BuzzFeed and our publishing partners may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. Read More

The first time I flew with them, I understood the hype.

I usually travel with my second-generation Apple AirPods Pro, which are brilliant for everyday life. But like almost every earbud, they struggle with the low, vibrating hum of the engine that can resonate throughout the cabin. AirPods soften the blow, but they don’t erase the fatigue.

For a long time, I just white-knuckled through it and dealt with the noise. However, the first time I flew with the Sony WH-1000XM6 noise-cancelling headphones, I immediately understood why — despite their splurge-y price tag — people make the extra room in their carry-on for them.

Sony’s QN3 processor is one of those technical specs I usually ignore, but its ability to “map” cabin surroundings in real-time is legitimate. Sony packed 12 microphones into these, which sounds like overkill until you’re sitting directly over a wing and are magically insulated from that signature rattling metal sound.

Because airplane noise sits so heavily in the low-frequency range, smaller earbuds just can’t keep up. The physical seal of these earcups, layered with that active cancellation, makes the cabin feel muted and controlled. All those engine sounds basically become background static.

Beyond the silence, there are a few practical realities that won me over during a recent 15-hour haul from LAX to Taipei City. First off, the battery life is astonishing. Usually, by hour ten of a transpacific flight, I’m frantically checking my percentages — but the WH-1000XM6s boast a 30-hour battery life on a full charge, so I didn’t even think about a charging cable until I was headed back home a few weeks later.

They’re also designed to take up less space. One of my biggest gripes with high-end headphones like Apple’s AirPods Max and the Philips Fidelio X2HR is the bulk. Unlike the previous iteration of these Sony headphones, the XM6 actually folds down properly, fitting into a much sleeker case that doesn’t eat up half my “personal item” bag.

The adaptive noise canceling is a lifesaver when the flight attendants come around. The moment you lift an earcup, the tech realizes you’re interacting with the world and pauses your movie so that you can interact with the world without fussing with buttons.

I also love being able to stay connected to multiple devices simultaneously. It makes that awkward transition from watching a film on my iPad to answering a quick text on my phone feel seamless — no more digging through my bag to manually reset my Bluetooth mid-flight.

″[I] bought these for my adult son before a long plane trip: he reports they excelled at cancelling the cabin noise and were comfortable for hours even with a neck pillow; fidelity great, connectivity unproblematic.” —Joe Beirne

″I bought this headset for my husband and daughter for Christmas 2025. She did not like color silver (which is more like gray) so I decided to use it and bought the black one for her. Yes, I bought 3 of them total. I will tell you why...The battery life is up to 30 hours! It is wireless, and the best noise canceling. I have never experienced this level noise canceling in my life. Once you put them on, imagine you enter into another world and closed invisible door. My husband standing in front of me talking, I do not hear him at all. Then I cover my right side headphone with my hand, and now I can hear him. It is magical. You can adjust your music and volume with a simple touch/swipe on the right side. [One time] my neighbor had a birthday party [and] their music was really loud for three hours straight. My husband and I connect our headset to the TV, and we heard nothing but the movie we were watching together. I felt like we were at a movie theater.” —Yuko W

“The Active Noise Cancelation (ANC) on these new headphones is the best in its class. With an array of 12 microphones, they capture and cancel-out most frequencies of background noise. It’s a nice improvement over the older XM5 model.” —B. J. Colorafi