Sony ULT Wear headphones review

Sony announced a new series of devices labeled the ULT power sound series mid April.

This series came as a set of wireless speakers and headphones featuring what’s labeled as ULT Power which Sony contends may just make a statement many sound enthusiasts will appreciate.

We were intrigued by the wireless headphones known as the Sony ULT Wear, WH-ULT900N as these bad boys mean business in a whole new way of functionality – on paper.

Sony ULT Wear

Sony introduces the Sony ULT Wear as part of a kitted series of devices with some technological sound muscle and the latest headphone offering.

They’re nothing fancy at first glance when unboxing which is ideally a good thing for managing expectations.

The Sony ULT Wear is the more reasonably priced offering from Sony when compared to the Sony WH-1000XM5, and that makes sense considering how headphone’s that make a statement of quality come with a slightly heavier price tag.

There is exceptional bass with refined sound augmentation, meaning crisp delivery of sound from the new ULT Wear headphones.

The headphones also feature noise-canceling, feature ambient noise, a battery life of around 30 hours with noise canceling on and 5o hours with noise canceling mode off.

They did take what felt like ages to charge, about 4,4 hours but we advise plugging them in when you go to bed and leaving with them in the morning.

Automatic pause and play

Our Sony ULT Wear headphones came in the colour black, were bass-infused, and came with a sensor that paused our downloaded streamed episodes when we took our headphones off, only to resume playback when we put them back on.

The ULT Wear allowed us to pair two devices at the same time meaning our smartphone and tablet were both ready to play tennis with crisp sound from the ULT Wear.

We were pleasantly impressed at Sony’s dual noise sensor technology and integrated V1 processor which contributed to noise cancelling that made a 13-hour flight to China a lot more pleasant.

The Chipset difference.

It’s Sony’s V1 chipset with a specially designed driver unit for deep bass delivery that compensates. Pressing the ULT button not only raises bass levels for goosebump-raising audio at more than 1000 ft off the group, but a series of profiles from the device allow every user to capsulate their own recipe of audio.

The Sony ULT Wear headphones are solidly convincing on audio quality and have an immersive feel. One would have had to have experienced better to really critic and objectively argue that this latest release from Sony falls short of the good headphones mark.

Sony’s 20-level transparency mode is one of my own personal features from the brand as it is known to increase situational awareness better than most of the competition. Think of headphones that reduce or lower sound volume the minute your hand nears one of its earcups.

These are some of the features that made us appreciate Sony’s effort in relation to sound and how listeners prefer it.

We appreciated adaptive sound control but mostly the decent noise cancellation feature, good enough to block out most airplane engine noise but not enough to block out announcements from the captain mid-flight. This is a good thing considering the warning from Sony to avoid wearing the headphones while walking or driving as this may lead to some accidents.

Features such as the spatial audio and LDAC which are known to impact battery drainage didn’t seem to affect our experience.

Design

Sony’s design has often played it safe on appeal with focus concentrated more on internal features. I’ve heard no complaints on my end. The dark black looking ULT Wear headphones features a polished look of black, angled contoured earcups, a plastic feeling when grabbed, and a large ULT button and power button for ease of reach when toggling.

The simplicity of it all makes sense when pairing. Remember these are mid-rand earphones, which bring forward decent battery life, and competitive noise cancelling.

Inside the bag, you will find a 3.5mm headphone cable alongside a type-C charging cable.

The earphone case is solid enough for the headphones to survive my storm of electronic gadgets for a trip out of the country.

The Sony ULT Wear headphones are a step up from the WH-1000XM4’s but on appearance alone, it would be difficult to separate the two at a distance, unless you’re us who spot differently placed Sony emblems on different versions. It is after all our job to know the difference.

These ULT wear headphones are decently equipped with adaptive sound control with the ability to switch between noise canceling in passive mode and in transit mode. This is a great feature to have for users to be brought back to noise if they’re anywhere near traffic.

A type-C port is available on the left earcup bottom for charging next to the ULT button, the power button and the NC/AMB button for audio selection.

Overall

These are convincing and palatably addictive for trips.  Once the brain stretches a certain direction and is introduced to noise canceling, it’s a bit of a mission to imagine life without the feature. For us, Sony’s latest addition of headphones make sense, look traditional and bring about an option for those not looking to break the bank.

Available at probably just over R 3 500 or more, we still think these are decent value for money for anyone looking to enjoy decent sound return while inside a long flight to the other side of the equator. We appreciated the 40 mm driver unit and integrated V1 processor, they made quite an impact.

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