Sony WH-1000X M3 noise cancelling glitches in train tunnels

[rob_levine]

Hi,

I recently bought Sony WH-1000X M3 headphones; they're great and the noise cancelling is excellent almost all the time, except in train tunnels.

Here, the noise cancelling often cuts out (or otherwise changes) intermittently as the train goes through a tunnel.

I returned the first pair due to this, but the replacement pair exhibits exactly the same behaviour. 

I suspect this is air pressure change related.

A huge part of my usage is likely to be on trains, in particular underground trains, and they are just no good in this situation. The background rumble just switches in and out as the train travels through the tunnel.

Does anyone else have this problem, or has anyone found a solution? 

By the way, Adaptive Sound Control is definitely disabled, and I have tried multiple optimiser runs.

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[rob_levine]

I ended up returning my pair and buying another replacement (i.e. third pair) from another vendor altogether in case it was a fault with a batch.

Disappointingly, the effect is still there, so I doubt it is a fault isolated to a few pairs. More likely firmware or fundamental design issue.

On the plus side, I wore mine on a plane - once in the air - and they were superb. I think this reinforces that it is changing pressure rather then absolute pressure that causes the issue.

I'm really hoping for a firmware fix here.

[AndyND]

I am experiencing the same issue, also mostly on the London Underground Tubes.

Am on Firmware 4.2.2

Tested with music off with only the NC on.

The wave of noises seep through mostly when the tube is at the highest speed.

It feels like the NC was tripped off for quick second or that the noise or wind was brushing over the NC microphone.

Am on the fence of returning this headphone for another brand as I mostly use it for commuting on the Underground Tube.

[rob_levine]

@AndyND 

"It feels like the NC was tripped off for quick second" - actually yes - that is a pretty good description of effect.

I'm having the issue on London Underground too, plus one of the main lines into London.

At first, I wondered if it might be a single bad batch, so was going to ask people if they were London based to see if we could all be part of the same faulty batch. However, the fact it affects 3 headphones, bought 6 weeks apart from two different vendors (one in central London, the other Amazon) makes me doubt this hypothesis now.

[Jhericurls]

I got my headphones last week and today was the first time on the underground and the headphones was almost unusable on some of the journey.   The change in pressure was causing the headphones to adjust the volume to compensate and sounded glitchy. 

I searched to see if my unit was faulty and found this thread.  I'm surprised there isn't more on this as its a serious deal breaker for anyone who uses them to commute on the underground, as they are unusable.

[1ceb0x]

I have the exact same issue. My pair of M3s was bought in december this year (my dear PXC550 has failed exactly after warranty) and so decided to give Sony a spin since I have so many colleagues that are happy with them.

Sadly after a few weeks of use, it became apparent that they have an issue with coping with external sounds in some situations. The best example is in the tube. I too live in London and my commute is on the overground. Still, I have constant issues in the tube where the sound gets distorted, it becames 'woobly', for the lack of a better word. Or how you guys put it 'sounds like an old gramophone for a few seconds, then returns back to normal'.

This definitely seems to be an issue with the pressure, as I get a similar kind of issue if I cover both earphones with my hands and press on them while listening to music. This issue does not happen otherwise (i.e while walking outside, while sitting indoors etc). It mostly seems to be happening in the tube where the air pressure changes constantly.

Doesn't look like a hardware fault, more like software, but I can't say i'm not disappointed. I wasn't expecting to have issues from a premium pair of headphones at this price. My PXC550, although a tad bit cheaper overall, were a better bang for my buck. Managed to squeeze those for 2 years on a day to day constant use and had no issues until the plastic failed.

[Scrambleded]

Well it's not just me then! Pleased to have found this forum after 3 calls with Sony support trying to explain this problem without any fix. Precisely as described. Seemed to be working brilliantly but since resuming the London Underground commute listening has been really poor with NC intermittently turning off for a second here or there as I travel. With the loud noise on the underground this means a very obvious interference. Also experience the very poor sound quality on the tube from time to time, like a blown speaker. 

My question to others suffering is this... I don't recall the problem happening prior to Christmas? This seems to be a new thing. I'm sure I'd have noticed if they were before but i can't be 100%. They didn't have noticeable issues on my first week of wear. It's possible I've updated the firmware since and I'm wondering if it might be a latest firmware glitch. Has anyone tried factory resetting them?

And do you find turning off NC solves the problem? 

Pondering on next steps. Reluctant to return them, as they work so well otherwise (for me it's just the train travel, overground sometimes, underground mainly), particularly if it's a software glitch which could be fixed with a reset or update.

Would appreciate any thoughts so I can decide what to do ....

Would love to keep them if possible 

[Rsjago]

Hi Rob, and others,

Im having the exact same problem. Certainly no crackling or static or something like that. Bought them 2 days ago. All of a sudden while in a tunnel the noise cancelling seems to change its behavior all of a sudden. Kind of annoying while going through tunnels. All of a sudden a wave of volume/noise change hit you and goes away. Gets you out of the listening experience. I now turn noise cancelling of on trains, which I bought it for;). The headphones are great, but this seems like solvable problem. 
maybe include a train mode or something like that. 

Regards

robbert

[mrblanco101]

Hi all,

Completely agree with each of the above posts. Happens to me always when going through tunnels, often when another High speed train goes past the one I'm travelling on and sometimes when train doors shut- must be something to do with pressure change as each of these examples cause a sudden change in pressure.

Robbert, particularly well described- like a woompfh of louder sound before it adjusts back to how it was playing originally.

Hopefully this issue will be resolvable through a software update. Train mode idea is great- would hope Sony are able to come up with a way to prevent the NC being so clearly distorted by sudden changes such as tunnels.

Cheers,

Ed

[Tobinator]

Hi all,

just wanted to add my voice, I have sent my pair back after hearing exactly what is described here in this thread. A colleague also has the same issue but is living with it (shorter commute - pos shallower tunnels). I actually tipped off a guy at Trusted Reviews called Kob Monney who reviews headphones. Said he hadn’t experienced it with his - but I made him aware of this thread. I doubt it is firmware solvable. I’m now looking at Bowers & Wilkins PX7 or Bose 700.

i told Sony Support about my issue. Such a shame as awesome product out of the London Underground.

good luck all

[victorlisteningtothings]

Bit of an old thread but was directly relevant to my experiences with the XM4s. I commute to and fro London, and this track goes through a fair number of tunnels at high speeds. I didn't notice the glitches on my way to London, but today after work it was really bad - sounds exactly like a gramophone that was slowed down so all the music was off-key, before speeding back up. It wasn't just the tunnels - even bridges! I think the consensus on this thread is that this issue is from sudden changes in ambient pressure. One thing that seems to help is to use the app to turn the noise cancellation level to 1 or 2, and to set the "Focus on Voice" option. I will try to report back tomorrow after work when I'm going through lots of tunnels.