Why do the Sony WF-1000XM6 sound different with ANC off vs on?

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If you've noticed that your Sony WF-1000XM6 sound different when you toggle noise cancellation on and off, you're not imagining things. This is actually intentional, and once you understand why, it makes total sense.

Here's the deal: When ANC is running, the earbuds are doing serious computational work to cancel out external noise. But Sony's engineers realized that all that processing can affect how music sounds—so they compensated. With ANC on, there's bass boost baked in to make sure your music sounds rich and full despite everything else going on.

Turn ANC off, and that extra oomph goes away too. The sound becomes more neutral, which some people describe as "thinner" or less exciting. It's not that the earbuds sound bad without ANC—they're just tuned differently.

The good news? You have options if you want better sound without noise cancellation:

Grab the equalizer. The Sony Sound Connect app has a really capable 10-band EQ. Bump up the lower frequencies a bit, and you can get closer to that full sound profile you're used to with ANC.

Try Ambient Sound mode. It's kind of a best-of-both-worlds situation—you can hear what's happening around you while still getting some of the processing that makes music sound fuller.

Honestly, most people listen with ANC on anyway (that's kind of the point of buying these), so Sony optimized for that experience. Makes sense when you think about it.