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The Sony WH-CH700N have been a very popular pair of entry level ANC headphones for awhile now cause they’re decent and their minor short comings are easy enough to look past… but more importantly they’re super popular cause they routinely go on sale for ridiculous prices. But now we have their successors the Sony WH-CH710N… now I want to stress that yeah these headphones are decent and they do have some important upgrades over the 700N’s, but they aren’t the slam dunk that I was hoping for and in some cases they actually fall short from their predecessors. I just think that some very questionable decisions were made regarding this upgrade.
Now first off there’s prices… the 710N’s have a retail price of $200 just like the 700N’s when they first came out. But just like the 700N’s I do expect these headphones to routinely go on sale especially on shopping holidays. So if you want to pick these headphones they’ll be linked down below.
But I do want to stress that even though these headphones have a retail price of $200… unfortunately they don’t come included with a carrying case or even a carrying pouch. And I say thats unfortunate cause there are plenty of $200 ANC headphones out there that come included with some kind of case. The ones that come to mind right now are the Sennheiser HD450BT and their soft shell case and there’s also the Skullcandy Venues which come with a proper hardshell case. And plainly said, if you are planning on commuting a lot with the 710N’s I highly advise that you invest in a hardshell case.
But this now leads us to build quality, which was actually one of the 700N’s biggest draw backs specially cause these headphones like to crack and squeak a lot whenever you handle them. But thankfully thats no longer the case with the new 710N’s, these headphones stay relatively silent whenever you flex them. Add to the fact that these headphones have a new smoother, slightly more low profile design… and they’re a little more light weight weighing in at 220 grams, which is 15 grams less than the 700N’s. You would think that I would say that these headphones have way better build quality than the 700N’s… but there’s a new major problem here, and thats the leatherette on their ear pads and headband. The leatherette on these headphones is so course it literally left me dumbfounded the first time I felt it especially cause the leatherette on the 700N’s feels way better than that of the 710N’s cause it much smoother where as the 710N’s feels like sand paper by comparison.
Now this isn’t just me nitpicking, cause the quality of the leatherette on headphones plays a huge role when it comes to comfort. And unfortunately due to the 710N’s rough feeling leatherette they can get a little itchy, which is a problem that I never had with the 700N. Now you can easily remove the ear pads on the 710N’s and swap them out but my main question is why on earth did Sony use significantly worse feeling leatherette on their new 710N’s compared to the 700N’s and even when compared to some of their cheaper headphones like the Sony WH-XB700’s.
Now when it comes to the other aspects surrounding fit and comfort, the 710N’s are big head approved cause they don’t have an exaggerated amount of clamping force. They have a firm fit so they stay in place very well making them a decent pair of headphones for working out, but they aren’t too firm so you aren’t going to feel like your head is getting squeezed if you’re cranially gifted like me. Now just like before the 710N’s have very wide ear cups so they should be able to fit most ear types. But unfortunately the ear cups on the 710N aren’t as deep as the ear cups on the 700N’s, so if you have ears that stick out a lot you’ll might feel them still getting pressed down a little bit. Even though my ears don’t stick out too much I still feel my ears getting pressed down a little bit by the 710N’s… So sometimes when I take these headphones off the cartilage might feel a little tender… which again is something that didn’t happen with the 700N’s. So over all fit and build quality on the 710N’s is a bit of a mixed bag when compared to their predecessors. I really appreciate that the 710N’s don’t crack as much when ever you handle them and I like their new smoother more low profile design. But when it comes to fit… even though the 710N’s fit okay, they fit worse when compared to the 700N’s. Their course feeling leatherette can feel a little itchy at times and their shallow ear cups might press some people’s ears down a little bit… which keep in mind these are two issues that aren’t present on the 700N’s.
Now when it comes to tech pecs, the WH-CH710N have been upgraded to bluetooth 5.0… but ultimately that doesn’t really matter cause these headphones perform basically the same as the 700N. Unfortunately these headphones can still only be connected to one device at a time… you can’t easily hot swap from one device to another like with a lot of other headphones out there.
And unfortunately these headphones have actually lost APTX support. Now if you’re an iPhone user this doesn’t really matter cause they’re going to use AAC anyways, but if you’re an android user you’re also going to be using AAC cause these headphones also don’t have LDAC support.
But more importantly, when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone the 710N ’s have zero latency on both iPhone and android devices whenever you’re using apps like the Netflix, Disney plus, or HBO now… but there is a slight latency when ever youre watching YouTube videos on either device. But that latency is a little more noticeable when watching YouTube on an iPhone. But you can always eliminate that latency on an android device if you turn AAC off.
Nonetheless this could be an app thing cause a lot of other headphones have this similar issue but I do want to point out that the WH-CH700N have zero latency across the board on both iPhone and android. So hopefully there’s a software fix soon.
Now one major upgrade on the 710N from the 700N is that they now charge via a USB C port which is great especially if you’re an android user. But over all battery life performance on the 710N is identical to the 700N. They both have an advertised battery life of 35 hours with ANC turned on and they both have the same fast charging where if you plug them in for 10 minutes from a dead battery they’ll get you one hour of playback time… over all battery life on the 710N’s is above average and they should be able to last you about 2 week in between charges.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these headphones cause again there are some questionable decisions here. First off I gotta point out that the 710N’s no longer connect to Sony headphone’s app… so you can’t customize their EQ like you can with the 700N. Now I don’t have the slightest idea as to why Sony didn’t include app support for the 710N’s cause that has been a rather stand out feature for sony headphones in general and quite frankly I really think the 710N’s need an adjustable EQ cause im simply not a fan of the 710N’s stock EQ. Simply put, the 710N’s sound like what Beats used to sound like in 2015. The 710N’s stock EQ make the mids and vocals sound a little shallow and they put an emphasis on the bass. Now if you’re someone that likes a bass heavy sound signature on their headphones these headphones might be up your ally. But even though these headphones have a bass heavy sound signature… they’re rarely going to physically rattle your head all that much. The bass on these headphones is mostly on the audible side. Over all if you want to hear the mids and lyrics with these headphones you gotta crank the volume up on these headphones cause the bass can be a little over powering. And again im a little confused as to where Sony got this bass heavy sound signature from cause the 700N’s stock EQ is much more neutral. With the 700N’s stock EQ you can actually hear the mids and vocals and the bass only comes in when it has to. My only critique about the 700N’s stock EQ is that the highs might be a little bright. But with the 700N thats not a problem cause if you want to you can just go in and lower their highs so they aren’t ear piercing any more. But another reason why people love the WH-CH700N is cause if you like a bass heavy sound signature you can go into their app and crank it up as well. And through the app you can actually have more bass on the 700N than on the 710N… but more importantly you can also make sure that you can still hear the mids. So over all, yeah I do think the WH-CH700N sound way better than the 710N’s… and you’re now stuck with a bass heavy sound signature on the 710N’s that just sounds little too shallow for my taste. So I really think that it would behoove Sony to add app support to their 710N’s cause sound quality wise these headphones are not going to please everyone like the 700N’s can for the most part cause with those you can make them sound however you want. And also the 710N’s bass heavy sound signature doesn’t make them the best for watching movies with cause I’ve found that its very hard to actually what people are saying unless you’ve got the volume cranked all the way up.
But one area where the 710N’s have really been upgraded over the 700N’s is their active noise cancelation. The 710N’s block out noticeably more noise than the 700N’s… but just to tapper expectations here, even though the 710N’s block out a decent amount of noise they don’t block out nearly as much noise as the 1000XM3’s or the Bose NC 700. So if you see somewhere that says these headphone block out just as much noise as these premium ANC headphones for half the price, no they don’t. But so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
So like you may have just seen the 710N’s block out noticeably more noise across the board than the 700N’s. But where the 710N’s really sees major improvements is when it come to blocking out random higher frequency sounds like chatter… which is actually harder to block out than constant low frequency sounds like road noise. And the amount chatter a pair of headphones are able to block out is what separate good ANC headphones from great ANC headphones. So over all the ANC on the WH-CH710N has been improved and these block out an above average amount of noise for a pair $200 entry level ANC headphones. And the best part is, the ANC on these headphones has little to no cabin pressure still.
And another major upgrade these headphones have over their predecessors is that they have an ambient mode which is super useful for when you’re walking around the city or for even when you’re watching the final season of clone wars at home, you can still hear when someone calls your name. The only thing to keep in mind of is that you can’t adjust how much noise these headphones let in like with Sony’s more premium ANC headphones. But more importantly the ambient mode on these headphones sounds very natural and there’s no hissing in the background. So overall the ambient mode on these headphones is great. The only thing that I want to point out is that the ambient mode on these headphones isn’t active like on the 1000XM3, so these headphones let in everything. They won’t actively turn off their ambient mode when ever there are sudden spikes in loud noises.
And finally heres the microphone test… and I think sony is trying something new here. Theres a lot more amplification going on on these headphones but they still sound a little shallow to me and they do like to peak quite a bit.
Where as the microphone on the 700N dosnt have nearly as much amplification. So I think the microphone on the 710N’s sounds a little less worse. But something that I do want to point out is that you no longer hear any cracking on the 710N’s like you sometimes might with the 700N cause like I mentioned ealier, build quality on these headphones isn’t spctatucalr.
So with all that being said, I think the Sony WH-CH710N are a decent pair of entry level ANC headphones but unfortunately they aren’t the slam dunk that I was expecting and in some ways they fall short from their predecessors. I really like that these headphones no longer crack and squeak when ever you handle them, USB C charging is greatly welcomed, having a great performing ambient mode on these headphones is awesome and you can’t deny that there are some major ANC performance improvements on the 710N’s from the 700N’s. But to me the 710N’s fall short when it comes to sound and comfort when directly compared to the 700N’s… And sound and comfort are the two most crucial things when it comes to headphones. Due to the 710N’s rough feeling leatherette their ear pads can feel itchy at times and since their ear cups are more shallow than the 700N’s they might press down on some peoples ears. Which is an issue I didn’t have with 700N’s but I do now. And then there’s sound… first off you can’t customize their sound to your liking like you can with the 700N but also I think the 710N’s stock bass heavy EQ makes these headphones sound a little too shallow for some people. Ultimately the Sony WH-CH710N are a decent pair of ANC headphones but I wouldn’t say that they’re the obvious choice for entry level ANC Headphones like how I usually say the Sony XB900N are the obvious choice if you’re looking for a pair of mid tier ANC headphones. Actually, I highly recommend the you invest the extra bit of cash and get yourself the Sony XB900N, cause just like the 700N’s, the XB900N’s routinely like to go on sale as well for ridiculous prices. Link for those with be linked down below.