Sony will launch a successor to its WH-1000XM5 noise cancelling headphones on May 15th, according to leaked information reported by Dealabs and Android Authority.
Details of the new headphones model, called the WH-1000XM6, come from a now pulled Amazon Spain listing for the product that was first spotted by a Reddit user. The XM6 will feature an upgraded noise-canceling processor called the QN3 HD, which according to Dealabs, will be seven times faster than the QN1 chip present in Sony’s XM5. The upgrade should result in better noise cancelling and perhaps sound quality. It also looks like it has an AI-powered six-microphone beamforming system for calls, and still comes with a headphone jack.
Unfortunately the Trump administration’s tariffs seem to be affecting the price of the new XM6. Dealabs says it will launch for $449.99 in the US — $50 more expensive than the $399.99 XM5s, which our senior reviewer Chris Welch has called the best wireless headphones for most people. The XM5, however, is only slightly better at noise canceling than the XM4 that launched in 2020, so the XM6 will need a truly generational improvement to justify the higher price.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
