Sony Marks 10 Years of 1000X Headphones With the $649 COLLEXION

Sony is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the 1000X series of headphones, which I honestly thought had been around much longer than that. But, to celebrate this anniversary, Sony is introducing ‘1000X The COLLEXION.

Meet Sony’s flagship COLLEXION premium Headphones

With the COLLEXION, Sony is aiming for a more luxurious pair of headphones, which also means a higher price tag. But more on that a bit later. With The COLLEXION you’re getting Sony’s best sound quality, with legendary noise canceling and ultra clear calls. But you also get a new design that definitely looks luxurious.

Sony is using the same material across the head cushion, earpads, and housing for a seamless sense of utility. With stainless steel for the metal components of the headphones. Even the buttons and cable jack hole are made of metal. Sony also optimized these for comfort, which is great because they are considerably heavier than the WH-1000XM6.

With the COLLEXION, Sony is using a new unidirectional carbon driver, which enhances delicate high-frequency expression and a wide sound stage. There’s also a new integrated processor, the V3, which allows DSEE ULTIMATE and three modes of spatial upmix.

This provides the COLLEXION with the best sound ever on a pair of consumer-grade headphones. Even better than the WH-1000XM6. But unfortunately, not everything is better here. It has great noise cancellation, but the WH-1000XM6 has the best noise cancellation and also has slightly better battery life at 30 hours, while the COLLEXION has 24 hours.

Pricing and Availability

Sony’s The COLLEXION is not going to be cheap. It’s going to cost you $649 in the US or $849 in Canada. But they are available beginning today, from the usual crop of retailers. This includes Amazon, as well as Sony directly.

This is about $190 more expensive than the WH-1000XM6, which has already been available for a while.