How would hundreds of people rate the Sony WF-1000XM6's sound quality?

Measurements are easy to get lost in, but what if you just want to know if a product is good for most people, or you’re buying headphones for someone else? The best way to find this out would be to run a listening test of as many people as you could find… but who has the time for that?

At SoundGuys, we partnered with HEAD acoustics to bring its Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores to our readers, which is the next-best thing. This machine learning algorithm uses a mountain of real-world data collected from 200+ people to predict how these regular folks would rate the performance of audio products on a scale of 1 to 5. It’s much easier to understand a score from 1 to 5 than it is to give yourself a crash course in audio science every time you need to read reviews.

So how would most people rate the sound of the Sony WF-1000XM6? We performed our tests to find out.

The short story: most people will think the Sony WF-1000XM6 sounds pretty decent

If you’ve learned what a mean opinion score is, then you know the above is extremely high. Results like the above require the vast majority of respondents giving a 4 or 5 for most things, and even the scores that “fall behind” a bit are still overwhelmingly positive. If you gave these earbuds to 200+ people, most of them would really like the sound, and take little issue with nearly-inaudible distortion. But as headphones often dramatically outscore all other audio products with this model, let’s turn up the heat a little bit to see where the pain points could potentially lie.

When pit solely against other headphones, the ratings drop to merely “good” across the board, but are still overwhelmingly positive. It seems as though the reasonable level of bass noted above might have a hand in this, as many people like more bass than others, and we’ve found that this algorithm favors high levels of bass and treble despite some incongruencies we learn through other listener tests. Still, any score over 3 is positive, and anything over a 4 is really, really good. We have a high level of confidence that most people will really like the sound of the Sony WF-1000XM6. As the “weakest” score is the timbre, it seems as though the issues highlighted above are likely the source of these somewhat lower scores. However, these are still solid.

Sony WF-1000XM6 EQ modes

The Sony WF-1000XM6 also comes with a handful of EQ presets that change the tuning a bit, as we’ve covered before. Because changing the tuning means changing how real people would rate the sound, I was able to re-run the testing for each to show you how the presets affect the above ratings. If you’d like to see a deeper dive into what, exactly, these EQ presets sound like, click on over to our guide to the Sony WF-1000XM6’s EQ presets.

Clear EQ

Despite the overemphasis in the highs, it seems as though most people will really like the Clear EQ because it brings the highs back in balance with the lows when ANC is enabled. For the headphones-specific score, 4.5 means this is very-well regarded by our virtual listening panel.

Heavy EQ

The Heavy EQ preset adds a ton more sub-bass, and MDAQS historically likes that. While it doesn’t stack up so well against more reasonable tunings, most people should still be okay with this performance. A 4.4 for the headphones-specific scores mean that while the preset is well-liked, it’s preferred less than some of the others.

Hard EQ

Hard EQ adds the excessive bass of the Heavy EQ but adds more emphasis to the high end as well. This is a time-tested strategy to make mass-market headphones appealing, and the scores reflect this. A score of 4.7 in the headphones-specific algorithm is outstanding, and means that most people will like the sound of the Hard EQ preset on the Sony WF-1000XM6. But we’ve seen these metrics favor overwhelming bass before, so approach with caution if you’re not a basshead.

Soft EQ

The Soft EQ preset tamps down bass and treble both, which wouldn’t be my first choice. However, the performance is still quite decent — though the headphone-specific ratings take a tumble. While a 4 is still solidly “good,” it is significantly less preferred than the Hard and Clear presets.

Game EQ

Game EQ tamps down sub-bass and the highest octave, while boosting upper bass, low mids, and upper mids. Though this isn’t an amazing choice for music, it’s still inoffensive enough to be rated positively.

What do you think?

Of course, these scores are nothing more than the arithmetic means of hundreds of simulated listening tests, so don’t get too bent out of shape if the decimal places are a little off from what you expect. But what would you rate these EQ presets, Sony WF-1000XM6 owners?

Be sure to check the Sony WF-1000XM6 review for more in-depth analysis and discussion.