, and it felt like the drivers were touching our ears. On the upside, their app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound to your tastes.

The Sony XB910N have satisfactory frequency response consistency. They're prone to inconsistencies in bass and treble delivery. If you have thick hair or glasses, you may especially notice a drop in bass. Their treble delivery is also somewhat sensitive to the headphones' fit and positioning on your head.

The Sony WH-XB910N have bad bass accuracy. It's very overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, and boom. Some users may find this sounds very overwhelming.

Note: Their bass delivery can vary depending on fit, seal, and positioning. This response represents the average, and your experience may vary.

These headphones have mediocre mid accuracy. There's overemphasis coming from the bass into the low-mids, which can make vocals and lead instruments muddy and cluttered. While the mid-mid is fairly flat, the high-mid is very overemphasized, so the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments are overly honky and harsh.

The Sony WH-XB910N's treble accuracy is passable. Our unit's left and right drivers are slightly mismatched in the low-treble range. However, overall, the response in this range is still a bit underemphasized, which slightly dulls vocals and lead instruments. The mid-treble is very overemphasized, and sibilants like cymbals are very harsh.

Note: Treble delivery can vary depending on fit and positioning. This response represents the average, and your experience may vary.

The Sony WH-XB910N's peaks and dips performance is sub-par. A large peak across the bass range adds extra thump, rumble, and boom to mixes, while a deep dip between the low to mid-mid thins out vocals and lead instruments while pushing them to the back of your mix. Another peak in the high-mid makes vocals and lead instruments very harsh, while a dip in the low-treble hurts their comprehensibility. A steep peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like S and T sounds piercing.

The Sony WH0XB910N Wireless' imaging performance is great. There's a bump in the group delay's bass range, which indicates a slightly loose bass. However, the treble range falls under the audibility threshold, ensuring transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in amplitude and frequency response, ensuring a stable stereo image. Although the phase response also falls within good limits, there are a couple of peaks in the treble range that are present with regular content, which could affect the accurate placement of objects in the stereo image. However, our results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Sony WH-XM910N's passive soundstage is poor. The soundstage seems wide but unnatural and as if coming from inside your head. Since they have a closed-back design, their soundstage is perceived as closed-off and less spacious than open-back headphones.

Unlike the Sony WH-XB900N Wireless, these headphones don't support Virtualphones Technology (VPT). That said, you can set up Sony's 360 Reality Audio via their companion app by analyzing your head and ears. However, this feature is only available on compatible apps like TIDAL and Nugs.net.

The Sony WH-XB910N have an okay weight harmonic distortion performance. There are a few peaks at 90 dB in the mid and treble range, so your audio may not sound clear and pure. However, this can be hard to hear with real-life content.

These are the settings used to test the Sony WH-XB910N. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

The noise isolation performance is good. With the ANC on, they can block out some of the low rumbles of bus and plane engines and they even do a better job in this regard than the Sony WH-CH720N Wireless, although it still may not be enough for everyday commutes. They do a better job of reducing ambient chatter, though. However, we expected the ANC to perform better than the headphones' passive abilities in the treble range. They only block out a satisfactory amount of sound from this range, like the high-pitched hum of an AC unit.

Note: The Sony WH-XB910N also have a 'Wind Noise Reduction feature, which is designed to help reduce wind noise. It works quite well and could be helpful if you're walking outside on a windy day. However, it could reduce the strength of the ANC.

The Sony WH-XB910N's leakage performance is very good. Leakage is mostly in the mid-range and sounds fuller than that of in-ears or earbuds. However, the overall amount of leakage falls below the noise floor of an average office. As a result, you can listen to your audio at high volumes in a moderately noisy environment without worrying about disturbing others around you.

The Sony WH-XB910N's integrated mic offers an alright overall recording quality. Your voice sounds clear and bright, although there's a bit of distortion present as well.

The mic's noise handling performance is alright. Your voice can be drowned out by moderate ambient noise around you. As a result, whoever's on the other end of the line may not be able to hear you clearly if you're taking a call from a busy street.

The Sony WH-XB910N's battery performance is excellent. They're advertised to last 30 hours continuously, and we measured over 39 hours. However, battery life can vary depending on usage, and your real-life experience may vary. That said, they're equipped with an adjustable auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when you're not using them. You can also use them passively via their 1/8" TRS cable.

The Sony | Headphones Connect app is great. You can activate ANC on or off and adjust the 'Ambient Noise' level as well as remap these controls onto the headphones. The app offers 'Adaptive Sound Controls' as well. This feature lets the headphones detect your actions and automatically switch between ANC on or an ambient noise level. There are the following modes: 'Staying', 'Walking', 'Running', and 'Transport'. You can also turn on 'Wind Noise' if you want to reduce this kind of sound while listening to audio outdoors.

If you want to customize their sound to your liking, the app offers a graphic EQ and presets. You can also adjust the auto-off feature, control audio playback plus volume, turn off touch controls, and see the devices you're connected to. You can adjust notification and voice guides as well as set up 360 Reality Audio.

The Sony WH-XB910N's Bluetooth connectivity is great. You can pair them with up to two devices at a time, but unlike the Sony WH-XB900 Wireless, they don't support NFC pairing. While their latency on PCs is high, they have lower latency on iOS and Android, making them more suitable for streaming video on these devices. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary.

These headphones come with a 1/8" TRS to 1/8" TRS cable. They also come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging up the headphones.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full compatibility. However, if you want to use them wired, they only support audio via analog.

These headphones are compatible with PS4 and PS5 headphones when connected to the console's controller via analog. However, you can only receive audio.

The Sony WH-XB910N only support audio when connected via analog to your Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S console's controller.