Wh-1000xm3 loud hiss from noise cancelling

[Panifex]

My headphones were working well, but have now started making a terrible loud noise in the right ear whenever noise cancelling is turned on.  

Resetting makes no difference.

Anybody else had this? 

[illusion_wqy]

i bought this headphone just two weeks ,  and i have a same problem with you .

i can't understand it is the problem of the sony  ,why we should wait a long time to send the place which repaire the headphones .  i think the sony should change a new headphone for us .

if time back to the  past , i must buy the bose .

[nickop44]

I'm having the same problem. A static, hissing noise in the right ear. Only on noise cancelling. It gets louder the more I wear the headphones, after an hour or two of not using them the sound goes away only to return again after an hours use. I'm returning the headphones. Did you return yours, what was the result?

[arshadnas]

I had this same hissing noise from the right cup from the second day I started using my headphones. Started with a slight hiss but kept it kept increasing with my listening duration.
I noticed was the hissing sound started after listening music for about half an hour.
I did the following and now there is no hissing.
1. Factory reset
2. A post in reddit suggested downgrade of firmware; I did it.
3. Removed and reinstalled the Sony app.

Aaand, it's gone!


I feel that the version 2.0 is better than the latest firmware and the white noise/hissing is due to the faulty firmware. Sony should mend it ASAP as the number of people facing this issue is increasing.

Update 2/7/19: Though the downgrading saved me from hissing for a day, it has started again. Now, I am sure that it's a hardware issue.

[nickop44]

Hi arshadnas,

That’s great there’s a cure for the terrible noise in the right ear up.
How do I actually downgrade to firmware V2...? I can’t find instructions of how to do that anywhere.

Thanks for your help, it’s very much appreciated.

Nicholas Cope

[arshadnas]

Hi Nicholas,

The following link has a python script and necessary instructions.

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/D5VRhs3rZj/

A clever guy had posted it on reddit . You can thank him there.

[dejanh]

I picked up a pair of WH-1000xm3's a few days ago and they developed the right ear-cup hiss within the first half hour of use.  It has been getting worse since then.  After longer listening sessions (2h+) it gets really bad.  It can even become audible distortion over lower volume music.  As noted previously and in some other places on the web, it only happens when NC is on. 

Since the cans shipped with 4.1.1 firmware I did try the Reddit firmware downgrade procedure but I can already confidently say that this does not address the issue.  I have been listening to music for the past hour since downgrading the firmware and the hiss is back.  This appears to be a physical fault with the headphones.  It is also consistent with observations by some folks that stated a replacement set did not suffer from the same problem.

[dejanh]

Just wanted to update that I received a replacement from Amazon and just like the first pair I got this one is also running 4.1.1.  However, the new set does not appear to have the hiss in the right ear cup.  My old pair was worse even with downgrading back to 2.0 firmware.  I am going to see how this pair does after 20+ hours of usage, but so far in the 4-6 hours of use it appears to not suffer from the same issue.  Assuming nothing changes I would chalk this up to being a hardware fault.

[AndreDamasco]

Spoiler

I’m so disappointed with this issue. After 2 months now there is a very loud hiss in the right ear. 

Already tried everything but nothing solved the issue. 

This is my first Sony headphone...in 5 years no issue with my Bose.

[ramzesimus]

I've bought a new pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 recently and, unfortunately, I'm having exactly the same problem. After 30-60 mins of working with ANC enabled, there is a hiss in the right speaker. However, there is no such sound in the left speaker.

I thought that it might be something wrong with device, so I tried with iPhone and iMac, but the result is the same. Still this hissing noise in the right speaker.

Upgrading device to the latest firmware also didn't help. So, I'm pretty sure that this is a hardware issue.

[andewil90]

Got in touch with the email support crew, after a few of the usual basic fault finding emails went back and forth to confirm I'd tried all the stuff on the help pages, support responded that "we can confirm that what you are encountering is considered within normal specifications of the headphone rather than a fault", but that " if you wish to send the headphone for inspection, you can use the details below".  Once I get a chance I'm going to ship them back to Sony for inspection. 

For me this is a problem that occurs about 80% of the time, but for the 20% it doesn't, it's generally right after I put them on for the first time in a day or so.. which doesn't leave me with high confidence I'm going to get a properly working pair... 😞

Had them for about 2 weeks now and managed to use them for <10hrs.