Sony officially launched the EXTRA BASS WH-XB910N wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling over-ear headphones in Taiwan last week. Through the built-in 40mm driver unit, DSEE digital sound quality restoration technology, and support for LDAC audio encoding, it can deliver more details. The high-resolution sound quality, the exclusive EXTRA BASS tuning further enhances the bass performance and brings a strong rhythm like in a nightclub. At the same time, it also has a new dual noise sensor technology, which provides better noise reduction than the previous generation. All ushered in a sense of upgrade.

First take a brief look at the outer packaging of WH-XB910N, EXTRA BASS, smart noise reduction (not ANC active noise reduction), smart touch panel and foldable storage design are clearly printed, and you can see the carry after opening the carton inside the outer packaging The storage box, including earphones and accessories, are installed inside, and the manual and the free trial serial number of the Sony 360 Reality Audio music service are located under the storage box.

The WH-XB910N oval carrying storage box is made of cloth BQ27520YZFT-G2. Compared with the WH-1000XM4 at the beginning of the year, the mesh storage bag and sling on the back are missing. After opening the zipper, you can see the folded headphone body, 1.2 A 3.5mm headphone cable with a meter length and two accessories, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, can be connected to the cable to continue listening in case the headphones are out of power.

The storage method is the same as that of the WH-1000XM4. After tightening the headband, turn one earmuff inward and put it in the storage box. Be sure to place it in the folding method as shown in the above picture, so as not to be unable to be smoothly put into the box.

The WH-XB910N continues the design vocabulary of Sony’s headphone family. The case adopts a matte matte texture, which will not leave fingerprints or oil stains. The hinges on both sides can be rotated 90 degrees and folded inward. The inside is printed with L/R left and right. The wording on the side reminds users to avoid wearing the wrong side. The oval ear pads are made of soft synthetic leather, and the headband pads are made of pressure-relief foam covered with leather, which is quite comfortable to wear without clipping. The large circular part on the outside of the casing on both sides is a smart touch panel, and the upper edge is equipped with a forward-facing microphone, but there is no NFC sensing area configuration of the flagship WH-1000XM4. In addition, this headset is not publicly waterproof. level, be careful not to let it get wet.

The adjustable slide rails on the left and right sides of the headband use the same color plastic design as the earphones (the flagship model is metal). There are ten adjustable sections, which can meet the needs of users with different head shapes. The upper part has a gray Sony logo, and after lifting the left and right support arms, you can see the two bass reflex holes on the inner edge of the plastic textured earmuffs. This design helps to improve the bass. Quantity and dive depth.

The buttons and I/O of the WH-XB910N are concentrated on the lower edge of the left earcup. From left to right are the 3.5mm headphone jack, the USB Type-C port, the power button (also the Bluetooth pairing button), and the NC /AMB Noise reduction and ambient sound mode switching button.

The WH-XB910N uses Bluetooth 5.2 transmission technology. Since it supports Google Fast Pair, the pairing interface pops up when I turn on the mobile device for the first time. After that, when I connect the Sony Walkman (it is also an Android device), I have to press and hold it for a long time. Press and hold the power button for 7 seconds until the LED light next to it flashes before pairing the second device. If it is an iOS mobile device, also long-press the power button to pair.

Through the dedicated application Sony Headphones, the "multi-point connection" function can be enabled to pair with two Bluetooth devices at the same time, so that you can quickly switch between the two devices, such as mobile phone and Walkman, mobile phone and laptop. , and if there is an incoming call, the headset will know which device is ringing and automatically connect to the correct mobile phone. It only takes about 3 seconds to actually switch between the two devices, but it should be noted that - enable multipoint connection In this setting, LDAC cannot be used, and the app will ask you to reconnect the headset. From my own experience, in a complex network environment like a MRT station, the overall Bluetooth transmission performance is very stable, and there is no disconnection.

The operation of WH-XB910N is quite simple and intuitive. By touching or sliding the smart touch panel on the right earmuff, you can perform common control options, such as sliding up and down to adjust the volume level, and sliding left and right to correspond to the next song and previous song. First, double tap to pause/play music, single tap to call up a voice assistant such as Google Assistant or Siri. And if you cover the smart touch panel with your palm, you can instantly enter the ambient sound mode, turn down the music volume and let you hear the human voice or voice around you, which is quite convenient. However, it is quite easy to touch the touch panel when taking off the headset, and then call the voice assistant. If this function is not used frequently, it is recommended to turn it off in the application.

The weight of the WH-XB910N headset is 250g, and it is 390g with the carrying case -ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model" >390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g -ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic /" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g-ic/" title="390g model">390g, weight and WH -1000XM4 is about the same. In terms of battery life, you can play music continuously for 30 hours with the noise reduction function turned on, 50 hours with noise reduction turned off, and 40 hours with continuous communication. 10 minutes gives you 4.5 hours of extra playtime, and it takes 3.5 hours to fully charge.

WH-XB910N is equipped with a 40mm closed driver unit. The Bluetooth coding is SBC, AAC and LDAC. The latter can provide 3 times the audio transmission volume than ordinary Bluetooth. In addition, it adopts DSEE digital sound quality restoration technology, which is restored by an excellent algorithm. The compressed audio source on the streaming platform presents richer listening details. The LDAC encoding technology developed by Sony can transmit near-lossless high-resolution Hi-Res audio content (support up to 24bit/96kHz), provided that your audio file is Hi-Res and the playback device also supports LDAC.

I connected the WH-XB910N to a Sony Walkman NW-ZX507 Walkman that supports LDAC, and played the stored 24bit/96kHz FLAC audio file for trial listening (the supported lossless music formats include WAV, AIFF, and ALAC). In the case of the equalizer, playing the new song "Don't you hold me down" by Norwegian electronic music talent Alan Walker, the tuning is really EXTRA BASS style - the background electric bass and drum sounds are obviously strengthened and can be felt The depth of the bass dive does not affect the clarity of the female singer's vocals. The overall sense of volume is very good under the promotion of the Walkman. It is as shocking as in the electronic music party scene, making people want to move the body with the beat and drum beat.

I then played the Japanese band YOASOBI's "Night に駆ける" (FLAC 24bit/96kHz). Although the high-pitched vocals and piano accompaniment of the female lead singer Ikura are shown, but under the WH-XB910N, there is an extra subwoofer. Bombing, the mid-frequency becomes weaker, which also makes the VOCALOID tune too rhythmic in an instant. For those who don't like heavy bass enhancement or electronic music style, the low frequency performance of EXTRA BASS may be a little too prominent. , but I think it's better to just watch the songs... Needless to say, electronic music, such as hip-hop, reggae, rock, and even Japanese anime genres, have a very good refreshment under this earphone.

Various settings of the WH-XB910N can be further adjusted through the application Sony Headphones. Under the “Status” interface, you can see the current battery level of the headset, the music being played, and the flexible sound control status. Detects the wearer's movements and automatically switches the headset settings. In terms of movements, it can be divided into 4 types: stationary, walking, running, and taking vehicles. You can set the corresponding environmental sound control by yourself. The default is to use the noise reduction function when stationary or when taking a vehicle, turn on the ambient sound of level 12 when walking, and the ambient sound of level 20 when running (there should be no one running with this headset...). There is also a voice-focused option below Transparency, which lets you hear surrounding speech while suppressing noise.

In addition, the "sound" interface of Sony Headphones can also control the ambient sound. The smart noise reduction technology used by the WH-XB910N and the ANC active noise reduction of the WH-1000XM4 differ in the number of microphones. The latter has 5 microphones, while the WH-XB910N has 5 microphones. There are only 2, and the difference in noise reduction effect is audible. When I turn off the elastic sound control and listen to music outdoors at a volume of about 60%, it can effectively cover the surrounding traffic and construction noise, but if I turn on the elastic sound control, I can hear the outdoor traffic sound. As for taking the MRT, Except for the sharper grinding sound that is difficult to filter, it can isolate other passengers' conversations and immerse themselves in the music world. Although the noise reduction effect is not top-notch, it is very useful in most application scenarios.

Below the ambient sound control options are equalizer, Bluetooth connection quality, 360 Reality Audio and DSEE switch settings. The "Equalizer" here is a simple interface. Click the gear icon in the lower right corner to enter the interface of the custom equalizer. "Bluetooth Connection Quality" provides two options: sound quality priority and stable connection priority. The former It will be connected with the best sound quality common between headphones and playback devices. In my experience, LDAC still has to be turned on on the mobile phone by itself, and the stable connection can be switched when the sound is intermittent.

As for 360 Reality Audio, a stereo spatial sound technology launched by Sony in 2019, you can experience a wider sound field than two-channel through the supported headphones, creating an immersive listening experience. You need to take a binaural photo before using it. Analysis, Sony Headphones will recommend you to download a music streaming application that supports 360 Reality Audio, such as nugs.net (the serial number card included in the box) or Artist Connection, and you can listen to the music of 360 Reality Audio after following the above steps. , but at this stage, the supported content is still too small. In the "System" interface of Sony Headphones, there are multi-point connections (connected to 2 devices at the same time), voice assistant, touch sensor control panel, NC/AMB key operation settings, and automatic power off. etc. settings.

Finally, see the Equalizer Customization section, the Sony Headphones app provides a five-band equalizer (400Hz, 1kHz, 2.5kHz, 6.3kHz, 16kHz) and Clear Bass bass control, the level is plus or minus 10 dB, the app Preset cheerful, exciting, mellow, relaxing, vocal, boost treble, boost bass, speech and other profiles. In terms of "enhanced bass", it is Clear Bass +7dB. Personally, I think the factory-adjusted bass is enough. "Enhanced treble" is to strengthen the higher frequency parts of 2.5kHz, 6.3kHz and 16kHz. The background The drums still retain quite a lot of power. As for "joy", the mid-high frequency is raised from 1kHz to 16kHz. At the same time, the Clear Bass is -1dB to reduce the burden of heavy bass on the ears. Listen to the above mentioned under the setting file. "Night に駆ける" is closer to the original song, and it is recommended to use it when listening to softer music.

Sony WH-XB910N is really not worthy of the EXTRA BASS brand. The bass is heavy and cool enough. Wearing it in the gym will be very motivating. If you feel that the low-frequency tuning is too strong, you can adjust the EQ through the app, etc. The tuner can be set to increase the mid-high frequency and reduce the Clear Bass intensity. In addition to the sound quality, the effect of intelligent noise reduction and flexible sound control are also quite close to the level of the flagship WH-1000XM4, allowing users to adapt to different situations. Enjoy music, receive ambient sounds and stay connected to the outside world, and customize your favorite listening settings to start a personal music party anytime, anywhere. The WH-XB910N's price of 6,990 yuan is Sony's mid-range model, and I think it's worth the money!