Sony WH-XB900N vs Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT: Which to Buy?

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This review is about the comparison of the Sony WH-XB900N and the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT. Both these headphones come under the same price range currently but their features do differs a lot. To know which one is good to buy as per their features, go to the detailed review.

5.3 Sony WH-XB900N 35.8 Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT 1
Sony WH-XB900NAudio-Technica ATH-M50xBT
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PROSPROS
Great sound quality for the price.
Option for dedicated Google Assistant/Alexa button.
USB-C charging.
Good battery life.
More affordable than the 1000XM3.
Clean, simple looks.
Great sound, Excellent battery life, Folds down for storage, Bluetooth 5, AptX HD support.
CONSCONS
Touch controls are still frustrating.
Noise cancellation isn’t as powerful as the 1000XM3.
Too much bass for some people.
Price, Bluetooth carries some drawbacks, Heat buildup.

SPECIFICATIONS:

MODELSONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
BrandSonyAudio-Technica
Series
ModelWH-XB900N
HEADPHONESSONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
Headphones Form FactorFull-size
Connectivity TechnologyWirelessWireless
Sound Output ModeStereoStereo
Frequency Response20Hz15 Hz
Sensitivity99 dB/mW
Impedance50 ohm38 ohm
Diaphragm1.8 in
MICROPHONESONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
Microphone Technologyelectret condenser
Response Bandwidth50Hz
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTSONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
Width8.86 in
Depth9.13 in
Height4.8 in
Weight8.96 oz10.93 oz
POWERSONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
Battery30 Hour(s)40 Hour(s)
FEATURESSONY WH-XB900NAUDIO-TECHNICA ATH-M50XBT
FeaturesSONY AUTHORIZED DEALER: Includes USA Manufacturer Guarantee.

BUNDLE INCLUDES: Sony WH-XB900N EXTRA BASS Wireless Noise Canceling Over-Ear Headphones with the 5000mAh Battery Pack and Headphone Case.

DIGITAL NOISE CANCELLATION: Sony’s noise cancellation technology means you hear every word, note, and tune with incredible clarity, no matter your environment. Additional microphones also assist in isolating sound while talking on the phone, resulting in improved phone call quality.

AUDIO-TECHNICA AUTHORIZED DEALER: Includes USA Manufacturer Guarantee.

BUNDLE INCLUDES: Audio-Technica ATH-M50XBT Wireless Over-Ear Headphones and Knox Gear Protective Headphone Case.

BUILT-IN CONTROLS: Mic and button controls built into the earcup allow for easy handling of calls, music playback and volume adjustment.

LARGE-APERTURE DRIVERS: Proprietary 45mm large-aperture drivers deliver exceptional clarity throughout an extended frequency range, with deep, accurate bass response.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Sony WH-XB900N

The Sony WH-XB900N is currently retailing for around 180 Dollars. These do have a stylish look. These almost look like the XM3. These are known for the extra bass comes with. The XB900N does have good features for its price. 

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

The Audio-Technica ATH M50xBT is the Bluetooth version of the Studio Monitor headphones. The quality of these is really great. They run for about 180 Dollars currently. These headphones can be used for studio monitoring, for making music, for general listening, watching movies, and that kind of thing.

5.8 Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT 2

DESIGN:

Sony WH-XB900N

The XB900N looks very similar to the XM3. These in particular seem to attract the younger generation more. The colors on which these are available and the Sony branding on the headband looks like more youthful to me. The build quality is exactly the same with the exception of the fact about the texture we have here. Instead of the smoothest plastic like in XM3, we have textured plastic in these. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Also in these, we have bigger ear cups. On the ear cups, we have a custom button right there, which will be an ambient sound or noise-canceling button and double-tap as a Google assistant or a voice assistant button if you’re looking for that. We have the power button right there, which will also tell you your battery life if you just tap it while the headphones are on.

On the side of the headphone, we have the NFC tag which I would appreciate in headphones because when you just tap and it gets connected automatically. We also have USB-C port right there which is a huge plus for quick charge. You do have your mics on the headphone for your phone call and to pick up ambient sound. You also have the touchpad on the ear cup for the functionalities like play-pause, volume up-down, etc.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

I really like the design and build quality of these. I do think they look kind of huge when they’re on my head. Also, they do come out wide when I Stretched it but they don’t feel like they’re going to break. They’re made of a kind of matte plastic type of feel with a little bit of metal on the inside. I do like the headband in these. I wish Audio-Technica offer a hardshell case for these but I do appreciate that you can fold the headphones and they’re pretty compact. If you’re traveling a lot, they’re really awesome for that.

There are some multifunction buttons on these headphones like volume up and volume down, and then there’s a multifunction button in the middle for paring and turn on the headphone. They’re very easy to use and it’s amazing you just kind of turn them on, they’re paired, they’re ready to go. Pairing is usually pretty fast with Bluetooth 5.0, so that’s not really an issue. You can also use these with a wire obviously because there is a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack on there.

COMFORT:

Sony WH-XB900N

The ear cups here are bigger than the Sony XM3 and they may seem to be a slight bit more spacious inside the ear cups, so the ears get fit inside the earcups perfectly. It has a nice comfortable fit and then I noticed that the headband has a more roundish profile to it on the headband which is nice. When I put the XM3 on, it’s kind of egg-shaped head profile, but in the XB900N you get the round profile on the headband which looks fine and comfortable too.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

There’s nice kind of enough cushion in the headband as well as in the earcups. Overall they’re pretty comfortable to wear, they fit right on my head pretty nicely.  Even when I do wear these with glasses underneath they are comfortable enough. But it does press down on my glasses a little bit and into my head when I wore them for a longer time.

Sometimes my ears get a little hot under these as there’s not a whole lot of airflow going in and out because these are closed-back headphones. So, they do get a little sweaty when the weather is hot more but it doesn’t really feel like these are very fatiguing on the ears. I can listen to these for hours at a time, I do get hot but they’re not very fatiguing.

5.8 Sony WH-XB900N 1

FEATURES:

Sony WH-XB900N

The touchpad performs the functionalities like double-tap to play-pause, swipe forward to go to the next track, swipe backward to go to the previous track, swipe up to increase the volume, and swipe down to decrease the volume. It’s very simple and very familiar when it comes to Sony headphones for sensor functionalities. As far as, for the ambient sound it does works well in picking up the ambient sound around you so that you be aware of you surrounding for your safety.

You have got the Sony app where you can adjust the EQ settings and you do have different presets that you can change as you want. You can also customize the button configuration inside the app. The active noise cancellation in these is not much attractive. The active noise cancellation here performs like the XB950N1. These are not as good as the XM3 in terms of active noise cancellation.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

These use Bluetooth 5.0 which means they’re lower power than other previous models or versions of Bluetooth. Still, the Bluetooth 5.0 works really well with this. I don’t experience much latency or lag when it comes to playing music or videos, even while watching YouTube I don’t hear any kind of sync issues with these, so that’s really good.

The big downfall of the Bluetooth on these is it pairs with only one device at a time and they can’t easily be transferred from device to device. You have to manually go into your Bluetooth settings every time you want to change the device you’re using these with. Then you have to disconnect these from that device and then connect them manually to the next device.

Sometimes I do forget which device I use these on. I’ll turn them on and I’ll hear the little beep that says it’s paired with the device, but I won’t remember which device it’s on whether is it on my iPad, or laptop, or phone. So, there’s no automatic Bluetooth pairing on these, where I can just unpair this with one device remotely and then just pair it with another device that I’m already holding. I do wish there was automatic Bluetooth pairing on these that would make it a lot easier to be able to switch this from device to device.

These definitely don’t sound like noise-canceling headphones because you’re not getting noise-canceling headphones here, this again a drawback in these. But they do isolate your environment noises a little bit when you put them on. 

5.8 Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT 3

BATTERY:

Sony WH-XB900N

You have the USB type-C charging here. So, it does offer you a quick charging feature, that is 10 minutes of charge will give you an hour of playback. Actually, it provides you 30 hours of battery life which is great for long time travel and when we go outdoors. The battery life we are getting here is really quite impressive.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

The battery on these is awesome and Audio-Technica says these headphones will last about 40 hours on one charge. I barely even have to charge these maybe once a month when I use it for at least an hour a day. There is also a downfall of the charging mechanism in these and that is these headphones use micro USB that alone to me kind of disappointing and seems to be kind of less premium.

SOUND:

Sony WH-XB900N

These things are really bass boosted to the point where you got to turn it down. When I first wore these on my head and I just cranked up the music, it was a lot of basses, it was literally like vibrating my eardrums. I could feel the wind and the air flowing. These do not have a dedicated bass button so you need to go into the app and you have to go into your EQ to adjust the bass as you want to because it’s just too much.

The bass level is from negative 10 to positive 10 in the app. Even when I keep it at zero its just too much in most cases, so I’ve had to turn it down to negative two in a lot of cases. Really you get much more base come with out of the box in these and you got to turn the base down. Even I tried the different preset in EQ setting and I still had to reduce the base and what I like to do with these Sony headphones is to put it on either bright or treble boost and then I’ll adjust the bass from that level. But still, these headphones are so bass boosted.

You need to do some serious manipulation of the EQ in order to get these things to sound good in those concert modes. These headphones are not designed for people who do like lower bass. These headphones are designed for people who only care about bass and they want to hear it and feel it and for them, these are great sounding ones. I tested out the call quality with these and it really sounds pretty good, I sound good to the person on the other side and they too sounded good to me.

Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT

In terms of audio quality, these headphones are really good. They definitely have a little bit of bass response, they do go pretty deep into the sub-bass but they’re definitely not super rumbly when it comes to really deep frequencies. The highs are nice and they have a very nice kind of stereo width when you listen to them. You can hear all kinds of details flying in and out from left to right. It’s just very pleasing to listen to these especially, for a long period of time.

Sometimes the high trebles can be a little sharp and a little too crispy. If you like really sparkly treble kind of sound in your headphones, you’re really gonna like these. The cons of the sound quality on these are in the mids to the lower mids. There’s not a super thick sound to the mid to lower mids. The bass is definitely there, it’s just not very punchy. So, in general, I do like the sound of these. I just wish there were a little more mids and lower mids in these and a little bit more bass then it would be superb.

I didn’t notice a huge difference when it comes to audio quality between using Bluetooth versus using a cable. It is a really good thing because sometimes you’ll turn on Bluetooth on wireless headphones and then all of a sudden the audio quality will change or you won’t hear as much bass or treble and it sounds like a more compressed.

5.8 Sony WH-XB900N 2

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, you should buy the Sony Wh-XB900N because the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT loses some features that Sony has at the same price range. The Audio-Technica doesn’t have the active noise cancellation, touchpad functionalities instead of button controls, USB-C charging instead of micro USB charging, and Bluetooth 5.1 instead of Bluetooth 5.0 like the Sony at the same price range.

Expert Reviews of Sony WH-XB900N:

By T3
The Sony WH-XB900N delivers the right amount of bass and noise cancellation features to make it a less expensive alternative to the WH-1000XM3. For 899, casual users looking for a decent pair of everyday wireless headphones. can consider the…

By Digit
Essentially existing as a bridge between Sony’s Extra Bass series and the much-acclaimed Sony WH-1000XM3, the Sony WH-XB900N attempt to provide something of value to numerous kinds of users at a lower price point than the exorbitantly-priced WH-1000XM3…

By FirstPost
The Sony WH-XB900N is priced at Rs 16,990 with a one year warranty but can be purchased close to Rs 15,490 online. If you are looking for a set of wireless headphones with good sound clarity, active noise cancellation, loads of bass…

By stuff
People love bassy headphones. Sony’s Extra Bass range takes that to its logical conclusion, with so much of the stuff it dribbles out like sticky aloe vera gel. These headphones have categorically too much bass by any sane metric and they’re active…

By TechHive
Sony’s Extra Bass WH-XB900N noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones sound great, are low-latency, and do a good job at blocking out unwanted sound.

Expert Review of Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT:

By Sound Guys
If you’re looking for no-nonsense Bluetooth headphones that sound great, last forever, and give you the option of wired listening, the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT is the gold-standard of what’s on the market today. Sure, they don’t look all that flashy,…

By Android Authority
The Audio-Technica AHT-M50x headphones have been one of the most popular pair of headphones for years, finding its way into forums and YouTube videos alike. While there are many factors that contributed to its rise in the headphone community, the most…

By hifichoicemag.com
The transducer inside of the M50xBT is the same as the wireless version and uses of a pair of 45mm dynamic drivers mounted in closed-back earcups employing rare earth magnets and copper-coated aluminum wire in the windings. The wireless implementation…

By Hifitest.de
Die Bluetooth-Version von Audio-Technicas Studioklassiker, der ATH-M50xBT, erweist sich als klang- und ausdrucksstarker Over- Ear für den mobilen…

By Clubic
L’Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT possède d’excellentes capacités de reproduction, avec une certaine facilité dans le grave qui saura satisfaire un grand nombre d’utilisateurs. Son rendu sonore est creusé dans le médium, ce qui le destine avant tout aux…