topic Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly in Portable Audio

WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

MyUniqueUsername — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:26:19 GMT

My WH-1000XM4 are about 16 months old. Today the right earcup nearly burst my eardrum - it suddenly made a loud, whistling noise that only appeared when I put the headphones over my head. It lasted for maybe a minute or two, during which I disabled BT module in my phone and PC so they would fully disconnect, that didn't help. The noise was there with the ANC enabled and disabled.

After resetting back to the factory defaults (both buttons held until the LED flashed four times) and pairing again they worked fine for a few hours, but it just happened again, this time in the left earcup. The noise modulated as I moved the earcup to and away from my head, lasted for about 20 seconds and stopped.

It was so sudden and loud I'm now scared of using them and damaging my hearing.

This is my second pair of WH-1000XM4. I had to exchange the first set only a couple of weeks after purchase due to loud static hiss from the right earcup. "Disappointing" is a gentle way to describe my experience with a £349 premium product. I use them only in the house and at work, never been out in a rain or dusty places.

I got them in Argos UK (store, not online) in September 2020. I registered them on Sony website, I'm trying to find out whether they're covered with any extended warranty from Sony.

Has anyone experienced this problem? And Since this is an intermittent issue, what are the odds of them coming back with "couldn't replicate the fault" note even if Sony still covers them?

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

HannahEd01 — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 15:10:46 GMT

Hey MyUniqueUsername, have you tried SW update? Or the initializing?

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

CrisCros — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 16:37:42 GMT

I just fixed this issue on my WH-1000XM4s! I'd already gone through all the troubleshooting steps described above with a Sony CSR over the phone who ultimately recommended I send them in to get repaired. Luckily I found this Reddit thread and found that the loud feedback was being caused by earwax collecting on one of the internal components.

To get to the component I needed to clean (a short, metallic cylinder), all I had to do was remove the earpad/foam and then a small grey, rubber cap covering it. After that, I used Q-Tips and >90% isopropyl alcohol to clean the rubber cap and contact points on the cylinder. Put everything back together and everything's working great again!

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

torbencook — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 17:18:34 GMT

Sorry I'm a bit confused, how does ear wax affect things when these are over the ear headphones? I'd understand if they were in ear. The only contact my headphones have with me are the outer pads.

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

Timjones — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 19:50:38 GMT

I'm having the same problem. Although it only happens when the Ambient Sound Control is switched on. As soon as I switch it off in the app, the noise stops.

It's extremely annoying and loud. A real risk to my hearing.

No idea what the answer is..!

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

yinka007 — Fri, 19 May 2023 10:37:12 GMT

Me too

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

Anonymous — Mon, 22 May 2023 15:30:59 GMT

Sorry for you guys! But if you did reset it, and initialize it. A repair will be the only solution moving forward unfortunately.

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

SussyMilkers — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 02:04:29 GMT

FIXED THE ISSUE. So I first attempted to update the software on the over ear headset but that never fixed the issue. Seem to only affect setting 0 in the noise cancellation slider. Set this setting to 1 and its basically no different than regular noise cancelation and it has resolved the whining microphone in my left earcup. I hope this helps others with the same issue

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

Piscie — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 14:32:24 GMT

Hello @SussyMilkers, brilliant, thanks for updating the thread with this workaround!

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

BLUR33 — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:23:17 GMT

I have this problem too and that did not help. The problem still persists. The only way to get it to stop is to turn off noise cancelling completely.

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

BLUR33 — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:31:04 GMT

I tried your workaround and it worked for me as well. Thank you so much! One thing that I had to do in addition to moving the slider to setting one was to uncheck the voice passthrough box. Hope that helps others too!

Re: WH-1000XM4 - Loud whistling noise in one ear appearing randomly

torbencook — Fri, 09 May 2025 06:13:46 GMT

Mine did it all the time, I did dismantle the headphones and submerge the microphones in isopropyl alcohol which helped a bit. The whistling has stopped but there is now a click sound and you almost feel the pressure on your ear drum when it does it.

i contacted Sony warranty but mine were just out of warranty and they said I would need to send to a Sony service centre and pay £50 to get the problem fixed.

i think the resolution is to replace the microphones. As you say not great for such expensive headphones, I now use mine with sound cancelling permanently off.

A shame as they are incredible headphones. Does anyone know how good the B&O ones are?