🏆 Review score: 4/5
🏅 Editor’s Choice Award
✅ Pros
💎 Unique, luxurious design
👜 Adorable handbag-shaped case
☁️ Incredibly comfortable to wear
🎼 Clearer mids and tighter bass
🎚️ DSEE Ultimate delivers AI-upscaled 24-bit/192 kHz audio for all devices
❌ Cons
🤑 High, high $649 price
🤏 Weaker sound isolation
🔌 No USB-C audio
🪫 24-hour battery life is below average
The Shortcut Review
I scoffed when Sony dropped the $649 price of its special 1000X The Collexion wireless noise-canceling headphones. More expensive than even the $599 AirPods Max 2, these headphones celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first Sony MDR-1000X headphones, representing the pinnacle of Sony’s technology and sound. However, the Sony 1000X Collexion isn’t perfect, and Sony made a few deliberate trade-offs in favor of its luxurious design and comfort.
The Sony 1000X The Collexion stands alone from Sony’s 1000X series of wireless headphones. It’s clearly a high-end market entry that’s $200 more expensive than even the latest Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. This is immediately recognizable by the 1000X’s mix of stainless steel and vegan leather. The thinner earcups and more substantial headband also make this pair of headphones a joy to wear, even if its non-folding form factor and large case make it more of a hassle to carry around.
The Sony 1000X The Collexion also impresses with clearer mids and tighter bass. The higher-end version of DSEE Extreme is also a nice exclusive for the Sony 1000X The Collexion as it provides AI-enhanced upscaled audio to all devices – however, it’s still not a substitute for real lossless listening over USB-C. The shorter battery life and weaker ANC are hard to overlook when these headphones command a higher premium than the excellent Sony WH-1000XM6.
Overall, there’s plenty to admire about the Sony 1000X The Collexion, especially its uniquely premium styling, absolute comfort, and adorable handbag-shaped case. But if you’re looking for the best noise-canceling, long battery life, and a smaller, packable pair of headphones, still get the Sony WH-1000XM6 instead.
Full Review
🎧 Looks to kill. The Sony 1000X The Collexion delivers an immediate impression of its poshness. The usual plastic frame of Sony’s headphones has been replaced with stainless steel guides and hinges. Meanwhile, vegan leather covers every square inch of these headphones, which elevates their overall look. Sony was even careful enough to rivet the headphone jack and USB-C ports with stainless steel flanges so they look more like they’re hardware integrated into a fine leather bag.
👜 Adorable case. Speaking of bags, the Sony 1000X The Collexion comes with a newly designed case that has its own handle, making it look like a handbag. It ingeniously uses the headphones’ shapes to create space for a cutout. Inside the case, there’s a hollowed-out space to fit cables, and the Sony WH6’s fantastic magnetic closure returns, making these headphones incredibly easy to put away and take out of the case compared to a zipper case.
Unfortunately, these headphones only fold flat (like the Sony WH-1000XM5) and don’t fold down (like the Sony WH-6), so they will take up more space unless you just carry the case. The case is also made with fabric, which can stain easily, especially with the white version.
☁️ Comfort+ The Sony 1000X The Collexion wasn’t just made to look better in every way; it also feels more comfortable thanks to a few tweaks. Firstly, the earcups are 5mm thinner, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it gives the 1000X a noticeably slimmer silhouette than the Sony WH6. While thinner, the internal space in the 1000X is actually larger than in the Sony WH6, so your ears have a bit more breathing room. The headband is also 10% wider and has 40% thicker padding, so it sits more comfortably on your head. Although The Collexion is 67 grams heavier than the Sony XM6, it never feels like a burden to wear during long listening sessions.
🔊 Sound quality. The Sony 1000X The Collexion doesn’t just look good; it sounds better, too, thanks to a new 30mm carbon-composite driver. The center of this new driver is more rigid, allowing it to reproduce even higher frequencies. This really comes through on “Golden” by Huntr/x, and I can fully appreciate it when the song bounces between low D3 notes and sky-high A5 notes.
You can more clearly distinguish the lower mid-range from the mid-bass, while the sub-bass extends further down the sound curve – especially while streaming from an Android device with LDAC support. I love the tighter, deeper bass on the Sony 1000X The Collexion, especially since it doesn’t become overbearing, unlike on other premium headphones such as the AirPods Max 2.
⚙️ V3 Chip. Sony told us it optimized the 1000X The Collexion with a newer V3 audio chip and thicker copper foil. This new chipset supports the newer Bluetooth 6.0 standard and includes LDAC, LC3, AAC, and SBC codecs.
🫨 Spatial sound for music and games. The 1000X also gains two additional music and game 360 upmix listening modes on top of the Cinema listening mode the XM6 introduced. Game 360 upmix adds an even wider sense of space than Cinema mode, which immerses you in open-world games like Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt Remastered and Crimson Desert. Unfortunately, Music 360 upmix sacrifices too much EQ balance to put you in the middle of the performance. Music 360 upmix effect isn’t as convincing as the spatial sound I’ve heard from the AirPods Max 2 or Sonos Ace.
🎵 ‘Hi-res audio’ The last benefit of the V3 chip is that it grants the 1000X Collexion and even higher-end DSEE Ultimate powered by AI. The feature builds on Sony’s digital sound-upscaling technology to deliver 24-bit/192 kHz audio over Bluetooth, with AI sound enhancement to restore even more detail and texture typically lost to compression. It’s especially fantastic for Apple device users to hear higher-bitrate audio, who are usually limited to AAC. However, this is the only way to hear ‘high-res audio’ on the 1000X Collexion – outside of LDAC streaming from an Android device – as it doesn’t support audio playback over USB-C.
🗣️ Worse noise canceling. Noise cancellation on the Sony 1000X The Collexion is unquestionably worse than the Sony WH6. Firstly, the natural noise isolation of the earcups is worse because they’re thinner on the 1000X. Even though these headphones use the same QN3 noise-canceling processor and 12-mic system as the XM6, I can just hear more mid-range and high-frequency noise leak through on the 1000X. This causes more voices and general traffic noise to get through the Sony 1000X The Collexion.
🪫 Shorter battery life. Another consequence of The Collexion’s slimmer earcups is that the battery life sits at only 24 hours, down from 30 hours available on the Sony XM6. 24 hours was still enough to get me through flights from NYC to Thailand, then Taipei, and back to NYC with just two charges. However, if you’re using these headphones regularly throughout the week, you’ll have to charge every three days rather than the four or five I’ve come to expect from longer-lasting headphones like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2.
Should you buy the Sony 1000X The Collexion?
✅ Yes, if…
You want a comfortable pair of headphones
You love luxury electronics
You own a mix of Apple, Windows, and Android devices
❌ No, if…
You need the best noise-canceling (get the Sony WH-1000XM6 instead)
You want the longest-lasting wireless headphones (get the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 instead)