Sony WH-CH720N Full Review - An Affordable Version of the 1000XM5

/

Check this out. It's the Sony WH-CH720N. And with a codename, of course, It's a Sony, the one and only! & Sony would like to make you believe that these are the best value for money, over-ear mid-range noise-cancelling cans to date. And they have a little something that makes these headphones like no other. All shall be revealed in good time.

So it's safe to say sony knows what it takes to make amazing wireless headphones. Here's the fundamental formula, good sound, good design, particularly when it comes to comfort, good battery, good features & the bonus aspect, good noise cancelling abilities.

And to deliver all of this at around the £130 price point at launch is no easy task. But I do believe Sony has delivered on all fronts when it comes to the Sony WH-CH720N.

Here are what Sony has upgraded compared to the 710N, which launched in 2020. The 720N has the built-in Sony V1 chip, the same one used in the flagship XM5s. This proprietary chip brings improved battery performance, ANC capabilities & improved voice pickup for call clarity. And I will be testing all of these for you in this video. But before we do...

DESIGN

Let me give you a guided tour of the design. The Sony WHC720N's are protected by a smooth urethane shell. The previous model had a gritty texture finish. There are three colours available black, white and blue. And sony has added a few nice touches. For example, the metal headband has a colour-matching strip protecting the metal. And the extension of this is sturdy.

There are markings on the inside to indicate Left and right earcups, but there's also a raised braille dot on the left cup if you don't want to use your eyes. The external noise-cancelling mics have a nice coded metal mesh to protect them, which looks nice.

The buttons are of tactile and clicky variety. They consist of volume up, down, and play pause. And a long push on the play pause can wake your Ai on whatever device you use. Siri, Google Assistant & even Bixby are supported. You can control the Sony CH720N's, which is just your voice & we might as well make the most of it while we are still in control.

There's also the cancelling noise button that toggles noise and ambient awareness, allowing exterior sound to pass through. So that you don't get hit by a bus the next time you cross the road. And I have a question for you...why did the chicken cross the road?

On the other, we have our Analogue input which is nice to see and a USB C port, and of course, the power button, if tapped, will trigger the headphones to tell you how much power is left.

Now let's talk comfort here. The 720Ns are lightweight at just 192 Grams. We sometimes described the padding as vegan leather, meaning no cows were killed in making these headphones. The padding is excellent on the headband and the earcups. And sony has enlarged the earcups slightly compared to the 710s, so even if you have massive ears like me, you'll be alright.

And when I got the WH-720Ns, they had 60% battery in them, so to film the quick charge test that I'm about to show you, I used these for hours and hours to drain them down to zero. And tell from experience these are very comfortable. The 30mm drivers don't touch my ears. I didn't notice any discomfort from pinching at the top of my head, and my ears didn't get uncomfortably hot, even during pro-longed adobe premiere editing sessions.

Now let's talk power. I'm sure you and jean Picard of the starship enterprise would approve of the 50-hour battery life on the 720N's (clip), with noise cancelling off, with ANC on its 35hrs. This means that with just 10% battery in the headphones, you got around 3.5hrs playback. And sony says a quick 3min charge can get you 1hr playback. And I''m told it takes around 3.5hrs to go from zero to 100% battery.

So let's test the quick charge theory. The headphones are on zero per cent right now. I'm going to charge them for 3mins, and let's see what the audio queue battery life indicator has to say.

ANC & Microphones

Ok, to give you guys an idea of the level of noise cancelling that these 720n provide. In the video I placed a mic inside the earcup & I'm playing loud road noise out of the speakers on my desk. And one of the excellent features of the Sony headphones app is that you can toggle an ambient mode that enhances exterior voices. Watch the full review for the Microphone test. And if you are wondering how many mics are onboard. This is in fact 5 in total. two interior ANC mics, two exterior ANC and one voice pick up mic on the left ear cup.

So as mentioned in the intro The 720Ns have Sony's flagship V1 chip which enhances voice pickup even in noisy and windy environments. What I didn't mention is the upgraded beamforming mics. Let's test out this upgraded tech.

The design, comfort, and battery life aspects are all good. Now lets talk out the features & sound quality because thanks to the fact the WH-C720N's now support the Sony's headphones app. Sound quality and the features kind of go hand in hand. And it's that really makes these mid-range anc headphones like no other.

The app can analyse your ear shape and use this data to tailor the sound signature for you personally. This comes into play when listening to 360-reality audio tracks.

Something else new is the DSEE feature which stands for digital sound enhancement engine. To explain it simply, it takes compressed MP3 audio singles and upscales them in an attempt to reproduce higher-fidelity audio.

And check this out on the systems tab within the app. You'll see multipoint pairing is available. You can opt to use Alexa as opposed to your device's native Ai. And if you're scared of Ai you can turn it off. And you can add the off functionality to the ANC button. You'll need to do this if you want that 50Hr battery (50), so you can add this if you want to make it so.

It's worth mentioning there is no wear detect sensors here. So there is an auto power down feature if the 720N's are idle for too long. And there is a pretty activity tab that will track your usage of the headphones, and you can unlock badges, which you can collect like trophies. But more importantly, is the adaptive sound feature. If you the app permission to, it can learn what can audio and noise cancelling is ideal for locations that you often visit. And you can see some examples of this here.

And now, let's talk about the metaphorical keystone of what holds a set of headphones together. The sound quality. As I mentioned, I ran these down to zero, which took around thirty hours to do, and audiophiles will tell you you need to run speakers & drivers in for forty hours before the peak. This is known as the burn-in process it loosens the diaphragm...I can assure you I've taken the time & properly burnt these in...and the reason I've done this is that I realise that there's a good chance some of the other reviewers who cover these headphones probably won't do this... and I want to formulate my opinion based on their optimal performance.

And I can tell you the before and after is very noticeable.

So listen here real quick. This is my opinion. Out of the box, the flat EQ profile is good in the high-frequency range, and the bass output is quite substantial. I did find the mid-range slightly muddy...but after the burn-in process, 40hrs of playing the lofi girls livestream on YT. The mid improves significantly...and I'm not exaggerating. It's night and day.

Now, one of the things I love, and you'll love about the EQ options. From my tests and experimenting with the different audio genres and preset EQ's the best for more modern types of music is definitely the excited EQ. It makes the bass a bit more bouncy but keeps the clarity nice and crisp.

For more classic styles of music, that involve traditional instruments and poweful vocals. The bright EQ offers a more balance sound signature, thats not going to rattle head when it comes bass. These are my two go too's...

but if you really want to be moved when listening to music you can tailor the sound perfectly you can do that to. And here are my two custom EQ's that I spent hours fine tuning. This one is for hip hop, edm and pop & this one is for Indi and rock. It also sounds great with vocal heavy tracks too.

Sony's history of innovative tach is an interesting story. Here are 10 Sony gadgets that will shock you! In this video, you'll also learn about Sony's tech origins, and you might discover some incredibly innovative or weird tech products that you didn't know existed...Depending on how you look at it. So look, hear, see ;) and let know what you thought of this video.