How much of your day do you spend fighting noise you never asked for, whether that is a packed commute, a loud office, or a long-haul flight where the engines never let up?
The answer to that problem is the Sony WH-1000XM5SA, down from £259 to just £141.20, a saving of 45% and the lowest price we have tracked on this particular variant of Sony’s acclaimed noise-cancelling headphones.
This is the lowest price we’ve seen the fantastic XM5s drop to
If you are waiting to upgrade to a pair of headphones that earn their noise-cancelling reputation, £141.20 is a hard price to argue with.
The noise cancellation itself is driven by four microphones per earcup working alongside Sony’s Auto NC Optimiser, which reads your wearing conditions and environment in real time and adjusts the cancellation accordingly rather than applying a fixed blanket filter.
That intelligence carries through to call quality of WH-1000XM5SA as well, where Precise Voice Pickup technology and AI-based noise reduction isolate your voice from wind and ambient sound, making these a genuinely capable option for anyone who takes a lot of calls on the move.
Sound quality is handled by 30mm precision-engineered driver units certified for Hi-Res Audio, with the headphones also supporting LDAC for wireless high-resolution streaming, which closes the quality gap between wired and wireless listening considerably.
Comfort over long sessions is something Sony has clearly thought about, with soft faux leather earpads and an adjustable headband keeping fatigue at bay whether you are sitting at a desk for eight hours or settling in for a transatlantic flight.
Battery life stretches to 30 hours with noise cancellation active, and a three-minute quick charge via USB-PD delivers around three hours of playback, which is the kind of safety net that makes a real difference when you are rushing out the door.
Multipoint connection lets the WH-1000XM5SA pair to two devices simultaneously, so switching between a laptop and a phone mid-session requires no manual disconnection, and the Sony Sound Connect app gives you granular control over EQ and spatial audio preferences.
If you have been waiting for a moment to upgrade to a pair of headphones that genuinely earns their noise-cancelling reputation, £141.20 is a hard price to argue with.
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Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
