Sony WF-1000XM5 - The Best True Wireless Noise-Canceling Earbuds with Alexa Built-in, Bluetooth, in-Ear Headphones, Up to 24 Hours Battery, Quick Charge, IPX4 Rating, Works with iOS & Android - Black

I lost a pair, and so reordered, which means I feel they are worth the $300 or so. To properly enable the noise-cancelling, I replaced the ear inserts with the AZLA SednaEarfit Crystal Standard 3 Pairs (Size MS/M/ML 3Pr), which worked quite well. I love these things.

The sound quality and noise canceling are both very good with these earbuds. The drawbacks are the material used in manufacturing these earbuds is very smooth and slick. It makes it difficult to remove the earbuds from the charging case and from your ears, especially if you’ve been sweating. One one occasion the left earbud quit working due to lack of a charge but I had both earbuds charging in the case at the same time, so I don’t know what the problem was. Lastly, the earbuds have been connecting to my phone even when they’re in the charging case. That is very annoying when I’m trying to use the phone without the earbuds.Overall I wouldn’t recommend or repeat a purchase of them.

Sound quality is _probably_ better than the XM4s, but not enough to make up for all the physical shortcomings.Headphones are glossy instead of matte, which makes them more slippery.Different shape (smaller) and made them fit less well in my ears.The magnets in the case seem worse, the headphones no longer *snap* into the case.They got rid of the little brass door-stop thingy on the corner of the earbuds, and they're harder to take out of your ears.Sound / noise cancelling is excellent, but so are the XM4s. I also prefer the button on the back of the case to pair to multiple devices. But for as good as the XM4s are in the same departments - I don't think the MASSIVE step down in QOL features like build quality are worth it.I'll be first in line for the XM6!