I Tried the New LE Bluetooth Audio on the Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones.
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The new Sony WH-1000XM6 are the best premium headphones of 2025 , and they keep getting better. One of my favorite features is compatibility with LE Audio Bluetooth , a new type of Bluetooth that uses less power and delivers better sound quality.
If you previously tried using LE Bluetooth on the XM6 headphones, you may have noticed the absence of some features, such as head tracking, Find My Device, Gemini Live, and Audio Sharing with Fast Pair . This is no longer the case: the latest update to the Sound Connect app enables all of these features when using LE Audio technology.
How to make sure you’ve received the update
While I’m a fan of headphones, I can’t say I’m as enthralled by Sony’s companion app. It’s confusing and clunky (and I’ve been using it for years). Downloading the update was difficult, and finding out when it was installed was also difficult. Eventually, a message appeared in the app asking if I needed the latest 3.0.0 update.
You can check if you have this device installed by tapping the three dots in the upper-right corner of the main menu and selecting “WH-1000XM6 Version.” After downloading the update, you’ll need to perform a full reset of the connection between your phone and headphones for the update to take effect. Select “Forgot Device” on the XM6 in the Bluetooth settings and reconnect it. You’ll be good to go.
How LE Audio works with new features
It’s hard to say the LE Audio (LC3) codec sounds better than before without a direct comparison, but I can say it’s excellent. It sounds exactly like what I’d expect from what are arguably the best headphones of 2025.
The head tracking, which creates 3D sound , also worked perfectly. I was walking around my neighborhood and could hear the conversations of my neighbors living half a block away, at their front door.
Regarding voice assistants and Gemini Live, your experience may vary. In my experience, the WH-1000XM6 microphones can be a bit sensitive, and long responses from the Gemini Live were cut off prematurely by ambient noise. I did most of my testing while walking around the block and working from home (my wife also works from home, and we have a noisy dog). But perhaps this has more to do with the Gemini Live than the LE’s sound quality. Otherwise, the feature worked as expected.
I can say that my sessions on the XM6 have been lasting longer than before, which is one of the main benefits of using LE Audio. Although the low-latency feature is still in beta, it already lives up to the XM6’s high standards.