Sony 1000X The Collexion Review: Three Months Later

We have been living with the 1000X The Collexion for three months, which is long enough for the honeymoon to wear off and for the things that actually matter to surface. Sony’s tenth-anniversary flagship sits above the WH-1000XM6 rather than replacing it, and it retails in the Philippines at PhP36,999 through Sony’s own stores and authorized dealers nationwide.

Callout 1

Signature noise cancelling feature by Sony.

Three months with the 1000X The Collexion

The usage pattern settled quickly. Roughly two hours a day of music while working, and the headphones come along on every trip. That is a mix of long stationary sessions and the noisiest environment most people will ever put a pair of headphones into, which turned out to be the fairest test we could have run.

Noise cancelling is the reason to buy it

Asked which features earned their keep, the answer came down to two: audio quality and noise cancelling. The second is the standout, and it is the feature that gets used the most by a wide margin.

The place it proves itself is a plane. Engine and airflow noise during takeoff and landing is the part of flying that is hardest to ignore, and it is precisely where this pair earns its price. That is not a lab condition. It is the specific scenario where a premium pair either justifies itself or does not.

Callout 1

Roomy earcups and a wider headband

Sony’s hardware here is a Multi-Noise Sensor array with 12 microphones and the Adaptive NC Optimizer, the same system the XM6 carries. On paper that is not new. In practice, across three months of flights and working days, it is the part of the package we would struggle to give up.

Sound quality: more of the music is audible

The second strength is resolution. Compared with the XM6, more frequencies come through, and they come through clearly, which changes how familiar tracks read. Detail that used to sit somewhere behind the mix is now audible as its own element.

Sony pairs a bespoke driver with tuning co-developed alongside mastering engineers, and the result is the balanced, unfussy presentation the 1000X line is known for. Nothing is exaggerated to impress on a short listen.

DSEE Ultimate earns its place

DSEE Ultimate is the headline new feature, and it is the first time Sony has put it in a pair of headphones. It is an upscaling technology, and it proved genuinely useful rather than decorative: it enunciates specific frequencies that are not normally easy to hear. On compressed files, the difference is audible.

Sony’s own description of the feature is accurate here. It restores detail and dynamic range in real time using on-device processing, and the effect is the opposite of the harshness that cheaper upscaling tends to introduce.

360 Upmix never became a habit

The 1000X The Collexion expands 360 Reality Audio Upmix to three modes, covering music, cinema and games, selectable from the Listening Mode button. It works. It simply never became part of how these headphones get used day to day, and after three months we would not buy the pair for it.

Build, comfort and battery

The build is the other clear step up from the XM6. Crafted metal and refined faux leather replace the plastic feel of earlier 1000X pairs, and it reads as premium without being flashy. Roughly a quarter of the plastic used is recycled, and the packaging is plastic-free.

Comfort matters more than the materials over a long session. Two-hour stretches pass without the adjustment breaks that cheaper pairs demand, which is the practical reason this pair gets worn as often as it does.

Coming from the WH-1000XM6

The honest comparison is the WH-1000XM6, because that is what these replaced. The Collexion is the same generation of noise cancelling with better materials and a more resolving tuning. It is a refinement rather than a reinvention.

That framing matters for anyone weighing the upgrade. If you already own an XM6, you are paying for polish, build quality and a small but real step in clarity. If you are coming from something older, or from earbuds, the gap is much wider.

The price, and who should not buy it

PhP36,999 is the thing that puts people off, and it is a fair objection. It is flagship money for a pair of headphones that improves on its predecessor rather than replacing it outright.

The counter-argument is that this is not an unusual price for the category. Anyone who has owned something like an AirPods Pro is already used to paying a premium for audio, and at that point the number is less of a shock than it looks on paper.

Verdict

Three months in, the 1000X The Collexion is the most complete pair of headphones Sony has put out, and the noise cancelling is the reason to buy it. On a plane it does exactly what the price promises, and the improved tuning means more of the music is audible than before.

What holds it back from a clean recommendation is context rather than capability. If you are coming from an XM6, the improvements are real but incremental, and PhP36,999 is a lot to spend on incremental. If you are coming from anything older, or from earbuds, this is the pair to buy.

Reviewed over three months of daily use, averaging about two hours a day, plus regular air travel. No laboratory measurements were taken for this piece, so every claim about noise cancelling and sound is an impression formed from that use, not an instrument reading.