Sony ULT Wear Review

I'm a Bass Addict and I'm Not Ashamed About It

Audio purists will hate this review. I need to get that out of the way upfront. Because I'm about to spend the next several thousand words praising a headphone that puts a giant dedicated BASS BUTTON on its left ear cup — a physical, clicky, satisfying-to-press button whose sole purpose is to make the low end go absolutely feral. And I'm going to tell you it's great. Because it is.

My name's — well, you don't need my name. What you need to know is that I grew up listening to music through subwoofers in modified Maruti Swifts parked outside dhabas on GT Road. My college hostel room had a 12-inch powered sub that shook the walls and earned me a complaint letter from the warden. I EQ'd my phone's Bluetooth output to add +6dB at 60Hz until a friend told me I was "destroying the music." I told him the music wasn't loud enough to destroy.

I like bass. I like feeling bass. And the Sony ULT Wear at Rs 14,990 is the most fun I've had with a headphone in years, specifically because Sony built it for people like me and made zero apologies about it.

What Is the ULT Wear, Exactly?

It's Sony's mid-range over-ear headphone positioned below the WH-1000XM6 (Rs 29,990) and above the WH-CH720N (around Rs 8,000). Same form factor — over-ear, closed-back, foldable, wireless. Has ANC, has Bluetooth with LDAC, has Multipoint, has 30-hour battery. All the usual stuff.

What makes it different is the ULT POWER SOUND button. Press it once: ULT1 mode, which adds deep, controlled bass extension. Press it again: ULT2 mode, which cranks the sub-bass to genuinely ridiculous levels. Press it a third time: back to standard mode without bass enhancement.

That button is the entire identity of this product. Everything else is competent-to-good Sony mid-range headphone. The button is what makes it special. So let's start there.

ULT1 vs ULT2 vs Standard: What Actually Changes

Standard mode: The ULT Wear without bass enhancement sounds like a warm, slightly bass-forward headphone. Nothing crazy. The 40mm dynamic driver delivers a pleasant, full sound signature that's tuned gently towards the low end but not aggressively. Think of it as "Sony's default warm tuning." Comfortable to listen to, unlikely to offend anyone.

ULT1: First press of the button. The bass extends lower — sub-bass frequencies that were present but polite in standard mode become audible and physical. Kick drums gain weight. Bass guitars get more growl. Electronic music bass drops go from "that's nice" to "oh, there it is." The midrange and treble are largely unaffected. ULT1 adds bass without stealing from the rest of the frequency spectrum, which is honestly impressive engineering. This is the mode I use 80% of the time.

ULT2: Second press. Here's where things get silly. The sub-bass becomes genuinely tactile — you don't just hear it, you feel the ear cups vibrate against your head. Bass notes in tracks like Nucleya's "Bass Rani" become an almost physical experience. The entire low end inflates to a degree that would make any mixing engineer's eye twitch.

And I love it.

Does ULT2 sacrifice audio accuracy? Absolutely. The midrange recedes. Male vocals lose some presence. Treble detail diminishes under the bass onslaught. Acoustic music sounds wrong. Classical music sounds absurd. But throw on some hip-hop, EDM, Bollywood bass tracks, or any genre where the low end IS the point? ULT2 delivers an experience that no other headphone under Rs 30,000 comes close to matching.

The beauty of having the button is choice. Saturday morning classical playlist? Standard mode. Afternoon work focus with lo-fi hip-hop? ULT1. Friday evening pre-gaming with friends? ULT2, no question, crank it up, feel the vibration.

Sound Quality Beyond the Bass Button

Even ignoring the ULT modes, this is a well-tuned headphone. The 40mm driver handles the full frequency range competently.

Midrange in standard mode is clear and warm. Vocals have good presence. Arijit Singh's emotive delivery comes through with appropriate texture and detail. Not WH-1000XM6 levels of refinement — the XM6 has a precision and airiness in the mids that the ULT Wear doesn't match — but good for Rs 14,990.

Treble is present but slightly rolled off at the very top. This means hi-hats and cymbals lack the last bit of sparkle and extension. Air and ambience in recordings are slightly muted compared to brighter headphones. For most genres and most listeners, this is inaudible or irrelevant. For treble-sensitive listeners who love the shimmer of brushed cymbals and the breathiness of close-miked vocals — you'll notice the ceiling.

LDAC support from my OnePlus 13 made a noticeable difference versus SBC. The soundstage widened slightly, treble detail improved, and bass texture became more defined. If you have an LDAC-capable Android phone, the ULT Wear delivers noticeably better audio over LDAC than SBC. On iPhone (AAC only), the headphone still sounds good, just slightly less spacious and detailed.

Soundstage for a closed-back headphone is adequate. Music exists mostly between the ear cups rather than around your head. Not as wide as the XM6 or Bose QC Ultra, but comparable to most headphones in this price bracket.

ANC: Gets the Job Done, Won't Blow Your Mind

Sony positions the ULT Wear's ANC as "mid-range" compared to the WH-1000XM6's "industry-leading," and that's a fair characterisation. The ANC is effective for daily use scenarios but doesn't reach the noise-erasing performance of the XM6.

Low-frequency noise (AC hum, fan drone, bus engine): well controlled. Reduced to near-silence with music playing. This is the bread-and-butter of ANC and the ULT Wear handles it competently.

Mid-frequency noise (office chatter, cafe ambient): reduced but not eliminated. You'll still hear people talking around you, though at a lower volume. Music at moderate levels masks what the ANC doesn't catch.

High-frequency noise (keyboard clicks, phone rings): minimal attenuation. ANC has always been weakest here across all brands, and the ULT Wear is no exception.

For metro commuting, bus rides, and working in a moderately noisy apartment — the ANC is absolutely adequate. I used these on the Bangalore Metro and in various cafes for two weeks and never felt the need for better noise cancellation. The combination of ANC plus music plus the physical passive isolation of the closed-back ear cups creates an environment that's quiet enough for comfortable listening.

Where the WH-1000XM6 pulls ahead is in extreme noise — airplane cabins, very loud traffic, construction-adjacent offices. If you need silence-level cancellation, spend the extra Rs 15,000 for the XM6. If you need "comfortable background quiet," the ULT Wear does the job at half the price.

Speak-to-Chat is included — same voice detection feature as the XM6. Start talking and ANC pauses, ambient sound comes through. Worked reliably about 80% of the time in my testing. Quick Attention mode — cup your hand over the right ear cup to temporarily drop ANC and let all ambient sound in — is useful for brief interactions without removing the headphone.

Design: Sporty and Unapologetic

The ULT Wear looks different from the refined, minimalist XM6. It's sportier, more angular, with prominent branding and the large ULT button as a visual statement on the left cup. If the XM6 is a business suit, the ULT Wear is a well-fitted track jacket. Both look good, but they're making different statements.

Three colourways: Black, Forest Grey (a dark olive-ish green), and Off White. I tested Black, which is safe but boring. The Forest Grey is the one I'd personally buy — it has character without being flashy.

Ear cushions use protein leather (synthetic) with decent memory foam filling. The seal is good for ANC and bass performance. Over extended wear, they breathe reasonably well for synthetic leather but will get warm in hot environments. This is a shared weakness with every closed-back headphone that uses synthetic leather pads.

Headband padding is adequate. Not as plush as the XM6's, but no hot spots or pressure points during 3-4 hour sessions. My head is average-sized and the headband extended to its fourth position (of about seven). Seems like it would accommodate larger heads comfortably.

Foldable design. The ear cups swivel flat and the headband folds, making the whole thing compact enough to slip into a bag. Sony includes a fabric carrying pouch rather than a hard case (the XM6 gets the hard case). The pouch offers scratch protection but zero structural protection. If you throw these in a backpack with books and a water bottle, the headband might get stressed. A semi-rigid case would've been the right call here.

At 255 grams, it's virtually identical to the XM6's 250g. No perceptible weight difference in use.

Battery Life: Exceptional at This Price

30 hours with ANC on. 50 hours with ANC off. These are Sony's claims, and my real-world testing was remarkably close.

With ANC on, ULT1 mode active, LDAC codec, at about 55-60% volume: 26-27 hours. With ANC on, standard mode (no ULT), same volume: 28-29 hours. ULT modes drain about 2 hours off the battery — the bass enhancement requires more driver excursion and therefore more power.

With ANC off and standard mode: I stopped testing at 45 hours because I'd been trying to drain it since Monday and it was now Wednesday evening. Sony's 50-hour claim might be accurate; I just ran out of patience.

The quick charge is wild. 10 minutes of charging provides 10 hours of playback with ULT off. TEN hours from TEN minutes. This is the best quick-charge ratio I've seen on any headphone. Forgot to charge over the weekend? Ten minutes on USB-C Monday morning gives you enough battery for the entire work week of commuting.

USB-C charging from empty to full takes about 3.5 hours. Standard for this battery capacity.

Multipoint Bluetooth

Connected to my phone and laptop simultaneously. Audio switches between devices based on which one is playing. Incoming phone call interrupts laptop audio, takes the call, then returns to laptop. The transition takes about 2 seconds — marginally slower than the XM6 but perfectly functional.

Bluetooth 5.2 range was about 8-10 metres indoors with a wall. Stable connection with no random dropouts over the testing period. Not Bluetooth 5.3 like the XM6, but the real-world difference at this point is negligible for most users.

Versus the WH-1000XM6: The Obvious Comparison

Same brand, double the price. How do they compare?

ANC: XM6 is significantly better. Noticeably more effective across all frequency ranges. If ANC is your primary purchase reason, the XM6 is worth the premium.

Sound quality (standard mode): XM6 is better. More detail, wider soundstage, more refined midrange and treble. The gap is audible but not enormous — maybe 20% better to my ears.

Bass (ULT modes): ULT Wear wins, obviously. The XM6 doesn't have bass enhancement modes. Its bass is tuned warm and present, but the ULT Wear in ULT1 or ULT2 mode delivers bass that the XM6 simply can't match. If bass impact matters to you more than overall refinement — the ULT Wear is the choice.

Battery: Tied. Both get ~30 hours with ANC. ULT Wear gets more without ANC (50 vs 40). The ULT Wear's quick charge (10 hrs from 10 min) beats the XM6's (3 hrs from 3 min). Edge to ULT Wear.

Build and case: XM6 is more premium. Better headband padding, classier design, hard carrying case versus fabric pouch. Worth the difference? Debatable.

Comfort: Nearly identical. Both are comfortable for 4-5 hours. The XM6's softer ear cushions have a slight edge during marathon sessions.

My take: if budget is constrained and you don't need maximum ANC, the ULT Wear at half the price is exceptional value. If ANC quality is your primary criterion and you've got Rs 30,000 to spend, the XM6 is the clear choice.

Call Quality and Daily Convenience

Taking phone calls on the ULT Wear is fine. Not great, not terrible — fine. The built-in microphones pick up your voice clearly in quiet environments. In moderate noise, callers can hear you with some background bleed. In heavy noise, it's a struggle. About what you'd expect from a mid-range over-ear headphone.

The touch controls on the right ear cup handle play/pause, volume, and track skip. The gestures are the same as the WH-1000XM6 — swipe up for volume, tap for play/pause, swipe forward to skip. They work reliably. The ULT button on the left ear cup is satisfyingly clicky — one of those buttons you press just because it feels good to press, even when you don't need to change the bass mode.

Quick Attention mode — cup your hand over the right ear cup to temporarily hear the outside world — works identically to the XM6's implementation. Fast, reliable, useful for ordering coffee or catching a quick announcement. Lifts when you remove your hand. The most intuitive ambient awareness feature on any headphone.

One daily-life observation: the ULT Wear folds flat and fits into the included fabric pouch, which slides into most laptop bag side pockets. Not as compact as the XM6 in its hard case, but manageable for daily commuting. I carried it in a Wildcraft backpack's front pocket for three weeks without issues. The foldability matters more than people realize — a headphone that doesn't pack easily is a headphone you leave at home.

Who's This Actually For

College students who want great sound and proper ANC without spending rent money. Metro commuters who listen to hip-hop, EDM, and Bollywood on their daily grind. Gym-goers who want bass that motivates during a heavy set (though the lack of IP rating means you should keep sweat away). Anyone who tried the WH-1000XM6 in a store, loved it, looked at the price, and thought "yeah, no."

The ULT Wear is the WH-1000XM6 for real life. Not the aspirational "I'll use this on business class flights" life. The "I'm taking the Nehru Place metro at 8:30 AM and I need the bass to distract me from the chaos" life. The Rs 14,990 life where a headphone needs to be good enough at everything and excellent at the one thing you actually care about.

I've tested headphones at every price point from Rs 999 to Rs 60,000 over the past two years. The Sony ULT Wear is the headphone I'd buy for myself if I could only own one under Rs 15,000. Not because it's the most refined. Not because it has the best ANC. Because that ULT button makes me smile every single time I press it, and five weeks in, the novelty hasn't worn off. There's something to be said for a product that just makes you

Price in India

The Sony ULT Wear is priced at Rs 14,990 in India. Available on Sony India's website (store.sony.co.in), Amazon India, Flipkart, Croma, and Reliance Digital. Has been spotted at Rs 12,490 during Amazon's Great Indian Festival sales.