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Everyone has mixed opinions about the aesthetics of the Nothing Headphone (1). Some people love the design, some of you, not so, even calling it ridiculous or weird. I for one think that it’s one of the coolest looking headphones, a radical transparent design with premium build quality, intuitive physical controls like the paddle rocker, a button dial, and a button that can be customized to call up Voice assistants like Gemini (or you can make it do other things through the Nothing X app like mute the mic).

If you pair the Headphone (1) with a Nothing Phone, like the new Phone (3), this button does even more, like accessing Chatgpt.

Overall, I do like the design. But that should not be the main reason anyone should splurge on these headphones. For $299 retail, you’re going to need more reasons to buy it compared to the most popular headphones out there like Sony WH-1000XM6, B&W Px7 S3, and others from Apple, Bose and Sennheiser.

We’re going to see how the Headphone (1) compares in terms of performance like mic pickup, noise canceling and sound quality, and of course, what are their pros and cons.

Features

As for the features, the Headphones (1) covers pretty much all bases. It supports Hi-Res LDAC codec streaming, wired USB-C audio, adjustable noise canceling, multipoint pairing, app support with a VERY capable EQ suite, more on that later. It also has spatial sound with head tracking that works with any device or app which is not something we often see in the premium range. For example, the AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM6 would only have head tracking with certain devices and content.

Microphone Quality

As for the microphones, it has 6 of them, 4 of them dedicated to mic pickup for phone calls, and in terms of microphone quality, they’re pretty good. In quiet conditions my voice was loud, clear and full bodied, and in noisy, windy conditions, it did a great job cutting out the background noise. It’s comparable to the Sony, AirPods Max and B&W, and better than the Bose and Sennheiser. But the noise gating was too aggressive, so it was cutting into my words, and my voice also sounded softer.

👉 Listen to the mic quality samples

(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions using really loud cafe noise and wind noise from a fan.)

Active Noise Cancelling

The Headphone (1)’s active noise canceling is pretty good. It’s able to bring down background chatter and noises of public transport, and if you’re using it in a cafe type situation you can listen to your audio in peace.

But if we’re being honest, it’s not at the level of most of the competitors in this video, definitely not as powerful as the AirPods Max, Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QC Ultra. But it is more effective than the Sennheiser Momentum 4 at dealing with low, mids and high frequency noises.

👉 Listen to the ANC quality samples

Transparency Mode

On the other hand, its transparency mode is pretty good. It sounds natural enough that it’s easy to have verbal exchanges and not feel the need to take off the headphones. At the same time, most of the sounds are amplified pretty well so the situational awareness is going to be on point. Where headphones like the Sony, the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra are better is that they sound more clear and airy, since they amplify the upper mids and highs closer to the base noise level, represented by the white line.

That aside, the Nothing does sound more transparent than the Px7 S3 and the Momentum 4.

Sound Quality

Now let’s talk about the Headphone (1)’s sound quality on its default settings. There are lots of mixed reactions about the sound, and at first, when I tested it at the launch event, I have to say, I wasn’t too impressed because it sounded thin and too laid back in the bass which made the midrange sound thin and lethargic.

However there was a firmware update since, which seemed to improve bass performance, and when it does kick in, the bass carries a lot of texture detail. But it still isn’t tuned very well.

No disrespect to whoever tuned it, it probably is just a matter of taste, but there’s too much midrange presence, so the soundstage is too closed in and compact, which creates a tension to the sound.

Also it sounds rather veiled, or dull in the upper mids and highs so there isn’t much crispness in the vocals or airiness in the soundstage. Frequency sweeps show that compared to the others, it has less emphasis above the 3khz region, and only in the less audible high treble does it outshine the Sony WH-1000XM6 on its default setting.

👉 Listen to the sound quality samples

One way you can fix the sound is to use the Treble boost preset in the Nothing X app, and I would couple it with the Bass Boost toggle. There are 5 bass levels but level one is enough. There’s also a simple 3-band EQ handling bass, mids and highs. Or, for the experts, it does have a very capable 8 band parametric EQ which lets you tweak any frequency between 20hz to 20 khz, and even adjust its Q-factor, in other words, how much do you want those bands to affect the adjacent frequencies.

Doing that, I’ve managed to make it sound much, much better. It’s still not going to sound as crisp, clean and punchy as the best sounding headphones the Px7 S3, but it is a cleaner, more relaxed, more enjoyable sound.

And after tweaking, the EQ settings will carry over other devices. Just keep in mind that depending on how you tweak the EQ, the resulting volume might be lower than the default. After you create the preset, you can even share a QR code of it, like so, and send it to your friends. Since I don’t have any friends, here’s my Singapore Spring EQ for the Headphone (1). Go on, scan it. Come on, let’s be friends!

Design

Things that I love about the Nothing Headphone (1) are its design, its build quality, its complete set of features. It also has great mic quality, transparency and awesome equalizer settings, because its sound quality by default isn’t so great, but I was able to make it sound great thanks to that powerful equalizer.

That being said, there is some room for improvement. We talked about its active noise canceling, but I’m also referring to its comfort. Although the cushions are deep and look plush, in fact it resembles the AirPods Max, when I am wearing it, it’s actually pretty thin, and I can feel the frame under the pads so there’s more pressure, more pressure than any of these headphones in this comparison.

Nonetheless, I can still wear the Headphone (1) for long stretches, but with more frequent breaks.

Verdict

Overall, for the price, I do expect a little more from the Headphone (1) because its performance in general is not best in class, but there’s no doubt that it’s a very unique take on headphone design that sets it apart from the competition. Click on the links below to check their latest prices on Amazon, in case these headphones are on promo.

Check Latest Prices:

Nothing Headphone (1) - https://amzn.to/40IWIpU
Sony WH-1000XM6 - https://amzn.to/4n6OcuL
B&W Px7 S3 - https://amzn.to/4mn593q (UK)
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones - https://amzn.to/3UecNzS
AirPods Max - https://amzn.to/3AoiHX3
Sennheiser Momentum 4 - https://amzn.to/3TAxQOb

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