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These are the new Sony ULT Wear headphones but let's make sure you're not making
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a mistake. If you're thinking about getting them!
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[intro music]
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What's up, internet? I'm Brian MacDuff, AKA "BMAC," and welcome to another video!
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So, yes indeed, today we are going to be reviewing the new Sony ULT Wear headphones, the
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latest headphones offering in Sony's new "ULT Power Sound" audio lineup. But first
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things first, I do need to give a quick thank you and a shout out to Sony for actually
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sending out a pair of these Sony ULT Wear headphones for me to be able to check out
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and enjoy. So, Sony, thank you!
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I appreciate you! But let's get right into it here. Starting things out with the
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Sony ULT Wear headphones design and how they're looking when you're looking at them
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on the outside. The Sony ULT Wear headphones should probably look a little familiar,
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and that's because they look very similar in appearance and design to the Sony XB-900
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series of headphones that we've seen before. At first glance, the ULT Wears can
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look a little chunky, but they definitely don't feel heavy or chunky when you're
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actually wearing them. They are made out of plastic, but their overall build quality
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feels well-built without any kind of creakiness or flimsiness. They are over-the-ear
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headphones with soft, smooth ear cushions that offer pretty solid passive noise
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reduction, which are going to help isolate you from the ambient noises and environmental
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noises around you - and that's even before you start using the Active Noise Cancellation,
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or ANC, that we're going to be talking about in a few minutes. And this probably has
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to do with Sony's "Thermo-Foaming Process" that they incorporate onto the ear cushions
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themselves. This allows them to remain soft to the touch, very padded and, at the
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same time, wrinkle-free - which is allowing them to create a strong seal around your
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ear when you're wearing them, offering, of course, a better level of comfort but
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also better noise reduction before ANC like we were just talking about. You also
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do have a padded headband here with full rotational and tilt capabilities for the
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ear cups, all allowing for a strong and snug fit while at the same time ensuring
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comfortability no matter what kind of head size or shape you have. And they also
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very easily collapse down to fit into the soft shell carrying case when you're traveling
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with them. In terms of colors, you are presented with three different color options.
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On the ULT Wear headphones, you're going to get the standard Sony "Black" color, a "White
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color, and a "Forest Gray" color. You're also getting the classic Sony touch-based track
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and volume controls built right into the touch panel on the backside of the right
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ear cup, which I personally love. I'm a huge fan of that. And for physical buttons
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and ports, you're going to notice, first off, that you're getting a 3.5mm audio
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port for hardwired listening, which you could do with the included audio cable
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and a USB-C port for charging the headphones using their included USB-A to USB-C cable.
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It is still ridiculously short. I mean, you're probably just going to end up using a
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longer USB-A to USB-C cable you already have
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but at least it's included. But do keep in mind that the USB-C port is only used for
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charging of the headphones with no kind of data passthrough. So if you're hoping
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to be able to stream lossless audio through that USB-C port,
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no such luck. I don't personally see that as a dealbreaker here, especially considering
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the use-case scenario that I think these headphones were specifically designed for, but
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we'll get more into that in just a few seconds. You're going to see your physical power
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and pairing button here directly alongside a noise canceling/ambient sound control
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toggle button, which you also have the ability of actually setting up as a "Quick
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Access" button with the Sony Headphones companion app, which is going to allow you to
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control various features within several different streaming apps - so definitely be
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sure to check that out - it could be used for more than just a noise canceling and
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ambient toggle. And then last, but most certainly not least, debuting with the ULT
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Wear headphones here we do, of course, have the "ULT" button itself. But before we get
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to what that ULT button actually does, I do want to talk about some changes that have
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taken place on the inside of these headphones, which is adding to their overall level
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of performance in the ULT Wears. You are getting the Sony V1 Audio Processor,
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which is ideally going to add to the sound quality that you're going to hear, but also
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adding to the active noise cancellation performance - and speaking of that V1 Audio
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Processor and the active noise canceling, I'm very, very happy with the ANC performance
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on these. They do a fantastic job of canceling out a wide range of frequencies in
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your environmental and ambient environment. I actually wore these while I was mowing
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the lawn the other day, and I was blown away by how great and how effective they
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were at actually eliminating the sound of the mower hum. You are also getting wear
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detection sensors in the headphones that are automatically going to pause the music
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when you take the headphones off and eventually turn off the headphones to conserve
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battery life if you forgot to turn them off. And you do also get spatial audio support
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with head tracking but just do keep in mind that you are going to need specific apps
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and specific setups in order to take full advantage of that. You do also have the
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option of invoking the Alexa Voice Service or Google Assistant at the touch of a
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button with these headphones as they are considered "Voice Assistant compatible."
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And if you took a closer look, you might notice these new grill coverings on the outside
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of the backside of the ear cups themselves, which is actually protecting and housing
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the new beam-forming microphones built-in. This setup is supposed to upgrade the overall
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microphone quality and in case you wanted a quick little demo, here you go:
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This is what the microphone quality sounds like on the Sony ULT Wear
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headphones. This is raw audio recorded directly into the iPhone voice memos app without
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any kind of post-production editing. So hopefully this serves is a pretty good example
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of what you could expect. And side note, you also do get sidetone built into these
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headphones, which essentially means that when you have active noise cancellation
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turned on and you're about to take a phone call, you'll actually be able to hear
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your own voice in the conversation, which is going to make the overall conversation
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so much easier to have on a pair of ANC headphones. And, honestly, it's something
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I think every pair of headphones with ANC should have moving forward. And then last,
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but certainly not least, you are getting some redesigned drivers built into these,
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which of course is adding to the overall level of base that you're going to be getting
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out of them. So now that we're on the subject there, we might as well talk about it.
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Arguably, the most important part of this review is going to be this sound quality
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and how these headphones sound when you're actually listening to the music in their
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different sound modes. The Sony ULT Wear headphones support the AAC, SBC, and LDAC
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Audio codec, Bluetooth 5.2 and multi-point connectivity. You also do have that
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V one audio processor that we mentioned earlier working to boost the overall sound
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quality alongside of course Sony's DSEE or Digital Sound Enhancement Engine, which
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essentially is a way to make compressed audio tracks sound better despite their narrower
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frequency range. But how does all that translate into actual sound quality?
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Well, the first thing we have to do is of course, go over the new ULT mode button
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and how it actually cycles through different ULTa modes and what those modes are
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ultimately going to provide you with as it relates to your listening experience. First,
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we have ULT mode one, which adds a substantial amount of boost to the low end for
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a more rumbly base experience. And then we have ULT mode two, which delivers even
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more base and even more perceived power for overall more punchiness. But just how
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much base are those ULT modes actually adding
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a lot? I mean, an actual borderline haptic feedback, ear massage amount of bass,
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especially when you're in ULT mode two, and this isn't really surprising, this is
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exactly what Sony has promised with this particular pair of headphones with their
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ability to produce subbase as low as five hertz on the frequency spectrum. And I
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know there's arguments out there that the human ear cannot hear below 20 hertz, but
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listen, I specifically tested frequencies below 20 hertz on the Sony ULT Wears. And
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even if I technically can't hear them, I most definitely could feel them. So even
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if I can't technically hear them, I could feel them. And I think that adds to the
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overall base effect in presence of massive base
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in these bad boys. But unlike other headphones, you're not necessarily locked into
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that boosted base if you only wanted to boost it temporarily because with the Sony
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ULT Mode button here, you do have the ability of cycling through from ULT one to
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ULT two to ULT mode off ULTogether, which is essentially allowing you to toggle how
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much base you want to be added. So with that in mind, in looking at the ULT mode
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button as a base boost button, how does the overall sound quality sound? I gotta
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admit, out-of-the-box, I wasn't super impressed with the overall sound quality. I thought
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there was a little bit of a dull kind of sound in that the overall soundstage and the
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separation of instruments seemed kind of muddied. But one thing I love about this
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pair of Sony headphones, and many other Sony headphones, is that with the Sony companion
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app you do have a five-band EQ adjustment that'll allow you to totally tweak these
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headphones to make them sound the best that they can based on your listening preferences.
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So what I did is I actually pulled out a little bit more detail and a little bit
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more emphasis on the high end of the frequency spectrum, which overall gave these
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a much better balance that I was pretty happy with. Once I made that change, I was
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liking the level of detail and clarity and overall listening experience that I was
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getting out of these Sonys. And then the cool thing is, with that ULT button, if I
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wanted to boost the base with ULT Mode 1 or ULT Mode 2, at the touch of a button
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I could do that. The Sony ULT Wears are not going to sound nearly as great as the Sony
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WH-1000XM5s or the XM4s, but they can provide a pretty solid listening experience
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when you don't want to be in one of those ULT Modes boosted boast bass boosted modes...
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What just happened there? When you don't want to be in one of those ULT Mode bass-boosted
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modes... which I think is most important to understand with the Sony ULT Wears because
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then you can look at them as a pretty solid-sounding pair of headphones with, like
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I said, the ability to just quickly boost the bass up to two times with those ULT
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Mode options with the ULT Mode button. But in terms of battery life, I know you're
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probably wondering how long could you actually expect these headphones to last for.
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Sony is promising up to 30 hours of listening time with ANC turned on, but probably
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actually a little bit less than that, closer to 25 hours, if you're listening with
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ANC turned on and using the LDAC audio codec. But do keep in mind all those numbers
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are with an assumed volume at around 50%, which I'm almost never listening at with
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these headphones. Even still, I would say that I'm pretty confident that I could get
all day battery life out of these without any kind of problem. And even if my battery
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is running low, these do come with a quick charging feature so if these are at 0%,
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you just throw these puppies on the charger and after a three minute charge you'll
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get about 90 minutes of listing time. So battery life here, definitely on par with
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what we've seen from other Sony headphones and, realistically, I have no complaints.
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I'm happy with it. But with all this having been said, here are my final thoughts
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on the Sony ULT Wear headphones and whether or not I think they could be the right
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pair of headphones for you. Like I've pretty much been saying throughout this entire
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video, if you're thinking about getting the Sony ULT Wear headphones, just make sure
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you understand what they are and who they're for so that you're not making a mistake.
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Because if you want one of the best-sounding, most premium listening experiences
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in a pair of Sony headphones without artificially boosted bass, that's where the
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XM5s or the XM4s are going to be better fit for you. We've reviewed both of
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those headphones on this channel before, but as it specifically relates to the Sony
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ULT Wear headphones, if you want that massive amount of bass and you want to be able
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to have that as an option, not 24/7 but when you want it, that's where the Sony
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ULT Wears really shine. You are taking a slight hit on overall sound quality, even
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though I think things still sound pretty solid. But if you love your bass and you
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want the ability to get that bass boosted one time or two times, that's where these
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headphones are going to deliver for you at the touch of that ULT button - and the bass
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here is no joke. If you're a bass-head or even a part-time bass-head, Sony ULT Wears
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could be right up your alley. As always, for the latest deals, prices, promos,
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and information for the Sony ULT Wear headphones, you can of course always head to
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my affiliate link, BMAC.link/ULTWear or, of course, you can click one of the
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clickable links in either the video description box or in the comment section below,
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so be sure to check those out! And with that having been said, it's actually time
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for me to go work out. So, uh, I'm going to rock out with a Sony ULT Wear, get the ultimate
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workout, pump up this bass, pump up my workout! Let's go! I'll see you guys in my next video!
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[outro music]
