Sony’s Ult Wear headphones offer near-flagship performance for less than $200
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Many of the best headphones and earbuds carry the Sony name. The global electronics conglomerate dominates the category in various areas ranging from noise-cancelling to true wireless. In fact, Sony is so ahead of the game, it developed multiple headphone divisions — Extra Bass, Inzone, Signature and the universally acclaimed Mark series — to compete with itself. Now the company has launched another with the Ultimate (Ult) line.
The Ult Wear are the sub-brand’s headphone debut. They carry over headline features from the Extra Bass and Mark series, while introducing new ones. A robust spec sheet and updated packaging also make these wireless cans a charming mid-range option.
It’s easy to get caught up in the Ult Wear’s high-end functionality and overlook their shortcomings, which are plentiful. However, the headphones do what they’re meant to, and that’s deliver the Sony listening experience for a more attainable price.
Sony Ult Wear headphones
The Ult Wear impress with vibrant bass-forward sound that can be enhanced through numerous perks. Long battery life and strong fundamental features add to their value.
What we liked about them
An ultra-bass blaster with sonic refinement
Bass is the driving force behind the Ult Wear’s soundstage, and there’s plenty of it to go around. The emphasized low end is perfect for contemporary music genres; hard rock and hip-hop tracks had the thumpy, energetic presence I desired.
The growling mono-bass on Travis Scott’s “Butterfly Effect” had me bopping on the couch, while the electrifying guitar riff and pounding bass drum on AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” stimulated an infectious head-throbbing reaction throughout the listen. Sony’s new Bass Mode (activated via the Ult button) was a mixed bag. I loved the low-end presentation on the previously mentioned tracks, but I wasn’t thrilled with the muddy midrange on upbeat recordings like Victoria Monet’s “Experience.” Turning the feature off stabilized frequency range.
Sony lets you personalize sound by adjusting the customizable EQ, selecting from several well-engineered presets, or using the Find Your Equalizer function to automatically create a sound profile based on your hearing.
DSEE is the unsung hero on all Sony headphones. It does a fantastic job of upscaling sound on poorly converted tracks. My old LimeWire downloads had more clarity and depth. Sony’s 360 Reality is compatible with select hi-fi music streaming services like Deezer and Tidal. The latter has optimized 360 Reality playlists to help me enjoy satisfying 3D audio with head tracking.
LDAC isn’t advertised, but the lossy audio codec is available to enable high quality sound transmission over Bluetooth at up to 990 kbps. You’ll hear instruments and nuances more clearly when streaming tracks on your Android devices.
Useful controls across the board
The Ult Wear come with motion, physical, touch and voice controls. Everything works flawlessly. Wear detection automatically pauses content when removing the headphones. On the left earcup is where you’ll find the buttons, which produce a nice click sound that ensures your intended command is being registered. The right earcup has a highly responsive touch panel for registering swipes (forward/back, volume), taps (play/pause, answer/end call) and long-hold gestures (digital assistance). Then there’s voice activation to fire up Alexa or Google Assistant via wake-word and execute voice commands with ease.
Certain smart controls like Speak-to-Chat are MIA. All that means is you can’t lower volume by speaking out loud.
Near-flagship specs
When it comes to features, the Ult Wear are second only to our best over-ear headphones pick in the WH-1000XM5. Sony’s V1 chip grants access to a plethora of proprietary sound technologies: 360 Reality Audio, Adaptive Sound Control, Ambient Sound Control, EQ and LDAC. Other notable perks that can be activated in the Sony Headphones Connect app include auto-power off, digital assistant activation, multipoint technology for pairing to two devices simultaneously and the ability to prioritize sound quality or connectivity.
Adding to the headphones lively feature set is a monstrous battery that generates up to 50 hours of playtime. ANC use drops it down to 30 hours, and power-drainers like multipoint and spatial audio decrease playtimes by about 3 hours. That’s still a lot more juice than the Apple AirPods Max (20 hours) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra (24 hours). I got about 10 days of moderate use (4 hours daily) before recharging. A 10-minute quick charge equates to 5 hours of listening time.
What we didn’t like about them
A chintzy design that pretends to be classy
These headphones look better in advertisements than they do out of the box. Certain details like the arched yokes and plush leather padding on the earcups and headband are done well. Everything else is bland and unattractive. The large mic grilles above each earcup and the Ult button are unnecessarily huge. Sony’s predominately plastic construction feels flimsy. Simply put, the design lacks premium appeal.
Noise cancellation could be better
ANC on the Ult Wear doesn’t live up to its billing. The technology can deal with common household distractions (e.g., kitchen appliances, TVs) and certain outdoor noises. Where it disappoints is high-frequency neutralization and transparency. High-pitched sounds like bird chirps and sirens crash onto the soundstage. Wind resistance is perplexing. I say that because the feature is strong enough to handle gusty breezes, yet it struggles to minimize the whisking effects produced by slow-speed vehicles. You’ll only want to use Sony’s 20-level Ambient Sound Mode for increasing situational awareness because the Ult Wear’s voice capture is weak compared to other Sony models. Conversations with my wife and son didn’t sound clear, and that was with the voice passthrough function turned on.
Sony’s call quality hits a wall again
The Ult Wear isn’t a great calling headset. Background noise interfered with most conversations. There was a lot of muffling during calls. Dropout occurred often as well. The only time the headphones provided serviceable voice calling was in extremely quiet settings.
Bottom line
For $200, the Ult Wear undercut numerous luxury wireless headphones with their remarkable sonic performance. DSEE and LDAC significantly boost audio quality and playback. Bass is emphatic, and the ULT button ramps it up even higher. Access to nearly every signature Sony feature is awesome. The multi-faceted control setup works extremely well. Lastly, their battery life is longer than the majority of noise-canceling headphones out there.
Sony could have done more to improve ANC and call quality. The same can be said about craftsmanship. Then again, no Sony headphone has been able to match the WH-1000XM2’s gorgeous luxe design.
Flaws aside, the Ult Wear are superior to many mid-range rivals and a worthy pickup for budget-conscious brand enthusiasts who feel Sony’s flagship is out of their financial reach.
Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed price at the time of publication.
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