They’re very good, but are they great?

My main point of comparison in terms of noise-cancellation was the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Since they launched, they’ve been at the top of the noise-cancelling heap. Bose pretty much created the noise-cancelling headphone, and each time they’ve pushed the performance further.

And the Sony WH-1000XM5 has matched them. But the question is, are they any better? And I can’t say with any confidence that they are significantly better.

I can say they cancel noise with a more natural tone, and perhaps the Sony also cancels different sounds better than the Bose, but the difference is neither here nor there; and certainly not enough to proclaim that the XM6 offer the best noise-cancelling performance. At least not in my opinion.

With the Sony launching 18 months later than the Bose, I could say I’m a little disappointed the Sony’s aren’t obviously better. But that leads me to my next point…

Have ANC headphones hit the ceiling?

I’ve often wondered whether we’ve reached the maximum performance we can expect. Just how much more performance can be extracted from each generation? Are the differences becoming smaller and smaller?

There are certainly choices that have been made with the WH-1000XM6. Choices in terms of the tuning of the sound, the design, what frequencies the noise-cancelling focuses on – and all these choices inform the product that you hold in your hand right now. Each brand makes a different set of choices based on the resources and technology they have access to, resulting in different performance.

But at some point, everything should converge, right? Like with F1 cars over a set of regulations, the materials used, the drive units, the technology that powers the headphones – there is a limit that’s reached and everything needs to be reset. As someone very wise once told me (you could say they’re a hi-fi Yoda of sorts), everything is a compromise.

How far can we reach with noise-cancelling headphones? Have we already reached that limit? Is that why the WH-1000XM6 took three years instead of the usual two that gapped previous generations?

You can deploy your resources in one area but that means sacrificing something else. You can strengthen the ANC performance but does that mean battery life depletes further (hence why the Sony over-ears have resolutely stayed at 30 hours)?

These are all questions rather than answers, but on the face of it, I think the ceiling has been hit with dull noise-cancelling thud. Maybe AI is the answer but no one seems to have really figured out a point for AI other than disrupting things that were already working (or turning animals into humans). Maybe there needs to be a leap in battery sources. Maybe new driver technology, such as solid state XMEMs could come into the equation.

Who knows, but if we have indeed reached a stopping point, then rather than being disappointed, it should be an exciting moment. Going back to F1, a new set of regulations tends to mix the grid up. Someone, somewhere could find the next leap for ANC headphones. Who could it be? It’s anyone’s guess.