As part of the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale, Amazon is offering the first discount we've seen on the lastest iteration of Sony's popular WH-1000 series noise cancelling wireless headphones. Today the WH-1000XM5 has been marked down to $348, a little bit over $50 price drop from its original $400 MSRP.
Note that this deal requires an Amazon Prime membership. Make sure you're logged into your Amazon Prime account. If you do not have Prime and you don't want to pay for an annual fee, then just pay for the 1-month membership for $14.99.
The previous generation Sony WH-1000XM4 was widely lauded as one of the best, if not the best, noise cancelling headphones under $500. Even so, the XM5 is able to noticeably improve upon one very important feature, and that is noise cancellation.
On the digital noise supression side, the XM5 is upgraded with double the processors and microphones dedicated to filtering out ambient noise. The result is a better reduction of higher end frequencies that the XM4 was previously unable to block. On the passive noise isolation side, Sony did a much better job of having the earcups more effectively seal out sound on the XM5; they're shaped larger and wider to fully enclose your ear, and the foam material, despite being just as comfortable, does a better job of creating a proper seal. The difference in noise suppression is quite apparent.
The Sony WH-1000XM5 retains the XM4's legendary battery life at over 30 hours on a single charge even with ANC activated. If that's not enough, the XM5 supports fast charging over USB Type-C. A mere 3 minutes of charging will give you 3 hours of playtime. The XM5 doubles as a hands-free headset, and the quadruple beamforming microphones are an improvement over the XM4. The XM5 also offers a different style of headband adjustment, for better or for worse, but it's still as comfortable as ever and does a great job of keeping the weight off the top of your head. Coupled with the plush leather wrapped earcups, you can easily wear these headphones for hours.
In our opinion, the Sony WH-1000XM5 is worth the cost, especially at this price. Not yet convinced? You can check out our Sony WH1000XM5 review. Kevin Lee labels them as "hands down the best sounding and most impressive noise-cancelling headphones." However, if you're looking for a pair of headphones that sound nearly as good but cost a lot less, you should check out the Bose QuietComfort 45 noise cancelling wireless headphones. They retail for about $350 but they're on sale right now for only $229.