The MDR-1000X is Sony’s latest and Wireless Noise cancelling headphone. It’s packed with many features like gesture control, swivel fold design and soft leather housing. Hi-Res Audio paired with LDAC to provide crystal clear and quality sounds.
Hardware
It comes in a beautiful carrying pouch which opens up with a zipper. It’s quite handy and easy to pack into a bag. It has ample space to keep the included 3.5mm 1.5 meters cord and usb cable. It has a simple user guide to get you started on your new headphones.
The MDR-1000X folds and swivel easily into place and fits like a glove into the carrying case. It only weighs 275g.
The NFC sensor is located on the right earphone together with the micro-USB port for charging. Located on the left earphone are the 3 buttons, The power button, Noise cancelling button(NC) & the Ambient Sound button. Just beside the power button is the normal 3.5mm headphone jack.
The MDR-1000X uses a 40mm driver with a liquid crystal polymer diaphragm capable of reproducing a frequency range of 4Hz up to 40kHz with a dome type CCAW Voice Coil which enhances movement of PET diaphragm. The cups fit nicely around the ears and it’s comfortable for bus rides and long flights.
For high-def music, there’s LDAC, LDAC can stream up to 96kHz/24-bit audio at rates as high as 990Kbps over a Bluetooth connection. But if you have tons of non high-def music, Sony has included S-Master HX amplifier and its DSEE HX digital sound enhancement engine that upscales compressed digital audio files.
Setup
Setting up the wireless headphones is quite easy. Press and hold for 7 secs to start pairing the bluetooth with your device. Once paired the led indicator will turn blue. subsequently you don’t have to pair the bluetooth again and just hold the power button for 2 secs to turn it on.
If you’re using it as a wired headphones, just plug in the 3.5mm cable and use it as any normal headphone. but to enable the Noise cancelling feature you have to turn it on. I use the Noise Cancelling feature all the time and there’s an included function of the gesture control that allows you to quickly hear your surroundings called Quick Attention mode. Just by cupping your right earphone, the MDR-1000X will immediately cut the music and let’s you hear the surroundings from it’s internal microphone. This feature is only found in Sony headphones.
But if you’re waiting for train and would like to hear for the annoucements, the MDR-1000X have you covered with the Ambient Sound mode. It has two settings which you can toggle with the ambient sound button. In Normal mode it allows some outside noise through. The second mode is more for having conversations without taking of the headphones, it uses it’s internal mic to enhance your friends’ voices.
The Noise cancelling on this headphone is top-notch. It really cancels out the noise and works amazingly. Even without playing any music and walking down the street noise-free is just great.
The gesture control is easy to learn and with some practice I was able to get it almost all the time. Swipe up to increase the volume and swipe down to decrease it. To play/pause just double tap the center twice. Swipe to the front to jump to the next track and swipe front to back to jump back. It’s that simple to use.
There’s 2 microphone on the headphone which allows you to answer calls when you’re connected simply by double tapping the right earphone to pick up the call. Ending the call is the same way and your music continues.
The sound quality is very clear and balanced. I can hear the vocals and the dynamic range of sounds. The bass on the headphone is quite good. I have tried watching a couple of movies and it’s quite comfortable for long hours. Did I mention that the bluetooth headphones is able to last up to 20 hours on a full charge ? It took me about 4 hours to fully charge it and I could use for almost a week before needing to charge it.
