Sony’s 1000X The Collexion headphones are here, and pricey

After a few weeks of teasers, leaks, and more leaks, Sony has officially launched its premium headphones. The 1000X The Collexion headphones are a special launch celebrating the 10th anniversary of Sony’s 1000X headphone line.

The headphones come with a slightly different design than what we’ve seen on its flagship WH-1000XM6 headphones. The earcups are faux leather with softer edges as compared to the 1000XM6. Sony has used the same faux leather on the headband and earpads to give the headphones a more refined, premium feel.

Also new are the drivers, which Sony says are bespoke units built from the ground up specifically for these new headphones. They feature a new “high-rigidity dome made from unidirectional carbon composite material,” says Sony. The company also partnered with Grammy Award-winning sound engineers to tune the headphones for smooth vocals, balanced instruments, and better dynamics that can truly recreate the emotion of the artist’s recording.

Sony has opted not to offer audio input via the USB-C port, but the headphones do have a 3.5mm headphone jack for connecting to analog sources. This means that devices that don’t support the LDAC codec can’t deliver high-res sound through the headphones.

However, the headphones are the first to feature DSEE Ultimate, which uses Edge AI to upscale digital music. That effectively implies that sound over Bluetooth can be upscaled to a near-high-res quality. But we don’t know for sure how big a difference DSEE Ultimate will make when listening to music over Bluetooth.

The company has also equipped the headphones with a new V3 co-processor that pairs with the QN3 that’s already present in the 1000XM6 headphones for better noise cancelation. There are 12 mics as well, six on each earcup, to help with active noise cancelation (ANC). The 12-mic array should also help with noise cancelation during calls.

Sony claims a battery life of 24 hours with ANC and 32 hours without ANC. While that’s a good number, it falls short of the XM6’s claimed 30 hours of battery life.

The 1000X The Collexion headphones are available in two colors — Black and Platinum — and are priced at $649 in the US. That’s $200 more than the price of the XM6s. The headphones come with a carrying case as well as an AUX cable in the box. You can buy them starting today.