Sony WH-CH720N Noise Canceling Wireless Headphones Bluetooth Over The Ear Headset with Microphone and Alexa Built-in, Black New

SECOND UPDATE – 11/9/2023 OK, so I have been living with these for a couple of months now and I feel I can say some things with more confidence.1. Comfort is still a bit hit or miss. I will say the choice to put those microphones or whatever those things that stick out on the insides of the earcups was not great. I don’t always feel them pressing on my ears but the earpads are not very thick and if you don’t have them on in exactly the right way (assuming you can find a way that works for you) then the pads will flatten a bit and you’ll feel them on your ears. It’s not exactly painful. Just unpleasant. 2. And I feel the need to come back to the ear cushions themselves. Again, they just barely fit over my ears. And I wear glasses so this is a big issue with most headphones. I can sometimes get the cushions just right so they don’t smash the tips of my ears against the arms of my glasses too much but it sometimes takes a bit of extra fiddling around with them that can be annoying when I’m not in the mood for it. Again, not too much of a knock against Sony since this is a widespread issue with headphones in general. Manufacturers just seem to think if they make the cushions soft, they will be comfortable. Nope. If it smashes your ears, it will start to hurt after a while no matter how soft it is.3. The battery life is decent but I do find myself having to charge them more often than I expected. Prior to these, I had an inexpensive pair of Jlab headphones and although their sound quality and features were lacking, the battery life was outstanding and I was just used to not charging for days and days. I pretty much wear headphones all day every day and I generally find that these will be at 50% after a couple of days. Of course that’s with noise cancelling on. But also, these are noise cancelling headphones so they were designed to be used with it on for long periods. Or should have been. I don’t know what the capacity of the battery is in these but the battery packs they use in wireless headphones are not expensive items anymore. You can buy a set of $30 wireless headphones now with a huge capacity battery. So, yes. These are lower end Sony but they’re still well above the price you pay for really basic wireless headphones. They shouldn’t have skimped on the battery capacity. That said, though I haven’t actually kept track of how many hours, it probably does meet the stated runtime. I had just hoped they were being conservative with the numbers. But also, you can’t use them and charge them at the same time so if you use your headphones constantly, that can be annoying. I don’t like to run lithium batteries much below 50%. I don’t know that it’s bad for them exactly but all of my lithium batteries have lasted me for many years using that policy so that’s what I do. When I see 40-50% I charge the battery. I know they have the quick charge feature but I like to charge and forget for many hours. It would be more useful if I could plug into a power bank for 15 minutes and still use the headphones while it’s charging. But nope. You plug into a charger and the headphones turn off. Everything said, I’m reasonably happy with them but I paid the $150 asking price they were selling for when I bought them. Knowing all I know now, I would not pay that price again for these. These are $70 headphones. Tops. They’re not that comfortable. The battery life is easily matched (or surpassed) by the least expensive wireless headphones on Amazon. The stock sound quality is not impressive at all. (I will say they sound pretty good if you tweak the EQ). The only things I have been really happy about is once I got them paired with my PC, they always connect right away when I turn them on. That’s something that is hit or miss with most bluetooth devices. And can be incredibly annoying when you have to fight to get something connected every single time. I’ve also been pretty satisfied with the noise cancelling. Which they’re the first NC headphones I’ve ever owned so I have nothing to compare them to. I’m not really understanding what Sony was trying to do with these. Their top of the line ANC headphones might be some of the best ANC but are they really $400 good? Well, if they’re anything like these, they are good but significantly overpriced.UPDATE – 9/25/2023 I realize my original review is a bit long and probably most people don’t want to read all that so after living with these for a week or so, here are some key points that I think people will want to know.1. Comfort is just OK for people with small or medium ears that don’t stick out too far. Beyond that, the comfort might be anything from uncomfortable to painful.2. The ANC is good enough for me. I don’t fly. I don’t use them on a bus or train or anything. I use them at home. They block out things like computer fans and voices in adjacent rooms. I have a fan right by my head and although I can still hear it, the ANC really tames it to a very gentle hiss. If voices or TV are in the same room with you, it will cause them to seem to recede quite a bit but you will still probably hear them (especially TV). The ANC works better on some frequencies than others. It almost eliminates some noises but (for example) the sound of water running nearby is something you will definitely hear.3. I use these 90% with my Windows 10 PC and I have not experienced any of the disconnection issues that many have reported with them as long as I am only using them with my PC. However, when I do connect them to my Android phone, if I leave them connected for a while, things can get glitchy and if I then turn off the bluetooth on my phone, it will sometimes make weird things happen. Like if I have the ANC turned on on the headphones, it will turn off and forget the EQ settings I have chosen. Also, sometimes when I try to disconnect them from the phone by simply turning off bluetooth, they don’t make the disconnect sound. I don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t buy them to use exclusively with the phone. I have a different set of headphones for that. I just wanted to include this in my review to note that I did indeed notice some issues when I left them connected to my phone for a while. I will be keeping them because PC is all I care about.END UPDATE———————ORIGINAL REVIEWThings that mattered to me in choosing these headphones…1. I’m not going to try and sugar coat this too much. I don’t have money to burn. But a set of headphones that check all my boxes without doing anything I hate for a price I can handle is a tall order. Good headphones have never been cheap. ANC is still a premium feature (though this is changing fast). These headphones were just barely in my price range at $150. And frankly, although I like everything about them (so far) I think $100 would have been closer to the price these should be selling for. This segment of the market is crowded and if I was willing to gamble even more than I did, I could have probably gotten something I was happy with for significantly less than that $150. I went with Sony because I’m an old guy and I know that you usually don’t pay more for a Sony product for no reason.2. Comfort. Of course, we’re talking perceived comfort. Comfort involves a lot of guesswork. For these, it appears that I mostly guessed right. These just fit my ears with a little pressure here and there. My ears are not small but also not that large. If you have large ears, you should probably go somewhere where you can try the headphones on before you buy. I probably should have done this myself because comfort is always my top priority (other than price). Most likely the pads on these will not be difficult to replace should the need arise. And it usually does with headphones. Sooner or later, the pads will always wear out.3. ANC – Of course. This is my first pair of ANC headphones and it’s everything I want. The transparency mode is slightly quieter than I would like but it’s acceptable. I’ve seen some people complaining about the ANC not being effective on these. Not sure what they’re talking about but maybe they’re coming from much higher end ANC. For me, the first day I had them, I had some people come to see me and they were banging on my door. I heard absolutely nothing. They were freaked out because they thought something was wrong. So….my verdict on this is if you want perfect ANC, maybe shop around. I’m not here to tell you it’s the best. I don’t have anything to compare it to. I can only say it leaves me wanting nothing and I’m happy with it.4. Sound quality – Out of the box, I found the factory sound to be lacking. But that usually happens with me when I have new headphones. I can’t say for sure if the burn in effect is psychological or real but all I can say is a new pair of headphones takes some getting used to for me. At least the EQ is sufficiently adjustable in the app and I managed to get them to sound very nice. It’s nice that the settings you choose in the app will be stored in the headphones so the same settings will apply on other devices. I mostly use Bluetooth headphones on my Windows 10 PC so I’m not going to be fiddling around with the app much. These can go pretty loud and have decent bass. The drivers can provide good clarity for mids and highs if you fiddle with the EQ. The stock EQ sounds muffled. But that also might be a result of them not having been burned in. CONS – It’s really nitpicking for me to find many cons. These are great headphones (at least initially).1. The buttons could be a bit more tactile. In particular, I find the play/pause button a bit difficult to find and always find myself hunting for it. It is right between the Vol +/- buttons and should stick out a little more than it does to make it obvious. Also, the ANC button is nearly flush with the earcup and still makes me hunt for it a bit more than I like. I think I’ll get used to these buttons eventually but I don’t love them.2. The shortest timer for the auto off that’s available in the app is 15 minutes. I was really kind of surprised that there was no option for a shorter time.3. The headband is adjustable by clicks. So if the size you need is between two clicks, you might have to have them slightly too tight or slightly too loose. The higher end Sony headbands with no clicks seem like they would be better in this way.4. Although (as I said) the comfort is pretty good, it’s not great. But this is not terribly unusual for lower end headphones. I strongly prefer over ear (earcups that surround the ears rather than sit on them and smash them) and I’m very picky about it. I don’t like it if my ears are not completely inside the earcups and I don’t think it’s asking much since my ears are not enormous. I find that these do kind of smash the tops of my ears. It’s not something I notice right away but after about half an hour or so, it starts to become something I’m almost constantly aware of. It’s not exactly painful but it isn’t really pleasant either. To make matters worse, there is a seam in the fake leather that runs all the way around the inside where your ear is probably gonna be if your ears are just slightly larger than the ears of a child. I find that many of these types of earpads have that seam and I don’t know it’s purpose but I know that ones that don’t have it tend to be easier on your ears even if your ears don’t fit perfectly. So all I’m saying is this isn’t some upstart company. This is Sony. These are low end Sony headphones but they’re still not really cheap and they’re still made by an enormous company that’s been around for many decades. I don’t know what it is. Almost every company that makes headphones of this sort makes the earcups too small for even slightly larger ears. I guess they think people with larger ears don’t use headphones. Of course my ears could be really large. In which case, I probably wouldn’t be able to wear them even if they were a little larger.5. Also, I have to kind of agree with all the other reviews that mentioned the little plastic part that sticks out from the area where the driver is on the inside of the earcup. I am not sure if it actually pushes on my ears or not but it seems like it might. I kind of feel something and it does stick out far enough to where I can see how it could rub your ears. I think these pieces are the place where the microphones are mounted so if that’s the case, they kind of have to be there but they probably don’t have to be as poorly designed as they are. I feel like I might be able to trim some of the plastic off if I really wanted to but I’m not going to start working on a brand new set of $150 headphones. It doesn’t bother me (yet) so maybe I’ll change my mind later on. I think this could have been avoided if the padding were a bit thicker on the earpads.

I thought they were over priced but now that I actually have them they’re awesome. Long battery life, nearly indestructible, and a good sound cancelling all go hand in hand to create a good listening experience. The mic is ok, nothing special. The headphones are light and comfortable and you can almost forgot they’re on your head.

UPDATE 3/13/23: I noticed another reviewer mention that the padding has given out some after a while and I will concur that this has been my perceived experience as well. The padding flattens easily and I wish it was a bit more robust. I wouldn’t say that the speakers are poking my ear, but I do feel my ear being pressed slightly and it does lead to minor discomfort over time. So I would say that the padding could definitely be better on these, and it should be at this price point. I would maybe deduct a half star for this if that was an option, but since it’s not, I’m keeping my 5 star rating. I’m still happy with the sound, but I’ll definitely be looking out for some better pads.Original Review:I’m impressed with these headphones. They are really good. I will, however, call out from the beginning that you lose some functionality and build quality (potentially – more on that below) seen in more expensive headphones and even though these are “only” $150, I think it’s a bit pricey. But I think good headphones are just ridiculously expensive in general. With that out of the way, here are the headphones I tried in addition to the WH-CH720N: Sony XM4 & XM5, Sennheiser Momentum 4, Soundcore Q30 & Q45, and Technics EAH-A800.My main objective in getting new headphones was to get a serious sound quality upgrade from the Soundcore Life Q20’s that I’ve had for several years now, and I was finally ready to pay $300-$400 for it if I had to. I was looking for clear mids and highs with deep, clear, separate bass (think of the difference between a sound system with a separate subwoofer vs a sound system without that tries to pack the bass into the main speakers). With the caveat that sound quality is subjective to the listener, here are my thoughts on each of the headphones I tried:Technics EAH-A800 – absolute garbage and a joke at their price. These didn’t even merit more than a few minutes of listening.Soundcore Q45 – disappointingly uninspiring sound compared to the much cheaper Q30. They lack bass. I spent very little time with these because I knew that I would take the Q30’s over them without question.Soundcore Q30 – These are very good for their price (compared to the other options at that price). If I hadn’t been willing to spend $300+ for the best sound, I would have kept these despite the fact that they powered off in the middle of calls (a problem I believe is specific to OnePlus phones based on my research). But compared to more expensive headphones, the Q30’s bass was not as well defined/separated and it bled into all the frequencies, lending to an overall muddy sound – comparatively. But these are good, and at their price point, I doubt you can find better headphones.Momentum 4 – These headphones had, hands down, my favorite bass signature; it was fantastically clean and able to hit impressive lows I could not hear in any other cans. The overall sound was very good, although I never could get them to sound as clear as I wanted once I experienced the 720’s. The M4’s have fantastic battery life. Sadly, there were quite a few issues with the M4’s. They sound awful in wired mode – like, don’t even bother, they’re that bad. Taking calls on the M4s was a very weird experience; it’s hard to explain, but voices sounded kind of echo-y, but in the sense that it was like the voice was everywhere around me to the extent that I was sure that everyone else in the room was hearing the voice just as clearly as I was. I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not – all I can say for sure is that it was a very strange experience. The M4’s had software bugs that I just couldn’t overlook, such as the audio being out of sync with video when using aptx (I had to use the lower SBC format to get the audio in sync and this just didn’t make any sense!). The touch controls and on ear detection were a bit of a hit or miss. Software updates are unreasonably slow – like 20 minutes or longer. They are quiet – I found that I had to crank them up well past 50% to get enough volume, but at the end of the day, it didn’t really matter because they did get as loud as I ever needed and still had the ability to go louder. And they are on the heavier side, which meant they didn’t stay in place on my head if I looked down or up. I actually ordered a second pair hoping that the software issues were a defect, but the replacement had all the same issues. But that bass was so good I was tempted, even prepared, to overlook all of those shortcomings. Until I tried the XM5’s and the 720’s.Sony XM4 – I’m sure these were great for their time, but their age is evident. The sound was muddy and uninspiring to me. I quickly moved on from these.Sony XM5 – these are good – very good. I would have kept the XM5’s if the 720’s hadn’t been released just as I was comparing all of these headphones. The sound is very close to the 720’s, but just not quite as clear, though I think the bass may go a bit lower than the 720’s. It really mostly came down to price when deciding between the XM5 and 720. The XM5’s are feature rich with an excellent ambient mode (the best I’ve experienced). ANC is good, but not at the level I expected for their reputation and really not significantly better than most other headphones. Compared to the 720’s, I’d say the ANC actually blocked out less noise, but the XM5’s made almost no static sound with ANC on and that may have played into that perception because I think the slight static noise the 720’s make might just be covering up the external noises that I’m hearing more on the XM5’s. But getting the absolute best ANC was not the most important thing for me. I liked the touch controls on the XM5’s – it’s easier than feeling around for the correct button. But is it worth the price? Not for me – I’ll take the trade-offs of the 720’s for the savings, especially since I think the 720’s sound better. But I can easily see how someone would buy the XM5’s over the 720’s if money is not an issue.Finally, Sony WH-CH720N – these really are best described as the budget version of the XM5’s. Remember how I mentioned that they sound very similar to the XM5’s? Yeah, sometimes I forgot which headphones I was wearing, they are that close (post EQ-ing them to the best sound I could get from them). The ANC and Ambient modes aren’t quite as good on the 720’s, they don’t have touch controls (a positive or negative depending on the person), and they don’t feel as solidly built (though I might argue that is only because of how incredibly light they are – they actually seem well built and there are no creaks, but their lightness is easily perceived as “cheap”). The 720’s don’t come with a case and they don’t fold (but the XM5’s don’t fold, either); not a big deal to me. Not folding just means they have fewer breaking points and are less obnoxious to handle when off the noggin. These live on my desk, so a case is not important to me. For traveling, I prefer the compactness of earbuds anyway. The auto off feature only works after they lose bluetooth connection, which for the majority of us, only happens if we turn our phone off or walk far away from the headphones. So, not significant value there, though I do turn off my phone every night, so the headphones will at least shut off at night if I forget to do it manually, and that is good enough for me. The 720’s are strictly controlled with physical buttons that are well placed, though I find myself expecting the ANC/Ambient button to be on the back, not the front (don’t know why, because it actually makes sense the way they did it), causing me to push the wrong button more than I’d like. And I wish the volume up and down were more distinct from the play/pause button. The buttons are my only real (but minor) complaint, but I’m getting used to the buttons and will be fine in short order. The 720’s are slim compared to the XM5’s and the M4’s. And did I mention they are light? They are insanely light and extremely comfortable. Most importantly, the 720’s sound really good. While they don’t quite have the bass signature of the M4’s, they are so well balanced and clear across all of the frequencies (without being harsh or sibilant) while still having great, clear bass that it could be argued that the 720’s sound better. I just kept finding myself going back to the 720’s over every other set of cans. These headphones won out over the rest from my limited (but targeted) comparison. There might be better sounding headphones out there, but I haven’t found them.

My daughter asked for noise cancelling headphones for school and after reading lots of reviews of various products, I settled on these. She absolutely LOVES these headphones. She uses them constantly throughout the day at school and at home. She doesn’t go anywhere without them. They seem to be a very durable product as she is 6 months into using them and they still look brand new. They are easy to clean too. We ended up buying another pair for my son for Christmas and now he is attached to his as well. Definitely recommend.

They actually fit over my ears rather than most of my ears and pushing on the tips of my ears. I can turn the noise cancel on or off depending on my preference and the noise canceling works really well. The cushions are soft, sound quality is fantastic, and the battery lasts for what feels like forever and charges quickly.