Ultimate Battle! 🔥Sony ULT WEAR vs XB910N vs CH720N vs WH-1000XM5
The main purpose of this review is to compare the ULT WEAR to other headphones from Sony at different price ranges like the XB910N, the CH720N and the flagship WH-1000XM5. The performance comparison includes microphone quality, active noise cancelling, and sound. Other that that, we’re going to discuss how the ULT WEAR compares to each individual product, so you can make a better purchase decision. The ULT WEAR’s bass is phenomenal, but it’s about more than just the bass. It’s also about the nitty gritty stuff like performance, build quality, fit, features and so on.
Microphone Comparison
In comparison to the others, the ULT WEAR's mic pickup in quiet mode is pretty comparable, loud and clear. In noisy environments, the ULT WEAR performs similarly to the XB910N and CH720N in terms of background noise reduction, vocal amplification, and wind noise reduction. In other words, fairly average. Whereas the one with the cleanest mic pickup is the XM5, obviously.
👉 Listen to the microphone comparison samples.
(Comparing microphone quality for phone calls in quiet and noisy conditions using loud cafe and wind noise.)
Active Noise Cancelling Comparison
It is surprisingly that the ULT WEAR’s Active Noise Canceling is very effective. It reduces midrange noises greatly, and if you're playing music at the same time, you can barely hear anyone's speaking. In terms of active noise cancellation power, I would put the XM5s as the quietest, followed by the ULT WEAR, the CH720N, and the XB910N as the weakest.
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Transparency Mode
The ULT WEAR’s transparency mode is pretty awesome. It has very little occlusion, and clarity is almost at the level of the XM5. The XM5’s transparency is still the one to beat, and frankly, it’s awesome even compared to headphones from other brands. It could even rival the AirPods Max. The ULT WEAR definitely has better transparency than the XB910N and CH720N which has the least transparent passthrough, but still pretty good overall.
Comparing the transparency mode between the ULT WEAR and XM5.
Sound Quality
In terms of sound quality, the ULT WEAR is a please bassheads because the typical wireless headphones do not allow the bass to get louder beyond a certain point. Often at 60-70% volume, if the bass gets too loud, it gets limited because otherwise you’ll hear a lot of low frequency clipping.
As far as I can tell, the XM5, the CH720N, and the XB910N have this limit, but it does not apply to the ULT WEAR. So you could be listening at a loud volume, have the bass all the way up, and it just delivers the same gravity and depth.
The ULT WEAR has 3 modes, including ULT off, which gives you a similar so-called ‘flat’ frequency response as the CH720N and the XM5, with less bass boosting than the XB910N. This is the typical Sony sound, which has got good dynamic range, so you don’t miss out on much detail in the soundstage. It is also more mid-range focuses so vocals sound more full and rich in detail. However, it’s also darker in the upper mids and highs, a characteristic not shared by the XM5s which have a crisper, brighter feeling. In addition, the XM5's mids are tuned lower, allowing you to hear more details in the vocals, and the vocal tone differs from the others.
Furthermore, the other 2 modes are ULT1 and ULT2. When comparing the bass modes of ULT1 and ULT2 to the XB910N, which is from the Extra Bass range, I'm actually comparing apples to apples. On the ULT1 setting, ULT WEAR's sub-bass is slightly louder, but otherwise it delivers roughly the same bass response as the 910N, with the rest of its sound characteristic remaining unchanged. However, ULT WEAR sounds better to me, even though the bass is tight and punchy, and you can hear the sustained rumble in low frequency tracks. This means that the bass does not dominate the music, and much of it does not contaminate the clarity and crispness of vocals, as is the case with the XB910N.
On ULT2, it has more bass than the 910N, but it suffers from the same problem of the bass dominating the whole audio experience so mids and highs get so overwhelmed, you can barely tell that it’s there, unless you boost it in the Sony Headphones Connect app to bring back that crispness and sizzle in the vocals. This mode is only for true bassheads, because mere mortals will feel that it sounds too boomy and bloated.
ULT WEAR vs. XB910N
In my opinion, the ULT WEAR is really meant to replace the XB910N. Their specs and features may not be much different. In fact, the ULT WEAR may be considered an incremental upgrade because it has the same 30-hour battery, LDAC support, DSEE and multipoint. However, in terms of sound quality, I prefer ULT WEAR because of its ability to keep tonal integrity is better. Its active noise cancelling is also improved. It's lot quieter, and the ULT WEAR's earcups are more spacious, making it more comfortable to wear for people like myself with large ears. It also supports head tracking with supported content and apps on selected Android 13 devices, such as the latest Xperia phones, whereas the XB910Ns don’t.
ULT WEAR or CH720N
The ULT WEAR’s a better choice to me than the CH720, because even before the bass boosting, they sound very comparable but there’s just more versatility into how you want to the sound to be. The ULT WEAR also supports streaming over LDAC codec, which supports lower compression rates. While it’s not a big factor on iPhones which already sounds great on AAC, on Android devices this could mean preserving more detail in the audio compared to streaming over regular SBC or AAC.
As you see, ULT WEAR comes with a hardcover case, while the 720N does not.
Moreover, the ULT WEAR also has a hardcover case, the 720N does not. I simply prefer having a decent case that protects my investment while travelling. Not to mention, head tracking with supported content on the latest Xperia phones, and some others running Android 13 and newer. In my opinion, the only advantage the CH720N has is the slightly longer battery, and the lower price, which appeals to folks with tighter budgets. But overall I think it’s more worth it getting the ULT WEAR.
ULT WEAR or WH-1000XM5
Bassheads will be drawn to the ULT WEAR and not so much the WH-1000XM5 because of its ability to maintain bass response even at higher volumes. If considering lower price, its active noise canceling is almost comparable to the XM5 which makes this a compelling, cheaper alternative. Also, the ULT WEAR folds into a smaller, more compact unit whereas the XM5s only fold flat. But, if you're not on a tight budget, the flagship XM5s are a far more compelling choice, and not just because its build quality feels cheaper than the XM5, but also in terms of specs, features or performance.
After all, the XM5s are currently the best Sony has to offer, so it’s Hi-Res certified, bringing to the table more dynamic range and higher frequency response when listening to lossless streams, which appeals to audiophiles. The XM5 is also more comfortable to wear than the other Sonys. Its clamping pressure is looser and the cushion is softer, which ensures that long listening is more pleasure than a chore. It also activates pass-through mode automatically so that you don’t need to active transparency manually when having a conversation with somebody. There is also DSEE Extreme, a higher level of DSEE that use AI technology to patch missing bits of data into the Bluetooth transfer that would otherwise be lost during the transmission.
It can also stream over LDAC while multipoint is enabled, resulting in fewer quality compromises, whereas the ULT WEAR only supports multipoint when streaming AAC. The XM5s also support LC3, a next-generation Bluetooth which supports Auracast. If you want to learn more about Auracast, check out my demo here.
Finally, the XM5 offers greater noise cancellation and microphone pickup, especially in challenging environments where noise suppression is required for phone calls. If that’s important to you, the XM5s are going to be more compelling.
So that is how the ULT WEAR compares to the other Sonys. Hope this review helped, and if it did, feel free to leave your comment.
If you’d like to check the latest prices of these headphones, click on the Amazon links below.
Check latest price:
Sony ULT WEAR - https://amzn.to/3xVBObU
Sony WH-1000XM5 - https://amzn.to/4bIqJtZ
Sony WH-CH720N - https://amzn.to/3owiugF
Sony WH-XB910N -https://amzn.to/443FK67
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