The Sony WF-C700N earphones are equipped with an active noise reduction system and promise improved listening conditions in noisy environments and excellent battery life at a reasonable price. These ultra-lightweight earphones are also 360 Reality Audio compatible.
Pros
- Rich, detailed and balanced sound
- Wide soundstage
- Effective active noise reduction
- Lightweight and comfortable to wear
- Long battery life
Cons
- Poor noise reduction during calls
As a leading headphone specialist, Sony often stands out thanks to its technological mastery and reference products, such as the Sony WF-1000XM4, which shine with their audio qualities, advanced active noise reduction and remarkable battery life. With the Sony WF-C700N headphones, the challenge for the Japanese manufacturer is to succeed in a less premium niche, as with its previous WF-C500, but without sacrificing the qualities mentioned earlier. These new headphones do not have touch control or convenience features such as wear detection but have a convincing ANC and more than adequate sound performance.
DESIGN
The Sony WF-C700N in-ear headphones have a particularly compact button design. Never before has Sony designed headphones as light as the WF-C700N. They’re comfortable to wear at less than 5 grams per unit, especially when walking, due to the lack of inertia and the ear-friendly design.
Each earbud has a push button to control playback and call functions, as well as microphones are hidden by thin grills lined with acoustic fabric to limit the impact of wind during phone calls. Silicone ear tips are fitted with an acoustic foam cap to improve sound diffusion in the ear canal. The comfort of the port is maintained for the duration, and it is hard while running that perspiration – which they do not fear – which can make these earphones a little mobile in the ear canal. But one press and everything is back in order.
ADAPTIVE SOUND CONTROL
The Sony WF-C700N are compatible with “adaptive sound control”. Using the smartphone’s gyroscope, the Sony Headphones app can enable or disable ANC or transparency mode, depending on whether the user is sitting, walking, running or on public transport. This option is disabled by default.
On paper, the principle can seduce. In practice, you have to wait 10 to 20 seconds for each scenario to be detected and for the headphones to switch to ANC or transparency mode. Above all, it is imperative to keep your smartphone with you.
EQUALIZER
Sony has done well to offer the user powerful sound customisation options. Several equalisation profiles are integrated, and five frequency bands are adjustable.
The Sony Headphones app can automatically trigger the transparency mode, depending on the user’s movements. The intensity of the transparency mode can be adjusted. Several equalisation profiles are available.
In addition, a Clear Bass option allows the listener to lighten or boost low frequencies with 20 steps. In these conditions, arranging the headphones’ signature to his preferences is effortless.
360 REALITY AUDIO
The only problem with the Sony WF-C700N headphones is their optimisation for listening to 360 Reality Audio titles. Beforehand, let’s remember that this immersive audio format, available for specific titles on Tidal and Amazon Music, is based on spatialisation metadata integrated into the audio files, encoded in Mpeg-H 3D. However, Mpeg-H 3D is not integrated into the Bluetooth standard, and no Bluetooth audio codec (SBC, AAC…) currently allows the transmission of this essential metadata. As a result, all 360 Reality Audio titles could be more pleasant to listen to. A 360 title concentrates most of the sounds in the scene’s centre and some elements at the lateral ends. This is very unnatural and unpleasant.
The 360 Reality Audio optimisation involves taking a picture of your ears, which takes a few seconds, and then generating an equalisation profile.
Sony’s optimisation consists of taking a picture of each ear of the user to establish an equalisation profile, which is then transmitted to the Tidal app… but not to Amazon Music, which offers as many titles in 360 Reality Audio.
MULTIPOINT BLUETOOTH
Sony WF-C700N headphones should, according to Sony, become compatible with the multipoint connection under Android, iOS, Mac OS and Windows at the time of a firmware update scheduled for the summer of 2023. On the other hand, the headphones are not Google Fast Pair compatible, so pairing must be initiated manually. The connection showed no signs of weakness throughout this test, in the middle of a crowd or at home, through thin walls and up to 10 meters from my smartphone.
Only SBC and AAC codecs are integrated, Sony logically reserving LDAC technology for its premium headphones. However, this is not a handicap because, remember, the acoustic quality of the transducers takes precedence over the audio compression technology. As for the latency of the sound, the delay between image and sound is only perceptible in video games, and the delay is not too disabling. On the other hand, synchronisation is perfect in video playback.
ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION
The main advantage of the Sony WF-C700N earphones, compared to the C500, is the integration of an active noise reduction system. Although it does not reach the performance of the WF-1000XM4 headphones, its performance is respectable since the algorithm removes unwanted noise up to the middle frequencies. In transport, the hum of an internal combustion engine is largely attenuated, as well as rolling noise.
AUDIO
Little is known about the transducers that equip the Sony WF-C700N earphones, except that they are traditional dynamic models with a diameter of about 5 mm. Therefore, small transducers are more likely to go up in frequency with rigour than to explore the depths of the low register. For this test, they were associated with different iPhone and Android smartphones.
MICROPHONE
The quality of the microphones is good and allows you to make calls while being very well heard when the ambient noise is limited. In boisterous environments, the filtering algorithms are ineffective, not removing all the parasite sounds around the user. In addition, the voice is considerably altered. On the other hand, the interlocutor’s voice is restored with great clarity.
BATTERY LIFE
Sony claims a cumulative battery life of 20 hours, with ANC inactive, divided half between the headphones and the case battery. At 50% of the volume of my iPhone, ANC active, the Sony WF-C700N headphones gave up after 6h45. An excellent score suggests that the 10-hour mark is approaching without noise reduction or at a more modest volume. The storage case allows the headphones to be recharged once and requires about 90 minutes to fill up.
CONCLUSION
You get what you pay for with the Sony WF-C700N headphones. First, the sound performance is outstanding, not only for the price but in absolute terms. With balance, a sense of detail, and dynamism, it needs more depth in the front axis to compete with the best premium headphones. Active noise reduction does a lot of good, but it doesn’t guarantee the listener a bubble of calm in all circumstances. It’s a pity that the quality of the calls is declining, just like the spatialisation of the titles in 360 Reality Audio. But for those looking for lightweight, durable and musical headphones, these Sony WF-C700N should be seriously considered.
