Sony WH1000 XM4! Sony WH-1000 XM3!
Sennheiser PXC550ii! And the Sennheiser
Momentum 3!
This is the Sony's versus the Sennys.
DHRME - 
made up acronym, real conversations. Even
though the Sony XM4s came out in 2020
and the other headphones are from previous
years, you might be surprised that newer
isn't always better. We're going to be
comparing these four headphones across
audio quality, build quality, call quality
design and extra features. That's right,
we love our ABCDE's!
and if you like him too smash that like
button or just
caress the like button or alright guys
starting off with b
for build quality and comfort well if we
start with the Sony XM3s
they creak louder than a frog
i think you mean crop frogs don't creak
whatever the XM3s creek louder than
Rohan's funny bones
apart from that the padding seems to
wear out quite easily as well
if the XM2s are any indication of what
that's going to be like
and the ear cups do tend to get hot
around the ears and you will feel them
pressing against your ears
so sony did improve a couple of these
things with the XM4s
like having more room in the ear cups
and overall
less heat generation and no croaking
so far but these are all incrementally
better compared to the XM3s
if you look at the Sennheiser Momentum
3s
they're made of premium metal and
leather and they smell so good when they
get out of the box
i think they're the best smelling anc
headphones that we've ever tested
and the leather ear cups serve another
function except for the beautiful smell
they're also really soft and plush
around your ears so they're very
comfortable
but the all metal design does mean that
they are a bit heavier and the clamp is
a bit tougher around your ear
the Sennheiser PXC 550 IIs take the cake in
this category as they are surprisingly
light despite its mostly plastic build
with metal around the headband the
lightness is felt with the egg-shaped
ear cups hugging your ears
and produce the least heat and pressure
around the ears alright kevin build
quality let's rate them
cool so number one
Momentum 3s for sure metal
genuine leather hard plastic looks great
built like a tank second place i'd give
it to the
Sony XM4s they've really done a great
job now in this edition compared to the
XM3s
so no croaking right third place would
go to the PXCs
very lightly built with mostly plastic a
little bit of metal but
no creek on this one either the last
would really go to the XM3s
loads of creek so not really built that
well
what would you say in terms of comfort i
for comfort i think
these bad boys are super comfortable the
cups
around the ears feel good they are the
lightest of the bunch
in terms of heat management they do
generate some heat around the ears
but not as bad as the rest these are
very comfortable for their weight
and their build but at the end of the
day their weight really shows they press
down on the crown
so i would actually rate the XM4s
ahead of the Momentums
just for the overall weight but the ear
cups feel more comfortable on the
momentums
and the XM3s probably are the
lowest of the bunch again they're not
super uncomfortable and the XM3s also
have a bit less
space in the ear cups at least that's
number one PXC number two Momentum
3s
a close tie with the XM4s and then
increase yeah so chances are
quite strong that you may use ANC
headphones to take
a few phone calls if you want our detail
take on how microphone quality fares in
different environmental conditions
then check out this video which we put
up here and in the description down
below
but here's the condensed version do not
buy the Sennheiser Momentum 3s
or the XM3s if you plan to make phone
calls just
don't the person on the other end of
your phone call
me never call you again if you do both
of these headphones have low volume and
unimpressive voice clarity
and that's just in quiet environments
because once you're in a noisy or
windy environment they do even worse
you'd be safe to use the Sony XM4s if
you're in a quiet environment but don't
go crazier than that
for that you're gonna need the vakman special the Sennheiser PXC 550 IIs
so the PXC550s fair great in all the
environmental conditions
and we'd suggest turning on the call
enhancement feature
and changing the middle anc setting from
adaptive
to anti-wind both these settings can be
found in the app and this will make a
noticeable difference in windy
conditions
not so much if you're in a quiet or a
noisy environment
the original PXCs were marketed towards
business travelers
and looking at how competitors are
prioritizing phone calls
we're glad to see that version two of
the PXCs still do great in this
department
well done Sennheiser it's just a shame
that the Momentum 3s feel like they
were designed and built by a totally
different company
alright vakman let's rate them right
so i think it's pretty clear the pxc
550 IIs
again win over here in this category i
think second place would go to the Sony
XM4s
i think they've really stepped up their
game a little bit
not really but in quiet conditions
they're usable and then the XM3s yeah
you really wouldn't use them but if you
were to use them
third place and the last is the Momentum
3s
alright Rohan  i think the tables
really turn when it comes to design
because the Momentum 3s really
outshine the others
yeah they look i mean look at these and
look at these you're wearing eggs on
your head
it's like a big difference so yeah the
Momentum 3s are for the
good looking ones of us you
look at these compared to the others
it's really got that i don't know kind
of retro
hipster kind of look to it which is
quite nice it really stands out from
typical headphones that you see on the
market yeah i think the Sonys can be
categorized as safe right
very stayed very plain very understated
they don't stand out in any particular
way so i think it kind of
depends what you're looking for if you
want to make kind of a statement and you
want to be out there yeah the Momentums
are great
yeah but if you want to just like fly
under the radar and uh
almost be unseen or unnoticed
then the then the Sony's are perfect
yeah and if you want to be noticed in a
really bad way you can
use the PXC 550 IIs because i disagree i
think they look pretty cool they look
i don't know that whole i know the XM3s
can be
and the xm4s can come in all black but
it's quite i don't know it's
it's it's less bulky it's got a slim
profile
it's all black so so the eggs go with
the ducktale is what you're saying
all right i'm wearing duck eggs yeah i
like duck eggs yeah if you have to rate
them i think we are unanimous that
momentums are number one yeah
for sure and i think yeah they're pretty
much
and the others yeah so now design is not
just about
how they look but also how you can use
them how you interact with these devices
right and the Sony's are all touch
surface right there's all volume
controls on the right hand side
and there's a couple of buttons as
opposed to
yeah as opposed to the Momentum 3s
because they
do not do any touching they're all about
buttons
so that's kind of where the whole retro
feel comes in as well
just off good old clicky buttons which
there's nothing wrong with actually
when you look at the PXC 550 IIs
again quite similar like the Sony's
right yeah touch surface
does come with a button and a toggle for
noise cancelling instead of instead
of a button
and of course the advantage of the
hardware toggle for noise canceling is
it stays on that same setting till you
move it so every time you switch it on
it remembers your last noise cancelling
setting and that's a really
nice extra to have e for extras here we
are
so we look at the extra features that
these headphones come with
i think we can put them into kind of two
themes yeah you've got the
sony's very very feature-rich in terms
of things like
speak to chat which is the feature where
the
XM4s can recognize when you're trying to
speak to someone
and it'll pause the audio let in ambient
sounds and it'll resume after a while or
when you press a button
and the XM4 and the XM3s both come with
quick attention which is just you
placing a hand on the ear cup and again
does the same thing but you have also
what is it sound position control
on the XM3s you have a couple of those
things where it can
recalibrate depending on your you know
your ears and whether you're wearing
glasses or not
and whether you're walking running
sitting all of that
so it comes with a lot of those kinds of
things whereas yeah
on the Sennheiser side i think they're
more about usability and designing the
hardware according to that as well
so you just you know twist the ear cups
and they're off
for both the Sennheiser and Momentums
and the PXC 550s so this turns it off
so that's a really useful feature
because you use that every day right and
one feature that all these headphones
except the XM3s share
is auto pause so the headphones detect
when you're not wearing the
headphones and then they pause
your music but that doesn't work so well
on the Sennheisers for whatever reason
it seems like an older implementation
when you move your head they pause
and it gives you a lot of false pauses
as well well
at least compared to the XM4 because the
XM4s have an inbuilt sensor
and for me it's worked a hundred percent
of the time and i really like features
that work like that
although you may see videos on youtube
comparing these headphones saying they
all have smart pause
how they work is just as important and
we spend a lot of time testing these and
the XM4s have been flawless so far yes
absolutely agree i actually ended up
turning off smart pause in the app for
the Sennheisers
entirely which is a good thing that they
allow you to switch it off
another extra feature that most
headphones should have
especially looking at the Sennheisers
which are a bit older
is multi-device compatibility these
came with it and they work you just
pause on one device and play on the
other
and they work the XM3s even though they
might be
yeah equally old as the Sennheisers they
really didn't come with it the XM2s
didn't the MDR1000X didn't and
the XM4s finally did yeah and it works
well too here
just similar to the Sennheisers so the
thing about these headphones is they all
have these anc features right you can
switch different modes but these are the
headphones the Sennheisers
both of these that actually remember
your last setting whereas the Sony's
always start with
boom full noise cancelling mode and then
you have to switch to your custom
setting by pressing a button not a big
deal
but it just is a little less in terms of
customizing
what it does remember and what all these
headphones do remember is the equalizer
settings and
i think that's a great moment to go into
the audio quality of these headphones
because
the sony's have a five band equalizer
and it remembers the settings
after you turn them off as well and
these don't have a five band equalizer
do they they have a three band and they
have this strange
kind of like there's a three band
equalizer and then there's another
setting
it's a waveform thing which is actually
quite useful
but it's not the same as a five band
graphic equalizer
so that's the first thing about sound
quality we want to talk about now
EQ is one aspect but sound is a much
broader topic right like
um let's start with the basics
all of these are wireless headphones so
you can listen to music wirelessly and
what does that mean they all use
particular codecs
to encode that music out of these the
highest quality codec that
is available is on the XM4s for LDAC but
not all devices support LDAC a lot of
Sony devices do
and a lot of android devices do as well
but
it's a less supported codec compared to
the more popular APTX and APTX HD
and the Sennheisers do support APTX
and APTX low latency
so that's a positive if you have an
android device or
you know something like that because on
Apple devices all devices support only
AAC
so that's a level playing field here but
that's the codecs for wireless
you can also use these headphones wired
so the Sennheisers
you can use wired with the usb
cable so you can connect it to a digital
audio source and it has an inbuilt
digital to
analog converter or DAC on the
headphones and you can just listen to
music like that so
that is a very nice feature that they
offer they all offer of course the
analog output whereas on the Sennheiser
you get a 2.5
input 2.5 millimeter to 3.5 and on the
Sony you get a 3.5 to 3.5
well that is the difference it's not
that big the main thing is on the
Sennheisers they don't have a regular
2.5
you have a 2.5 inch which plugs in and
then you have to twist it to lock
it's a nice feature to have yeah i'm
losing my voice
but anyway talking about voice and
vocals
let's let's look at the mid performance
on all these headphones
i thought the vocals stood out a little
less on the Momentum 3s
compared to the XM4s and XM3s on
balanced tracks with a lot of
instruments
but if you have a vocal track like
Marian
Hill's "Breathe into me" there's a lot of
bass and vocals there
and there the vocals do sound a bit more
distinct in the bass than compared on
the Sony's
overall i think the Sony's and the
Momentum 3s
have a very similar sound signature i
think the Sony's might be a tad
bass heavier and the sound stage may be
a bit wider on the Momentum 3s
but other than that i didn't find them
to be very different a very similar kind
of
you know consumer friendly sound
signature
and it's not just the base extension
that's better on the XM3s compared to
the Momentums
but also the treble extension so on both
ends of the spectrum you do get a little
more
to play with i'm putting the XM3s and
the XM4s in the same bucket because for
me they sound very very similar
whereas the PXCs you could argue are
a bit brighter but in general flatter
than any of these so
yeah these are for the more critical
listener i suppose so
it's wireless at the end of the day so
it's not going to give you the same
fidelity as a wired uh headphones but
these are
flatter compared to the rest of the
headphones yeah and in terms of
max volume i think the Sony's are the
loudest
so i can never go past 75 80 percent on
them i mean
i could but it's not enjoyable anymore
the Momentums are a little less loud and
PXCs for me was the least loud i could
listen to them at 100
without any kind of blood coming out of
my ears so the second part of audio
we talked about sound quality let's talk
about the noise cancelling which is
probably why you're buying these
headphones
yeah so when we talk about ANC
headphones what we've done is we've done
a
test in are you scratching your head all
the time
all right so looking at the active noise
cancelling of these headphones
we've tested these in a simulated
environment where we had cafe sounds in
the background
and we did one which simulated airplane
cabin noise and what we saw there was
that there was a clear distinction
between the Sonys and the Sennheisers
the Sonys are really up there as in tier
A level active noise cancelling
in both conditions the XM4s
were a tad bit better than the XM3s that
we did
notice in both of these environments
more so in the airplane cabin
noises whereas when we look at the
Sennheisers the Momentum 3s really
rank the lowest if you compare them to
the to the four of these
and the PXCs got pretty close actually
they were similar to the XM3s
in the airplane cabin simulation but
they did do
worse in the cafe noise but if you want
to see a detailed comparison of the
active noise cancelling of these
headphones and a couple of others
then check out the link put up here and
down below in the description where we
go in
detailed yeah the one thing about the
PXC 550 that i didn't love is they're
not
very heavy with the clamp so that has
its up size by being more comfortable
the downside is of course they don't
seal your ears as well
so what happens is when you move your
head around you tend to hear
sound coming in and all of these
headphones come with
transparency mode basically if you're in
noise cancelling but you quickly need to
be able to hear your
surroundings or be able to talk to
someone the Sony's
they come with quick attention which is
tap the ear cuff
like we mentioned and let's in sounds or
the XM4s would speak to chat
however on the Sennheisers we've got
transparency mode in
slightly different ways the Momentum
threes
have a toggle which you just flip down
once and then you're in transparency
mode
whereas on the PXC 550s it's a double
tap
on the ear cup and then you're in
transparency mode
important to know that the transparency
mode on the PXCs
you cannot listen to music with
transparency mode on
whereas with the rest of them you can so
that's kind of a miss from Sennheiser
along with transparency mode as a toggle
what the Sennheisers also have in the
app is
an anti-wind option which is really
useful again
windy conditions right for not only
listening to your audio better but also
to do
phone calls apart from that there's also
something called anti-pressure mode
on the Momentum 3s which alleviates
a little bit of the pressure that's
usually
created by wearing active noise
cancelling headphones and in addition to
that the Sony's in the app
come with geo-based active noise
cancelling so depending on
where you are it can automatically set a
different ANC profile
so if you're at the office you might
want to have less ANC
whereas if you're in public transport
maybe you want to crank that up alright
guys
so what does all this real conversation
mean to you
and what should you get well that really
depends
so let us walk you through to buy or not
to buy
well you should buy the Sennheiser PXC
550 IIs if
you plan to wear these headphones for
long periods of time then
these will be extremely light and
comfortable if you want an easy
mechanism to turn
on and off headphones then the twisting
ear cups mechanism
is definitely going to be useful if you
plan to make a lot of phone calls
then the PXC 550s definitely give you
decent phone call quality if you want to
be able to save some money and not opt
for all those other flagships in the
market
and you don't mind the parts been
designed then the PXC550s are definitely
going to
save you some money if you don't mind
not being on the cutting edge
of technology and you're okay with using
the old-school micro usb charging
and if you prefer a brighter and flatter
sound signature
and have devices that support APTX and
finally if you plan to use these
headphones
with multiple devices then this is a
good choice you should buy the Sony
WH1000XM4
if you want the best in class active
noise cancelling you travel a lot and
you need that noise to be cancelled
you want a really well-rounded pair of
headphones that
check almost all the boxes you want
great sounding headphones that
sound balanced across different musical
genres
you like having extra fancy features
like speak to chat
and quick attention and you want to show
off these features to your friends if
you're a show office kind of person
if your battery life is important to you
that you cannot go wrong with the XM4s
and of course
the latest addition to the XM4 the most
important reason in our view to buy it
over the XM3s
is that it supports dual device
connection
connected to devices simultaneously and
the much improved usability with things
like smart pause which actually
works well every time and also the same
sensor is used to save battery life so
you don't
run out of battery just because you
forgot to switch them off you should buy
the Sennheiser Momentum 3
if looks are really important to you and
you want to get that hipster look on
step one grow a beard if you want
premium materials
and a longer lasting pair of headphones
with real leather and metal
if you want an easy on off switch by
twisting the ear cup
if you use your headphones mainly for
music and
want some anc now and again if you
prefer the
ever reliable buttons over touch
controls to operate your headphones
and you use these headphones with more
than one device
and you should only buy the Sony WH1000XM3s
if these are considerably lower price
than the XM4
so you can end up saving some money for
the latest prices check out the links in
the description below
if you use those links it supports our
channel and costs you
nothing extra and still want to have
Sony's
best in class active noise cancelling
and sound quality
and for an older generation have a
headphones that still have
a very solid and respectable battery
life if you still want to use Sony
headphones with APTX and APTX HD because
this is going to be the last generation
that supports it we think
and it also has some nice little extra
like sound position control
and VPT whatever
you've been getting your hipster on and
we've been
DHRME
 
