Sony WF-C510 Review: Budget Earbuds That Provide Good Sound but Cut Corners

Sony makes some of the most popular and acclaimed high-end consumer headphones, but less attention is directed toward its budget lines. This is a shame, as the Sony WF-C510—the company’s entry-level earbuds—have great sound for their price, even if corners were cut to get there.

Sony WF-C510

7 / 10

The Sony WF-C510 are earbuds that pair with Sony's headphones app to create personalized equalizers.

Pros Personalized EQ app feature Good sound quality for the price Quick pairing

Cons Volume controls are unwieldy Fall out of ear easily No charging cable included

$59.99 at Sony See at Amazon $59.99 at Best Buy

How We Test and Review Products

Price and Availability

The Sony WF-C510 earbuds retail for $59.99 and come in four colors: black, white, blue, and yellow. The box includes the earbuds, three sizes of silicone tips, and a charging case. No USB-C charging cable is included.

Good Speakers Amplified by Personalized EQ

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

The Sony WF-C510 offers speaker quality that is likely to please the average listener looking for decent sound without a hefty price tag, especially if they're looking for a bass-heavy sound.

There’s a noteworthy clarity and presence to the bass. It lacks the texture and richness you’d get out of high-end speakers, but it also doesn’t become distorted when boosted in the companion app’s equalizer, a trapping many similar earbuds fall into. While the highs are slightly crunchy in the out-of-the-box setting, in order to emphasize the lows that many listeners will judge the earbuds by, I found it to be a perfectly palatable sound for most music genres.

However, the magic of the WF-C510’s speaker quality comes when paired with the Sony Sound Connect companion app (available for iPhone and Android). This app has a handful of preset equalizers that will service different users' preferences. It also includes features like Sony’s DSEE (which enhances low-quality audio files) and the choice to optimize sound quality over a more stable Bluetooth connection.

However, the real game-changer is the “Find Your Equalizer” feature, which takes you through a simple multistep process to create a custom EQ setting tailored to your ears. While listening to music, you’re first given five numbered buttons that activate different approaches to equalization and then a second set of four buttons to further fine-tune that sound. Once you’ve made your two selections, a bespoke EQ setting is created based on what you deem sounded best.

By personalizing audio mixing like this, good speakers are made to sound fantastic. If you find the result unsatisfactory, you can redo the process or tweak individual settings to your liking. The only downside is that you can only have one personalized EQ via Find Your Equalizer at any time, meaning you can’t create multiple presets to cater to different music genres. Hopefully, Sony updates the recently refreshed app to increase the number of presets.

The earbuds include an ambient sound mode that allows outside noise, similar to noise-canceling headphones. The app allows you to control how much noise bleeds through when using this mode. It’s theoretically useful, but you probably won't comfortably hold a conversation without removing them.

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

Where the Sony WF-C510 start to have problems is their fit and in-ear controls.

The earbuds sit facing upwards and outwards in your ear, which is fairly comfortable when they stay put. Sony recommends lightly twisting it back and forth to nest the silicone tip in your ear canal. Unfortunately, none of the three available sizes of silicone tips fastened them well. They were typically fine for working at my desk, but movement often resulted in an earbud falling to the floor. Plus, because the earbuds stick out of your ears, anything that brushes past them will knock them out.

This problem is exacerbated by the clumsy in-ear controls centered around large buttons on the outward-facing side of both earbuds. They work fine for functions that take one or two presses—such as pausing/playing audio and activating ambient sound—but become a nuisance when requiring four sequential presses to change the volume (the final press can be held down to continuously increase or decrease it). Given that this is the most-used function on headphones, putting it behind a clumsy and uncomfortable method is baffling, especially since it’s the only function that can’t be remapped in the app.

Some may have better luck with the fit of the earbuds than I did, but I reckon most will struggle with using the buttons to change the volume. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t handled better, as it prevents the earbuds from being an easier recommendation.

Microphone Quality Gets the Job Done

The microphone in the Sony WF-C510 gets the job done, but not much more than that. It’s somewhat tinny, has choppy, warbling audio, and picks up background noise as static. You can listen to a sample I recorded below:

Sony clearly chose to prioritize speaker quality (a choice I agree with), but it does mean these earbuds won’t be a great fit for anyone who plans to regularly take hands-free calls. While it could be worse, there are better options if a good microphone is important to you.

Pairing Is Seamless

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

Even some of the best headphones on the market have pairing issues, especially when offering multi-device pairing through their apps, like the WF-C510. However, Sony nailed it here.

The earbuds immediately connect to your device upon being removed from their case and are ready to go when they’re in your ear. If you have two devices paired, it’ll connect to both and prioritize whichever is playing sound. If something goes wrong, it’s easy to fix it by opening the app and manually choosing the device you want to hear audio from.

There aren’t sensors to detect when the headphones are put in and taken out of your ear, meaning you’ll need to pause the audio yourself. Sound will continue to be routed through them until they’re placed in their case (or you switch the audio source on the connected device). I can hardly dock Sony for this omission as it’s a feature typically found in more expensive earbuds.

Some Corners Were Cut

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

It’s very clear that Sony cut corners to bring down the price of the earbuds beyond my concerns with the fit and volume control.

For one, they don’t come with a USB-C cable which you’ll need for charging. It’s an inconvenience, though I figure most people will have one of their own on hand. Still, a cable should’ve been included in the box for those who don’t, as it adds a hidden (if cheap) expense for them.

The case is also an obvious cut corner, using cheap plastic and hinges that always remain open ajar. This build quality feels almost knock-off and not durable. The case also holds roughly one extra charge worth of battery, which is a bit low, but the headphones' battery is already good enough to last through the day, so I don’t imagine many users will have an issue with this as long as they charge regularly.

A little more care in these areas would’ve gone a long way toward making the Sony WF-C510 feel premium at a budget price, but instead, they emphasize their budget nature. However, I’d much rather prioritize sound quality over accessories.

Should You Buy the Sony WF-C510 Earbuds?

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

The Sony WF-C510 are great-sounding earbuds for their price point when you combine their solid speakers with a personalized equalizer that elevates them based on the user’s preferences. They’re one of the better-sounding pairs of budget earbuds on the market for this reason.

However, they’d be easier to recommend if their in-ear controls were less awkward and they were less prone to falling out. If you can get over these hurdles, you’ll likely enjoy these earbuds.

Sony WF-C510

7 / 10

The Sony WF-C510 are earbuds that pair with Sony's headphones app to create personalized equalizers.

$59.99 at Sony See at Amazon $59.99 at Best Buy