Whoa! The battle of the £179 headphones just became the battle of the £175 and £178 headphones and you love to see it

It’s like buses: you spend ages waiting for a hands-down five-star set of headphones to drop to its all-new lowest-seen price on record in a glorious Cyber Monday deal, only for two to come along at once!

But here we are. It has happened to the modern-classic Sony WH-1000XM4, which have dropped to only £175 at Amazon (original RRP £349) having dropped to their lowest-seen price of £179 in the run up to Black Friday. And it has also happened again to the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, because right now at Amazon their regular £300 asking price has also dropped to just £178. When you consider that they dropped to £179.99 right before Black Friday, which was £19 cheaper than they’d ever been spotted at before, an extra £1.99 off for Cyber Monday is worth celebrating!

I’ll tell you this: both are going to be some of the most popular Cyber Monday headphones deals live – but they’ll be around for a good time, not a long time.

I’ve heaped the praise on both pairs of cans ever since their respective release dates, when I named them among the best noise cancelling headphones I’d ever used, so right now you’re probably thinking: “OK great about the double-discounts Becky, but which is best – and please be quick about it?” That’s what I’m here for! Don’t need my help and know the pair for you? The all new lowest-seen price deals are below these words, friend.

Like the savings but looking for earbuds? That’s okay, I’ve got a best Cyber Monday earbuds deals roundup for you, and even a Cyber Monday AirPods deals roundup if it simply has to be Apple.

So which should you spend your hard-earned £175 or £178 on? I’ve got this.

Firstly, the delicate topic of age: Sony headphones are always among the very best headphones on the market (and naturally, they feature heavily in our best Sony headphones and earbuds roundup) but the Sony WH-1000XM4 are hardly spring chickens, having launched in August 2020.

The Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless are a fair bit younger, having hit shelves in August 2022. Consider that the hugely popular Sony WH-1000XM5, the XM4’s younger flagship siblings, launched back in May 2022 and you’ll see that if it’s the newest cans on the block you want, Sennheiser is where the smart money goes – and you can read our Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM5 feature if you want more head-to-head info there. Oh, and while I’m here, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are also on offer, but you’ll need to pay £247 rather than their RRP of £379. Even though it’s a 35% discount, that’s not quite as cheap as they’ve ever been – and not as cheap as £179.99…

The thing is, the XM4s are still around for a reason, and that reason is that they’re very very good headphones for sound, feature set and noise cancellation – read up on that in our Sony WH-1000XM4 review. There’s also an iconic appeal to them that you don’t get from the Sennheiser cans, so if you’re buying for someone who loves a slightly retro aesthetic (or has a Sony Xperia phone) I’d say the WH-1000XM4 are the best bet. This is because the XM4 support Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format, which enables immersive spatial audio from certain streaming services (such as Amazon Music Unlimited), plus Sony’s LDAC codec that can send a bitrate of up to 990 kbps. They don’t support aptX or aptX HD, mind you, so your hi-res audio support mileage may vary elsewhere.

However, Sennheiser’s elite over-ears tick all the right boxes, for me. Along with their stellar sound and solid battery life, they offer great noise-cancellation and call-handling – which you can read about in my glowing Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review. There’s also support for the more accessible aptX and aptX Adaptive wireless Bluetooth codecs, to stream higher-quality audio if your source device can unpack it – and your music streaming service is (ahem) a step up from Spotify.

But the deal sealer for me is Sennheiser’s excellent ‘Sound Zones’ feature, which allows you to create custom sound profiles for different locations, to automatically activate or deactivate whenever you enter or leave a specified zone (the office, the gym, as you approach your front door and so on). Frankly, it’s a game-changer. If you’re on the fence about which to buy, perhaps this will sway you toward the Sennheisers.

Lastly, the deal: this is the best price I’ve seen in the UK for the newer Sennheiser over-ears, by £19, whereas the Sony WH-1000XM4 is a return to their lowest ever price, but it’s not any cheaper than I’ve ever seen.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’ve been looking to upgrade your cans, either is a superb Black Friday deal. My advice? You cannot go wrong here with either set, but if forced to choose, I’d go for the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless. After all, Lufthansa’s letting people borrow a pair on first-class flights, so they’re literally a first class pair of headphones now!