Sony Is Celebrating 10 Years Of 1000X With A Pair Of Luxury Wireless Headphones

Sony has spent a decade defining what a mainstream noise-cancelling headphone should be. The 1000X line, kicked off by the MDR-1000X back in 2016, has gone through a number of over-ear iterations and has, more often than not, been at least one of the default recommendations for anyone shopping in the category. To mark the 10-year anniversary, Sony is doing something a little different — it's launching the 1000X The ColleXion headphones, which are a luxury, design-led take on the formula that sits above the WH-1000XM6 in price.

The new headphones are decidedly not a replacement for the WH-1000XM6, which itself was only launched last year. Sony has been clear that The ColleXion is a "masterpiece" edition — a halo product built around craftsmanship and materials rather than a generational tech leap. At $649, it's priced well above the standard flagship but isn't necessarily better than the WH-1000XM6 in every way. You get metal hinges, a non-folding chassis, and plusher materials.

The 1000X The ColleXion headphones are clearly premium in design. They have metal hinges, a faux leather material covering the headband and earbuds, and no plastic to be seen. Even the ports are reinforced with metal.

But there are some trade-offs to the more premium build. Unlike the WH-1000XM6 headphones, the earcups don't fold. They do swivel, so the headphones can get nice and flat but not quite as compact as their cheaper sibling.

The ear cushions are thick and plush, and the padding feels denser and softer than what's on the XM6. The headband uses a continuous arc geometry with generous padding along its length, and it's thicker, so it distributes weight evenly on the head. In practice, this all adds up to a genuinely comfortable pair of headphones — I wore them for several hours at a time without the hot-spot fatigue that can occur with a lot of over-ears, and the lighter clamp force helps too.

The active noise cancellation (ANC) tech inside The ColleXion is, by Sony's own admission, the same as what's in the WH-1000XM6, but that's not a bad thing — those headphones have among the best ANC out there. But because the new headphone is built around comfort and a more premium fit, like a lighter clamp force, and a different earcup shape, Sony says the cancellation might actually be very slightly worse than on the XM6.

In my listening, I could only detect minor differences. It's still excellent ANC and well within the top tier of what's available. But it's worth noting that the more expensive headphones don't claim to out-cancel the cheaper one, and neither of them are as good as the new AirPods Max 2.

The core software is unchanged. You get ambient mode, adaptive sound control, app-based EQ, and DSEE Ultimate — Sony's AI-driven upscaling for compressed audio. The drivers are new, though, and Sony is positioning the sound as a refinement of the 1000X signature rather than a rethink. What's different, in my early listening, is a slightly cleaner sense of separation and a bit more headroom in busy mixes. There's a little more detail, and a bit more room to breathe — but it's far from a big change.

Unfortunately, while there is a USB-C port on the headphones, it's for charging only. There's no USB-C audio, which seems like a big omission at this price point. Speaking of charging, you might need to do it more often than you'd like — the headphones have a 24-hour battery life, which isn't as good as the 30-hour battery life on the WH-1000XM6 headphones. It's not horrible, but it is below average.

The Sony 1000X ColleXion headphones are a high-margin halo product, and Sony isn't really pretending otherwise. At $649, it's a statement piece celebrating 10 years of one of the most influential headphone lines on the market, and the build, materials, and comfort are calibrated to justify that positioning.

What you're not getting is more battery, more compactness, or USB audio. The ANC and sound are very good but largely in line with what you'd get from the XM6, which costs significantly less.