Sony WH-CH710N wireless noise-canceling headphones review

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The Sony WH-CH710N are a relatively affordable pair of noise-canceling headphones. They are the successor to the CH700N, which we quite liked when we reviewed them  two years ago. The CH710N continue the tradition of offering active noise-canceling at more reasonable pricing while also having a solid battery life.

Design

The design of the new CH710N is made to be more in line with the recent 2019-2020 Sony headphones. This means a more uniform and, frankly, a boring exterior that is just a single material, color, and texture used for the entirety of the headphone frame and earcups. The use of plastic here is also not particularly high quality, with a smooth matte texture that looks and feels a bit cheap. The headphones are also quite light, which further adds to the feeling of cheapness.


The CH710N offers a limited range of motion. You can adjust the headband height and the cups swivel back so you can place them flat on your chest when not in use but they don't collapse inwards to make them easy to carry. There's also no carry bag or case provided in the box.

The bottom edges of the earcups house all the buttons and ports. The right earcup has controls to adjust the volume and playback, along with a button that toggles between noise canceling and ambient sound modes. On the left ear cup are the power/pairing button, USB-C port for charging, and an audio jack for using in wired mode.


The overall build quality of the headphones is fine, even if they look and feel a bit cheap. They are unlikely to break easily but at the same time, I wouldn't be too rough with them.

Comfort

The CH710N are quite average in terms of comfort. The main issue here is with the earpads, which are neither plush nor particularly deep. They create a decent seal around your ears but the lack of depth means my ears were constantly touching the inside of the speaker grille. They are broad enough to accommodate wider ears but I just wish they were deep enough.

The headband also has only a barely sufficient amount of padding on them and the choice of material once again is quite mediocre.


Being noise-canceling headphones, the earcups also allow very little air to move around, making these headphones unsuitable for use in warm weather.

Software and features

The CH710N feature active noise-canceling, which uses microphones on the outside to analyze and cancel out the ambient noise. On these headphones, you have an option to either have noise-canceling either fully on or off. There's also an ambient mode that lets you listen to your surroundings by piping in certain frequencies through the speakers while still reducing some of the noise. This is great for when you want to hear someone around you, listen to an announcement at the airport or train station, or while walking on the street.

What these headphones don't have is support for the Sony Headphones Connect app. Without this app, there is no way to dial in the exact amount of noise-canceling or control other features like EQ and other audio effects. You also can't upgrade the software on these headphones.


The CH710N support Bluetooth 5.0 with NFC. The NFC enables quick and painless pairing on compatible Android phones. The CH710N lacks support for any of the fancy codecs and you get just SBC and AAC support here.

Noise-canceling

The CH710N are active noise-canceling headphones. They have two microphones on the outside that constantly monitor ambient sound and feed it into the system that then works to cancel it.

The noise-canceling performance on the CH710N is pretty underwhelming. It does reduce some of the noise but there's still a fair bit that seeps through. This is admittedly the norm for noise-canceling headphones in this price range. If you need good noise-canceling performance, you are looking at spending at least twice as much. These should be fine for daily commutes but not for long haul flights.

Performance

The CH710N are a decent sounding pair of headphones. The sound is slight

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