Sony WH-CH720N Review: Noise Cancelling on a Budget

My Sony WH-CH720N review says buy it at $90 or less, unless you fly often. At the $72 to $88 it sold for new at Amazon and Sony’s US store on October 9, 2026, this 192 g noise cancelling headband is the light, long-lasting everyday pair I’d pick for a bus, a train or an office. I wouldn’t take it on a long flight. On the same RTINGS test bench, it cut airplane noise by 10.9 dB, while the Sony WH-1000XM4 cut 23.5 dB.

The WH-CH720N is Sony’s 2023 model, the successor to the WH-CH710N. In September 2026 Sony replaced it with the WH-CH730N, which sold for $148 on October 9. Unless you need a folding headband or cleaner calls on a busy street, the older pair is the better deal while stock lasts.

Sony WH-CH720N review: the short version

The CH720N gets weight, clamp and battery right for all-day wear. It weighs 192 g, and its clamp tested at 0.8 lb of force against 1 lb for the WH-1000XM4. Both lab battery tests beat Sony’s own claim. The noise cancelling handles steady hum but falls short against plane rumble. The stock sound leans on the bass until you open the EQ. The build is all plastic, it doesn’t fold, there’s no case, and owners report cracked hinges.

Buyers rate it well. It held 4.3 stars from 16,951 Amazon ratings on October 9, 2026 (shared across colors), though Amazon’s own review summary rates noise cancellation, connectivity and durability as mixed. What Hi-Fi gave it five stars and an Award.

WH-CH720N or the new WH-CH730N?

The CH730N is the better headphone on paper, but the CH720N is the better deal. Sony announced the WH-CH730N on September 7, 2026, and put it on sale in the US that month at a suggested $179.99. On October 9 it cost $148 at Sony US and Amazon, $60 to $76 more than the CH720N.

Sources: Sony’s 2026 press release, CH730N product page and the CH720N Help Guide. The CH730N’s 50-hour figure is Sony’s claim, the 75-hour ANC-off figure comes from What Hi-Fi’s spec list, and SoundGuys’ CH730N review hadn’t measured the battery yet.

The CH730N doesn’t fix the noise cancelling. SoundGuys says it struggles with sounds between 300 and 1,000 Hz, and that the CH720N wasn’t impressive at noise cancelling either. Even What Hi-Fi, which named the CH730N the best budget noise cancelling pair you can buy and gave it five stars, lists ANC that struggles with human speech among its reasons to avoid, and notes that Sony kept the same 30 mm drivers.

The CH730N pulls ahead on calls. SoundGuys found its extra mics sounded “pretty decent” in its demos, and expects the LE Audio support Sony lists for the CH730N to arrive in a firmware update. Neither model supports LDAC, so Android owners gain nothing on codecs.

Buy the CH730N if the fold (for a backpack), cleaner street calls, Bluetooth 6.0 or the longer claimed battery is worth $60 to $76 to you. Otherwise, buy the CH720N.

Key specs and what’s in the box

The box holds the headphones, a USB-A to USB-C cable of about 20 cm and a headphone cable of about 1.2 m, per Sony’s package contents page. There’s no case, no wall charger and not even a soft pouch, and the 20 cm charging cable is annoyingly short.

A few wrong specs keep circulating. Per Sony’s Help Guide, the CH720N supports SBC and AAC only, with no LDAC (SoundGuys’ review lists LDAC by mistake). It runs Bluetooth 5.2 and uses physical buttons, with no touch panel. It weighs 192 g, about 6.8 oz, and the second cable in the box is a headphone cable, not an adapter. Sony’s Help Guide and US store page don’t list the driver size, but Amazon’s listing and two independent reviews give 30 mm.

Does the Sony WH-CH720N have good noise cancelling?

It’s good enough for steady drones, not for flights. The lab numbers and the reviewers’ ears disagree more on this than on anything else, so I’ll show both.

What the measurements say

The CH720N trails the WH-1000XM4 in every noise category, and the gap is widest in the bass. These are RTINGS’ results for both pairs from the same bench (methodology 1.8, archived in April 2025). A bigger negative number means more noise removed.

Sources: archived CH720N and WH-1000XM4 results. The lab has since moved to test bench 2.3 and locks the new numbers for members, but its live review still says the CH720N struggles with low-pitched noise such as train rumble.

A second lab measured a different pattern. SoundGuys found about 20 dB of cancellation across most low frequencies, peaking near 28 dB at 80 Hz, right in the bass range where the table above shows the CH720N at its weakest. It scored the ANC 7.3/10.

Why reviewers disagree

Listening impressions split even further than the lab numbers. GSMArena calls the ANC very good, and Aaron of Loud and Wireless thought it felt close to the WH-1000XM4 when he first tried it (6:34 in his video). RecordingNOW scores it 7.0/10 and calls it below average, and Engadget found it struggled with voices.

Three things explain most of that gap:

• Rigs and test signals differ. RTINGS flagged a 60-220 Hz artifact on its own older rig (methodology 1.6), and the two labs don’t share a setup.
• Fit and seal decide how much rumble gets in. Results can change from one head, or one pair of glasses, to the next.
• You can’t set the ANC strength. Sony adjusts it automatically, with no manual levels.

Owners disagree too. One owner’s first-week report found it fine for traffic and chatter but weak on high-pitched noise. Another owner gave up on the pair after three days, citing muddy sound and ANC that let whole conversations through, while a six-month owner calls it very good at the gym.

Where it’s good enough

The CH720N does its job on buses and trains, in offices and libraries, and next to a loud fan, where the noise is a steady drone. With ANC on, you may not hear a ceiling fan at all. Long flights are another matter. It’s fine for a bus ride, but I wouldn’t recommend it for flying. If you wear glasses, the clamp may press too hard on some frames.

Ambient mode

You get 20 ambient sound levels, a Focus on Voice option and Adaptive Sound Control, according to Sony’s US product page. Those 20 steps set the ambient level, while the ANC strength stays automatic. Ambient mode sounds natural, but reviewers split on hiss. Loud and Wireless heard very little (7:34), while DHRME heard noticeable white noise in quiet rooms (6:45). Sudden loud sounds pass straight through, where the WH-1000XM4 suppresses them.

Sound quality and the EQ fix

The CH720N sounds warm and bass-heavy out of the box, and the EQ tames it. RTINGS measured bass about 5.4 dB above its target and treble about 0.6 dB up (archived bench 1.8). SoundGuys found boosts around 100-400 Hz and 5-10 kHz against its own target and gave it 3.3 out of 5 on its MDAQS sound score. The mids can sound muffled, with a dip around 3-4 kHz in one reviewer’s sweeps against Sony’s flagships. Critics who like it point to the punchy, bass-forward sound and the detail, and owners who call the stock sound muddy say it improves with EQ.

If your pair sounds bad, three causes are most likely:

• The stock bass boost.
• Passive wired mode with the headphones switched off. It cuts treble and boosts lows and mids, and without processing the drivers sound awful and close to mono.
• Low volume. Erin Lawrence found the sound lacks detail at low levels (4:09; ShopAllHub, the retailer that supplied her unit, sponsored the video).

The Sony | Sound Connect app gives you a 5-band EQ, a Clear Bass dial and custom slots to save your settings. I’d start with a curve that cuts 400 Hz hard, lifts 2.5 kHz, trims the treble and sets Clear Bass slightly above zero. RecordingNOW’s review has the exact values, and WhatGear shows two more custom curves in his video.

Both labs publish the full frequency response graph with their reviews. DSEE upscaling is on board (not DSEE Extreme), and 360 Reality Audio needs a compatible streaming service.

Design, comfort and fit

Sony bills the CH720N as its lightest noise cancelling headband, at 192 g against 254 g for the WH-1000XM4. It’s very light and comfortable, and one reviewer says the pads stayed comfortable after several hours of continuous listening.

Comfort reports split after the first hour, though. One reviewer found the pads heat up and feel sticky after about an hour, another felt the inside of the cups pressing on his ears after 30 to 60 minutes, and a third wanted a break after an hour to an hour and a half.

The playback, volume and noise cancelling buttons sit on the right ear cup, with power on the left. The volume and play buttons feel alike, so it’s easy to press the wrong one, and the placement is awkward. Unlike touch controls, though, the buttons won’t skip a song by accident when you meant to pause.

The headband doesn’t fold. The cups swivel flat, but the CH720N still takes up a lot of room in a bag. There’s no case, no pouch and no IP rating.

Video review

What owners report after months of use

Three problems come up more than once in owner reports:

• Cracked hinges. One long-term owner warns that the hinge, especially the left one, breaks easily, and says the repair quote came in above the price of a new pair. In September 2026, an owner in India said Sony service quoted INR 8,100 for a hinge repair, more than the purchase price. Other owners push back, and several report one to two years of rough use without trouble. Amazon’s review summary also rates durability as mixed, and the headband plastic feels brittle when you stretch it.
• Pad wear. One YouTube owner shows small tears in the pads after more than a year of four to five hours a day, and a long-term owner replaced the pads after about a year.
• Disconnects on early firmware. Early owners reported a disconnect loop with multipoint on firmware 1.0.8 (March 2023 report). The same YouTube owner says a firmware update through the app stopped his. Sony’s release notes don’t name the bug, so don’t count on a fix.

The good news repeats too. Owners with one to three years on their pairs say the battery still holds up well, and a six-month owner says the pair survived drops and tight bags. A handful of hinge reports don’t make a failure rate, but hinges are the complaint I’d weigh most, because a repair can cost more than the headphones.

Battery life: claimed vs tested

Battery is the CH720N’s strongest spec, and every ANC-on test below beat Sony’s 35-hour claim.

The mixed-use result points the same way. Sony notes that using the EQ, DSEE or the voice assistant shortens its figures.

The 10-minute quick charge beats its claim too. Sony says 3 minutes of charging gives about an hour of playback and 10 minutes about 4.5 hours, and a 10-minute charge from empty lasted 5 h 51 min. One video test showed about 20% after 3 minutes, though the tester allows it might be closer to 15%. Sony rates a full charge at about 3.5 hours, and RTINGS measured 2.5.

The 50-hour figure needs ANC and ambient sound both off, and the NC/AMB button only cycles to an Off state after you add it in the app.

Calls, multipoint and the app

I’d use it for home and office calls, not on a busy street. For a built-in mic it’s quite good. Voices come through clearly enough in quiet rooms, and it handles wind well. Its noise handling is only okay, though. Traffic or a loud cafe reaches the caller, and a loud, sudden noise can drown out your voice, although one reviewer held a 30-minute outdoor call without trouble. RTINGS’ bench still showed the CH720N separating speech from noise much better than the WH-1000XM4 (25.25 dB against 11.47 dB), and the lab rates its mic much better than the Soundcore Space One’s.

Multipoint connects two devices at once, and you switch it on in the Sony | Sound Connect app (formerly Headphones Connect). Switching works well, and the app lists your connected devices. The latest firmware on Sony’s support page is version 1.1.4 from December 9, 2025, a security update.

Sony left out a few features from its pricier models. There’s no wear sensor to pause music when you take the headphones off and no Speak-to-Chat. You get an auto power-off timer instead.

Wired listening and gaming

The included 1.2 m cable works with the headphones powered on, which keeps ANC and the normal sound, or passively when the battery is dead. Passive mode changes the sound for the worse. The USB-C port only charges and carries no audio.

Bluetooth latency is too high for games. RTINGS measured 290 ms over SBC on a PC. Over the cable it adds 34.4 ms with the headphones on and next to nothing in passive mode, and the cable plugs straight into a console controller.

Sony WH-CH720N vs WH-1000XM4

The original 2020 WH-1000XM4 cancels far more noise. In the lab table above it beats the CH720N by 8 to 14 dB in every row, and the biggest gap is in the bass. It also adds LDAC, a folding headband and a case with an in-flight adapter (XM4 Help Guide), plus the wear sensor and Speak-to-Chat the CH720N lacks. The CH720N wins on weight (192 g against 254 g) and handled noise better in the same lab’s mic test. Battery is a draw, with 38.4 h for the CH720N and 37.7 h for the XM4 in the same lab’s battery test.

The XM4 sounds richer, cancels more noise and folds, but it feels noticeably heavier over long wear. Pete Matheson, who compared them side by side, would buy the XM4 if it’s on sale for a similar price, and in another side-by-side the XM4 beat both the CH720N and the XB910N for blocking noise. A CH720N owner who moved up to the XM4 suggests waiting for an XM4 sale if ANC matters to you.

Buying a WH-1000XM4 in October 2026 is messy. Sony’s US store lists it at $349.99 with every color out of stock, new units on Amazon US came only from third-party sellers, and Best Buy Marketplace asked $494.99. The $227.99 buy box on Amazon’s main XM4 listing was a used offer, so I’m not putting a buy button on it here. Sony’s WH-1000XM4C (M4 2nd Gen) is a separate model with its own specs, so don’t mix the two up.

If you’re eyeing the WH-1000XM6 instead, it listed at $459.99 at Sony US in October 2026, a different price class, and the XM4 still beats it on low rumble in RTINGS’ testing. For another angle on the XM4, see how the WH-1000XM4 stacks up against the Baseus XH1.

Video review

Sony WH-CH720N vs WH-CH520

The WH-CH520 is the on-ear sibling from the same 2023 launch. It has no ANC, no ambient mode and no headphone jack, and it weighs 147 g. RTINGS measured about 52 hours of battery and rates the CH720N more comfortable. On the lab’s older methods, the CH520 cut noise by 9.24 dB overall (bench 1.5), against 18.31 dB for the CH720N (bench 1.6). The step up in sound from the CH520 to the CH720N is small.

The CH520 sold new for $33 on October 9, 2026 (Amazon in Blue and White, Sony US in Black, against a $69.99 list price). Its successor, the WH-CH530, lists at $69.99 and was $58 on sale at Sony US, and SoundGuys scored it 6.7 out of 10.

Buy the CH520 for quiet rooms on the smallest budget. The extra $39 to $55 for the CH720N (October 2026) buys ANC, over-ear comfort and a cable.

Better buys around the same price

Soundcore Space One. On Android, it’s the one I’d pick if you want LDAC, at its $84.99 deal price (Soundcore says the deal ends October 12). RTINGS rates it slightly better than the CH720N for most people, thanks to longer battery (lab-tested at 42 h 57 min) and more EQ options. Owners report left-hinge cracks on it too.

JBL Live 680NC. Pick the JBL for battery and the CH720N for comfort and calls. The JBL wins on measured battery (65 hours), LDAC and a folding metal hinge. The CH720N wins on weight (192 g against 231 g), long-session comfort (three reviews note on-ear pressure on the JBL), the call mic (the JBL’s is poor), passive wired use and confirmed AAC for iPhones.

Soundcore Life Q30. If you fly often on a tight budget, it’s the cheapest real step up in noise cancelling. Its ANC tops RTINGS’ list of over-ears under $100, though those tests used 2020 units and today’s stock is an “Upgraded” revision.

Sony ULT WEAR. This is the one I’d buy if you fly often and can stretch to about $130. Its ANC is excellent, and it’s among the best for calls under $200. Sony US repairs cracked hinges on affected early serial numbers for free until January 31, 2027, and the cheaper CH720N sounds better.

Baseus Inspire XH1. Its clamp is light, and owners say it slips when you tilt your head. My Baseus Inspire XH1 review has the details.

The Soundcore Space Q45 sold only renewed in the US in October 2026, at about $100 to $130, so I wouldn’t push it over a new CH720N. My Soundcore Space Q45 review explains when it’s still worth it. If you’re weighing Bose, see my Sony WH-CH720N vs Bose QuietComfort comparison. For a short list across every budget, start with my best budget noise cancelling picks, or browse all my headphone reviews.

Price and where to buy (US, October 2026)

On October 9, 2026, Sony’s US store had the CH720N at $88 in Black, White and Pink. On Amazon US, Amazon.com itself sold Black for about $72, and Amazon listed White and Pink at $88. Best Buy’s listing showed $88 through a Marketplace seller, B&H marks the CH720N discontinued, and the Blue color is gone from Sony US and Amazon.

Sony launched the CH720N at $149.99 in 2023, and its store now shows $179.99 as the list price. Google Shopping cards showed $98 to $209 that day, and many of them were bundles or warranty listings, so compare like for like. Stock may thin now that the CH730N is out, so I wouldn’t hold out for less than $72.

Written by Marius

Audio enthusiast. I've worn a lot of headphones, and I tell you which pair is worth your money and which one isn't.

I check every verdict against lab measurements and long-term owner feedback, and I update pages when prices or models change. How I judge headphones.