Hey guys we got our hands on the Sony
wh-1000xm4
and what's our first video gonna be? The
mic quality test!
It's been something that a lot of people
are wondering about
and we won't just test the mic quality
on this but we're going to pit it against
the Sony WH 1000xm3 the predecessor, Bose
NCH 700 and the Microsoft surface headphones
2. And with all the hype surrounding
the xm4s
the winner might actually surprise you!
We're going to give you our opinion
before we move on to the tests
but if you want to skip ahead and just
watch the test
then fast forward to 5:57. So
the way we did this test
is that we tested these four headphones
in three conditions:
a quiet environment, a windy environment
and a noisy environment.
How did we do the test? Well, quiet was
just indoors
on my couch doing a test with voice
memos.
We also did this with a live phone
call with Rohan as well.
For noisy environments I threw on a clip
of a noisy cafe onto the TV and I sat
real close
and that emulated or simulated the noisy
environment.
And for windy conditions I sat in front
of my fan.
It was a two-in-one because it was hot
and I could do a wind test.
So in the quiet environment what we saw
is that the Mose nch700
and the Microsoft surface headphones too
came out on top.
The Bose was loud and
bright whereas the Surface headphones
was
quite loud as well and very bassy so
very very close there.
Now when we move on to the Sony's and
the XM4 specifically,
we see that there's aggressive noise
reduction
which goes at the cost of the voice
clarity because it sounds
very robotic and there's a lot of parts
which are either cut
or it sounds like there are two voices
merged together.
And I guess that's got to do with the
aggressive noise reduction that Sony's
trying to use here. What you also notice
is that the last part of most sentences
were either
very low in volume or they were just cut
which was very strange.
However they do do better than the XM3s
in terms of loudness.
Now when we talk about the XM3s that's
the biggest gripe that we have is that
it sounds like
the caller is in the distance it's not
very loud and
it's not very clear overall as well,
which most of you
know already. But they did okay.
So the ranking in the quiet environment
would be the Bose on top
then followed very closely by the
Surface headphones
and then the XM4 and the XM3 really
being on the bottom
part of that ranking. Alright and then
in the noisy environment, so the
simulated cafe environment
we notice again that Bose and Surface
come out on top,
but there's a clear difference here
because Bose really
stands out on top and there's quite a
bit of difference with the Surface,
let me explain. So with Bose you can
really hear
the background noise still when the
speaker is quiet
but when you talk the voice is actually
really clear,
so it's really able to separate the
background and
the speaker's voice really well. However
the Surface takes a slightly different
approach
the background noise is less audible but
they're doing something by reducing or
cancelling out the background noise that
it somehow
struggles with identifying the speaker's
voice,
which means that there are times where
the speaker isn't as audible as
clearly because I think it's trying to
distinguish between
what is background noise and who's the
speaker and it's not able to do that
precisely every time. And then again at
the bottom
we have the XM4s and the XM3s.
The XM4s were a disappointment again,
they were really not that great,
there was however less background noise
than the XM3 so I think that's something
that
Sony has tried to improve this time
around but the voice really wasn't that
clear.
And the XM3s there's a lot of background
noise
so they're not doing a great job with
noise reduction
however if the noise
isn't as bad you can hear the voice
quite clearly again in the distance
but the clarity is slightly better than
the XM4s.
However the background noise is going to
be annoying.
So with the windy conditions I was
sitting in front of the fan
but for every sentence that i did i
changed the angle so the first sentence
would be straight on the fan
then I would change to the right to the
left and then straight on again just to
get those different angles about where
the
wind is hitting the headphones. And then
finally in windy conditions
surprisingly or unsurprisingly it's the
Bose and Surface on top again
with the Bose you have a little wind
noise in the back
but the voice is consistently clear and
that's what we see
throughout with Bose, however in very
harsh conditions
your mileage may vary. And with the
Surface headphones too what we see is
that
depending on the angle that the
headphones were at
it differed overall, the voice was clear
but
sometimes you would see it struggling.
And then we have the Sonys of course
with both the XM4s
and the XM3s we can clearly hear the
wind in the background
however where they differ are that the
XM4s
sound very shaky in the voice and not
very clear again,
so that two tone voice kind of
effect plus a bit robotic so not very
consistent.
Whereas the XM3s were consistent but
very low in volume
not always very clear and sounded like
it was in the distance.
So have a listen for yourself here's the
mic quality comparison test
sony xm4 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing
one two three bose 700
pop pop popsicle ice ice icicle test
test testing one two three
sony wh-1000xm3
pop pop popsicle ice ice icicle test
test testing
one two three
surface headphones 2 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing
one two three
sony xm4 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing one two
three
Bose 700 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing one two
three
sony xm3 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing one two
three
microsoft surface headphones 2 pop pop
popsicle ice ice icicle test test
testing
one two three sony
xm4 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle
Bose 700 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing
one two three
sony xm3 pop pop popsicle
ice ice icicle test test testing
one two three microsoft surface
headphones 2
pop pop popsicle ice ice icicle
test test testing one two three
so in conclusion you might have noticed
that the ranking that we've given these
four headphones
is the same throughout all three
environment conditions
so which one should you buy based on mic
quality test?
I think that really depends on the
environment that you find yourself in
most often,
generally with the Bose and the Surface
they're quite
an all-rounder set of headphones so you
can't really go wrong.
And the biggest disappointment of this
whole test was that the XM4
didn't really do that much better than
the XM3s
they've boosted the volume and tried to
cut out background noise as much as they
could
but still it doesn't really justify the
upgrade from the XM3 to the XM4s in our
opinion,
if you're basing your purchase decision
on the microphone quality
alone. So we're not sure if this test
surprised you guys or not
let us know in the comments down below.
We think it's very surprising
considering the poor track record of the
previous generations starting from the
MDR-1000X
of poor microphone quality and all the
hype
and wait we've all been through to get
our hands on the XM4s.
You've been test test testing and we've
been
DHRME
