Sony WH-1000XM4 vs Bose QuietComfort Headphones Wireless

Now I own both of them.

I’ve always been more of a Bose bass sound follower. Always wanted them, it is a smooth, deep bass I enjoy. Mainly all Bose devices have it.

I was planning to buy the prior QC25, then the 35, and then the 45s, but they were totally out of my budget. Finally, when I was ready to make the purchase, the Sony XM4 were just released. I read and watched many reviews comparing QC45 vs XM4. The features of the XM4 won, and I also let the opinions stating that the bass on the XM4 was better than QC45.

The Sony XM4 are good, they are comfortable to wear and sounds good. The features are really great, specially the one that stops playing when you remove them from your ears, something that the Bose QC45 and the new QC, don’t have it. But I was a bit disappointed with the Sony XM4 for two main reasons: The bass, definitely it is not the bass I love to hear with Bose, it is good, and I have to tweak the EQ a lot to get the sound I like in Sony. Also, their microphones suck.

On the other hand, the new Bose QC have the bass sound I was expecting, “the Bose sound”; the microphone appears to be pretty decent, way much better than the Sony XM4, but… (yes, there has to be also a “but”), is that they lack the function of pausing the playing audio when removed from your ears, and that they still use the AUX mini of 2.5 mm, not the standard 3.5 mm. Another thing to consider, and it is significant to me, are the buttons. I prefer to control the volume, play/pause, answer calls, with physical buttons. The touch controls can be annoying, and your fingers must be very precise for tapping and do the proper gestures. It’s much more simple with the control buttons. Each one by itself isn’t perfect. I would make a hybrid of both (bass sound, physical buttons, and mics from Bose, the rest of the features from Sony, including Sony’s case, It is harder, more rigid.