Sony confirms launch date for flagship WH-1000XM6 headphones – here are 6 things to expect

• Sony's WH-1000XM6 headphones launch on May 15
• Almost all of the details have already leaked
• Expect deliveries to begin in June

Sony's next flagship headphones, the Sony WH-1000XM6, will launch on May 15. Sony Australia shared a teaser for the launch on its Instagram account with no details other than the date and time: for Australians it's 2am on the May 16.

Because Australia is many time zones ahead that's a day later than everybody else: for countries further west, it's 9am PDT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST on Thursday May 15. We're expecting shipping to begin in June 2025.

Almost all of the details have already leaked bar one key detail: international pricing. We know the price for the Spanish market courtesy of an Amazon leak on its Spanish website, but the details of US and UK prices haven't been similarly shared – although we can take a pretty good guess as to what those prices will be.

Here's the teaser, followed by six things to expect from next week's WH-1000XM6 launch event.

6 things to expect from the Sony WH-1000XM6 (based on rumors)

1. A small price hike

The Amazon leak included a price for Spanish buyers of €470 including tax; without tax that works out as €439.

That's roughly $499 / £439 / AU$770, which sounds about right: rumors suggested we'd see a price hike for Sony's 2025 model. The current model launched at $399 / £380 / AU$649.

2. The hinge is back! Back! BACK!

Newly leaked imagery on The Walkman Blog shows the redesign, which includes redesigned earcups, a thick and foldable hinge and a wider headband.

That's good, because one of the key criticisms of the current model is what some users have found to be a fairly flimsy construction.

3. Even better noise cancelling

The leaked specification on Amazon highlighted a new HD noise cancelling processor, dubbed QN3. The QN3 is reportedly seven times faster than the QN1 that's in the current WH-1000XM5.

That's accompanied by 12 microphones, Multi Noise Sensor technology and an automatic noise cancelling optimizer; together that should mean an improvement to Sony's already excellent noise cancellation.

4. Improved audio processing

The Integrated Processor V1 in the XM5s included the QN1 processor, so an updated version of that processor should mean better sound too.

Sony's leaked marketing materials say that the WH-1000XM6 have hi-res audio, DSEE Extreme, LDAC, Adaptive Sound Control, Personalized Spatial Audio and 360 Reality Audio with head tracking.

5. Small, rigid drivers

One of the surprises in the XM5 was that Sony moved to smaller drivers than the ones in the XM4, dropping the size by 25% to 30mm. The drivers this time around are 30mm too.

As we said in our Sony WH-1000XM5 review, smaller doesn't mean worse: the 30mm driver "makes use of a high rigidity dome and soft edge to take some of the bite off of higher-pitched sounds."

We found the XM5 to sound better than the XM4 (although there's not a lot in it, so if you see the XM4s going really cheap, then go for it).

6. A better case

The Walkman Blog reports that the case has been redesigned: the zipper is gone, replaced by a magnetic closure, and there's a small pocket for your 3.5mm and USB cables.

A few XM5 owners have been posting on Reddit about the zip on their cases (above) failing, so this may be a reaction to that; hopefully the magnet is as strong as the one on Apple's odd AirPods Max case.

We will of course be following the launch event and we'll update you with all the confirmed details and the price in your area, too.

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