To start, I’ll clarify – this isn’t some clickbait distraction tactic; this week I took the longest non-sleeper train ride of my life, going all the way from Edinburgh down to Bodmin Parkway in Cornwall, via Taunton. It took me about nine and a half hours in total, and was basically the only economical way for me to make it that far south without a very expensive return plane ticket.
It was a long old way, and when I was in the planning phase for the trip I knew there was a key decision to be made in terms of what tech I brought with me for the journey, separately to my other packing. Thankfully, I’ve still got hold of my pair of Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones, which I knew could be the perfect companion on such a long trip.
I kept them right at the top of my backpack, which is always the best place for noise-cancelling cans on a train, and pretty much the moment I pulled away they were on my head, never to come off. Anyone who’s booked a seat in the quiet carriage of any train in the UK knows that you might still need that noise-cancellation the whole time, after all.
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Where noise-cancelling’s concerned, these are some of the very best headphones you can pick up right now. Sony wasn’t able to say at launch exactly how much better they are than the last-generation XM5 on this front, since there’s a bit of subjectivity mixed into sonic performance, but the step up is noticeable.
In fact, it’s so reliable that I didn’t always even listen to anything – just having the all-important cocoon effect can be enough to make a journey way more relaxing, if it drowns out the drone of an engine or a chatty neighbour.
That nine-hour travel time was divided into 7.5 hours on one train and two more on another, and I’m not going to dress it up as all that much fun, but there’s something a little comforting about sitting down to just keep yourself occupied for that length of time, much like on a long-haul flight.
The XM6s came into their own particularly in the latter stages, when my lofty ambitions to read as much of a book as I could manage started to be challenged. I broke out my Nintendo Switch 2 and played a couple of hours of Donkey Kong Bananza, with the headphones as an able companion to make it easier to get immersed.
Nintendo’s addition of proper 3D sound support comes into its own in a native Switch 2 title like Bananza, but more to the point on a set of headphones like the XM6s, which can do the sound justice. The game’s soundtrack also comes into its own on good hardware.
Comfort’s also a key variable, of course, and the XM6s are great to wear for long stretches, and among the lightest headphones I’ve consistently used. I won’t like, seven hours without a break still had me gasping to be free of them by the end, but I haven’t ever tested a set of headphones that wouldn’t apply to.
I’m now just a couple of days from doing the same journey in reverse, so I’ll get the chance to run another rigorous test. From that first marathon journey, though, I really can’t see past the XM6s when it comes to travel headphones. They have everything in their locker, and tick every box – to the point where I’m once again almost looking forward to spending nine hours in a row with them.
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