Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones

I just returned a set of Bose Ultra headphones as the ear-cups had blown out within 6 months of use and the multi-function button made controlling audio-books and music with the headset controls tedious and slow. Having heard nothing but praise for the Sony's I chose to exchange them for the Sony Pair... I brought them back within 24 hours it was that bad... Sound Quality: The sound quality was just awful. My 60$ sennheiser earbuds outperformed them. While the treble is sharp and crisp, the bass delivery is faded and dull. What's more there is some kind of minor audio-desynchronization that results in a layered voice sound during audio-books and speech. The sound stage (ceiling to floor) also feels compressed, this makes the number of simultaneous instruments that can be crisply distinguished and enjoyed feel much lower. As an example on my Bose headset, I could focus on any individual aspect of a piece of music and it was clear, distinguishable and sharp. With my sony's the various instruments seems to blend together more, and it creates a kind of audio soup in my ear. The sound quality was so bad I was worried my phone (Samsung Galaxy s24) wasn't compatible with any of the advanced bluetooth codecs so I hooked up my headphones to my PC via cable, and admittedly the sounds was noticeably better (especially in the bass department) but it was still much worse than my Bose and the bluetooth audio was so terrible I couldn't listen to any of my favourite songs without feeling disappointed. Headset Design/Controls: This headset has everything it should need to provide a perfect user experience. A dedicated transparency button, a dedicated power and bluetooth button, swipe controls for volume, a quick touch for temporary transparency mode! But... the swipe controls suck! They have no granularity, so a full volume swipe only changes the volume by a single preset increment. The swipe directions are very poorly interpreted so downward swipes often are read as forward or backward swipes... There is no buffering in inputs, so if I want to go forward 5 time increments in a podcast or audio book I have to swipe once, wait a second... swipe again, wait a second... etc... These headphones are just a poor man's attempt at a pair of Bose 700's and they don't look as good, or feel as comfortable either. Honestly... Just go buy a pair of Bose 700's, I'd even rather have my Bose Ultimate's with the blown out cushions and crappy multifunction button back than these. These headphones feel like a bad chinese knockoff by comparison.