Sony Launches New WH-1000XM4 Headphones with Next Generation Adaptive Noise Canceling

Sony Electronics announced the WH-1000XM4 – the fourth-generation noise-canceling headphones from Sony's 1000X family. The popular wireless over-ear model shows a similar design to the previous WH-1000XM3, with subtle but effective changes in materials providing longer comfort and lighter weight. But the main improvement relies on Sony's latest processing, sensors and a new Bluetooth 5 SoC, providing the WH-1000XM4 with additional smart features that personalize music, improve noise cancelation and adjust ambient sound automatically.

The Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona was cancelled, but that doesn't keep companies from making their scheduled announcements for the mobile industry. Sony released information about all the new products that intended to show in Barcelona and there is an interesting announcement of a flagship smartphone with interesting audio specifications, apart from the usual great quality screen and cameras. The new Sony Xperia 1 II Smartphone even has a 3.5mm audio jack!

This year, I was really looking forward to meeting with the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), the support organization for the advancement and adoption of USB technology, and discuss their projects for the USB4 Specification, the really big, gigantic update story on that front (at least in consumer electronics) since CES last year. The USB-IF announced the publication of the latest and greatest USB4 specification in September 2019, offering a major update to the USB architecture that complements and builds upon the existing USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 architectures. This article was published originally in The Audio Voice 264 newsletter, February 6.

iFi announced a new model to its already extensive range of portable DAC/headphone amps with an all-new design – the Hip-DAC. Looking conveniently like a pocket flask, the new portable device features an extruded aluminum enclosure with a distinct petrol blue finish and a touch of copper, offering an extensive set of specifications to support high resolution audio (HRA) sources, while keeping an affordable price tag at just $149 USD or €159 Euros.

HIFIMAN is a brand revered for its high end planar magnetic and electrostatic headphone solutions. Recently, the company surprised us with the announcement of a TWS model, and now the company confirmed that is now shipping a new wireless version of its acclaimed Ananda open-back planar headphones, an attempt to create a high fidelity personal audio solution that translates the highest possible quality from high resolution audio sources, wired and wireless.

At the IFA 2019 consumer electronics show in Berlin, Germany, Sony had a lot of new products to show, including new wireless headphone models that improve on the company’s leading technologies. But headphones also need audio sources, and can particularly benefit from high quality audio players, like the new Sony Walkman NW-ZX500 and NW-A100 series, which support direct streaming services and also feature MQA support for streams and downloads.

Another week and more audio products are pitched on crowdfunding platforms. Some products have new or clearly differentiated arguments - sometimes so new or different that it's hard to believe! - while others are simply well-designed or products that have to rely on better quality and technical arguments that consumer's will find hard to understand or believe. The latter is the reason why we decided to write about the new Dense Audio USB audio DAC, called Adapt. This is a product designed by an experienced team, who have ventured into creating a new company and launch a product "that could set a new standard and be used for a long time in this fast-changing world."