The Best Overall In-Ear Headphones

In every respect, the Sony WF-1000XM4 are either ‘very good’ or ‘very good indeed’ –and taken as a complete package they’re very difficult to lay a glove on.

Sony is largely responsible for the health of the active noise-cancelling, true wireless earbuds market. With the WF-1000XM4, the company has combined performance, ergonomics, and build quality more effectively than ever before. 

Compared to their predecessors, the Sony WF-1000XM3, these new wireless earphones offer enough quality-of-life features to make them worth upgrading to, even if they are more expensive.  They may lack aptX support, they make up for that with great call quality, excellent in-app features, and a sense you’ve bought a classy pair of earbuds.

Listening to Kate Bush’s Lake Tahoe, the ability of the WF-1000XM4 to identify and incorporate the tiniest details or the most fleeting transients into a much broader picture was obvious. ‘Communicative’ may seem a redundant word when discussing a person’s singing voice, but here it’s absolutely appropriate: if they’re anything, the WF-1000XM4 are communicative.

That may mean that other true wireless earbuds surpass the Sony WF-1000XM4 in particular areas – noise cancellation, for example – but no other model comes close to offering such excellent quality across the board. That’s why the Sony WF-1000XM4 are hands-down the best true wireless earbuds you can buy today.