Sony WF-SP800N Truly Wireless Headphones [Review]

The Sony WF-SP800N is a great pair of premium Truly wireless headphones for sports. They’re well-made, quite comfy, last a long time on a single charge, and stay in your ears extremely well. They also include a powerful, bass-heavy sound profile that should get you revved up, but if that isn’t your thing, their companion app has a visual EQ as well as a slew of other options. On the downside, they have an inadequate active noise reduction system and a control interface with a few key settings missing. The Sony WF-SP800N is still a good choice if you’re searching for a pair of durable totally wireless headphones that you can wear to the gym as well as in your daily life.

Style

The Sony WF-SP800N are genuinely wireless headphones with a unique design. The buds themselves, such as the Sony WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless, are a little wider and protrude from your ears a little more than smaller competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Truly Wireless. They’re composed of high-quality plastic and come in a variety of colors that range from subtle to bold, which may appeal to fashion-conscious listeners looking for a pair of earbuds that match their personal style.

Comfort

The Sony WF-SP800N headphones are really wireless and comfy. While their deep in-ear fit may not be for everyone, they don’t put too much pressure on the inner ear, making them comfortable to wear for long periods of time. However, because of their size, you’ll be conscious of their presence all the time when you’re wearing them.

Controls

The control scheme for the Sony WF-SP800N is adequate. The touch-sensitive surface is simple to operate and provides enough of aural feedback to let you know when you’ve made a selection, but it’s lacking certain key features out of the box. When you hold your finger on the left earbud, you may activate ANC and use the Quick Attention feature, which reduces the loudness of what you’re listening to. Music playback is controlled by the right bud, which has one tap to pause and play media, two presses to skip tracks, and three taps to rewind. They don’t have any integrated volume controls until you remap their control scheme in the Sony| Headphones Connect app. If you choose an alternative configuration, keep in mind that you’ll lose either ANC or track skipping controls in exchange for internal volume controls.

Portability

The Sony WF-SP800N is a fantastically portable device. They’re easy to slip into your pocket or chuck into a bag. However, their case is extremely large and will most likely not fit in most people’s pockets.

Case

The Sony WF-SP800N comes with an excellent charging case. It’s rather large, which isn’t ideal for take-anywhere portability, but it feels well-made and should keep the buds safe from knocks and spills.

Build Quality

These truly wireless headphones have a good build quality. The buds and case are nearly entirely constructed of plastic, and while they don’t appear or feel as high-end as the Sony WF-1000XM3 Truly Wireless, the materials used are nonetheless of good quality. They’re also dust and water resistant to IP55, however we don’t test for this.

Stability

These genuinely wireless headphones are incredibly stable. They come with a variety of ear tips and stability hooks, so you should be able to create an airtight seal that keeps the buds in your ears even during vigorous exercise.

Sound Profile

The default sound profile for the Sony WF-SP800N is bass-heavy. Listeners who prefer a little more thud and kick will appreciate the overemphasis on bass across the range. The mids are well-reproduced, ensuring that vocals and lead instruments are clear and present. Unfortunately, the treble is underemphasized, dulling the detail in the finer instrumentals and vocals. It’s worth noting that the Sony| Headphones Connect companion app includes a visual EQ, allowing you to tailor your sound profile to your liking.

Bass Accuracy

Their bass fidelity is acceptable. It’s a punchy sound profile that should please fans of bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop. It’s overemphasised across the frequency spectrum but reasonably flat overall. Some listeners, though, may find it a little overbearing and murky.

Mid Accuracy

The Sony WF-SP800N has excellent mid-range accuracy. While there may be a tiny overemphasis in the low-mid range in some mixes, it shouldn’t be too evident, and vocals and lead instruments should sound clear and present.

Treble Accuracy

The treble accuracy of these headphones is subpar right out of the box. It’s underplayed throughout the range, resulting in flat, closed-off lead instruments and vocals with little detail.

Peaks/Dips

The Sony WF-SP800N has excellent peaks and dips performance. Apart from a high spike in the mid-treble range, which makes some notes sound a little piercing, the rest of the frequency range is well-controlled.

Imaging

The Sony WF-SP800N has outstanding stereo imaging capabilities. Their weighted group delay is completely below audibility, producing in tight bass and transparent treble. Similarly, in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase response, the L/R drivers are remarkably well-matched, resulting in an immersive listening experience that properly simulates the positioning of objects in the stereo image. These results, however, are solely applicable to our test unit; yours may perform differently.

Passive Soundstage

The Sony WF-SP800N has a poor passive soundstage, as is typical with in-ear headphones. Because of their closed-back construction and absence of connection with the outer ear, they produce a closed-off listening experience that makes music feel like it’s coming from inside your head rather than from speakers positioned around you.

Noise Isolation

The noise isolation qualities of the Sony WF-SP800N are adequate. They perform a good job of blocking out sound in the treble region, such as the hum of an air conditioner, and they’re also good at suppressing background noise. Unfortunately, they are only marginally effective at isolating you from lower-pitched sounds such as bus engines or construction equipment. Furthermore, their ANC technology is completely useless, as it either minimally reduces incoming sound loudness or actively degrades passive isolation performance. They’re identical to their predecessor, the Sony WF-SP700N Truly Wireless, in this regard. Check out the EarFun Air Pro True Wireless earphones if you want a more effective ANC feature.

Leakage

These in-ears have a superb noise leaking performance. Even if you’re in a calm setting, you should be able to listen to your music at high volumes without disturbing others.

Recording Quality

The inbuilt microphone of the Sony WF-SP800N provides adequate recording quality. Although your voice should sound natural and usually distortion-free, some listeners may perceive it as thin and muffled.

Noise Handling

The Sony WF-built-in SP800N’s microphone offers average noise handling capabilities. People on the other end of the line will have a hard time understanding you if you’re calling from a somewhat loud or packed setting.

Battery

The Sony WF-SP800N’s Battery life is decent. The last 9.3 hours on a single charge with ANC turned on, which is excellent for a pair of completely wireless headphones. The fact that their charging case only holds one additional charge isn’t much of an issue given their rather long continuous battery life. They also contain an auto-off timer, which can be set in the Sony| Headphones Connect app to turn the headphones off after a period of inactivity. You can’t listen to music on one bud while the other charges, unfortunately. The TOZO NC2 Truly Wireless headphones come with a case that stores three pairs of truly wireless headphones with longer total battery life.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth connectivity on the Sony WF-SP800Ns is adequate. Bluetooth 5.0 is supported, but not multi-device or NFC pairing. On a PC, their latency is far too high to be useful for watching movies or playing games. Although audio lag is much reduced on iOS and Android mobile devices, most users may still find the latency to be too severe to watch movies while wearing them. However, different programmes compensate for lag in different ways, so your results in the real world may vary.

Pros and Cons

Verdict

The Sony WF-SP800N is suitable for a variety of applications. They’re well-made and offer a secure, comfortable fit, making them ideal for sports. Though they don’t have the best ANC system, they offer a long continuous battery life and excellent audio leakage performance, making them a decent choice for commuting and touring. While the sound profile is bass-heavy out of the box, they have a companion app with a visual EQ to tune it to your preferences. Unfortunately, they lack premium features like as multi-device pairing, and their built-in microphone is inadequate for making calls in busy areas.