The headphone that started a revolution comes back in leather and metal
- Sony launched the MDR-1000X and rewrote the rules of the headphone market. That combination of noise cancellation quality and wireless audio at that price point hadn’t existed before. Every generation since has debuted at the top of every best headphones list. Without exception.
Ten years later, Sony marked the occasion with 1000X The ColleXion.
This time, there’s no plastic. For the first time.
There’s a line Sony never crossed in a decade of making 1000X headphones. The $700-and-above territory owned by Bowers & Wilkins and Focal — the part of the market where headphones become luxury objects. Sony stayed below it, dominating on value. The ColleXion crosses that line for the first time. $649.99.
The exterior is entirely different. Two years of development produced a soft faux leather — Sony won’t say exactly what it is, only that it took two years — wrapped around the earcup housing. The headband is metal with a matte sandblasted texture contrasted by hand-polished gloss, finished individually by skilled craftspeople. Buttons and microphone openings are integrated metal. There is no visible plastic anywhere. Platinum or Black.
The driver is new. A soft-edge unit paired with a high-rigidity dome made from unidirectional carbon composite. Cleaner instrument-vocal separation, more delicate high-frequency detail, a wider soundstage. Tuning was refined in collaboration with GRAMMY-winning and nominated mastering engineers. The QN3 processor now works alongside a V3 co-processor for improved ANC stability. Twelve microphones.
The honest problems: battery life with ANC enabled is 24 hours, down from the XM6’s 30. A $200 premium product with shorter battery. ANC performance itself shows no significant improvement over the XM6 — multiple reviews confirm this. And at $649, the value proposition requires a specific kind of buyer.
That buyer exists. The ColleXion is not a product for everyone who liked the XM6. It’s for people who’ve been with this series for a decade, who understand what it meant in 2016, and who want the anniversary edition to feel like one. Not a refresh. Not a special color. A completely different material language that says — we saved this for the tenth year.
We wrote about Sony losing its way, then finding it again with the 1000X series. The ColleXion is the ten-year answer to that story. Numbers fade. Materials stay.
Sony 1000X The ColleXion (WH-1000XX) | $649.99 | sony.com
Released: May 19, 2026 | Colors: Platinum · Black
Driver: Soft-edge + unidirectional carbon composite high-rigidity dome
Processor: QN3 + V3 co-processor | Microphones: 12
Battery: 24hr (ANC on) · 32hr (ANC off)
Materials: Soft faux leather (2yr development) · hand-polished metal headband
vs. WH-1000XM6 $449 · Apple AirPods Max 2 $549 · B&W Px8 $799
