Fifty per cent off: Bass boss, and now budget-friendly too

With a comfortable design, smart features like ANC, and impressive battery life, these headphones are a steal at their current reduced price.

Written by Akriti Rana , Nimish Dubey
New Delhi | Updated: May 20, 2024 04:33 PM IST

6 min read

These headphones belong to Sony's 'Xtra Bass' (XB) range (Express Photo)

For many folks, bass is an important component of the personal audio experience. The low frequency is the highest priority for many listeners, especially those who leave beats and like their music to have some ‘punch’ and ‘rumble.’ While there are a number of headphones that claim to deliver bass, most of them, especially at lower price points tend to focus more on quantity than quality, resulting in plenty of ear-thumping and ear-rattling bass, but at the cost of overall audio clarity. There are some excellent high-quality bass-accented headphones in the market as well but with great bass headphones come great price tags, especially if you also want features like wireless connectivity, ANC and other smart functionality. So can you get feature-rich, bass-centric headphones with good audio quality at a relatively reasonable price? The answer is “yes,” thanks to a huge cut in the price of the Sony WH-XB910N, part of Sony’s famous ‘Xtra Bass’ (XB) range. These headphones had been released at a special price of Rs 14,990, and have an official price tag of Rs 19,990, but are now available at almost half the price in the range of Rs 8000 – Rs 9000 from many online and offline retailers.

Smart looks and big, bassy sound

Although these are made of plastic, they have a premium build quality (Express photo)

And at this reduced price, the WH-XB910N are a bass-lover’s dream. In fact, we would even recommend them to anyone who wants good quality mainstream sound, with greater stress on bass. Although made mainly of plastic, they have a premium build quality and come with a high-quality carrying bag in the box. The ear cups and the band connecting them are well padded, and at about 250 grams, are comfortable enough to wear for an extended period of time. The headphones fold inwards, allowing you to carry them easily, something that is becoming increasingly rare these days. Although they come with a good carrying bag, they seem sturdy enough to be just chucked into a backpack and taken along wherever one goes. You also get a choice of colours between blue and black – the former is very striking.

If you love your audio with plenty of bass that does not get in the way of clarity, then you are going to just love the WH-XB910N. The headphones come with 40mm neodymium drivers and churn out very impressive volumes of audio – you are rarely going to max out the volume levels on them. By default, they have a definite bass-friendly sound signature, but unlike many other headphones that claim to deliver lots of bass, these manage to amp up the bass without disrupting audio clarity. You can opt to increase the bass even more using the equaliser that comes in the companion app, and in some of those cases, the vocals might get a little suppressed, but by and large, the clarity of these headphones is very very good. We would say that apart from music (especially underground, rap and techno, and anything with great rumble), these are great for gaming and action films and that clarity means they are pretty handy for podcasts too.

Super ANC, great battery life…and touch controls!

Thanks to ANC support, these make a perfect travelling companion (Express Photo)

They look smart and sound good if you have a bass-ic instinct, but there’s even more to the WG-XB910N. The headphones have very good ANC, just a level below that of the amazing 1000-XM5 and more than enough for most users (they can drown out a lot of consistent ambient noise). What’s more, the headphones can actually automatically adjust ANC levels depending on your surroundings. You also get 360-degree sound, and multi-device connectivity (so you can switch between your phone and notebook and so on). You also have the option to summon a virtual assistant for queries, and call handling is very impressive indeed. Round that off with about thirty hours of battery life with ANC on (and you can even plug the headphones into a 3.5 mm jack with a wire – included in the box – when you run out of battery juice), and frankly, we do not think you will even think of TWS once you have used these for a week or so. Our only quibble are the touch controls on the earcups, which are a series of touches and swipes and can sometimes go a little wrong – call us old-fashioned, but we prefer the reliability and feel of trusty old buttons. The headphones come with USB Type-C connectivity for charging.

They seemed priced a little too close to the flagship 1000 XM series when they were launched, but at their current price, we think the WH-XB910N are easily the best Bluetooth bass headphones you can get for about Rs 10,000. Actually, you can make that Rs 20,000, as no other headphones actually deliver what these do – the Skullcandy Crusher have more rumble but tends to butcher vocals. So yes, if you are looking for terrific bass, with very good ANC and other smart features, just go ahead and grab the Sony Wh-XB910N at their reduced price – just check different retailers to make sure you get the best deal (Croma and Reliance Digital had the best prices – around Rs 8,000 – at the time of writing). They are easily the boss of Bluetooth bass. And so much more affordable now.