Gadgetory

Sony's been chasing boughs to create the ultimate noise cancelling headphone it may have finally done it with hiss the WH 1000 X mark 3 it seems as if Sony's engineers went through CNET's review of last year's 1000 MX mark 2 and corrected each small issue I had with it the biggest changes to the design of the headband and padding on the ear cups the headband is now more contoured to your head and the headphone has shaved 20 grams of weight the padding on the ear cup is also a little bit softer the end result is the headphone is clearly more comfortable both quiet comfort 35 is still lighter but this model is now neck and neck with the Bose in terms of comfort both headphones list for $350 sony has also moved from microUSB to USB C and there's a new quick charge feature that gives you 5 hours of playback from a 10 minute charge total battery life is rated at 30 hours that's very good I was a little critical of headset performance in my review of earlier 1000 X models for this headphone the engineer shifted to a new 3 microphone array system that filters out background noise while picking up your voice during calls the headset performance does seem better as a result there are a few other cosmetic changes the exterior finish on the ear cups where you'll find the touch controls is smoother and the carrying case is slightly different there's a spot for the short USBC cable and the included headphone cord and yes the headphone does sound very good in Wired mode Sony reps told me this model has the same drivers as its excellent mdr-1a mark 2 headphone and I think this definitely sounds better than the Bose QuietComfort 35 it sounds more natural with a little bit better definition clarity and strong punchy bass the noise cancelling also matches boses and thanks to Sony's adaptive sound control feature it may actually be superior I'm not going to get into all this headphones features you can check out my full review for that but Sony has retained perhaps the best extra feature the ability to muffle your music and let the outside roll in by simply holding your hand over the right ear cup where the touch controls are located once you finish talking to someone you remove your hand and the music resumes playing at its previous volume and the noise cancellation kicks back in the Bose QuietComfort 35 is due for an upgrade and should get better but for now Sony's 1000 MX mark 3 has taken over the title as the top noise cancelling headphone on our list