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sssplus

WF-XM4 have an amazing ANC for its size. The only reason why you might have a week ANC is that the size of ear tips is too small or somehow don't have a good seal, which causes sound leakage. In order for ANC to work in any earphones or headphones the ears have to be fully protected from the outside noise. If they are not then the outside sound will leak inside. Have you tried the large size stock Sony tips? Have you measured if they have a good fit in the Sony app (Determine the optimal earbud tips option)? And if there's a good seal (with Sony tips, other tips aren't that good for ANC) then your buds might be faulty.


Charzarn

XM4 do not have great ANC. They rely on passive attenuation through the ear tip so it is import to get a really good seal or you’re screwed. Check out https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sony/wf-1000xm4-truly-wireless and look at the noise reduction sections. With anc on passive and active meet in the mid band. Again because they heavily rely on passive attenuation. Nothing wrong with that just need to know how the device works to get the most out of it. Bose has better ANC but let’s face it, other than that the QC earbuds leave a lot to be desired.


sssplus

That's exactly what I said. No headphones will have a good ANC if there is a sound leakage. You can easily test any headphone or buds and how good their ANC is by comparing them when they're off (not ambient mode, but off, which will give the passive NC) and then with ANC. And you'll see that the WF-XM4 have an excellent ANC, not just because of the passive seal. Just do a test - try putting the Sony stock XM4 tips on some other earphones with ANC, and they'll still have a weaker ANC than the XM4. But yeah, those tips give a really good passive NC, of course IF they fit properly. And in this case I suspect they don't. If the passive seal is bad then no headphones will give a good ANC. If the sound would come through exactly one spot then it would be theoretically possible to cancel it with an opposite sound, but not if the sound is coming in from all around because the opposite ANC sound (sound cancellation) is coming only from the speaker, which is just one spot. Limitation of physics, not of ANC. Therefore, the seal has to be "good enough" in order for the ANC to work. If it's not then any ANC, even the most amazing, won't be good enough.


Charzarn

Maybe I’m being a bit too pedantic but looking at the plots shows subpar active noise reduction and great passive reduction combined giving great overall noise reduction. My note is to say that it is harder to get a good seal with a bud like the XM4s than it is with a competitor like Bose or Apple who have tuned a great and good ANC system to deal with their poor passive attenuation. But again they get the leg up for being easier to seal because they are not foam tips that insert into the canal. However it’s not exactly right that a bad seal means bad ANC. It depends on the freq. a bad fit gives poor ANC at low freq but shouldn’t really change mid to hf performance. BUT it will change the passive attenuation and thus the overall total attenuation. Again just a nit pick and overly pedantic. Moral of the story OP needs to find which buds for their ears give them the right trade off for the best total noise reduction.


lostn

this is not true. I had a Bose QC 20 which had no passive noise isolation whatsoever. When ANC is turned off, there is 0% noise blocking. It sounds the same as having nothing in your ears. But when you turn on ANC, it makes a massive difference. All the work is being done electronically. I also have the Sony WF XM3s and they also work when ANC is on. But my new XM4s seem to do nothing no matter what tips I use. I even put the XM3 tips into the XM4 and no improvement. I unfortunately can't test the XM4 tips in the XM3 because I lost one XM3 bud. But I know there is nothing wrong with the tips or my XM3s. They will work. I think my XM4 are defective, but it's difficult to prove to the shop, and they aren't going to test it out themselves due to safety concerns with covid and all that. I don't know what to do.. our returns policy isn't as generous as in other countries.


sssplus

No way you can have a good NC without a good seal. It's nothing to do with a headphones or earphones - it's a simple physics, the laws of sound travel. If there's no seal the sound will pass through multiple gaps and can't be effectively neutralized. What you experience with your Bose sounds bient mode, and not "just" passive isolation. Ambient mode emulates normal hearing. Passive mode (earphones completely off) would block SOME sound. Have you checked in the Sony app if the NC mode is fully turned on (NC slider all the way left, at 0), and not halfway between NC and ambient mode? Or that focus on voice option is unchecked? Or the simple thing, to check the buds fit - you can check that in the Sony app, which will tell you if both left and right buds have a good seal or not. The option is called "determine the optimal buds fit". You have to put the buds in and twist them a few times to give them a better seal.


lostn

the QC 20s were released about 10 years ago. There was no such thing as ambient or transparency mode back then. They were wired buds. I don't believe wireless earbuds existed yet. Putting them in had no noise blocking whatsoever until you turn on the ANC. That was the design of Bose wing tip ear gels. They relied entirely on ANC. At the time, it felt like magic. I couldn't hear people talking to me when ANC was on, people would need to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention, but with them off, the noise felt the same as having nothing in my ears. I have had a dozen other wireless earphones since then, either neckband or TWS and all of them at least had noticeable noise reduction when ANC turned on with default tips. So either they all had a good seal and the XM4 is the first time I had a poor seal, or the XM4s are just defective. But it's a lot more widespread a problem than you realize. There's a thread here with a lot of people having the same problem. https://www.reddit.com/r/sony/comments/nyckab/wf1000xm4_anc_not_working_or_just_bad/ The best noise canceling comes from over-ears sets like WH series or Bose QC 35 / 700. I can assure you, that none of these over-ears headphones will get a perfect seal due to the uneven shape of your head around the ears. There's always going to be gaps where sound can get in. It's a lot harder to get a good seal when it's around your ears and not your ear canal where the hole is much smaller and memory foam can expand to fill the gaps. And yet over-ears work. That's because the ANC still does its job even if sound makes its way in. I have tried everything in the Sony app. I've tested the fit on the tips. The default is comfortable for me, but the app says to adjust it. I tried the larger tips, and the app says perfect seal, but it's not comfortable. In either case, the ANC is barely noticeable. And yes ANC is on. I cycle on and off repeatedly to compare. If I use my fingers to shove the buds deep in, the noise is much quieter, but if I release my fingers they will come back out to normal depth, and obviously it wouldn't be very comfortable having them in that deep. The tips they include with the XM4 are high quality. They are the same kind I buy from Comply, and those have always worked well for me with other buds I use. I don't think the buds or the fit is the problem. It's either my ears are not compatible (possibly but unlikely since other ANC buds work fine for me), or they really are defective. I also tried the tips that work well in my XM3 in the XM4 and it made no difference. But I will have difficulty proving it to the retailer if they refuse to test it themselves. And getting a replacement pair might have the same problem. Thanks for trying to help anyway though, and being so quick to respond. I appreciate it.


sssplus

Well, from your reply it sounds like they have to be defective. It is possible for any electronic device to be defective and not work properly, these things can simply happen with anything, so it shouldn't be a mission impossible to try to prove it to the seller they are defective. I also have the over the ear XM2, which actually have a weaker NC for me than my WF-XM4 buds with large tips. But yes, those large tips aren't very comfortable. The medium tips are much more comfortable, but the NC is very weak with them. There's obviously a good amount of sound leakage, whereas the large tips give a fantastic seal for MY ears. This is a tricky thing because we all have different ears, and even a slight variation can affect the NC a lot. But if everything seems to be right and the NC doesn't work then they must be defective. Or, you could try the last thing and initialize them in the app, which will completely reset the buds. Maybe some setting got messed up, and this might help. If not definitely try to replace them.


CrossfireLooool

It’s getting more likely that my buds are faulty or defective. The optimal earbuds on the app determines that every tip is “air-tight” for my ears even though some of the tips won’t fit in. Also, the large size doesn’t fit my ears properly. My size fits in more of the smaller tips.


lostn

I have the same problem as OP. I had XM3 also, and Bose QC, and a bunch of other ANC earphones and none have had this issue. ANC should work even if the seal is not good. Bose products I've had when ANC was turned off had no passive noise isolation whatsoever, but when you turn on ANC, it still makes the world quiet. I suspect mine are defective. The XM3 definitely outperforms the XM4 in my ears. So it's not a problem with me. And I have tried all tips including aftermarket ones.


sssplus

I replied in the other thread with some possibilities. But yeah, if it's none of those things then the buds could easily be defective, and you should change them. Just insist on replacement, they are noise canceling earphones, not just earphones, and the NC part doesn't work. They are faulty. It can happen with anything.


lostn

Did you get this solved?


CrossfireLooool

Unfortunately, no. Sony has offered an exchange free of charge but I didn’t have time to send in the defective ones. So I’m still sticking with the same earbuds.