Sony ULT Wear headphones review: More than just brutal bass

Sony is synonymous with headphones, thanks in no small part to the excellent 1000X line, which has dominated the noise-cancelling category since its launch in 2016. Sony’s headphones have always covered a broader spectrum, however, from CH models through to XB. ULT elbows into the middle of this pack, below the 1000X and adopting some of those flagship skills.

XB – extra bass – is probably wondering what it did wrong, seeing as some XB headphones had a Bass Boost button on them in the past – one of the USPs of the new ULT Wear. But just looking at ULT Wear suggests it has broader ambitions to be a slightly unruly, slightly more aggressive, 1000X alternative.

I hooked up the ULT Wear and committed my ears to them and the results are surprising.

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The Disconnekt Downlow

The Sony ULT Wear headphones are a good option for bass lovers who are looking for a comfortable pair of headphones with good ANC and a long battery life. These are likely to be popular for travel thanks to the 3.5mm connection and case, coming in cheaper than Sony’s flagship WH-1000XM5.

However, the ULT button is a bit of a gimmick, pushing the bass so far that it stomps all over everything. These headphones are fairly bulky and have a plastic build. But, there are lots of features and if you steer clear of the ULT button, you’ll find that there’s a decent pair of over-ears hiding underneath.

Buy from £179 on Amazon

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The reasons you should choose Sony ULT Wear headphones

The ULT Wear appears to be the lovechild of the 1000XM4 and the XB910N. With Sony changing the look of the 1000X with the M5 version in 2022, a much-loved design seemed to have been retired. But on opening the hard travel case, I found the ULT Wear reminiscent of Sony’s flagship ANC headphones.

The ULT Wear folds neatly into its travel case, much in the same way that the older 1000X did, and in very much the same way as the XB910N did. If anything, the ULT Wear feels like an evolution of those XB headphones, although they’re a little more expensive. Sony told me that the ULT Wear doesn’t replace the XB910, but those older headphones have been discontinued, so go figure.

The ULT Wear have an advantage over the latest 1000XM5, which don’t fold up as neatly, they just fold flat like Apple’s AirPods Max. As such, the ULT Wear might be better for those who want to pack their headphones safely away and throw them into a rucksack.

The build is plastic and the ULT Wear are more bulky than the 1000X, with prominent buttons on the left-hand cup – including the ULT button that I’ll come to, but also the power and noise cancelling button. The power button will also give you a battery status with a tap, which is a nice addition.

The right-hand cup allows touch controls, so you can swipe through tracks, play, pause and skip, while placing a palm over the cup allows passthrough, so you can talk to someone – it all works nicely.

There’s no shortage of tech crammed into the ULT Wear either. On turning these headphones on they were immediately detected by my Pixel 8 Pro, thanks to Google Fast Pair, so connected with a tap, while it was reassuring to spot that LDAC connection too, ready for Hi-Res audio.

When connecting to an Android device you’ll be asked if you want to setup Google Assistant for voice control through your headphones, while Alexa is also supported. Spotify Tap means you can instantly launch Spotify when you assign it to the ANC button. That means you can just put your headphones on and open Spotify, while leaving your phone in your pocket.

Then you come to the battery, which will give you 30 hours of playback with ANC and having spent some long days wearing these headphones, they’re perfectly comfortable for long durations too. If you can’t afford those 1000X for long-haul flights, then the ULT Wear might just be a good choice thanks to the battery and comfort.

What Sony ULT Wear headphones could do better

I said I’d come back to that ULT button and here we are. I’ve not mentioned the sound quality yet, but the ULT button, fun as it is, doesn’t really help. The headphones are nicely bassy out of the box. I listened to a range of tracks from Taylor Swift’s new album – of course – through to Pete Tong’s wonderful orchestral reworkings of classic house music, and something with a little more lyric punch from Kendrick Lamar and a whole lot more.

I’m not scared of bass. In fact, I’m happy to have a track bullied by its bassline, accepting that sometimes you want to stomp over some of the subtleties with the low end. Tap the ULT button and a sound effect tells you the bass is being bumped up. There are three settings, the first (normal) is a soft notification noise, the second (deep bass) has more futuristic vigour, while the third (attack bass) sounds like someone smashing through your patio doors with a hammer.

Back to Kendrick Lamar and fire up The Hillbillies and the lyrics remain clear while the attack bass pounds like you’re bouncing next to the subwoofers in a club. It’s brutal and there’s no avoiding that it’s oppressive, but I did find myself laughing before sinking into it, which is probably the point. Switching back to normal bass, the world feels lighter and you can breathe more easily again.

Stick attack bass over Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer and you’re basically listening to mush – and that’s what you’ll find through a lot of music. Pick something that’s driven by its bassline, and it might work. Might work.

Avoid the button completely and the ULT Wear are bassy; if that’s your preference, then you’ll probably be happy with the performance you get from these headphones. But there’s no escaping that Sony’s unique selling point for these headphones is also the most questionable feature.

There are a few more ULT Wear technicalities to discuss

It’s fairly amusing that the best way to approach the ULT Wear is to ignore the ULT button and take them for what they are. The noise cancellation is pretty good, I tested these headphones in a range of environments and found it nicely silenced external noise. It’s not up to the skills of the 1000X, but it’s good enough to make a difference, dropping that blanket of silence over you.

I tried making calls with these headphones and found that to be a good experience too, and although I didn’t receive any complaints when using them, they don’t cancel background noise on calls that effectively.

The ULT Wear support multipoint connections (if you enable it in the Sony Headphones app), but you lose access to LDAC if you use it, so you won’t get the best sound quality if you’re simultaneously connected to two different devices.

The headphones app isn’t essential, but it is how you’ll access a range of features, including firmware updates. It also enables things like adaptive noise cancellation, so that the headphones can automatically switch ANC modes depending on what you’re doing, as well as setting up 360 Reality Audio and so on, so I’d advise you to use it at least on initial setup. The app isn’t the best and doesn’t seem to have evolved in terms of design for many years – it feels unloved and unwelcoming.

The Sony ULT Wear charge via USB-C, but don’t support USB-C audio. They do, however, support a 3.5mm cable, so if you want to plug in rather than use Bluetooth, or want to connect to your in-flight entertainment system for example, you can still do so. In cabled mode they will work passively (i.e., you don’t need to power them on), but when you do turn them on, you get noise cancellation.

It’s also worth noting that the ULT button only seems to work when wirelessly connected. When connected via cable it doesn’t function.

Should you buy the Sony ULT Wear headphones?

The best advice is to put attack bass to one side. Put it in a box that reads “only open in a low range emergency”, because I really think this is where the ULT Wear are at their best. They’re a bassy headphone, they richly pump through all genres of music, while offering a full range of technologies, convenient folding, good noise cancellation and more.

If there’s an emergency and you need to go atomic with the bass, it’s there for you, to pull you into whatever low-frequency despair you need to descend into. Importantly, if you want a pair of Sony cans with more presence than the CN720, but you can’t stretch to the 1000XM5, then ULT Wear has your back.

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