Sony ULT Wear Review: A Year Later, Bass-Rattling Party Never Stops

Sony has many series to cater to different types of listeners, and one of their lineups just gives you the best thumping bass experience possible – the XTRA BASS. However, that lineup isn’t around with the Sony ULT Wear – we are convinced it’s evolved into Ultimate Bass, hence the “ULT” naming. So, in this Sony ULT Wear Review, we will share everything you need to know and perhaps help you pick this up from the shelves.

Sony ULT Wear Review

Design and Build: WH-1000XM3, Is that You?

Before we talk about the headphones, I have to say, that thank goodness Sony has finally named their headphones properly. Calling this the Sony ULT Wear is so much easier instead of Sony WH-ULT900N (which is the serialized name for this).

With that out of the way, immediately when we notice the design, I must say it feels like I have seen this one before. The Sony ULT Wear takes a page out of the WH-1000XM3/4 – with the familiar collapsible design, a fabric case which comes included where you can store these and almost everything about it gives the ULT Wear, a WH-1000XM3 energy.

Of course, since it’s ULT and not the 1000X series, you do see some trade-offs here to keep these headphones at the more obtainable price point. It’s made out of polycarbonate material, keeping the headphones light and has no matte coating to give it a premium look. The earcups are not memory foam like the WH-1000XM5, and all in all, it feels more-ULT-less-1000X as well.

It weighs at 255 grams, which is light and the clamping force is just right without giving any headaches. The choices of materials for the earcups and the band are still comfy, even if you plan to use them for a longer duration. In my personal opinion, this is miles better than the WH-CH720N we reviewed two years ago – in fact, a proper upgrade.

Specification

We are jumping straight into the specification as these Sony ULT Wear, although they are meant to be more playful, bass-heavy headphones, they sure did put some great things to live up to those expectations:

• 40mm Closed Dynamic Dome Type Neodymium drivers (Which is good as Neodymium is fantastic for bass)
• Bluetooth 5.2 with support for SBC, AAC and LDAC
• ULT Button for Extra Bass
• Comes with support for DSEE, Passive Operation and Ambient Sound Mode

Music Experience

Let’s dive right into the music experience before we talk about the ULT-imate experience, you could get out of this. Throughout the entire test, we used the Sony ULT Wear with our Xiaomi 14, which is capable of doing LDAC and our Walkman, more specifically the Sony Walkman NW-A55.

Let’s start with Sevdaliza’s Alibi with Pabllo Vittar and Yseult – listening to this song on the ULT Wear brings a lot of oomph factor. The vocals in the beginning are pretty nice, and at the 0:13 mark, the bass response is pretty nice. Now this is still with no ULT mode turned on, and even then, the bass response is pretty steady. The vocals are very well pronounced, and at the 1:28 mark, you can see how well the bass, vocals and beat come together with proper layering, which I appreciate. 

The second song we tested with these headphones was – U by Millennium Parade, Belle. This is a Japanese song from the movie Belle, which I feel is a good one to test as the music offers amazing dynamic-ness and you can hear it here with the ULT Wear, although it has its caveat – the vocals tend to take a backseat in most impactful moments. You can hear them, but you’ll realise that the headphones prioritise bass, instruments and then the vocals. If you listen to the vocal-free versions, it’s nice to hear.

Finally, we tried a song that this headphone is designed for – EDM – and listened to KUURO’s She’s Got a Gun by McCall – these headphones belong here. The bass response was solid with McCall’s vocal, which was the emphasis in the song. This is probably the one song we noticed the trebles as it wasn’t as pronounced as the other songs we listened to. Once the beat drops, you can hear the thumping bass giving you that punch and oomph which many listeners would yearn for. Back It Up, Drop It by DeeWunn is a song that has a subtle bass response, and we wanted a bit of a punch – this is where the ULT button comes into play.

Special Sauce: The ULT Button

When you press the ULT Button, it has two levels of Bass. Level 1 offers an enhanced deeper low-pass range, and Level 2 has increased power compared to Level 1. In layman’s terms, Level 1 gives you pretty powerful bass and Level 2 gives you the feel of the bass reverberating around your ears, which brings other elements of the music lower.

Hide and Seek (DUUMU Remix) by SLUMBERJACK was fantastic when ULT turned off, and at Level 1, we could already feel the vibration around our ears, and the bass drop at 1:10 is delicious. Crank it up to Level 2, we noticed the vocals and other instruments are dull (although audible), but the bass can Marty McFly blow you away.

One song we found the bass to blow you away at Level 1 was MILLI’s สุดปัง (Very Cool) – at the 0:14 mark, your head just gets blown away, and you can feel the bass vibration around your ears. The 0:57 mark is my personal favourite, with MILLI’s vocals well pronounced and the Bass was just tastefully impactful. I can’t say the same experience for Level 2 – well, the bass is so good, but I want to hear what MILLI is saying, even though I don’t understand Thai even the slightest. Side note: Thai folks, how to make your eardrums rattle.

Finally, Tic Tac by MEMBA is a fantastic song to hear a gradual increase in bass intensity as the song goes by. Level 1 is delicious, I must say, and then there’s Level 2, which just gives you a different experience. When turned off, you can hear the bass, but it’s a lot less pronounced.

There are other songs which have decent Bass response to begin with, and I feel like it’s great as is without the ULT Mode. Listening any more for prolonged hours does give you that fatigue. But the fact that you can control it with a click away, conveniently located on the left earcup, is pretty amazing. That said, here are some songs for you to listen to and have that ULT Bass experience – I have posted a Playlist below for y’all on Spotify. 😊

Noise Cancellation and Ambient Experience

I am glad that consumers will get ANC and Ambient Sound experience with the ULT Wear because coming from Sony, although it doesn’t have that “industry-leading” ANC we see with their more expensive 1000X series, this is pretty good to eliminate all sorts of sound. I used these headphones during my trip to Singapore on the flight and I have nothing to complain about.

When we compare with the 1000X series, this is what you are missing out on – the granular control for Noise Cancellation and ANC, which uses the microphones to calibrate the Noise Cancellation. However, with Ambient Sound Mode, you have all the granularity you need, controlling what you need to hear and even an option for Voice Passthrough.

Other Noteworthy Features

It doesn’t end there, as Sony has equipped the headphones with other good features that would benefit you on a day-to-day basis, such as:

• Multipoint connectivity, where you can pair to two devices simultaneously. Works great.
• Auto pause when the headphones are removed because there are sensors inside the earcups to detect them. Again pretty great to pick up from where you left off.
• Disabling the touch control if it gets in your way too much. My personal favourite when I want to wear these headphones to sleep and not letting the touch control get in the way.
• LDAC and DSEE support, along with customizable EQ. It’s not DSEE HX or Extreme, but for what it is and where it’s positioned in the market, you are getting a much decent experience after all.
• Adaptive Sound Control. Underrated feature. Trust us.
• And even an app which offers updates and such to make your listening experience better. Definitely better than the Headphones Connect era.
• Not to forget, the 30 hours of battery life really does live up to their claims. Which mean, all day err day bass-thumping-music-baby.

Conclusion

At RM899, there’s nothing much to complain about here as it offers the experience Sony promises that it will offer. The Sony ULT Wear, without a doubt, gives consumers who want the bass-thumping, nerve-wracking, heart-throbbing kind of listening experience. As it has been a while since these headphones came out, you could even pick them up for less than the listed SRP – going for RM 769 on Sony’s official site.

If you are not a fan of the bass that the ULT Wear offers, then your only other alternative would be the WH-1000XM5, unless you want to get the 1000XM4 – that is, if you can still find them.

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