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TLDR: for my use case, this is a disaster of headphones. The only good thing I found was the color (hiekka).

Here's my honest and rather passionate review, so if you've decided to read, brace yourself.

Background:

I'm a long-time user of Sony headphones, started with their wired models, with my latest being XM3 and then two pairs of XM4 one after another. XM4 covered all my needs (the cups were on a shallower side though, but nothing crazy).

I really, really wanted to like XM6.

Things XM6 doesn't deliver:

• Comfort. Shallow cups, ridiculously thin padding on the band; the cups are attached to the band only at two smaller points, so the tops of the cups will be squeezing your temples while the bottom parts will be rather loose - the construction only applies pressure to the top and not at the center like older models or something like Bose. It's not only uncomfortable, but also not good for the seal (ANC, bass). This is probably possible to live with if you exercise radical acceptance.
• Sound quality. The sound is thin like paper, harsh like sand; zero warmth, zero meat, bass sounds like you're walking through a bog; mids, vocals - nothing here sounds good. Someone somewhere called the sound of these "mud fiesta", and I can't agree more. See more info below about EQ and settings.
• Punch. None; void; the bog is all you'll get.
  
  

LDAC, EQ, variety of settings - I've tried every single thing to make them sound at least as good as my old XM4.

At some point I though my pair must be defective, because how could so many people say this is acceptable?

I seriously question all the youtube praise reviews at this point. It is not humanly possible that no one paid attention to all those problems, especially with the sound.

I've been using this series since XM3, had 3 pairs through years (skipped XM5), and I don't understand what happened in this latest model.

If you listen to something calm and toothless and don't mind sand, these might work. Maybe they are also superior in ANC - but with this sound, I seriously don't care.

If you listen to something more demanding, with bass and all, there is just no punch in those whatsoever, and they sound as flat as old wired earpods, and more sandy than any other headphones I've had in the last ~10 years. No amount of EQ tweaking and settings changes fixes this.

XM4 sound much better than these. Old first generation Airpods Pro sound better than these. My ~70 EUR gym JBL sound better than these. And all three are much more comfortable than these.

All checks were done with the same phone (S24 Ultra), fine-tuned settings in Sony app specifically for my XM4 and these headphones (they have different EQ, XM6 lacks separate bass slider, etc.) to compare, and tested on the same exact songs which sound I know very well.

Apparently, music is not really a supported use case for XM6.

Maybe they are good as an accessory, or for calls (this one I didn't check, because the sound quality is a dealbreaker).

I wish I saw a comment like this before even considering this purchase, but all I see online is praise, which in my opinion is completely undeserved.

UPD: apparently, they have 30mm driver (vs 40mm in XM4), which is at least partly responsible for the punch absence.

UPD 2: they feature metal hinges - small, but keep in mind if you plan wearing them outside in a cold weather.

UPD 3: the case with magnetic clip is convenient, but be careful if you're planning to carry it clipped outside of your bag.

I hope someone who reads this review will learn from my mistake of relying on the established series and does thorough research before purchasing XM6 to make sure these cover their specific needs.