Likeable brand Nothing has unveiled a set of striking over-ear headphones and if, like me, you’re ready to fully embrace cans that aren’t trying hard to look like the Sony WH-1000XM4 (and, by association, like every other set of headphones on the market), you’ll probably be fully on board with these.
Might it appear as if I’ve got two cassette tapes lashed around my head – two, ahem, head cleaners, if you’re old enough to get the gag? Quite possibly. Do I mind? Not one jot thank you very much; know me, know that I have a lot of love for the resurgence of the humble cassette format.
Anyway, I’ve worn them for a week now and sadly, owing to various time constraints, I wasn’t able to compile TechRadar’s full Nothing Headphone (1) review. However, I do share my colleague Matt Bolton’s verdict and of course, that doesn’t mean I have no further thoughts… the first being that the design here is a rare delight for the money.
Since the product has been under embargo until very recently, I’ve not been able to wear the Headphone (1) in public. But believe me, I cannot wait to do that. The transparent accents on the ear cups catch reflections and the light quite beautifully and there’s a quirky, otherworldy-but-the-90s aesthetic to them. They remind me of Björk’s 1997 All is Full of Love video – why wouldn’t I want that?
Nothing ventured, Nothing gained
So they look delightfully oddball, and you love to see it. They’re also comfortable – for me, anyway, and I do wear glasses at work these days (see “old enough”, above).
Furthermore, the Nothing X companion app is a joy. It’s clean, it’s stylish, it’s easy to follow and it puts things like noise cancellation and head-tracked streaming-service agnostic spatial audio up front and center, exactly where you want those perks. Honestly, I love the app.
So where does it start to go wrong? My one minor gripe with the design is to do with the volume roller on the right ear cup. Don’t get me wrong, I adore it; why has no other brand implemented anything even close, except for the Fairphone Fairbuds XL and Marshall Monitor III ANC, although both were different in that they were bijou joystick-style dials, rather than a roller?
No, my issue is the piped-in sound you hear when you use it. I know it’s supposed to mimic a rotary watch bezel, but it’s such a sweet, treble-centric whirr and so close to my delicate ear that it sets my teeth on edge (and there’s no way to turn it off). In fact, even the power on buttons are a little sweet for my liking.
Much ado about Nothing?
You’re probably thinking: come on, this issue feels small-fry and you’ve already said you love the design, what’s the big problem? And you’d be right: I think the bare bones here are truly exciting. Nothing goes its own way and I’m all for it. I’ve championed the Nothing Ear (a), the firm’s triumphant third stab at earbuds, for over a year now.
The thing is, there’s one key area where the Heaphone (1) don’t quite pass muster at the level. Sonically, I pitted them against my trusty Cambridge Audio Melomania P100, and the circumaural soundstage of the P100 betters the Nothing option – something you hear straight away.
Nothing has gone to great lengths to tell us about the “custom 40 mm dynamic driver, built with high-linearity suspension and an 8.9 mm PU surround that moves air more freely than conventional PET materials” alongside a “nickel-plated diaphragm, including rim and dome”.
Then, enter hi-fi giant KEF, which provided the rigorous tuning and testing of the headphones. And I think perhaps therein lies the rub. Nobody is challenging KEF’s formidable audio chops, but maybe (just maybe) a modicum of function has had to be lost in the name of a finessed form?
KEF is a master of its trade, and clearly the intention here is serious, integrated, neutral and layered hi-fi sound. And this is very much on the way to being achieved – in fact, in acoustic mixes and with spatial audio deployed, I found admirable separation and insight. Sonically, they are not bad.
It’s just that I’ve reviewed every set of Nothing earbuds to date, and I know the sound Carl Pei’s company and its collaborative effort is capable of achieving, given a fresh iteration. The result here is a set of headphones that while relatively detailed, come off a little dynamically lean.
If at first you don’t succeed…
Perhaps if the Headphone (1) release hadn’t been so rigidly tied to the simultaneous unveiling of the Nothing Phone (3)? Perhaps if Nothing’s design language hadn’t been of such paramount importance, there may have been leeway to eke a little more out of the svelte drivers nestled in their much-adorned ear cups? I’m speculating – I am.
But I’m also urging Nothing and KEF to work more on this partnership, because this product as an inaugural effort is beautiful to me, and the sound is well on its way.
I listened to D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar (I decided to give my Apple Music Replay All Time playlist a spin; a trip back to 2016 I’m not sure I needed) and while the vocals do dart out from shadowy corners in the mix, it’s an all-together more immersive, dynamically agile listen when played through the cheaper Cambridge Audio rival.
Again, I want to urge Nothing to keep working on these. I truly admire the release of the Nothing Headphone (1) when most smartphone-centric firms are sticking to cheaper earbuds propositions alongside handsets. Case in point: Samsung, a heavy-hitter that hasn’t launched a set of actual headphones in nearly 10 years, following mixed reviews for the 2014 Level Over and 2016 Level On.
In 2025, Nothing’s got something here that could blow everything else away, and while the sound is not perfect yet, the design and feature-set is too good to shelve. Very few manufacturers ace a set of headphones at the very first time of asking, and to say that I eagerly await for the release of the Headphone (2) is an understatement.
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becky.scarrott@futurenet.com (Becky Scarrott)
