Sony's new XB 'phones bomb the bass

Sony's new bass-heavy headphones
Sony's new bass-heavy headphones

Sony's latest headphones release looks to make tinny personal music a thing of the past.

The new XB series of headphones have been equipped with a driver unit which is said to "reproduce low frequencies accurately".

Sony has really turned the bass up to 11 with this release, adding a new feature they have given the Ronseal-esque moniker of 'eXtra Bass'.

Sound advice

The XB range features five new styles of headphone – each with a different sized driver unit.

The MDR-XB700 is the daddy of the bunch: the closed headset has a 50mm drive unit and handles 3,000mW of power. Its king-sized ear cushions reduce sound leakage and add more boom to the bass.

When it comes to in-ear headphones, the pick of the bunch is the MDR-XB40EX. This handles 100mW of power, and comes with a selection of small, medium and large earbuds. It also ustilises a new 'direct vibe' acoustic design, so there shouldn't be much in the way of sound spillage.

The rest of the range is as follows: MDR-XB500 (over the head), MDR-XB300 (earbud) and MDR-XB20EX (earbud).

The XB series of headphones are out in March with exact pricing to be announced.

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Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.