Sony has set the standard for noise-canceling headphones with its WH-1000X series. The WH-1000XM5 is one of our favorite headphones, and its much-awaited upgrade has finally arrived with the WH-1000XM6.

Coming from the design of the WH-1000XM5, the WH-1000XM6 has a wider headband that’s wrapped with vegan leather. It has an asymmetrical design to let you easily identify the left and right side, along with a stretchable material on the earpads for better comfort. The biggest is they are now foldable and have a new mechanism that’s made sing advance metal injection for a seamless durable fold. WH-1000XM5 users complain of them being bulky, and Sony finally addressed that with the WH-1000XM6 to make them slip seamlessly into bags and airplane pockets. This also means that the case is now more compact and features a magnetic closure instead of a zipper.

Noise cancellation is the biggest strength of the WH-1000X series, and Sony improved that on the WH-1000XM6 with a new HD Noise Canceling Processor QN3 that is 1.5x more efficient than the WH-1000XM5’s QN2 processor. You get a total of 12 microphones to help with optimal noise cancellation in different environments and a new Adaptive NC Optimizer aids giving you “unmatched noise canceling precision”. Sony also improved Auto Ambient Sound in adapting to your surroundings in real time.

The QN3 processor also has an advanced look-ahead noise shaper for improved D/A conversion to optimize quantization noise while responding quickly to sudden sound changes. This goes along with the WH-1000XM6’s support for High-Resolution Audio and High-Resolution Audio Wireless via LDAC, along with Edge-AI and DSEE Extreme for audio upscaling.

The WH-1000XM6 will be available in Black, Platinum Silver and Midnight Blue and is priced at Php 27,999. The official price makes it a big price jump over the WH-1000XM5, and it appears Sony wants to market the WH-1000XM6 as an AirPods Max alternative.