Sony WH-1000XX The Collexion Review

Sony's The Collexion sits above the familiar WH-1000X line as a luxury statement: stainless steel, soft leatherette and understated surfaces in place of the usual plastics. The test verdict lands it a "very good" (1.4) and 9th of 56 Bluetooth headphones — with comfort and build both earning perfect scores, and a price assessment of a blunt "very expensive" (5.0).

The strongest finding in the whole test concerns fit. Where even other premium over-ears — the AirPods Max 2 and Sony's own WH-1000XM6 among them — began pressing on the head over longer office and train sessions, The Collexion stayed comfortable throughout, earning a perfect "very good" (1.0) for fit and adjustment and drawing praise as the most comfortable over-ears the testers could recall. Glasses-wearers, often the first to suffer with headbands and seals, were part of that verdict.

Build quality matched it: another perfect 1.0, with the steel-and-leatherette construction judged as good to wear as it looks. At 310 g it carries its luxury lightly.

The design's one structural sacrifice: the ear cups neither fold nor collapse, so even inside the supplied hard case — which at least has a practical carry handle — this is a bulky travelling companion that spends backpack space extravagantly.

Across rock, gentle melodies, genre-hopping albums and spoken podcasts, the tuning convinced both the reviewing team and their audio specialist: a balanced picture with rich but never exaggerated bass and detailed, airy highs. Two reservations kept it shy of the absolute elite: the mids leave something on the table, and without equaliser adjustments the headphones don't quite exploit their full potential.

The noise cancelling does a very good job in office conditions, damping surroundings pleasantly and without audible hiss. But it stops short of the over-ear summit. Keyboard tapping stays faintly audible, a colleague speaking still registers, and the cancellation — strong in the midrange — works too laxly at both low and high frequencies. On an aircraft, the engines' drone remains clearly perceptible, where the AirPods Max 2 isolate completely. ANC strength also isn't adjustable in stages.

The transparency mode, by contrast, is excellent: surroundings come through clear and natural, with only a soft, quiet self-noise.

The measurements: 36 hours 51 minutes of loud playback with ANC, and 38 hours 6 minutes without — noise cancelling barely costs an hour. Charging takes just 1 hour 8 minutes, and the standout figure is the top-up: 15 minutes on the cable yields around 14 hours of playback (14:04 with ANC, 14:12 without).

Context matters, though: Sony's own WH-1000XM6 ran nearly 60 hours in the same test regime, so The Collexion's stamina rates as decent rather than remarkable. Two genuine irritations: despite the 3.5 mm jack, nothing plays when the battery is empty, and USB-C audio isn't supported at all.

A dedicated button toggles the 360 Upmix with music, cinema and gaming modes. The test's dry verdict: for music it mostly makes songs sound like a speaker playing in your basement while you sit beside it — nice to try, rarely the better choice, and no reason to buy.

The free iOS/Android app is more substantive: equaliser, noise-cancelling adjustment and automation based on daily routines and location. Multipoint ran smoothly across an iPhone and a MacBook in testing, wear detection paused and resumed music reliably, and Speak-to-Chat correctly lowered the volume whenever the wearer started talking.

Call quality follows the familiar over-ear pattern: good in quiet surroundings, but on busy city streets too much environmental noise reaches the other side and the voice arrives partly chopped.

The overall grade weights sound at 40 per cent, noise cancelling at 20, mobility and comfort at 15 each and equipment at 10 — and the ranking is dynamic, re-scoring every model as the class leader moves. Ninth of 56 with perfect comfort and build scores, docked mainly on ANC's low-frequency laxness and that "very expensive" (5.0) price verdict, is a precise summary of where this product lives: luxury first, specification war second.

At the time of writing, Amazon UK lists The Collexion at £549.00 new in both finishes — Black (model WH1000XXB.CE7) and Platinum (WH1000XXW.CE7). That is firmly flagship money, above Sony's own WH-1000XM6.

The Collexion is Sony making a leather-and-steel argument rather than a spec-sheet one: the most comfortable over-ears in the test's recent memory, flawless build, balanced and airy sound, superb transparency mode and a genuinely magic quick charge. The asterisks are real — ANC that lets low frequencies through, no folding, no dead-battery playback, and a price rated "very expensive" against rivals that undercut it heavily. Buy it as the luxury comfort choice it is, not as the noise-cancelling champion it isn't.