 So it's been almost two years since Sony released the excellent WF-1000XM3 earbuds, which had the best noise cancellation and sound quality of any true wireless earbuds at that time. But a lot has happened since. At the top end, we've seen products like the AirPods Pro and Bose's QuietComfort earbuds, and you can get a perfectly fine set of noise-canceling earbuds for cheaper than ever before. But now, Sony's back. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait. The new WF-1000XM4 earbuds — we've still got these terrible names — cost $279, which is a lot of money. But if you're willing to part with it, you'll get the most impressive noise cancellation I've ever heard in earbuds like these. Even better sound quality, longer battery life, and oh, this time, they finally got water and sweat resistance. So the new earbuds are 10% smaller than the 1000XM3s, and they come in the usual Sony colors of black with rose gold accents or a light gray option instead. But the case is where the real downsizing has happened. It's 40% smaller than before, and you can feel that difference when it's inside your pocket. There's only one LED on the outside now, though, which means there are no lights on the earbuds themselves to tell you how their charge is. But I guess that's the trade-off for a more compact design. But I actually want to start off with the ear tips. This isn't something we often focus on, but Sony has come up with these stellar tips that feel like a mix of silicone and foam that's sealed into my ears just perfectly. I guess that's why they're called the noise isolation ear tips. Sony is so confident in them that these new tips are now all you get, and only in three sizes. I'd have liked to have seen more fit options for this much money, but the large pair were right on for me. The 1000XM4s never so much as budged, even when I took them on runs or for a hike outside. And since they're now rated IPX4 for water and sweat resistance, you can work out while you wear them or wear them in the rain and be confident that they'll survive. Just be careful to keep the case dry. Those snug ear tips combined with Sony's new V1 processor lead to the best noise cancellation I've ever experienced with True Lyra's earbuds so far. Step aside, Bose. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's now almost as good as Sony's over-ear 1000XM4 side phones, and those have the advantage of literally covering your entire ears. Working outside my local coffee shop on a busy Brooklyn street, everything around me just went poof, and the clatter of subway cars was quieter with these in my ears than with the AirPods or Bose's earbuds. Beka took the Sonys on a flight, and they passed the plane test with flying colors. It's wildly good stuff, and a real technical achievement on Sony's part. There's an ambient sound mode you can activate with the tap of the left earbud to hear what's happening around you. And Sony still has its old trick where you can hold down on the earbud to temporarily lower the volume of your music and boost ambient sound at the same time. The 1000XM4s also get the Speak to Chat feature of the latest Sony headphones. When this setting's turned on, the earbuds automatically pause and activate transparency mode if they detect you speaking. If you talk to yourself even semi-regularly, you should probably just leave this off. Now let's talk sound quality. Sony tells me that it tunes its earbuds and headphones based on what genres of music are popular at the time. And so while the 1000XM4s sound mostly similar to the 1000XM3s, there's this added layer of richer bass than there was before. You still get that superb sound signature that's just plain better than the AirPods Pro, and I prefer Sony's tuning to other high-end earbuds like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2s. It's easy just to get lost in your tunes with these earbuds. For the first time on its earbuds, Sony's also now supporting LDAC, so you can stream lossless audio from Amazon Music HD and soon Spotify and Apple Music, and it'll come through at a higher quality on the buds. It's not quite CD quality. You see LDAC tops out around 900 kbps and gets a little unstable if you set it at that maximum quality, so I usually stick with the middle setting. Is there any real difference, though? Maybe I'm buying into snake oil, but to me, these lossless tracks do feel like they've got more depth and clarity to them. Either way, you can only get LDAC on Android, and the 1000XM4 still sound just as good when you listen to AAC files on an iPhone. And then there's the battery life, which is one of the more impressive things Sony's pulled off. The 1000XM4 buds get 8 hours of playback with noise cancelling on, which crushes Apple and Bose and Jabra and Amazon, Samsung, and, well, pretty much everybody else. They all hover around 5 hours, and Sony just tacked on 3 more. That's progress. Battery life extends to 12 hours if you don't need noise cancelling on. The case has enough juice for 2 full recharges, so we're talking 24 hours in noise cancelling mode and 36 hours if you leave it disabled. As we all start traveling again more often, these numbers really set Sony apart and help justify that $279 price. And the carrying case charges both wirelessly and over USB-C. As for voice calls, the 1000XM4s use both beamforming mics and bone conduction sensors that Sony claims help the earbuds know when you're speaking and when you're not. To hear how that comes across in practice, let's turn it over to Becca. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Did someone say mic test? First up we have the Galaxy Buds Pro. They were $200 when they were released, and they were known for their windshield technology, so you could have clear calls even in windy conditions. Okay, next up is the AirPods Pro. They have been the gold standard for a very long time when it comes to mic quality, and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of saying that line. Okay, now we have Sony's WH-1000XM4s, which I agree with Chris is a horrible name, but they have bone conduction sensors and beamforming mics. How do they sound? Okay, and this one's a bit of a wildcard, buds. These are the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros. I really dig these headphones, and they're only $130. They have really good active noise cancellation, so just wanted to throw them into the mix. Run the sync. Y'all love this test. I don't know why I was more a fan of the wind test than we did for the Galaxy Buds Pro, but sync test is back by popular demand. The sync test runs the sync while I'm using the mics so that you can see how they sound with a lot of background noise. Is it canceling it out? Is it bringing it in? See, the thing about the water test is that I feel like I'm wasting loads of water, and I usually collect it and water my plants with it, but I don't need to water any of my plants right now, so... And now it's in background noise. Do these $130 buds hold up to the others? Bummer. While you could hear me with these Sonys, it all just seemed kind of muffled, and with the sync running, it did take out that sound, but I wouldn't say they have great mic quality overall. You might blame it on the fact that they don't have a stem like the AirPods Pros or the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros, but the Galaxy Buds Pro also don't have stems, and they have pretty good mics. I guess better luck next time. So as you just heard, these are not flawless earbuds, and there are a few other frustrations you should be aware of. First, they can only pair to one device at a time, and look, I don't understand how it's possible that Sony's only Jabra has figured out how to support multi-point Bluetooth on earbuds. Sony knows how to make this happen on its headphones, but you don't get the same convenience here. At $280, that's a hard thing to see Sony leave out. So I have hit some bugs with my reviewing it so far. The earbuds have crashed a couple times, playing the kind of sound you hear when a video game freezes. And sometimes only one earbud will pair to my phone at a time, so I've gotta drop them both back into the case to get everything sorted out again. Neither issue's been that frequent, and Sony usually does a pretty good job of fixing these early bugs with firmware updates. Here's my takeaway. Sony's WF-1000XM4 earbuds are the best noise-canceling set you can get today. By combining its latest hardware with those fantastic eartips, Sony has beaten Bose for the noise cancellation crown, and these are up there with the very best-sounding TrueWyler's earbuds you can buy. They can outlast the competition in battery life, and now come with reassuring water and sweat resistance. There's no need to spend this much money for a good set of noise-canceling earbuds, but if you do, you'll get a top-notch experience in exchange. Sony is back at the top of the mountain. The only question now is for how long. Spooky scary, spooky scary. You should find a subway grate and do it over there. Oh my god, I couldn't watch.