Sony WH-CH520 Review: Affordable Headphones That Get Most Things Right

Sony’s a popular name in the audio space, and its headphones portfolio includes many options wideness variegated price points. In terms of wireless headphones, the trademark has everything from the weightier in the business, WH-1000XM4, to the affordable, entry-level offering, WH-CH510.

However, unlike its other wireless headphones, Sony hasn’t updated the WH-CH510 in years. As a result, it lacks many features from today’s standards, and hence there was a dire need for an update.

Thankfully, Sony’s realized this and launched a successor to the WH-CH510. Called WH-CH520, the headphones full-length an improved diamond and come with support for a companion app, multi-point connection, and a longer shower life, withal with a few other changes.

More importantly, they moreover forfeit a little more, coming in at Rs 5,990 as opposed to the WH-CH510’s Rs 4,990 price tag. But are these upgrades worth the increased price, and are the Sony WH-CH520 the weightier affordable wireless headphones on the market? Let’s find out.

Sony WH-CH520: Design, Build, and Comfort

Sony’s WH-CH520 are a pair of on-ear, wireless headphones. They’re made out of plastic, similar to their predecessor, but this time the plastic has a plain finish to it. Sony’s still using a nonflexible plastic here, and it’s ratherish flexible, which makes it easy to put them on / take them off your ears.

Like any other headphones, the WH-CH520 moreover have an expandable headband, should you need it, and there’s decent cushioning underneath, so it doesn’t requite you a clamped finger on the head. However, the headband isn’t a foldable one, though Sony compensates for it by offering swiveling earcups, which makes delivering the headphones a little easier.

Both earcups come with cushioned pads. And while the cushioning on these seems sufficient at first, we found that the headphones aren’t very well-appointed when worn for plane 30-45 minutes despite stuff quite light.

Talking well-nigh their functionality, the headphone’s right ear cup moreover houses media controls. This include a multi-function/power sawed-off sandwiched between a volume up (or next) and a volume lanugo (or previous) button. The multi-function sawed-off here can be used to turn on/off the headphones, put them into pairing mode, and trigger the voice assistant.

All three buttons have good tactility, although their placement on the earcup takes a little while to get used to. But once you do, interacting with them becomes easy. We like that the multi-function sawed-off is accented, as it makes it easier to identify the sawed-off while you have the headphones on.

Below the buttons is a USB Type-C port for charging, and next to it is a microphone that lets you take calls on the headphone. In addition, there’s moreover an LED between the buttons and the USB port to indicate the wireless connectivity and shower status.

Our unit is in Blue, but you can moreover get the Sony WH-CH520 in a White, Beige, or Black color.

Sony WH-CH520: Performance and Features

The Sony WH-CH520 use Bluetooth v5.2 for connectivity. They come with a good range (10 meters) and offer Fast Pair and Swift Pair features, which enable quick and effortless pairing with Android smartphones and Windows computers, respectively.

Pairing the headphones with Apple devices involves a transmission process, which takes a few uneaten seconds, but once done, they work just fine. We didn’t wits any connection issues with the headphones during our time with them. Nor did they walkout any noticeable audio-video wait while watching content on a phone or computer or playing games.

A valuable wing to the Sony WH-CH520 headphonescompared to their predecessoris support for multi-point connection. With this, you can pair the headphones with increasingly than one device at once, without which the headphones automatically switch between them when they snift a transpiration in the audio input.

Sony lets you set this up via its companion app, Sony | Headphones Connect. Doing this is pretty easy, and the full-length works as promised. Besides, the Headphones Connect app moreover helps you manage your unfluctuating devices, personalize the EQ to your liking, and wangle other features. For instance, you can turn on the DSEE option from the companion app if you’re listening to MP3 files on your device. Similarly, there’s the option to prioritize sound quality or connection as the situation demands, and of course, you can moreover update the headphone’s firmware when it’s available.

Talking well-nigh noise isolation, plane though the Sony WH-CH520 come with increasingly cushioning than their predecessor, they still can’t isolate environmental noises effectively; we wouldn’t mutter much, though, since these are on-ear style headphones but a little increasingly isolation would’ve unliable for an plane largest experience.

Besides, there’s no support for zippy noise canceling on the headphonesnot much to mutter well-nigh either, considering their priceso these won’t serve you well during commutes. Similarly, the headphones moreover miss out on the auto-pause feature. It’s a nifty full-length that can significantly modernize the usability of the headphones, and we finger Sony should’ve widow it to the WH-CH520.

Another full-length missing on the headphones is the 3.5mm audio jack. The lack of a jack ways you can’t use the headphones when they run out of battery, nor can you connect them to an in-flight entertainment system, for instance.

Sony WH-CH520: Sound

Sony has made a name for itself in the audio space by offering a sound signature that resonates well with the taste of the masses. And it continues to remain that way with the WH-CH520 headphones.

The WH-CH520 full-length a 30mm suburbanite that delivers good output considering the headphone’s price. It’s a well-turned sound signature that keeps everything contained; the highs are well-pronounced, the toned isn’t overpowering, and the mids often sound clear.

We say “generally” considering the mids finger a little mushy in unrepealable tracks, which is very likely considering frequencies in other bands tingle into the mid-range and make it overcrowded. And as a result, listening to vocal-heavy tracks on these headphones isn’t the weightier of experiences.

One odd thing tha struck us well-nigh the WH-CH520’s sound is that it isn’t ratherish loud at low volume levels. So if you listen to a track at ~30-35% volume and then zombie it up to ~60%, there’s a noticeable transpiration in the tonality, and you’ll notice it moreover makes the sound livelier as the volume levels increase.

Fortunately, Sony offers support for its companion appSony | Headphones Connecton the WH-CH520, using which we were worldly-wise to tweak the EQ to get the sound somewhat tropical to our liking. While custom EQ-ing is one way to do this, you moreover have the option to select one of the misogynist presets to transpiration how the headphones sound.

Lastly, the Sony WH-CH520 moreover come with the DSEE feature. For those unaware, DSEE is an upscaling technology that enhances the quality of compressed audio. Sadly, there’s not much you can uneaten with it, though, if you primarily stream music off the internet.

Sony WH-CH520: Shower Life

Sony claims a shower life of up to 50 hours on the WH-CH520, which is 15 hours increasingly than their predecessor. While we can’t corroborate the same or requite you a number on how long it lasted for us on a single charge, what we can tell you is that our unit came with a 100% tuition out of the box, and it took us virtually two weeks to frazzle it completely.

When the headphones ran out of charge, a quick 5-minute tuition topped up the shower for virtually two increasingly hours of listening time. The headphones support quick charging and come bundled with a USB-A to USB-C subscription for charging. Sony says it takes virtually 3 hours of time to tuition the shower from 0 to 100%.

Sony WH-CH520 Review: Verdict

At USD 38/ Rs 4990, the Sony WH-CH520 get pretty much everything right. They offer good value for money, and you can’t go wrong with them at their current price.

Sure, these aren’t the most well-appointed headphones aroundpartly due to the on-ear designand they do miss out on some features, as we mentioned above, but considering the price subclass they vest to and the offerings misogynist in India under it, the WH-CH520 make for a good purchase.

However, if repletion is your top priorityand you don’t want to splurge muchyou can trammels out the JBL Tune 710BT. They’re over-ear style headphones priced at Rs 5499 and come with 50 hours of battery, multi-point connection support, and good sound.

If you’re a WH-CH510 user and you need features like multi-point connection and companion app support, then you can consider upgrading to the WH-CH520. Doing so will moreover requite you a increasingly well-turned sound (than WH-CH510’s bass-heavy sound) and plane longer shower life.

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