Sony 1000X The Collexion: Why Sony Built a Flagship Above the XM Line

Sony’s new 1000X The Collexion headphones are the clearest statement the company has ever made about what it actually thinks are “premium” headphones. Clearly, the headphones are not the WH-1000XM7. Instead, it is a separate, more expensive product line aimed at a specific type of buyer. At an event held by Sony in Tokyo to celebrate the launch of the headphones and the tenth anniversary of the 1000X line, I was able to talk to Tyler Ishida, senior general manager of Sony’s personal entertainment marketing division, about the new headphones and where they might take Sony’s headphones as a whole.

This definition of premium has changed dramatically under Sony’s feet over the past decade, since the first 1000X arrived in 2016. The Collexion earbuds are Sony’s attempt to capture the fashion-focused audience — an audience that might otherwise opt for something like the cheaper AirPods Max 2.

But, as Ishida said, the headphones “are not intended to compete with others, etc., or with other models of our brand.” We want to make sure it’s the right product for this audience that can feel and understand high-end.”

When the 1000X first launched, the sale was simple: noise cancellation, like what Bose offered, but with a tech-first approach. Ishida was, according to his own words, one of the target buyers. “People travel a lot these days, including myself at that time. In 2016, I would leave my house on Monday morning to go to Tokyo airport, then return on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

“So I’m always traveling. Definitely the noise-cancelling element: At that time, there was no Wi-Fi on a plane. So when you’re on the plane, you can really rest. And to get the best rest, you have good noise cancellation, and that’s where we really focused on this product.”

It was the bar. The bar is now much higher, and not just because the ANC arms race has made every flagship at least competent. The question of what’s worth buying a $400-plus pair of headphones extends far beyond how effectively they can silence an airplane cabin.

The change Ishida describes is one the entire category has experienced, but he puts it more directly than most product managers would. Headphones stopped being a technology purchase and started being a fashion purchase – or at least, a fashion purchase as much as a technology purchase.

“I remember one time I was watching a Super Bowl, and before the (game), I think there was some kind of channel where people were talking about how the players were walking into the stadium. And I was just watching people walking in with headphones on. A lot of people. They weren’t saying anything about it. So it’s also becoming a little bit more of a fashion statement. I think it’s gradually changed this industry.”

This of course fits with Sony’s approach with The Collexion. The goal is to focus on fashion and manufacturing quality rather than design. This also explains the compromise that Sony is willing to defend. The Collexion’s battery life is a bit lower than the XM6’s, which would normally be an issue on a spec sheet. Ishida doesn’t dodge it.

“I know a lot of people may say ‘yes, the drums or whatever’ – but yeah, we understand that, (and always) that’s what we think should be.” In other words, Sony made a call, and the call was that the rest of the packaging – the materials, the construction, the sound – mattered more to this audience than increased battery life. As a headset reviewer, I have a hard time separating the two – but I can at least see where Ishida is coming from.

Perhaps the biggest change in headphones over the past 10 years has more to do with the ecosystem than anything else. Apple’s AirPods were an instant success, and the AirPods lineup has only expanded, showing that having tight control over an ecosystem can indeed lead to better features. There are others who play this game too. Sonos is integrated into its soundbars, for example.

When I asked how Sony competes in a world where ecosystem features are increasingly the reason people choose a pair of headphones, Ishida didn’t pretend that Sony had an answer that fit these companies on their own terms.

“It’s hard to answer, because when it comes to ecosystem, you have to have it all. Do we want to have it all too? Or do we want to be particularly good at certain things to make sure that even though there is an ecosystem, there is still an element that you want to use our product? I think that’s very important.”

Sony, as a group, actually owns more pieces than most – PlayStation, Bravia TVs, music business, camera business – but Ishida doesn’t offer a unified play of the Sony ecosystem in the Apple mold. He makes the case for being better at everything else, where the ecosystem doesn’t matter as much. Of course, this could be a very hard sell to customers who really want everything.

But this fits with how Ishida talks about competition more generally: “If there is no competitiveness in the market or in the industry, it means that the industry is already (finished). There is no demand. » In other words, the goal is not to beat Apple as Apple. It’s to make the headphones that someone buys anyway.

So why didn’t these headphones eventually become the WH-1000XM7? Apparently they never had to start with this, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t paving the way for Sony’s cheaper next-gen headphones.

“Of course, we didn’t think about Mark 7. Did we specifically create this collection on the occasion of our 10th anniversary, or was it just born out of our desire to create a flagship product? When we try to create the flagship product, the right product – when we develop or envision all this, it turns out to be this, you know? This might be the right time for us to come up with this type of product. Because if we suddenly introduce a flagship product, it’s called just a flagship product. But with all the technology that we have built over the last 10 years, really knowing this high-end market, what should be the right product – it’s all kind of combined: the 10 years and the flagship all together.

In other words, the 10-year alignment wasn’t necessarily the point, but it worked. The Collexion exists because Sony wanted to create a flagship product that sat above the XM line – and the anniversary turned out to be a good time to ship it. The XM range remains on its own, at its own pace.

What does this mean if you wait for the XM7, which will likely arrive at a more familiar and affordable price? Some of what Sony put into The Collexion will likely be removed – although Ishida is careful to say that it depends on what makes sense.

“Obviously the materials and so on are different (from the

Basically, materials and design language probably stay on top, at least for now. However, anything related to the technology under the hood is more likely to appear on the XM7. This isn’t necessarily surprising: the 1000X headphones have long been a technology product.

Say what you want about this approach. Obviously, those buying an expensive pair of headphones probably want both the technology And the design. Either way, I certainly think there’s more room for premium design and build quality in the world of wireless headphones.