I agree wholeheartedly and would add ‘borderline unusable for voice calls’ to the XM4’s sins, which is admittedly an improvement over ‘entirely unusable for voice calls’ ala XM3/XM2/1000X. Spent quite a while trying to get the XM4 to sound ‘good’, and they just won’t.
The 1000X series has reached a level of critical mass otherwise only touched by AirPods in consumer headphoneland - people have heard of them, and want them, and read reviews which say ‘best for most people’, and their friends recommend them, and they want them more. And they buy them, and 5 stars A+++ these are the best headphones they’ve ever heard. Which is their truth. Meets the expectations of most, and exceeds for those who haven’t experienced top-tier ANC before.
Credit where it is due, Sony managed to make a product with a traditional Japanese letter-letter-number-number model, and made it famous enough to ask for by name. It is the consistency in product and marketing plus the halo effect that’s seen 1000X series reach critical mass. Reviews saying ‘actually I don’t like how these sound and struggle to get them sounding much better with the rubbish in-app EQ that doesn’t have a slider corresponding to the ~200Hz spike’ aren’t common.
We live in a world where AirPods and Spotify are good enough for most people. I’m just glad there’s room in the market for well-tuned over-ear ANC cans too.
You’re absolutely right that a PlayStation - like a Kindle, or even Apple devices - is a big subscription box.
I’ll echo what others have said: Build a PC to connect to your TV and switch to that for a few years. You can even keep using the PS5 controller. Keep the PS5 around for exclusives and you won’t have FOMO + you can enjoy many years of PC exclusives as well as new, upcoming, early access indie darlings.