Sony has launched its highly-anticipated WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones – the latest addition to its 1000X range.
The tech company says that these headphones deliver “Sony’s best noise-cancelling performance, reducing high and mid-frequency sounds”.
With two microphones on each earcup, Sony’s Dual Noise Sensor technology captures ambient noise and passes the data to the trusted HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1. A new Bluetooth Audio SoC (System on Chip) senses and adjusts to music and noise at over 700 times per second.
Using a new algorithm, the HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1 applies noise cancelling processing in real-time, allowing the listener to focus more on the music they love and blur out unwanted distractions.
Edge-AI analyses music in real-time and recognises instruments, music genres and individual elements of each song to restore the high range sounds lost in compression for a richer, more complete listening experience.
Sony worked with Sony Music Studios Tokyo to build this AI system by gathering data on music to garner true insight into how specific music signals are composed.
The headphones feature 360 Reality Audio – a new immersive audio experience that immerses listeners in the music as if they’re listening to their favourite artist live. Listeners can enjoy a custom immersive musical field that is perfectly optimised for each user when using the WH-1000XM4 headphones and the Sony Headphones Connect app.
The headphones feature adaptive Sound Control, a feature that senses where the listener is and what they’re doing then adjusts ambient sound settings for the ideal listening experience.
Over time, Adaptive Sound Control learns to recognise locations that listeners frequently visit, such as work, gym or a café, and tailors sound to suit the situation.
Everyday convenience
New to the WH-1000XM4 is ‘Speak-to-Chat’, an innovative feature that lets listeners engage in short conversations without taking their headphones off. By simply saying a phrase, the headphones will recognise the listener’s voice, automatically stop the music and let in ambient sound without the need to remove the headphones.
The headphones feature new Precise Voice Pickup technology, which uses five of the microphones in the headphones for advanced audio signal processing to pick up voices clearly and precisely for hands-free calls and Speak-to-Chat.
Sony’s WH-1000XM4 noise-cancelling headphones are available in Black and Platinum Silver and will be available in South Africa from September.
