Sony somehow made the name of its new headphones even worse

Sony makes some of the best headphones on the planet. They also make some of the worst product names. And somehow, after a decade of perfecting the art of the incomprehensible model number, the company has managed to outdo itself.

Meet the 1000X The Collexion WH-1000XX. Yes, that is the actual name of Sony’s new flagship headphones.

For years, Sony has deployed headphone names that read like someone fell asleep on a keyboard. The WH-1000XM6. The WH-CH720N. These aren’t exactly easy names to remember, nor are they easy for people to identify the type of product they pertain to.

There is at least some semblance of logic buried in there. The “W” stands for wireless. The “H” is for headband. The “F” likely means wire-free, the “I” for in-ear. The 1000X is meant to signify the flagship noise canceling tier. The M-whatever tells you which generation you’re on. It’s a system. Sort of, and I imagine I’ve already lost you at this point. Sony has never officially confirmed what any of it means, so this is all just based on the educated guessing of various journalists.

A Collection of One

When I first got wind of a new premium lineup called “the Collection,” I was excited because it seemed Sony was going to abandon the usual mess of letters and numbers for an actual word and inject some personality into the lineup. When I realized it pertained to a single product, not a, you know, collection of products, I couldn’t help but face-palm. You cannot have a collection of one thing.

Additionally, the mispelling is deliberate. The X in the Collexion is a nod to the 10th anniversary of the 1000X series, which, while I understand, I don’t think the Roman numeral will be immediately apparent to most customers.

Ultimately, nothing about “1000X The Collexion” suggests you’re buying headphones. I tried asking my parents, my friends, people who didn’t already know what it was, and the guesses I got were that it was a fragrance, a fashion line, or a new video game.

Sony, please listen to me: give your products names that people can understand. Something like the Sony X Headphones, or even the Anniversary Edition, would have been fine.

The headphones themselves are excellent. And they should be, at the price. But it also shouldn’t take more than two seconds to say or search on Google.

Ten years is a milestone worth celebrating. Just maybe not like this.