Sony WH-1000XM6 vs Sennheiser HDB 630 – which ANC headphones should you buy?

Sony and Sennheiser have battled hard in the ANC over-ear headphones market for years, with the Sony WH-1000XM and Sennheiser Momentum models consistently among the top-value performers in the premium space. I've compared each and every pair over the past decade, and while the most recent generations of Sonys have edged the head-to-head, Sennheiser's rivals haven't been far behind. Helping their case are typically bigger discounts, too.

That narrative somewhat changes with the new arrival of the Sennheiser HBD60, a non-Momentum model that marks the first wireless pair to enter the brand's 'Audiophile' 600 Series. They're the most ambitious and interesting wireless over-ears Sennheiser has produced in years, and challenge the current Sony WH-1000XM6 in ways no other competitor does.

I'll cut to the chase: at the close of 2025, the HDB60 and XM6 are the two best ANC headphones available below $500. But you'll find favour with one over the other depending on your priorities...

Price

Don’t expect to get too much change from $500, mind you. The Sennheiser HDB 630 launched in October 2025 for $499.95 and are, unsurprisingly, holding steady at that price as we enter 2026.

The Sony WH-1000XM6, meanwhile, launched a few months earlier (May 2025) at $449, and $50 discounts are now increasingly common. The $400 mark is also typically occupied by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2, Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3 and Apple AirPods Max.

Historically, Sennheiser wireless headphones have been quick to drop in price in the months following their arrival, and frequently pop up in Black Friday, Amazon Prime, holiday season and Labor Day sales. But for now, the Sonys are the cheaper of the two pairs.

• Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6

Design

If you’re after head-turners, neither the Sonys nor the Sennheisers will blow you away. Both opt for simple, discreet aesthetics that prioritise minimal ornamentation and muted colors over luxury materials and flashy looks.

The Sonys look somewhat 3D printed with their sleek, soft shape, matte plastic finish and lack of seams and edges, while the plain, ovular, black-and-silver Sennheisers could well resemble a kindergartener’s effort to draw a pair of headphones.

Such visual austerity isn’t the end of the world if you prefer headwear that doesn’t draw attention to itself, but both design languages do take their toll on the headphones’ perceived value.

The B&W Px7 S3 and AirPods Max both look and feel significantly dearer, the former with their woven fabric and rich colorways, the latter with their textured aluminium earcups and unique volume control.

Admittedly, I miss the distinct style of Sennheiser Momentum headphones of old, whose stitched leather headband and polished earcup finish oozed class. And while the XM6 are visually closer in DNA to their ancestors than the Sennheisers are to theirs, I do prefer the shallower profile of the pre-XM5 generations.

Still, it’s hard to argue with the quality of the two latest pairs’ construction and comfort levels. The Sonys’ are super lightweight – just 250g, compared to the Sennheisers’ 310g – and less cumbersome to wear, making them my pick for long-haul travel. The earcups also collapse inwards, allowing you to scrunch them into a ball and easily shove them into a coat pocket.

My only minor gripe is that the rubbery matte finish tarnishes easily, with marks showing up on the ‘Platinum Silver’ color (presumably this won’t be the case with the alternative Midnight Blue and Black colorways).

Both pairs offer responsive touch-capacitive pads on the right earcup for playback control, the Sennheisers offering a larger, more forgiving area.

The only accompanying button on the HDB 630 launches your phone’s voice assistant; I think it’s a shame you can’t change that shortcut to something more useful, such as ANC mode switching. The Sonys have a dedicated button for that, plus a circular recessed power/pairing button.

Both headphones offer analogue jacks – 3.5mm (Sony); 2.5mm (Sennheiser) – and USB-C sockets, though the latter cannot be used for wired audio with the Sonys, which in my mind gives the Sennheisers a notable practical advantage, as one cable can cover both charging and cabled listening.

Note that wired listening requires the Sennheisers to have battery life, but not the Sonys.

• Draw

Features

Speaking of which, the Sennheisers also pile on the points where battery is concerned, offering a liberal 60 hours of audio playback with ANC on compared to the Sonys’ 30 hours.

Caught short and in a hurry? With the XM6, a three-minute charge grants three hours of playback, while the HDB 630 generate seven hours in 10 minutes.

Which Bluetooth codecs your wireless headphones and phone (or other audio device) support can impact the quality of transmission and, therefore, the sound you hear.

The Sonys support the company’s high-quality LDAC codec, which is handy for LDAC-supporting Android devices. The Sennheisers, meanwhile, support aptX Adaptive, which in pure audio terms is technically inferior to LDAC (it cannot transfer as much signal data per second) albeit still one of the 'better sounding' codecs out there.

If your phone or laptop doesn’t support aptX (iPhones, for example, only support the lowly AAC and SBC codecs), the HDB 630 can actually upgrade their compatibility to aptX Adaptive via an ingenious included accessory – a thumbnail-sized dongle called the BTD 700.

Simply plug it into your iPhone or other device, and the Sennheisers connect to it rather than the device itself, transmitting music over aptX Adaptive. If your device’s Bluetooth skills are limited, this can truly enhance your wireless headphone listening. The dongle also brings the next-gen audio sharing Auracast feature to the table, which the Sonys also offer.

Unsurprisingly, both headphones have companion apps that unlock extra functionality and customisation, plus things like on-head detection and smart pause.

It’s worth calling out two of my all-time favorite practical headphone functions in the Sonys: the Speak-To-Chat feature, which reduces volume when you start talking, and the Quick Attention Mode, which lets you hear ambient sounds by positioning a hand over the right earcup.

The XM6 also offer a Cinema mode that uses Sony’s 360 Reality Audio Upmix technology to create a wider, taller and more dimensional ‘spatial’ soundfield. While I don’t rate it for music listening – the presentation naturally loses stereo focus and precision – with movies and TV shows it’s much more valuable.

Meanwhile, I can’t recall a more comprehensive parametric EQ than the one offered in the Sennheiser app.

• Draw

ANC

Finally, a round with a clear-cut winner – Sony. Physically, the Sennheiser design blocks out more external sound due to its chunkier earcup and tighter seal. Bring active noise cancellation technology into the equation, however, and the Sonys prove more adept at isolating you and your music from the outside world.

Both manage to take the sting out of common disruptive noise, such as general street noise, cafe background chatter and public transport engines. In their own right, the Sennheisers prove up to the task of limiting, if not completely banishing, interruption.

The Sonys put an extra sound-blocking layer in the way, however, and particularly have the edge when it comes to plugging mid to high frequency noise. It’s the difference between you noticing a car driving past while listening to piano music at a decent volume, and not.

Their ANC effect is similar to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2’s, only slightly subtler in execution, while the Sennheiser is clearly below them in the pecking order.

• Winner: Sony WH-1000XM6

Sound quality

But Sennheiser replies in a round Sony has dominated for years: sound quality. The HDB 630 naming actually reflects Sennheiser’s audio ambitions for its headphones – the ‘6’ and ‘0’ represent a ‘warm’ and ‘analytical’ flavour respectively (the ‘3’ indicates the closed-back ANC design).

I could’ve cracked that code within minutes of listening to them. These are indeed obsessively detailed headphones that present information with a ‘just right’ balance between easy listening smoothness and front-footed dynamism. Transparent enough to reveal the extra detail delivered through aptX Adaptive transmission as opposed to AAC? Absolutely.

It’s even-handed, too: no frequency particularly stands out above the other in terms of both quantity and quality.

There’s so much shape to the Sennheiser sound that dynamic variation (how apparent volume fluctuations are) seems ever present and instrument placement is precise and clear cut. And such is the Sennheisers’ talent to communicate texture, emotion and rhythms that the artist's intent is never concealed.

Don’t get me wrong, the XM6 could also be described in this manner. They too strike a rare balance between being just as informative as they are entertaining, communicate the intimacy of music, and impress equally across the frequency range. It’s a challenge to listen to upbeat music without tapping your feet or nodding your head along.

The Sennheisers may not sound quite as cohesive as the Sonys, but they are clearer, dig up an extra layer of subtlety and plot sounds with greater precision on a slightly more spacious and shapely soundstage. I know which pair I’d rather listen to.

• Winner: Sennheiser HDB 630

Which pair should you buy?

The Sennheisers are particularly attractive if you own an iPhone or other audio source that doesn’t support LDAC or one of the better aptX codecs. In that instance, by ‘upgrading’ its Bluetooth transmission capability via the supplied dongle, you’re getting more out of its pairing with wireless headphones than you would with another.

Regardless, the Sennheisers are sonically more sophisticated, have a longer battery life, offer a more extensive (parametric) EQ for those partial to such experimentation, and can be listened to over USB-C.

However, I personally prefer the Sonys’ aesthetic, foldable build and control, their ANC is objectively superior, and I like how you can listen wired (via 3.5mm) with a flat battery.

It's one of the most interesting noise-canceling headphone head-to-heads of 2025, and certainly in Sony vs Sennheiser history. My winner is the Sennheiser HDB 630, but yours will depend on your priorities, or perhaps even your budget.

Ratings scorecard

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