Hardware Review · Purchased April 29, 2024 · $391.72 CAD via Amazon
I want to be upfront about something before this review even starts: the WH-1000XM5 is not a gaming headset, and that is exactly why I bought it.
The Background
I already owned a dedicated gaming headset before this purchase, and it was fine for what it was. What it was not was a headphone I wanted to wear on a flight, during a work call, or on a walk. By spring of 2024 I had decided I wanted one really good pair of noise-cancelling headphones that could do double duty across my actual life, gaming included, rather than a gaming-specific headset that only made sense at my desk. Sony’s flagship XM line has been the benchmark in consumer ANC headphones for several generations running, and the XM5 is the current version of that reputation.
I paid close to full retail at $391.72, picked up from Amazon in late April. In hindsight, that was the one mistake in this purchase: these go on sale often enough, sometimes $100 or more off, that patience would have paid off. If you are considering the same pair, it is worth watching prices for a couple of weeks before buying.
Living With It
The noise cancelling is the headline feature and it delivers. Airplane cabin noise, HVAC hum, open-office chatter, all of it gets flattened to a low murmur, and the transparency mode (for when you need to hear someone talking to you without taking the headphones off) is genuinely useful rather than a gimmick. Sound signature is clean and slightly warm, not the bass-forward tuning a lot of consumer headphones lean into, which I personally prefer for long listening sessions since it does not fatigue the ears the way an aggressive bass boost can.
Comfort is where these earn their keep for me. I use them for hours at a stretch, gaming in the evening after wearing them all day for work calls, and the clamping force and ear cushion padding hold up without the hot-ear feeling some over-ear headphones give you after a few hours.
The genuine complaint, and one that shows up in basically every review of this generation, is that Sony dropped the folding hinge design from the XM4. The XM5 collapses flatter but does not fold in on itself, so the case is noticeably bigger and less pocketable in a bag. It is a small thing until you are the one repacking a carry-on around it.
For gaming specifically: these connect over Bluetooth, not a wired connection with a dedicated gaming DAC, so if you are chasing the lowest possible input latency for competitive play, this is not the tool for that job. For anything else, story-driven games, general couch gaming, streaming, they sound excellent.
What I Liked
- Best-in-class noise cancelling for the price bracket
- Comfortable enough for genuinely long sessions
- Clean, accurate sound signature that does not fatigue over time
- Multi-device pairing makes switching between PS5, phone, and laptop painless
What I Didn’t
- No longer folds flat, bigger case than the previous generation
- Bluetooth-only means it is not ideal for latency-sensitive competitive gaming
- I paid full price when patience would have saved a real amount of money
The Value Verdict
Rating: 4/5
As a headphone that has to work across my whole day, not just gaming, this was the right call, and the audio and noise cancelling quality genuinely justify the price bracket. The only real ding is on me: buying at full retail when a sale was probably two or three weeks away the whole time. If you want one pair of headphones to do everything reasonably well, this earns its reputation. If you specifically want a gaming headset, look elsewhere first.
The Compulsive Canadian Gamer 