Sony ULT Wear review: Good sound and great noise cancellation at a relatively affordable price

When it comes to music, I am like Wall-E, that robot hero in one of the Pixar films. Just like him I want to listen to songs while travelling, working, at home while doing chores or before sleep. And for audiophiles like me, a good pair of headphones are a must have gadget in the bag. I mean earbuds are convenient but a good pair of headphones can be heavenly with their better sound quality, ANC and comfort. And with Sony ULT Wear I think I have found my favourite pair of headphones. For reasons that, at least to me, make total sense because you see something like a headphone - and its specific sound signature - can be a fairly subjective choice.

Irrespective, let's talk about the Sony ULT Wear. The headphone is part of the new ULT series of audio products that Sony has recently launched in India. It is aimed at those who love a little-bit of extra bass in their music, so I have a feeling that most Indian users will probably find them appealing. There are three ULT series products in India at the moment - the Tower 10, which is a huge party speaker complete with karaoke feature (stay tuned for its review soon), the ULT Field speakers, which are portable set of speakers, and the ULT Wear, the headphone that is the hero of this review.

So, what exactly is ULT Wear? Currently retailing at Rs 16,990, the new Sony ULT Wear is a full-sized and closed-back headphone. It has a 40mm driver unit with a neodymium magnet. It supports Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity as well as a 3 mm audio jack for a wired connection, with cord being supplied with the unit. Like mentioned earlier, the sound signature is bass heavy and there is support for active noise cancellation.

Lightweight and comfortable

Sony has launched the ULT Wear in three colours: Black, White, and Forest Grey. We at India Today Tech are reviewing them in black. Black is classic and never goes wrong, in my opinion. But again, more colour options don't hurt anyone.

The ULT Wear weighs around 255 grams and has a premium plastic body with a metal headband that has a soft cushion for the part that rests on the user's head. The ear pads are also extremely soft and have the typical rexine - kind of leatherette finish. The ULT Wear is a full-sized headphone and while its ear cups aren't as big as what we see on much more expensive headphones, they and their oval shape cavity is large enough to engulf my ears. Actually, unless your ears are extremely large chances are that you will find the ULT Wear covering and engulfing them nicely. In my use I found wearing this pair of headphones comfortable for hours. Never did they press upon my ears, nor the headband was a bother. Although, I do feel one thing could have been better and that is the material of the earpads. You see in Delhi summer it can make the ears sweat and feel warm. Sadly this is an issue with almost all headphones nowadays.

Sony ULT Wear

While the design is nice, the looks are plain and boring. I don't mind the lack of bling bling but some users may feel underwhelmed with the clean looks of the ULT Wear. The ULT Wear can be folded to keep in the carry-on box - and Sony has bundled a very nice fabric-covered box with it - for easy storage in a purse or bag.

Control music and customise audio

The Sony ULT Wear offers a lot of control and customisation options. First, let's see what we can control from the outside. On the left side, the ULT Wear has three buttons: power and battery, active noise cancellation (ANC), and a dedicated ULT Button. What does it do, you ask? Well, the ULT Button gives an extra boost to the bass. The headphones have three ULT modes: ULT 1 (default), ULT 2 (boost), and off. This button lets you manage it according to your mood and vibes. Is it good? About that in a while.

On the right, the ULT Wear has a touch-sensitive surface. The entirety of the ear cup is touch sensitive. This lets you control music functions like play and pause, volume, skip and forward, and can be customised. It also includes my personal favourite feature, which Sony calls Quick Attention Mode. This mode allows you to pause your music to listen to someone or something around you, without completely stopping it. You just need to put your palm on the touch surface, and the music will fade to the lowest volume so you can hear the background sound. As soon as you remove your palm, the volume automatically goes up to where it was. This is cool and so totally handy - pun intended - in the workplace.

Sony ULT Wear

While there are a lot of physical controls on the ULT Wear, Sony also has a dedicated Headphones Connect mobile app, which offers more customisation, including setting touch surface functions, music preferences, and modes. I used the app on my iPhone running iOS 17, and it was easy to navigate without any lag.

Talking more about connectivity, the ULT Wear also offers multiple device connectivity. I was happy to use my headphones simultaneously with my phone, laptop, and even my TV at home. In my use I found the Bluetooth connectivity robust - at least it gave me good connection around my house while I was hopping between bedroom and kitchen while watching TV and cooking dinner. There are also some more features like Spotify Tap and hands-free connection with assistants like "Hey Google'' or "Alexa." Unfortunately, there is no Siri, which I missed, but these features can be handy if you use Google or Amazon.

Loads of bass and fun audio

At the start of this review, I made it clear that I am kind of smitten with the ULT Wear. The reason: I absolutely love its sound signature. You see, I don't have a specific type in music, although I rarely listen to classical or jazz or 70s rock. I am more of a pop and K-pop baby. And this pop and K-pop is also in my use paired with Bollywood oldies and hip-hop, depending on my mood and vibes.

I found that for my use case, the bass-oriented sound of the ULT Wear is near perfect. Bass is the best bit about these headphones. And if you need more you can always hit the ULT button to get some boost. I often listened to "Heat Waves" by Glass Animals and it just felt next level, and so did "Chaiyya Chaiyya". And what about "Baby Ko Bass Pasand Hai" by Vishal-Shekhar? Oh, the ULT Wear totally matched the vibes.

One more reason why I liked the sound of the ULT Wear is its soundstage. Usually, bass-heavy gear doesn't manage the sound stage very well, but the ULT Wear seems to be an exception. It, despite its closed-back design, offers enough of a sound-stage to make ears feel as if the music is coming from multiple directions. It's quite immersive.

Sony ULT Wear

In music where bass is not driving the vibes, the performance of the ULT Wear is just good and not exceptional, more so if you use the default sound signature. Initially, when I listened to music by Rihanna such as "This Is What You Came For," or Shreya Ghoshal's "Do Dil," I found the vocals flat and uninspiring. But a bit tinkering with the equaliser in the companion app lifts things a lot. I still find that the ULT Wear is more suitable for pop and popular contemporary music but it does a well enough job with vocally-driven songs if you are willing to play a little with the equaliser,

There are more bits: sound quality during calls and ANC. During calls I really liked the audio when I used the ULT Wear indoors. Even the microphone works and effectively cuts out background noise, providing clear audio to the person on the other side. However, outdoors, the audio sounds a little muffled and is not usable.

One aspect of the ULT Wear is that you can also use it as a wired headphones. But it has a few limitations. Once connected in the wired mode, headphones also disconnect Bluetooth. Not a big deal but do understand that you can't take calls on it through your phone when you are using the ULT Wear in wired mode with your laptop. After the Bluetooth is disconnected, the ULT Wear also disconnects from the app, so cannot customise some settings on the fly. Also, the ULT Button, which boosts the bass, doesn't work, in the wired mode.

Best ANC in this segment

One more feature that made me like the ULT Wear is its ANC. As closed head headphones, its design inherently supports noise isolation, but the combination of ambient mode and complete ANC control makes listening much more enjoyable.

Not only is the audio more immersive when background sound is cut, but I often use the headphones with ANC on, even without playing music, to block out office chatter. The ambient sound feature also offers transparency, and the companion app provides several sub-features that allow you to select specific sounds from your surroundings that you want to hear. For example, you can choose to hear only people, or people and vehicles, or opt to block out everything. In short, ULT Wear headphones let you control exactly what goes into your ears.

Sony ULT Wear

Battery is good

The ULT Wear headphones also offer impressive battery life. In my daily use, where I have the headphones on for around 2-3 hours a day, they lasted 7-8 days before needing a charge. They have a USB-C port for charging and take about 3 hours to fully charge.

While the battery life is excellent, the headphones also have features to conserve power. They automatically stop playing music and even turn off when you remove them, which helps save battery. Of course, battery usage also depends on how you use them. Modes like ANC and ULT boost consume more power, whereas using them with a wired connection eliminates the need to worry about battery life altogether.

Sony ULT WEAR review: Should you buy it?

I find the ULT Wear absolutely a fantastic pair of headphones. In other words: recommended. Although with a caveat that they will particularly please users who want more bass in their music. But it offers enough sound-stage to make other genres of music also enjoyable. And then there is the feature set and great active noise cancellation.

All said, I find the ULT Wear a superb set of earphones under Rs 20,000. In fact, if you want a pair of headphones - and you don't listen to classical music - you should go for the ULT Wear. For its price it offers everything that you can reasonably expect from a headphone that costs Rs 16,990.