Sony WH-1000XM5

Once the novelty passes, the noise cancelling is what people still notice. Owners who came from the XM3 or XM4 say it is at least as good and probably a little better, and one owner who moved on to another brand still rated the XM5 as a strong second. Ambient sound passthrough gets singled out as a clear step up from the XM4.

Sound is where opinions divide a little, even though most are positive. One owner who has used them for around three years says they beat their previous Apple headphones and have worn better. Another, coming from the XM3, found the sound a letdown no matter how they set the equaliser. One owner who tuned them with a calibration profile is happy with a flat, neutral result. Most people who are not audio obsessives say they simply sound great.

The electronics and the noise cancelling hold up. An owner around three years in still uses them daily and says they show less wear than the headphones they replaced. The one weak spot that comes up is the hinge: the plastic stem around it can break. One owner repaired a broken hinge with a third-party kit instead of buying a new pair, and it is holding, though the ear cups no longer rotate flat.

The long-term accounts are thin. A small number of owners describe the hinge breaking, and only one describes multi-year daily use. That is not enough to say how common the hinge failure is or what to expect past year three, so treat the durability picture here as early and incomplete.

Parts named in the 19 accounts that describe a failure

• hinge8 of 19
• headband/earcup1 of 19
• build quality/housing1 of 19
• hinge/general failure (self-repaired)1 of 19
• headband/plastic hinge1 of 19