The Sony WF-1000XM6 are officially our favourite flagship wireless earbuds

It’s been a big month for our best wireless earbuds buying guide, the place where our team of reviewers hand-picks and highlights the top pairs you can buy for your money.

There’s something for everyone on the page, whether you want a top-value pair that works for a tight budget or something more premium that can take your listening experience to another level.

A new flagship pair has arrived in our test rooms and immediately gone about setting a new performance benchmark, blowing many of its close rivals out of the water.

You might not be surprised to know that the model we are talking about is Sony’s new flagship, the WF-1000XM6.

These wireless earbuds take top spot as our “best overall” recommendation. They sit at the more premium end of the price spectrum, but we feel they deliver a stunning performance for the money. If you experience only one pair of wireless earbuds this year, we urge you to make it the Sonys.

As we say in our Sony WF-1000XM6 review, the earbuds are “out of this world and put in an all-round performance good enough to worry every major rival at the money.”

They make the Bose QC Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) sound “overblown and lacking sophistication and refinement” and make the Technics EAH-AZ100 sound “like they’re holding back dynamically”.

This is no mean feat and just goes to show you how highly we rate them. The Sonys also excel when it comes to noise-cancelling and push the Bose extremely close.

There’s something about the way the XM6 deploy their ANC so naturally, which makes them so easy to get along with.

Call quality is excellent, and the Sonys have a very generous feature set too, which includes eight hours of battery life per charge (which rises to 24 when including the wireless charging case), Multipoint Bluetooth and a ten-band graphic equaliser.

The only area where we think there is some room for improvement is the eartips – it can be tricky getting a good seal the first time due to the firmness and thickness of the material used. We also think a larger tip option could help here.

That aside, the Sonys deliver such a wonderfully refined, natural and dynamic sound that it’s impossible not to be impressed. As we say in our review, “The Sonys make instruments and vocals sound believable, just as if you were standing in the room getting a private performance.” This is the new benchmark for sound quality at this level.

MORE:

Read our full Sony WF-1000XM6 review

The Sony WF-1000XM6 are giving me a serious case of déjà vu, but it’s not all positive

Sony WF-1000XM6 vs WF-1000XM5: which premium wireless earbuds are better?

Our pick of the best wireless earbuds you can buy for every budget