For an embarrassing number of years, I made do with the hard white earphones that came free with my iPhone, and some slightly better pink silicone earphones that my auntie got me for Christmas many moons ago. Both were wired, the first pair were too big for my ear canal so made it feel sore after about 10 minutes, and the latter eventually perished after years of use.
In a bold move of self-care a couple of years ago, I decided to finally invest in some wireless headphones that would be more comfortable – and would hopefully deliver better sound quality. But I felt weirdly daunted about setting up and getting to grips with a new piece of tech, when my old plug-in-and-go earphones had required no brain power.
Setting up and usability
After all my procrastinating about it, setting the Sony WH-CH520 headphones up and pairing them with my phone for the first time took me less than 10 minutes, and then it was lovely tangle-free listening.
It's a case of downloading the Sony Sound Connect app, turning on Bluetooth on your phone, then switching on the headphones and holding down the power/Bluetooth button to sync them. the app guides you through it and if you've ever used the button on your home Wi-fi router to connect a device, it's the same deal.
Once set up, the headphones are easy to use. There are only three buttons to worry about, all of which do more than one thing:
1. volume up (short press) / skip forwards (long press for a second or two)
2. play/pause (short press) / power on/off (long press)
3. volume down (short press) / skip back (long press)
I really like that the central play/power button has a big raised rectangle in the middle, and the volume up button has a small braille-like dot, so I can easily feel around to find the right button without having to take the headphones off and look.
There's a subtle 'L' and 'R' marked inside the headphones to show you which way around to wear them, but after a few days of wear I quickly became used to knowing which side the buttons should be on, and using that to intuitively 'feel' which way around they should go.
These features may or may not sound particularly useful to you, but I've used them to help me get my headphones on and working one-handed while nursing my then-baby, while stirring dinner, and when popping them on in low lighting like my evening commute.
One other thing that makes them easy to use: I barely ever have to remember to charge them. Sony says they have a battery life of up to 50 hours, which sounds about right in my experience.
When I do have to charge them, it's just a universal micro USB port, and they give you a charging lead in the box. They also have a quick charge function if you're in a rush.
Sound quality
I'm not going to lie, one of the reasons I picked these headphones was because Sony is a brand I know and trust for great sound quality. I'm no audio expert, but I haven't been disappointed. Music, podcasts and video calls all sound clear and great.
They feature what Sony calls '360 Reality Audio' which basically means if a track was recorded with those layers of audio (sorry, I don't know the sound engineery term) then you might hear, say, one vocal in your left ear and another in your right ear. I really love the effect; it reminds me of listening to a choir in a big church, with the soprano section and the tenor section at different sides of the stage and all bouncing around in your head. So nice.
The headphones are lightweight and an on-ear style, which I find really comfortable without being too big (I'm only 5'3" and quite small all over). It's worth pointing out that though they muffle ambient sounds, they're not noise cancelling. I wore them along Bath high street at lunchtime today with no music playing, just to test out my theory, and I could hear passing strangers clearly enough to know what they were saying. I personally like that, as I feel safer when I can hear the world around me, but if you want a noise cancelling pair of headphones you may prefer a different pair, such as the over-ear Sony WH-CH720N.
The Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones came out in February 2023, so they're not the newest or the highest spec. But I really don't care. I've had mine for almost two years now, and find them simple, comfy and great-sounding, so recommend them if those are the things that matter to you too.
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