The current cycle of premium wireless headphones has thrown up some wonderful options. We had the Dali IO-8 (currently £499 / $900 / AU$999) arrive at the end of last year, and while they remain an expensive pair of over-ears, we thought the Dali would be extremely tough to beat for any set of cans operating within the premium realm.
2025, however, has seen the bar nudged ever-skywards. Beyerydynamic looked to stake its claim in the wireless arena with the talented Aventho 300 (£359 / $400 / AU$640), while the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 were a treat for the eyes and ears when they arrived in the summer for roughly £399 / $449 / AU$699.
Then, of course, there are the established models that are still staking their respective claims. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (currently £349 / $449 / AU$449) remain a great pick if noise cancelling is your top priority, whereas the older but still ongoing Apple AirPods Max (£499 / $480 / AU$899) remain a top choice for dedicated Apple fans.
Each of the aforementioned candidates has its own respective strengths and weaknesses. The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, for instance, sound superb and look the business, but their noise cancelling leaves rather a lot to be desired given the price you’ll pay, while their lack of foldability hinders their portable credentials.
The AirPods Max continue to deliver a luxurious experience befitting the high price tag, but their talents work best for iOS users and newer rivals offer greater clarity and precision. While the Bose flagships are superb for noise cancelling, their sound isn’t quite class-leading anymore.
The talented Dali IO-8, meanwhile, will rightly have many fans, but their reliance on on-button controls, some of which can be fiddly to use, will frustrate users who prefer proper app support. Plus, like the Px7 S3, they don’t fold away.
Yes, you can get even better sounding wireless headphones, but as the new Focal Bathys Mg have demonstrated, you’re going to have to spend more for the privilege. For the Bathys Mg, that privilege will set you back £999 / $1299 / AU$2300.
The best of a brilliant bunch
So, what we’re looking for is a pair of wireless over-ears that sound great, are comfortable to wear, easy to use, offer a great feature set and, even if they’re not super cheap, make you feel like you’re getting proper value for money. I know just the pair...
If true all-rounders are what you seek, the Sony WH-1000XM6 (£400 / $450 / AU$699) are my top pick. The idea of ‘all-rounders’ can make you think of compromise, or of a product hedging its bets to try and please all users, but that’s never something you could accuse the sixth-gen Sony over-ears of.
They’re excellent across the board, nullifying most potential weaknesses while showcasing their exceptional strengths.
The Sony WH-1000XM6 are brilliant in all of the areas in which their WH-1000XM5 antecedents excelled, albeit to a greater extent. They sound better, their feature set is expanded, they’re nicer to use and they’re even more comfortable than before.
Better yet, they’ve rectified the minor issues that we and many customers had with the fifth-generation cans. They collapse completely away with the earcups folding neatly upwards, which is a massive bonus for everyday use, while their reinforced hinges should rectify the structural weakness issues which many users had with the outgoing, Award-winning WH-1000XM5.
They're supremely comfortable, too, with our test ream finding their snug fit, improved clamping force and resistance to making our ears overheat only adding to our affections.
Heading off the competition
Against their competitors, the WH-1000XM6 can take on all comers in all departments. Sonically, they outstrip the Bose over-ears, as our review explains: “We try Time from the Inception soundtrack and the WH-1000XM6 are a step above the XM5 in terms of detail, dynamics and openness. Play the same track through the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, and it isn’t a fair fight – the Bose sound out of their depth”.
They’re up for the fight against the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 and the Dali IO-8 too. As we wrote at the time, the B&W cans might just win the race in terms of precision and fine detail, but the Sony have bringing a greater sense of expressiveness and musicality to their delivery.
The Dali are spacious and refined, if a little flavoured, but the Sony's exceptional helping of fun and dynamism, not to mention their overall experience, are tough to top.
Plus, unlike the Px7 S3, the Sony are now foldable and offer spatial audio support, all while dealing with noise cancelling more effectively.
In fact, in almost any area, the Sony WH-1000XM6 can hold their own, such is their impressive lack of any discernible blind spots. The Bose cans are the ANC kings, but the XM6s’ noise cancelling is so excellent that not once will you use them and feel as though you’d rather have a better alternative. They do the job brilliantly, and that’s more than enough for the vast majority of users.
Feature-wise, they’re exceptional. 30 hours of battery is enough to keep you happy at this level, as are hi-res LDAC Bluetooth codec support, Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast (for opening up connectivity to a variety of compatible sources and streams).
Sony’s 360 Reality Audio works well, while other Sony features, such as Speak to Chat and Quick Attention Mode – which allows you to hear ambient sounds by touching the right earcup – round out the spec list nicely. At this price, very few headphones can boast so many features or, more crucially, so many features that perform so well.
Maybe we'd have liked USB-C wired listening, as found with the rival Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3, but considering how good the XM6 sound without wires, it's hardly a huge issue.
It wouldn’t been nice to see the high quality aptX codecs on the menu, but Sony counters all that with LDAC support, provided you have a compatible source player.
Headphones for everybody
If you’re going to spend this kind of money on a pair of wireless headphones, you want excellent performance across the board and no discernible weaknesses leaving you frustrated over time.
These are cans you have to live with, and while average ANC, say, might not bother you on day one, over time it can become a real issue. That’s the same with poor levels of comfort, tricky usability, an anaemic feature set or, of course, middling sound quality.
Perish such concerns with the WH-1000XM6. At this level, they truly are the jacks of all trades and masters of quite a few, leading the pack sonically and levelling up the flagship line’s usability credentials to new heights.
To quote from our review: "The WH-1000XM6 deliver the most detailed, dynamic, precise and open sound we’ve heard from a wireless Sony flagship". When you consider how high those standards were already, that's some seriously high praise.
I was a big fan of the WH-1000XM5, but as all the wireless headphone a person could need, the WH-1000XM6 are masterful all-rounders.
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