As revealed by thewalkmanblog, the much-anticipated Sony WH-1000XM6 have shown up on an FCC certification document, meaning it likely won't be long before the new over-ear wireless headphones are launched to the public. An FCC certification is a mandatory requirement for any wireless headphones set to be sold in the United States and seeks to ensure that products meet regulatory standards and can be sold safely to consumers.
Submission for an FCC certification is one of the key steps all manufacturers must take to sell their products in a given territory, indicating clear intent on behalf of Sony to pave the way for the Sony WH-1000XM6 to come to market. The sequel to the flagship, Award-winning Sony WH-1000XM5 released in 2022, the WH-1000XM6 are the wireless over-ear headphones we've been dying to see arrive this year, and it looks as though we only have a few more months to wait until their release.
The WH-10000XM6 submission document doesn't give us much technical information about the new cans, but as the short-term confidentiality ends on July 22nd 2025, so we're anticipating a summer launch. Described as a "noise cancelling stereo headset", the new headphones will have the same battery rating (3.8V) as the WH-1000XM5, as well as support for Bluetooth 5.3 and the LE Audio.
The biggest departure for the Sony WH-1000XM6 from their predecessors seems to be in terms of their design. The document image indicates detachable earpads (not a feature of the XM5) with a similar, but not identical, oval shape. It's not clear how the process of fixing and removing the pads is performed yet. Thewalkmanblog speculates that the drivers appear to be 30mm, the same size as found with the WH-1000XM5, but no detail yet on any change in material or driver technology.
This is just an engineering prototype, though, not a pre-production model, so aspects of design and functionality are subject to change. There's still a great deal of information that we don't yet have access to, but we'll keep you updated as soon as we catch word of any more details on the highly anticipated headphones.
In the meantime, check out our Sony WH-1000XM6 prediction page to see what we can expect and what we'd like to see from the upcoming cans.
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