So both Sony and Bose upgraded their most premium ANC earbuds for 2023… however, the Sony WF-1000XM5’s have gotten some much more significant upgrades over the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a pair of premium ANC earbuds and you dont want AirPods or Galaxy Buds, lets see how the Sony WF-1000XM5’s and Bose QC Ultra Earbuds compare to one another.
Regarding pricing, both of these earbuds have a retail price of $300… which is rather steep for any pair of wireless earbuds, however both of these earbuds do like to go on sale from time to time for around $250. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two earbuds up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
Now first lets talk about these cases cause I feel cases are very important to take into consideration when looking for everyday carry earbuds. Now the case on the Sony WF-1000XM5’s has been upgraded from the WF-1000XM4’s cause its a little smaller. Now this case isn’t as small as the AirPods Pro 2’s case, but its close. Where as with the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, this case is the same as the Bose QC Earbuds 2, so this case is noticeably larger than Sony’s case, its a little thicker and it has a much larger foot print. So this case is very noticeable when it in your pocket. Where as Sony’s case is just a lot more convenient cause its less noticeable when its in your pocket, and also its a lot easier to take these earbuds out of their case, cause with Bose’s earbuds sometimes it can be a little tricky to get them out. But then theres wireless chargning on these cases, the Sony’s have wireless chargning, just as you’d expect on a pair of premium ANC earbuds, where as the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds dont have wireless charnging, and this is unfortunate given their price and just overall size.
But then theres the battery life of case size ratio on these earbuds. The Sony WF-1000XM5’s have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours with their ANC turned on. The earbuds can go for 8 stirght hours and the case can supply 2 additional charges. And if you were to use these earbuds with their ANC turned off then they can go for as long as 36 hours.
But then there are the Bose which have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours with their ANC turned on. The earbuds themselves can go for 6 straight hours and the case can supply 3 additional charges. But unlike the Sony, you cant use these earbud with their ANC turned off so you can’t extend their battery life that way
But overall the Sony WF-1000XM5’s have a much better battery life to case size ratio cause they have the same combined battery life as the bose, but with a smaller case and they have wireless chargning.
So if you’re looking for the better convince here then the Sony’s are the way to go here cause they have smaller case, they have wireless charnging and they have similar battery life to the bose. But if you’re looking for the better comfort, then the Bose QC Ultra’s easily have the Sony’s beat here. Now the Sony WF-1000XM5’s are a pair of standard fitting in ear earbuds like lets say the Linkbuds S, Galaxy Buds 2, or Sennheiser Momentum 3’s as in they go into your ear canals a decent amount. But the unique thing about the WF-1000XM5’s is that they are using foam ear tips. Now these foam ear tips will help create a better seal thus passively blocking out more noise and they offer better lock down. But the problem with these foam ear tips is that they can get itchy after awhile. Where as with the Bose, first off they are using silicon ear tips like with most other earbuds out theres… but more importantly, these are a pair of shallow fitting in ear ear buds, as in they dont go into your ear canals are all that much. These actually rest in the bowl of your ears. So these earbuds feel a lot more comfortable cause they feel a lot less intrusive. And unlike with other shallow fitting in ear earbuds out there, the Bose dont wiggle out all that much cause they have built in ear fins that give them great lock down. So overall, I dont like the case that comes with the bose cause its large, but if you decide to compromise on the case, then you’re going to get a pair of very comfortable earbuds.
Now when it comes to connectivity, with both of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud with your phone, you can use either on it doesn’t matter and this is the connection set up that we expect to see on our earbuds nowadays.
And with both of these earbuds, they can be connected to any two bluetooth devices at the same time regardless of eco system, making them a good option if you’re a power user with devices from different eco systems. Cause if you have an iPhone you can easily hot swap to your pc with either of these two earbuds.
But when it comes to overall performance, both of these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device, but when it coms to audio codecs, the Bose QC Ultra have support for SBC, AAC and APTX Adaptive where as the Sony’s have support for SBC, AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own in house high res audio codec. Just keep in mind that if you want to tack advantage of either APTX or LDAC you have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC… and with LDAC at least, it does take an additional toll on the batter life.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Now the bose QC ultra earbuds sound decent for a pair of neutral sounding earbuds. They have decent instrument separation and they have good detail. However, these earbuds don't have all that much resonance or kick in their bass. So these earbuds sound good, but they sound a little underwhelming. But the QC Ultra’s also have immersive audio and what immersive audio does is that it puts the vocals right in your face and it pushes the instrumentals back and out. Helping to improve the instrument separation on these earbuds. And immersive audio also does the whole head tracking thing. But personally I think head tracking is just an annoying gimmick so I just set them to motion so that my music stays still. But heres the issue with immersive audio. Now first off immersive audio does take a big toll on the battery life. But more importantly, I have noticed that with some songs, immersive audio will really distort songs that already has an emphasis on the vocals. So personally I find myself not using the immersive audio feature on these earbuds and instead I enjoy the improved battery life.
But then theres the Sony WF-1000XM5’s, now these ear buds have very similar instrument separation and detail to the Bose, however these have more resonance in their bass and they have a little more kick to them. So listening to music with these earbuds is a little more fun. But more importantly, with the sony, wether you like a neutral EQ or a bass heavy EQ, these earbuds should have you covered. Where as the bose are going to be better suited for someone that like a more neutral EQ cause if you try to raise the bass on these earbuds, they can sound a little shallow. But more importantly, the Sony’s dont do any of the head tracking like either the Bose or AirPods Pro 2.
Now when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds, both of these earbuds are using touchpads. And overall the touchpads on these earbuds are accurate enough. However Bose’s touch pad also has a swiping gesture, so you can more easily adjust the volume on the bose than you can with the Sony.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now the ANC on both of these earbuds is very impressive, but I do want to tapper exceptions here, dont expect the ANC on these earbuds to block out as much noise as a pair of premium ANC headphones like lets say the Bose QC Ultra headphones, Sony 1000XM5, AirPods Max or Sennheiser Momentum 4.
However when it comes to overall ranking… the AirPods Pro 2 and the Sony WF-1000XM5’s are neck and neck when it comes to first place, closely followed by the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds, below them are the Bose QC Earbuds 2, Below them are the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s, below them are the Sony Linkbuds S, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 pro and below them are the Pixel Buds Pro.
Now the reason why I say the Sony WF-1000XM5’s are neck and neck with the AirPods Pro 2 is cause with the AirPods Pro 2’s, they do a slightly better job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds like road noise, where as the XM5’s do a slightly better job of blocking out random higher frequency sounds like chatter. And the Bose QC Ultra earbuds just cant manage to block out more noise than either of these two earbuds in either category.
But the important thing here is, the Bose QC Ultra earbuds block out noticeably more noise than their predecessor the Bose QC Earbuds 2. And even though the Bose QC Ultra aren’t blocking out at much noise as the Sony WF-1000XM5’s… the bose aren’t using foam ear tips like the WF-1000XM5’s. Which give them a slight advantage cause these foam ear tips passively block out more noise than silicon ear tips. But these foam ear tips do get itchy very quickly.
And even though the Bose aren’t blocking out as much noise as the AirPods Pro 2… the bose still block out a lot of noise without a whole lot a cabin pressure. Cause with the AirPods Pro 2, if theres a lot of noise pollution, there’s a lot of cabin pressure, which can be a little uncomfortable.
So even though the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds come in third place here when it comes to active noise cancelation… they come in first place here regarding comfort cause the Bose aren’t relying on foam ear tips to block out noise… and when theres a lot of noise to block out, there isn’t a lot of cabin pressure.
But then there are the ambient modes on these earbuds. Now the ambient mode on both of these earbuds are good… but they dont sound as good as the AirPods Pro 2’s ambient mode cause it doesn’t sound as natural, there’s a very faint hissing in the back and the microphone arrays dont do as good of a job of blocking out wind noise.
However, the ambient mode on the sony is a little better than on the bose cause its easier to adjust how much noise you want to let in, you can set it to focus on people’s voices and theres also your speak to chat feature where these headphones will lower the volume of music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can talk to someone without having to touch the earbuds.
Mic Bose Quite
But finally heres the microphone test, and overall I feel that both of these earbuds have decent enough sounding microphones on them to take phones calls with while in a quite room.
Mic Sony Quite
But I do think the Sony WF-1000XM5’s do a slightly better job of focusing on my voice.
Mic Sony Road
However when it comes to blocking out noise pollution, I do feel that both of these earbuds have room for improvement cause both of these earbuds let in a decent amount of noise pollution.
Mic Bose Road
But the Bose QC Ultra earbuds let in more road noise and theres more interference going on with my voice.
Mic Bose Chatter
And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter,
Mic Sony Chatter
The Sony’s do a slightly better job of reducing this chatter with less interference on my voice. So overall both of these earbuds have decent enough sounding microphones on them to take phone calls with while in a quite room, and they both do an okay job of reducing noise pollution. But they can both do better.
But with all of that being said, the sony WF-1000XM5’s have a smaller case than the bose while still having a longer lasting battery life and wireless charging. The Sony’s also sound a little better cause they have more resonance in their bass. They block out more noise and their ambient mode have more features to it. However, the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds are far more comfortable to wear than the Sony’s cause of their super shallow fit and ear fins. However if you want Bose’s comfort then you are going to have to compromise on their case.