Is the Sony WF-1000XM5 worth the upgrade from the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro?

Verdict

Clear upgrade

Going from the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro to the Sony WF-1000XM5 buys you 16.0 points of HearWiki score - a clear step up that reviewers agree on rather than a marketing refresh. The gains are concentrated in noise cancelling (6.0 to 9.0), sound (7.0 to 9.0) and battery (6.0 to 8.0). You do give up ground on value (8.0 to 7.0). On paper: active noise cancelling, weight 70 g to 11.8 g and bluetooth 5.0 to 5.3. Worth checking: battery incl. case goes 32 h to 24 h and driver size goes 11 mm to 8.4 mm. One caution: this steps down a line tier (Liberty 2 Pro to WF-1000XM5), and base models usually trade away tier features - check the codec and ANC rows above before trusting the score gap alone. That costs $99 more, or about $6 per point of score - reasonable value for the jump. If your current pair is worn out or the gains line up with how you listen, this one is worth the money.