Understandably, everyone will have different ears and tolerance for pain and some might not find an issue with the design at all. But if you are someone who, like me, has experience with discomfort with supra-aural style of headphones then you know to avoid this one. The headphones are made almost entirely out of plastic with a matte, sandblasted finish on the ear cups and headband. While not necessarily cheap-looking, it doesn't really hide the fact that this is an inexpensive pair of headphones. They are also very lightweight due to the plastic construction. The XB700 also, thankfully, charge over USB-C. Sony includes a cable in the box but at 20cm long it feels rather useless. The headphones do have a fast charging feature, where they can provide 90 minutes of usage after just 10 minutes of charge. A full charge, however, takes a lengthy 4 hours.

Unfortunately, the deal breaker for me is the design, which is just not comfortable at all. It was difficult for me to listen to these for more than half an hour at a time without an equally long break in between. While this may not be the case for everyone, supra-aural headphones are generally not as comfortable as circumaural headphones so it's more that I'm the rule here rather than the exception. Also, the sound quality really isn't worth the pain. Not that any headphones are worth hurting your ears.Applicable headphones are WH-1000XM3, WF-1000XM3, WI-1000XM2, WH-1000XM4, WF-1000XM4, WH-XB900N, WH-XB700, WH-H810, WH-H910N, WF-C500, WH-XB910N. Acoustic Center Sync is compatible with Sony Soundbar HT-A7000 /HT-A5000 and Home Theater System HT-A9. Product availability varies by region. The pairing process with the headphones is fairly simple. You can either press and hold down the power button to enter pairing mode or use NFC to pair your Android phone.

The XB700 are woefully uncomfortable headphones to wear. I generally dislike supra-aural headphones because they tend to press down hard on my ears and the XB700 are no exception. It takes about ten minutes before I start noticing discomfort in one of my ears, which over time keeps rising until about 30 minutes or so later I have to remove the headphones to prevent further discomfort. There have been times where they were simply too painful to keep wearing and my ears hurt long after they were removed. However, in the past, Extra Bass headphones were rather disappointing. Sony would tend to turn the bass up till it broke the dial, which resulted in a horribly bloated sound where it was hard to hear anything but the bass. With the XB700, there seems to be an attempt at some semblance of a balanced sound apart from the advertised extra bass. When registering a device (pairing), [WH-XB700], [LE_WH-XB700], or both may be displayed on the connecting device. When both or [WH-XB700] is displayed, select [WH-XB700]; when [LE_WH-XB700] is displayed, select [LE_WH-XB700]. The XB700 work with the same Sony Headphones Connect app that works with Sony's other wireless headphones. Here you can see your remaining battery, what audio codec it is using, update the firmware, and adjust a bunch of audio features. If pairing is not established within 5 minutes, pairing mode is canceled, and the headset turns off. In this case, start the operation over from step 1.Finally, moving on to the performance, the XB700 deliver what they say on the tin. If you enjoy overly exuberant bass, these really are the headphones for you. In case you do find the bass a bit overpowering, you can use the app to bring things down a notch. But as mentioned before, this does mean switching to the basic SBC codec.

As for the rest of the sound, the headphones have decent imaging, although the soundstage isn't very wide and seems restricted to the size of your head. In a small twist of irony, the XB700 are some of the longest lasting headphones I've used. Sony claims a battery life of 30 hours and while I didn't put it to test, the headphones did seemingly last forever on the 70% charge they came with out of the box. I have no doubt they will manage to reach that 30 hour figure if one were to put it to test. The headband extends generously and inside you see the only visible piece of metal covering the inner band frame. The headband at the top has been covered in soft leatherette material similar to the flagship 1000XM3, although not as dense.

Connecting the headset to both a music player and a smartphone / mobile phone (multipoint connection) The XB700 has a V-shaped sound signature, which means while the mids are recessed, the highs, like the bass, are boosted. Here, again, things aren't too aggressive and while the upper-mids and lower-highs are a bit hot, it does sound nice and fakes the impression of having extra detail and clarity in the sound. The upper highs do get a bit sibilant at times and oddly enough, they get even more sibilant if you reduce the bass through the app. The major problem with these effects, as I have enumerated in my previous Sony wireless headphone review, is that they only work if you choose SBC as your codec. If you choose any of the higher quality codecs, which in case of the XB700 is aptX, then all the features get disabled (except DSEE, which doesn't do much, anyway). This makes them somewhat pointless and I'm not really sure why Sony can't or won't make them work outside of SBC. The XB700 are a fairly basic pair of wireless headphones, and you can tell that from their design. They have a very minimal, monochromatic design without any flashy elements or any design flair of any sort.