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Side by side, no spreadsheet required.
Pick up to 3 products from the catalog. Specs align, prices line up, and Claude writes a short verdict on which is for who.
Our verdict
The XM6 wins on the boring stuff that actually matters day to day: 30 hours of battery to Bose's 24, triple-device multipoint instead of two, LDAC for high-bitrate Android streaming, and a 3-minute charge that gets you three hours back. It's also 8 grams lighter on your head. Bose still owns the one thing it's always owned — low-end rumble cancellation. Engine noise on a long-haul flight, subway drone, HVAC hum. The Ultra 2 erases it more completely than the QN3 processor manages, and Immersive Audio is a genuinely fun party trick, even if it craters battery to 4 hours. Pick the Sony if it's your everyday driver across phone, laptop, and tablet. Pick the Bose if you fly more than you commute.
$449
$429
- HD QN3 noise-cancelling processor with 12 microphones
- 30mm carbon-composite driver, LDAC over Bluetooth 5.3
- Multipoint pairing across three devices
- 30-hour battery with ANC, USB-C fast charge (3 min = 3 hrs)
- Adaptive Sound Control with location and activity awareness
- Re-engineered folding hinge and lighter 246g frame
- Best-in-class low-frequency noise cancellation
- Immersive Audio (Still mode + Motion mode)
- 24-hour battery with ANC
- Snapdragon Sound for aptX Lossless on Android
- Multipoint Bluetooth 5.3 with two devices
- Quiet, Aware, Wind, Immersive presets
Three months of daily testing on commuter trains, transcontinental flights, and noisy cafes left us with one conclusion: the XM6 is the first ANC headphone where we forgot we were wearing them. The fact that Sony also fixed the two real complaints about the XM5 (no fold, mediocre call quality) without raising the price is the rare combination of iteration and restraint.
We did a 14-hour Tokyo flight with the QC Ultra 2 on one head and Sony XM6 on the other (one of us, alternating). The Bose won — quieter, more comfortable past the four-hour mark, and easier to fall asleep in. Different headphones for different jobs; for long-haul travel, this is the one.