I just tested Sony’s first-ever gaming in-ear monitors and they impress in nearly every way

Sony is a pioneer in the gaming world, and it makes some of the best PS5 headsets to accompany its current-gen console. The Japanese giant has taken its first steps into the world of in-ear monitors and detailed sound with the Sony Inzone E9 wired earbuds, and I’ve been testing them for the past two weeks.

The Inzone E9s are extremely comfortable IEMs, sporting earhooks that don’t dig into your skin. Sony has designed them for detailed listening while playing first-person shooters, so you hear every footstep and every gunshot, which gives elite esports players a competitive advantage. But because they’re designed with FPS players in mind, the Inzone E9s aren’t the best for most other genres, and customization is possible via Windows software only.

Should you still buy them? Read my full Sony Inzone E9 review to find out.

Sony Inzone E9 gaming IEMs review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? Sony’s first-ever in-ear monitors for competitive FPS gamers
• Who is it for? Highly competitive gamers and esports players who want a pair of earbuds that make them hear every footstep and tiny detail
• How much does it cost? The Sony Inzone E9 IEMs are available for $149 / £129
• What do we like? They’re very comfortable and come with a handy carry case, they boast great noise isolation and are packed with detailed sound quality
• What don’t we like? Customization is possible via Windows-only software, and they aren’t fit for most other genres

Sony Inzone E9 gaming IEMs review: Specs

Sony Inzone E9 gaming IEMs review: The ups

The Sony Inzone E9 IEMs are extremely comfortable, and they sound ridiculously good in FPS titles, ensuring you hear every footstep and gunshot, therefore giving you a competitive advantage.

Very comfortable

I love video games, and you’ll find me sitting in front of my PS5 Slim whenever I have the time for it. If I have a day off and my partner isn’t around, I’ll game from dawn to dusk, so I know the importance of having a comfortable headset. To their credit, the Sony Inzone E9 IEMs are extremely comfortable.

The Inzone E9s sport an earhook design — similar to some of the best workout headphones — so they hook over your ears and stay in place. I wore the earbuds for nearly eight hours and they didn’t fall out of my ears. I found the hooks comfortable, and they didn’t poke the skin behind or around my ears. The earbuds are very light, too, weighing just 0.16oz without the cable.

Speaking of, the cable itself is very long at 1.8m / 70.8 inches, so while it feels quite long when plugged into the DualSense controller, it'll be handy for PC gamers who want to use the earbuds plugged into the back of their CPU. If you’re using it with your DualSense, you can bunch up the excess cable using the wire clip.

Great noise isolation

If you’re using a headset for FPS titles, you need good noise isolation to ensure you hear footsteps loud and clear, and the Sony Inzone E9s are fit for purpose. Included in the box are three extra pairs of hybrid tips as well as four pairs of noise isolation tips. Even with just the hybrid tips, a lot of sound is blocked out, and it’s even better with the noise isolation ones.

Sony says that these noise isolation eartips have been designed to help you maintain your concentration at tournaments, and that they work to block out cheers and commentary. While I didn’t use the Inzone E9s at a tournament, I can attest to the fact that they do indeed block out most sounds.

I couldn’t hear my partner speaking next to me when I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, and I couldn’t hear the sound of Instagram Reels playing on her phone either. I felt fully immersed thanks to this. I tested the earbuds at the office, and the Inzone E9s drowned out the clickity-clackity sound of keyboards. You can still hear some sound as the passive noise isolation isn’t as effective as active noise cancellation, but it’s more than enough.

Fantastic for FPS titles

The Sony Inzone E9 IEMs have been designed to give competitive FPS gamers an edge in tournaments, and they’re excellent when it comes to games like Battlefield 6 and Apex Legends. They utilize 5mm dynamic drivers to deliver superior sound for FPS accuracy, so you can hear footsteps, gunshots and other movement with clarity. Enable spatial sound via the companion software (more on that soon), and you gain even more of an advantage over other players.

These buds aren’t great for just first-person shooters — they perform well in horror/survival games where you need to be on guard at all times. I tested the Inzone E9s by playing Cyberpunk 2077, Borderlands 3 and Alan Wake 2. In all three games, footsteps were loud and clear.

Cyberpunk 2077

In Cyberpunk 2077, I could clearly hear enemy footsteps even when the techno music was blaring during intense fight scenes. This helped me gauge if an enemy was approaching me from behind while I was attacking another with my mantis blades, so I could quickly turn around and block or counter. When gunshots pierced through the air, I could clearly hear the volume go from low to high, and in either ear, depending on the position of the bullet.

Stealthily infiltrating heavily guarded buildings and areas was a walk in the park, as I could pinpoint the exact location of enemies behind closed doors and plan my assassinations/takedowns. I could even figure out what type of enemy was waiting for me, even when I couldn’t see them by listening for their footsteps: heavier enemies, of course, had a heavier boots-on-the-ground sound as opposed to lighter ones. This helped me strategize better.

Borderlands 3

Admittedly, I’ve never been great at Borderlands 3, but I loved playing it through the Inzone E9s. Much like the performance in Cyberpunk 2077, I found it easy to gauge where enemies were positioned. When crouched behind a broken-down car, I could hear the faint buzzing and humming emitting from the enemy’s sniper rifle as they tried to aim for me. This helped me plan my movements better without actually having to duck out of cover.

When I threw grenades at faraway enemies, I loved hearing the sound of it go from high to low as it made its way to the other side. And the sound of enemies exclaiming before dropping dead was like music to my ears — the sweet sound of victory.

The various creatures in Borderlands 3 all have different voices, too, ranging from low to high-pitched, and thanks to the Inzone E9s’ wide frequency response range of 10-20,000Hz, I could hear them all clearly, regardless of how far away they were positioned.

Alan Wake 2

Directional audio came in handy in Alan Wake 2, a game that terrifies me, especially while walking through the woods when it’s dark. Thanks to proper audio separation that enables you to hear nearly every sound and a wide frequency response range, I could hear the Shadows walking softly around me when playing as Alan, and cultists scuttering loudly from left to right behind me when playing as Saga.

This, again, helped me pinpoint the location of enemies sneaking up on me, and I could quickly turn around and blast them with my flashlight or prepare a flare/load a gun in advance as I anticipated a sneak attack.

While I’m not a competitive gamer, I’ve been extremely impressed by the Inzone E9s, and I believe they’ll hold up extremely well in tournaments.

In-depth customization

On top of the fantastic sound quality in FPS games, the Sony Inzone E9s are customizable via Inzone Hub, available to download for free on Windows machines. Inzone Hub sports a clean user interface with no unnecessary pop-ups or ads, and everything is clearly signposted.

There are a few EQ presets available, and you can choose the one you need, depending on whether you want to hear footsteps or gunshots more. You can also customize the 10-band equalizer to fine-tune the sound, and I recommend playing around with it so you can determine what works best for you.

7.1 virtual spatial sound can also be enabled via the app, and it makes the earbuds sound more immersive with directional audio. I also like the Sound Field Personalization mode, which curates a custom audio profile depending on the shape of your ears and your hearing ability.

Handy carry case

I really appreciate the fact that the Sony Inzone E9 IEMs come with a handy carry case. I have a habit of shoving my IEMs or wired earbuds into my jeans’ or coat’s pocket, but if you’re a professional gamer who travels to tournaments, the case is a nice touch.

The case is made of soft shell, and on the inside, there are two organizational straps with magnetic button-up mechanisms, and you can store your IEMs and the 3.5mm to USB-C dongle with ease. What I love is that even if you forget to zip the case closed (as I did once), nothing falls out of it if you’ve secured the magnetic buttons.

Sony Inzone E9 gaming IEMs review: The downs

The Sony Inzone E9 IEMs are great, but they’re not great for non-FPS genres, and Windows-only software poses some restrictions.

Not designed for most other genres

This isn’t a flaw but more of a pre-purchase consideration. If you’re thinking of getting the Sony Inzone E9s as your one-and-only, general-purpose gaming headset, I’d reconsider. While they are downright fantastic for FPS titles that require you to pinpoint enemy locations, they’re not great for virtually every other genre — especially for story-driven RPGs. That’s because they have a fairly hollow-sounding sound profile where the punchiness of the bass feels non-existent.

Having bass that lacks character made me feel like I wasn’t actually the main character in whichever game I was playing. The action sounded distant, and playing games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ghost of Yotei through the Inzone E9s didn’t evoke much emotion from me — and that’s saying a lot considering the former made me cry all three times I finished it.

Music plays a vital role in Expedition 33 as every battle, every dungeon and all open-world exploration is soundtracked by heartbreaking music. It’s really the soul of the game, and through the Inzone E9s, it’s diminished and doesn’t feel exciting. While dialogues sound loud and clear and aren’t overshadowed by background music, scenes, again, feel less emotional.

Tense action scenes in Ghost of Yotei take a hit, too. At the beginning of the game, a massive fire rages on in the background as your character duels it out with the big bad guy, and you can’t really feel how powerful the fire is. It’s meant to add a strong element to the scene, and it just falls flat.

If you want a gaming headset that’s great for most (if not all) genres, I’d recommend the Final VR500 earbuds ($34) instead. If you aren’t opposed to over-ear headphones, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 ($129) and the Asus ROG Pelta ($129) are both very capable headsets for nearly every genre.

Windows-only software

Inzone Hub is fantastic and detailed software for customizing the Sony Inzone E9 IEMs, but it’s restricted to Windows-only computers, even though the earbuds can be used with macOS machines. I would have appreciated the ability to customize the earbuds on my PS5 itself, as not every console owner will necessarily have a PC.

Sony Inzone E9 gaming IEMs review: Verdict

If you’re primarily an FPS gamer and don’t care much about other genres, I can’t recommend the Sony Inzone E9s enough. If you’re a competitive player, then that’s even more true. Firstly, these IEMs are extremely comfortable, and they come with a handy carry case for easy transport. Their 5mm dynamic drivers deliver detailed sound in first-person shooters as well as horror/survival games, as you can hear every footstep and every gunshot. They’ll truly give elite players a competitive edge.

Customization is easy via Inzone Hub, but the software is available on Windows machines only. The IEMs also feature effective noise isolation to help you maintain your concentration, which is crucial when you’re participating in a tournament.

Considering these are Sony’s first IEMs for gaming, the brand has knocked it out of the park.