Sony The COLLEXION - Are they just the XM6 with a new skin?
Sony has just taken their best ANC headphones to date, the XM6 and have gone super sayan on them. And have transformed them into their final form, the Sony WH-1000X The Collexion codenamed WH-1000XX. The X in the name represents the 10-year celebration and evolution of this line of headphones. So if you’re a Sony fan or you already know how good the XM6 is, as soon as the new Collexions go on sale, you might be like ( do you accept cash? ) But my guess is that there will be some of you watching this, and looking at the £550 price tag and thinking…
- What's the more than £200 price gap all about between these and the XM6?
- What do you actually get for the money
- & How different are they really, from the XM6? Is it just a new skin?
Well, I can tell you right now, there’s a number of unseen upgrades, including a couple of world firsts & some very visible style improvements… But there’s one addition which I think could be the biggest game changer for you…depending on how you use your headphones, you’ll see. Now listen here, real quick… Don't worry, I’m going to answer all those questions for you & show you all the upgrades. And to do this review justice and in an attempt to make my content not like the others, I’ve put in over 70 hours of playtime with the Collexion. So the drivers are properly burnt-in, loosened up, firing on all cylinders and sounding their best. And this also means I can also give you a good idea of the real world idea of the battery life. I’ll also be doing a little side-by-side ANC test versus the XM6. It'll be interesting to see if you can hear any differences there. So stick around. It's going to be interesting.
Design
Let’s start with the design changes and upgrades. So, something that’s held Sony back with the XM6 is budget constraints. They had to keep the design within budget to meet the price point….But that was not the case here with the WH-1000XX. Which means Sony took a more focused approach to style and comfort. But, not just that, there are also a lot of improvements across the board and a few exclusives & world firsts, which we will get into.
New Materials
So some of the extra money goes towards the much more luxurious design, starting with more premium materials used on the earcup housing, pads and headband. I’m told that 2 years of R&D invested went into the development of these materials. So it’s entirely wrapped in this unique faux leather, which means no animals were killed in the making… so that’s good. The material could easily be mistaken for real leather; it feels nicer to the touch, which comes into play when using the gesture controls on the right earcups. With taps allowing you to play, pause & pick up calls, and swipes to skip tracks and lower and raise volume, and yes, it still has the very useful palm over the earcup to activate the talk-through mode… perfect for when you need to order another Gin and tonic on a plane. In comparison to the padding material on the XM6, which is a smoother material, The Collexion pads use this new material, and they’re quite a bit more plush and softer on the skin. ( Pads are replaceable via customer service. )
The battery is also replaceable via the service centre. And a huge one up for the Collexion over the XM6 is that the materials are much more resistant to oils, which means they don't show any fingerprints. It’s kind of a big deal, if you’re familiar with black XM6 headphones… but maybe not so much for the new Sandstone colour they just released. Anyway… The cup sizes are slightly larger, the headband is slightly wider & the clamping force applies less side pressure. These are all upgrades to the comfort, also the padding up top is fuller and kind of fits the shape of your head and creates a wider surface area to better distribute the weight. I can tell you right now, I thought the XM6 were some of the most comfy headphones I own…but these are noticeably more comfortable. Which is even more impressive because they are slightly heavier than the XM6, but there’s a good explanation for why.
New Button
Sony has also reinforced the USB-C port and headphone jack with metal, and that audio jack has some premium Sony Walkman tech behind it. That includes a Low-phase-noise crystal oscillator and advanced Gold solder. Put simply, Sony has optimised the components and circuitry to reduce the signal-to-noise ratio. Which is great news if you’re going to use the analogue cable a lot, and especially if you’re an audio purist who likes to use a separate HiRes DAC. They're also using metal for the power button, and noise cancelling button and the all-new listening mode button, which doesn’t exist on the XM6. And it’s this that could be the game changer, I mentioned, as it unlocks some unique features. I’ll explain that properly when we get to the app. Going back to the design, Sony has also managed to slim down the depth of the ear cups by 5.3mm without compromising the sound quality or comfort. They did this by splitting the battery to free up space. With the Collexion delivering up to 24 hours of battery life with ANC on, the XM6 are listed as up to 30 hours. Interestingly, I was actually able to get more than that, in fact, closer to 30 hours. And with noise cancelling off, you can get significantly more and if you’re not using Bluetooth and have ANC off, yes, even more. Yes, it’s slightly less than the XM5’s battery life, but 30hours in reality is more than enough for most people.
New Sound
And what might impress you the most is that Sony has made the comfort and style improvements, and at the same time has upgraded the sound. They’ve done this by fitting the Collexion headphones with all-new Bespoke 30mm Sony drivers. This is one of the two most significant upgrades to audio. Compared to the XM6 drivers that already sound amazing, the Collexion drivers have a softer edge, which increases flexibility, resulting in more bass when you need it. The centre of the driver is now firmer. They’re using a unidirectional carbon composite material on the dome, which is said to result in better responsiveness in the higher frequencies. I’ll let you guys know my honest thoughts on the sound quality differences between these and the XM6 after the Mic & ANC test vs XM6. The second audio upgrade is unseen to the naked eye, but it’s the world's first, I mentioned, as these over-ear headphones are Sony’s first to use their new integrated V3 processor. This gives Collexion a better ability to process audio onboard the headphones without having to be connected to the app. All shall be revealed once we get to the new app features. Trust me, this is all good stuff, but the main difference to keep in mind here is that there are more options available. Another upgrade delivered by the new V3 processor is the introduction of DSEE Ultimate. It’s the first time Sony has used it on their ANC headphones. DSEE Ultimate is Sony’s latest and greatest AI audio upscaling algorithm, which comes into play when listening to lower-res compressed audio or older music recordings, or old movies. Put very simply, it’s designed to improve the audio and upscale it by filling in the missing gaps, and DSEE is also not app-dependent; it all happens inside the headphones.
New Metal
And I’m sure you notice the most significant visible change. The upgraded and quite interesting metal hanger and stronger metal hinges. The headband has a matte sandblasted texture to it, which is true, but it’s the manufacturing of the hangers that’s most interesting. Each one is hand-polished and individually finished by skilled craftspeople. Which sounds crazy, I’d love to know how long that process takes. Because they must have to shine the metal to a high gloss finish, then mask the Sony logo and then sandblast around it without marking up the hinge and sides of the hinge. It’s really quite impressive how they’ve done this. And they think that this is a finish that machines cannot achieve. Making this a good job to have when AI finally takes over the world. And like the XM6, the hinges do allow the earcups to swivel inwards and outwards, or you could have them halfway like I do. It’s great for hiding the double chin.
But one thing that’s different is that they don’t collapse down to fit into the case, and that's the reason why the case itself is different. There are a couple of ways you can look at this redesign. You could say it’s like a little handbag, but I prefer to describe it as a giant knuckle duster. Either way, it's a hard shell case with a kind of denim texture. The handle makes it great for grabbing quickly or pulling it out of a backpack; it’s nice and slim, so it can slot into an aeroplane seat pocket. It’s got that nice magnetic buckle just like the XM6. Inside is a little cutout for your cables…It’s good, it's a good case. And just before we get into the mic and ANC tests. You should probably know that there are a total of 12 mics onboard that use multi-sensing technology. 4 Inside and 8 outside. And 6 of the beam-forming mics can be used for voice call pickup & of course, there are AI algorithms in place to isolate your voice and remove background noise & wind. So let’s test them out, and you let me know what you think.
Watch the video fro Mic Quality Test & the ANC test versus the XM6
App Features
Ok, now this is where the fun begins. The App, so on the face of things, the options are very similar to XM6. It shows the battery levels and codec being used. If you're on Android, it'll show LDAC for HiRes; you may need to switch that on in the BT settings manually, depending on your phone. You'll also see DSEE ultimate here when it's in use. However, it’s here in the listening modes section where you’ll find some new and exclusive features. This brings me nicely back to the new listening mode button. This button activates 360 upmix for music, movies, and games. Only the 360 Movie upmix was available on the XM6. Essentially, the 360 upmix creates an effect that makes audio sound like it’s being played live in the room in front of you, and the movie mode gives you that feeling of actually sitting in a movie, and gaming upmix boosts frequencies so you get a better sense of direction when it comes to audio cues and makes everything sound more immersive. And it really works.
If you are the type of person who likes live music performances or watches a lot of movies on a plane, you’ll love this. And it’s important you can go to all settings, controls and ‘listening mode’ settings to pick and choose the ones you want mapped to the new button. Also, you should know adaptive ANC is available here, so the level of noise cancelling can adjust on the fly. So when things are extremely loud, it can adjust for that and turn down the ANC when it’s not needed so much. It’s effortless, as all good tech should be. Multipoint pairing is also available when you're not using LDAC, and you can customise wear detect and other power saving settings. There’s also the adaptive sound control feature that, if enabled, can learn about the normal noise levels in places you often visit and intelligently adjust for those locations. And there are lots of customisation options available when it comes to remapping the inputs, and quick access shortcuts can be mapped to double and triple pushes of the ANC button.
Now, something really important to know is that when you see that the EQ is turned off. That right there is the EQ that’s been tuned by Sony Koji Takamura, an acoustic engineer, in collaboration with Grammy award-winning sound engineers. I do wish they’d give this a more fitting name as opposed to ‘OFF’, where there are lots more options here, and of course, there is a manual EQ 10 Band to play with.
Sound Quality Vs XM6 Opinions
Ok, I literally A/B tested the XM6 with the Collexion. Here's my own opinion on the noticeable differences. First, I tried it out with a true Hi-Res Daft Punk FLAC track, not from streaming. Instantly, vocals sound cleaner and clearer, and there's no doubt there's more power in the bass. These are likely due to the new drivers that have a wider frequency response range. I then tested some very bass-heavy tracks, and there's no doubt the bass levels are deeper and more well-rounded, which is even more impressive when considering the XM6 bass output is one of the best out there. The best way to explain it is that you can feel the difference in bass straight away.
I then tried them both with an opera track, and while the soundstage and vocals are fantastic on both. You can definitely hear a much better separation between the vocalists and instruments on the Collexion, and honestly, the new Music 360 up-mix feature works amazingly well here. I genuinely think it can improve. the listening experience for live, less synthesised performances. It's surprisingly good. It seems to add even more separation between the orchestra and singers and significantly opens up the soundstage. I tried a few tracks without vocals and really focused on listening to the different instruments. There's a marked improvement in regards to definition, detail and bass. For live performances, I couldn't notice much clearer instrumental sounds, and breaths. And yeah, I had to test out a classic old school nineties dance track from the Prodigy. Which, when it drops, can get quite noisy. And again, the better range and separation don't blend all the sounds together as much.
So Sony says these are their best ANC Sony headphones to date. And I agree. Are worth the extra two hundred plus pounds. Well, here's what I think. If you are the type of person who buys a pair of headphones and keeps them for 3 or more years, when you break it down, they'll cost you just 20p per day. In exchange, you get a more classy-looking, more comfortable-fitting pair of headphones. With equally capable and arguably market-leading noise-cancelling. Noticeably better sound in regards to soundstage, clarity and bass. And you get the new sound modes, which are much better than I thought they'd be. DSEE Ultimate is onboard the headphones that work even when you're not listening on your phone. And of course, the Sony world’s first knuckle duster case, and just so you know, they’re available in platinum black and platinum white. But you know I would have wanted to see a midnight blue
