My Seatmate Snored for 6 Hours—I Heard Nothing. These Sony Headphones Are Wild I used to be an earbuds person. AirPods, Jabras, some random Anker ones I bought on a whim. I figured over-ear headphones were too bulky, too dorky, too much commitment. If you had told me two years ago that I would be spending three hundred and fifty dollars on a pair of massive headphones specifically for travel, I would have laughed in your face. But that was before I sat next to a man on a six hour flight from Newark to Denver who snored like a dying lawnmower. Not the gentle rhythmic kind you can tune out. I'm talking about the kind of snore that vibrates through the armrest. The kind where the person behind you taps your shoulder and asks if everything is okay. The kind where the flight attendant gives you a sympathetic look during the beverage service. I had my AirPods Pro in with noise cancellation on full blast and I could still hear him. The drones were doing their little electronic hum, the music was playing at what I knew was an unsafe volume, and underneath it all was this rumbling wheeze that sounded like a car trying to start on a cold morning. I spent that flight oscillating between anger and desperation. I thought about waking him up but what was I going to say, hey man can you stop breathing. I thought about moving but the plane was full. I just sat there for six hours with my music loud enough to hurt and still hearing the snore underneath like a ghost in the machine. When I landed I went straight to Best Buy. I didn't even go home first. I walked in with my carry-on still on my shoulder and told the guy at the headphone display that I needed something that would actually block out noise on a plane, not just pretend to. He pointed me toward the Sony WH-1000XM5. I had heard of the XM4, everyone on Reddit talked about them like they were the second coming of audio. But the XM5 was the newer model, three hundred and fifty dollars, which made me wince. The guy let me try them on and I put them over my ears and just stood there in the middle of the Best Buy with nothing playing. The store noise just dropped. Not disappeared completely but it felt like someone turned the volume of the world down by like eighty percent. The air conditioning hum was gone. The distant chatter was muffled to a whisper. I bought them on the spot. The first real test was a subway ride. I live in a city where the trains sound like a metal band warming up in a trash compactor. The screech when the train takes a curve is genuinely painful with no headphones. With the Sony's noise cancellation on, it became a distant rumble. I could still hear the announcement system faintly if I paid attention, which is actually a safety feature I didn't know I wanted. The ambient mode lets you cup your hand over the right earcup and it temporarily pipes in the outside sound so you can hear the conductor or order coffee without taking the headphones off. That trick saved me more than once when I needed to hear a platform change announcement. The second test was a five hour flight to Seattle. I put the headphones on before I even sat down. The moment I found my seat, I clicked them on, selected noise cancellation at full, and pressed play on a podcast. The boarding noise, the overhead bin slams, the guy on the phone who wouldn't shut up, it all just faded into the background. By the time we pushed back from the gate I was already relaxed. The takeoff roar that usually makes me tense up was just a low vibration I could barely hear. I fell asleep before we reached cruising altitude. I woke up two hours later because the flight attendant was tapping my shoulder asking if I wanted a drink. I hadn't heard the drink cart coming at all. I took the headphones off and the cabin noise hit me like a wall, it was jarring how loud everything was. I put them back on and it was peaceful again. I've read complaints from people on Reddit who say the ANC on the XM5 is barely better than the XM4, and you know what, they might be right in a quiet room. In a quiet room they're probably identical. But on a plane, in a subway car, on a bus going over potholes, the XM5 somehow cleans up the low end better. The engine drone is gone. The wind noise on landing is reduced. The crying baby two rows up is just a faint squeak you can barely make out. The snoring seatmate situation has not repeated itself but I'm confident I would be fine now. The comfort surprised me. I wear glasses and that's usually the dealbreaker with over-ear headphones. The earpads push your glasses arms into your head and after an hour you've got a headache and a red mark on your temple. The XM5 earpads are soft enough that I forget I'm wearing glasses at all. The clamping force is medium, not too tight, not so loose that they slide around when you turn your head. I wore them for most of an eight hour workday plus the commute and my ears didn't hurt. They got a little warm after a few hours but not sweaty. I've heard people say the XM5's earpads are more breathable than the XM4's and I can believe it. But here's the thing that almost made me return them. The case. Sony decided that the XM5 should not fold. The earcups swivel flat but they don't fold inward like the XM4. The case is this big pill shaped thing that takes up a ridiculous amount of space in a bag. I have a typical under seat backpack for flights and the Sony case fills almost half of it. If I'm doing a one bag trip, I can't bring anything else. I understand why they did it, the hinge on the XM4 was a weak point and people complained about creaking and snapping. The XM5 has fewer moving parts, it should be more durable long term. But for travel, the foldability of the XM4 is a huge advantage. I've seen people on r/onebag and r/ManyBaggers argue back and forth about this. Some say the case fits fine in a twenty five liter bag if you pack right. Others say it's a dealbreaker and they went with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra instead. I actually tried the Bose at the store before buying the Sony. The Bose are lighter, they fold flat, and the ANC is also excellent. Some people prefer the Bose for the slightly more natural sound and the fact that they fold. But the Sony has a warmer sound signature that I liked more for music. The bass is punchy without being overwhelming. The mids are clear. I listen to a lot of acoustic stuff and vocals come through really nicely. I also have an Android phone so I can use the LDAC codec which gives higher quality Bluetooth audio. That matters to me because I'm a nerd about sound quality. If you have an iPhone, you can't use LDAC anyway so that advantage disappears and the Bose becomes a more serious contender. One thing I didn't expect to appreciate as much as I do is the multipoint Bluetooth. I can be watching a video on my laptop and if my phone rings, the headphones automatically switch to the call. When I hang up, they switch back to the laptop video. It's seamless. I didn't know I needed that until I had it. Also the battery life is legit. Sony claims thirty hours with ANC and I get about twenty six to twenty eight in real world use with LDAC turned on and the volume at a moderate level. If you turn off LDAC or use the headphones in wired mode, you get more. The quick charge feature is real too. Three minutes on the charger gives you about thirty minutes of playback. I always plug them in while I'm walking through the airport to the gate and by the time I board I've got an extra couple hours. My only real complaint besides the case size is the lack of an IP rating. These are four hundred dollar headphones with no official water resistance. I'm careful with them but if I get caught in the rain walking to the train, I worry. I've seen people on the Sony subreddit use them in light rain without issues but there's no guarantee. The XM4 didn't have one either so it's not a regression, it's just an omission that feels stingy at this price point. I've had these headphones for about seven months now. I've taken them on maybe ten flights, hundreds of subway rides, and countless coffee shop work sessions. The earpads are still in good shape. The headband hasn't creaked or loosened. The battery still holds a full charge. The noise cancellation still impresses me every time I put them on. That first moment when you click them on and the world goes quiet, it never gets old. If you're the kind of traveler who packs light and every cubic inch of bag space matters, get the XM4 or the Bose QC Ultra. But if your priority is silence, genuine silence where you can close your eyes on a plane and not hear the engine or the baby or the snoring guy in 14B, the XM5 is worth the case size. I got mine for three hundred and fifty dollars at Best Buy and honestly, after that Newark flight, I would have paid double. The peace of mind on a long trip is priceless.