Sony XBA-4

37 reviews

May, 2013

Positive
Sound (33)
Bass quality (16)
Comfort (12)
Treble quality (8)
Design (7)

Negative
Value for money (27)

General overview
Price comparison
Product Specifications

alaTest has collected and analyzed 37 reviews from magazines and websites. People really like the design and treble quality. The comfort and bass quality also get good feedback, but there are some critical reviews about the value for money.

sound, bass quality, comfort, treble quality, design

value for money

We analyzed user and expert ratings, product age and more factors. Compared to other Headphones the Sony XBA-4 is awarded an overall alaScore™ of 94/100 = Excellent quality.

Review analysis

(Based on 37 reviews)

Expert Reviews

User Reviews

Review Ratings

(43% of reviews)
Show all 5 star reviews (34% of reviews)
Show all 4 star reviews (14% of reviews)
Show all 3 star reviews (6% of reviews)
Show all 2 star reviews (3% of reviews)
Show all 1 star reviews

Features

Sound
Show positive (31%)Show negative (3%)(Show all)

Value for money
Show positive (12%)Show negative (38%)(Show all)

Bass quality
Show positive (36%)None yet(Show all)

Comfort
Show positive (55%)Show negative (5%)(Show all)

Treble quality
Show positive (58%)None yet(Show all)

More features

Showing 29 review(s)

Expert Reviews User Reviews

Showing 1 - 10 of 29 Show Reviews: in English | in other languages (10)

Expert review by: Steve Guttenberg (cnet.com)

Sony XBA-4

Sony claims that its new $349.99 XBA-4's sound is "optimized for audiophiles," and my anecdotal testing confirms that this is truly a great-sounding set of headphones. It features Sony's newly designed "microsized balanced armature drivers," and in...

Sony's XBA-4 in-ear headphones are the company's first to use four balanced armature drivers in each earpiece for ambient noise isolation, and they sound great.

Its high performance comes at an equally lofty price.

Sony's audiophile-grade XBA-4 in-ear headphones deliver highly refined sound, with potent bass, airy treble, and excellent noise-isolating performance.

Apr, 2012

Read the full review

Consumer review by: DragonLightz (cnet.com)

"I love its full range of treble, mid-range, and base"

Let me first state that I'm not an audiophile. I'm your average consumer, spoiled with my Aiwa HP-D9, a 60-mm U-bass flute headset design, Amorphous Diamond Coated Diaphragm, and 15mm diameter Neodymium magnets driver units. However, time took its...

Producing an excellent range of sound, the XBA-4 revolutionary design has exceeded as a replacement for my Aiwa HP-D9 bought in the early 1990s.

The price-tag is always an issue in our economically challenged time.

May, 2012

Read the full review

Consumer review by: gevin1220 (cnet.com)

"Sony worked hard on this BA, but twitter is not good."

I am really big fan for the xba1 and 2(although i think 2 is literally only for the hip hop or bass-major sound). However, from 3, the twitter made the quality of the BA earphone series down. Hop the second one's twitter is better this.

The vocal+wooper+sub. woop.= really good!

twitter: I think it depends on the people's favor, but to me, the twitter sounds (like cymbals) was not good. Although it sounded interesting at the first time, but after minutes, it was really hard to listen. It sounds like when you rub the vinyl?

Apr, 2012

Read the full review

Consumer review by: (amazon.com)

Amazon review summary for the Sony XBA-4

alaTest has collected and analyzed 14 user reviews of the Sony XBA-4 from Amazon.com. The average user rating for this product is 4.0/5, compared to an average user rating of 4.0/5 for other products on Amazon.com.

64% of reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

May, 2013

Read the full review

Consumer review by: esc76 (sonystyle.com)

Low durability

I got this headphones in autumn 2012. Sound at the beginning was not impressive. That's not bad since all the headphones deliver their best quality after many hours of use. However XB4 never reached the quality of my old MDR-EX510LP. Both compared one...

Sound

Price, durability

Mar, 2013

Read the full review

Consumer review by: A1pharmer (newegg.com)

Excellent Earphones. Headphone amp suggested

I got these headphones a few months ago. I am not new to the headphone or earphone market, i have owned headphones from the 10 dollar range all the way up to 1200 dollars. the last earphones i owned were ones made by Etymotic research, model ER-4 which...

Great separation of bass, mids and treble, probably due to the 4 way speaker setup in a earphone which i had never seen before.Great clarity. decent build quality. great noise isolation

high price. Requires a high quality amplifier with a higher output than what mp3 players and portable devices have built in. Non detachable cord

Jan, 2013

Read the full review

Consumer review by: Wildcat96 (sonystyle.com)

Great Earbuds!

Just received the XBA-4 earbuds for Christmas. The sound quality for this earbud is excellent and in my opinion is better then some noise cancelling headphones on the market. I have not listened to the XBA-1, 2, or 3 yet, but the XBA-4 provides good...

Nice warm sound, excellent soundstage

Pricy for earbuds

Jan, 2013

Read the full review

Consumer review by: John Raplee, Jr (jr.com)

Excellent IEM\'s.

These are excellent headphones when properly amped. These draw a lot of power so they will sound poor using most portable devices and onboard sound on computers. You can get away with no amp if you use an X-Fi sound card, or Asus Xonar, etc. Most poor...

Comfortable","Compact","Durable","Good Bass","Great Sound","Lightweight

Must Use An Amp

Dec, 2012

Read the full review

Consumer review by: TopHeadphones99 (sonystyle.com)

Great Earphones

All around, these are very good earphones. The sound quality is outstanding and so is the bass. Design is compact as well. The price though is ridiculous and that is what takes the rating down to 4 stars. If $50 or $100 less, I would give this 5 stars....

Good Isolation, Good Bass, Sounds Like High Quality

Price is immense

Oct, 2012

Read the full review

Consumer review by: SenZen (sonystyle.com)

Great

These weren't even on my radar because of the price, but I managed a very good deal... And my ears are so glad I did! The sound is really good, on par with my decent headphones which I find astounding, very detailed, you feel like you're surrounded by...

Sound

Price

Oct, 2012

Read the full review