WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 The Nothing Headphones, eh? Okay, that's the last one of those I'm 00:00:03.360 --> 00:00:10.280 about to make, but Nothing has been kind of on a tear lately making awesome, 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:14.360 really cool, and relatively well-priced audio products, especially with their 00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:17.360 Nothing Headphones. However, when it comes to their A series of products, 00:00:15.920 --> 00:00:20.960 whether that's their phones or their earbuds, sometimes the tradeoffs can be 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:26.000 a little bit hit or miss, but we're hoping that all of the tradeoffs are going to be the right ones for their new 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:29.400 budget headphone offering, the Nothing Headphones A. In front of me, I have 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:32.920 three of the four Nothing Headphones A colorways. We got white, black, pink, 00:00:31.400 --> 00:00:36.120 but we don't have the yellow, which I kind of like cuz it looks like a fried 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:40.520 egg on your ear. We can only open one today, though, and which one's that going to be, boys? White. Well, you know 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:46.760 what? Cuz you caught me in such a good mood, we're going to unbox all of them, but we're going to listen to just the 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:46.760 white ones. Okay, let's take a look. 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:52.000 Voilà. Okay. 00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:55.520 I was kind of expecting these to have maybe a different color in the white 00:00:53.800 --> 00:00:59.480 parts, but there are differences in the accents. There's like the darker gray 00:00:57.040 --> 00:01:02.800 ones, and instead of the red accent on this ear, you get a pink accent over 00:01:01.160 --> 00:01:07.840 here, whereas on the black ones, it is red and white. They're very very 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:13.520 reflective. But before we get to these, let's take a look at what else is in the 00:01:09.720 --> 00:01:15.560 box. We have a bag. While I do 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:18.760 appreciate that we get a bag, you know, something to carry our headphones in 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:23.200 that isn't just the packaging it came in, I am a little disappointed that it's 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:27.000 not a full case [music] like the original Nothing Headphones. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:32.760 Not that it was like the best case ever, but it was a nice value add. In the box, we have two cables, one C to C and one 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:35.680 3.5 mm. I don't have a lot of faith in the strain relief on these cables, 00:01:33.960 --> 00:01:41.000 honestly. I previous Nothing products have always kind of been underwhelmed with. Though I 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:44.320 do like the unique, very square It's interesting cuz it's kind of like the 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:50.160 similar design motif to how they have the like squircle squectangle 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:54.160 squectangle. The round in the square shape. It's It's just It's neat. I do 00:01:52.440 --> 00:01:57.000 really appreciate Nothing's design language. I just want 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:00.680 to check if the cables are color-matched. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.680 They're all white. That's okay. There's worse things in life. Is there like a plastic peel on 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:09.720 this? There's like a seam. Hey, you see like very faint this faint outline that my 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:15.720 finger's going along? Oh, yeah. On the outside of these I could see a lot of mixed feelings about how they look. I 00:02:12.600 --> 00:02:18.520 think they kind of lose the kind of cool 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:21.360 flashy complexity of the normal Nothing headphones. And I would feel like the 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:25.520 big plastic chunks in the middle kind of 00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:30.360 just make these look a little a little cheap compared to like the cool designs 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:33.400 that show through on the actual like clear plastic areas. It also makes them 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:37.520 a lot bigger than they need to be. Like look at how much bigger they are than their ear cups just cuz they're square. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:41.080 Uh speaking of which, the ear cups are made of some sort of I wouldn't even go 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:45.720 so far as to call it like uh like faux leather cuz it doesn't even 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:49.680 really attempt to feel like actual leather. It's very much like a silicone 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:53.120 kind of It's a very interesting texture with a decent amount of cushion and a 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:56.040 decent amount of depth for your ears. So, these could be comfortable even 00:02:54.440 --> 00:03:00.200 though they're not the biggest ear cups. On the bottom we have a power switch, a 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:05.640 status indicator, a USB-C port, and a 3.5 mm port. Something to note is that 00:03:03.640 --> 00:03:10.640 while you can listen to audio via the USB-C, if you want to listen to the 00:03:07.480 --> 00:03:12.800 audio via 3.5 mm, you do have to have 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:16.840 these on. There's no passive listening, so they will use battery if you're using 00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:19.680 the 3.5 mm jack. That's kind of a bummer. One question that I have is if 00:03:18.239 --> 00:03:23.880 you'll still be able to take advantage of the noise canceling and stuff while 00:03:21.640 --> 00:03:27.120 you're listening via 3.5 mm. On the right ear cup we have our rocker that 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:30.680 allows you to skip tracks or fast-forward through them, and you have 00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:34.400 your roller. We got a rocker and a roller. Do you remember that movie 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:37.160 RocknRolla? I don't I've never seen it, but I do remember all the ads cuz it 00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:40.920 would come on the TV for 5 seconds and it would be RocknRolla. This is where you're going to find your volume 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:45.040 settings as well as pressing for play and pause. Also on the right ear cup is 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.400 a multifunction button. We're probably going to take a look at their app to 00:03:46.239 --> 00:03:52.200 just see exactly what everything can do. On the left headphone you get nothing. 00:03:50.440 --> 00:03:56.440 Sorry, lefties. But you can also see venting for microphones. Oh, another 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:59.240 secret button. You will not believe how long it took me to find this when I was 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:03.320 trying to pair these. That's the Bluetooth pairing button. It's really annoying to accidentally like hold a 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:07.760 button down and then find out that you've disconnected your headphones from whatever you're listening to. So, I 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:11.760 really appreciate, honestly, the whole loadout for these Nothing phones. Like, 00:04:09.760 --> 00:04:16.239 it's such an easy headphone to control. You're not like doing a crazy bunch of 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:21.720 multi-presses to do things. It's pretty nice. The headband has a smooth 00:04:18.160 --> 00:04:24.160 adjustment and has this uh kind of weird 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:29.320 silicone pad. It's not the nicest. Yes, Prime Minister? What's that? 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:33.919 The material's called liquid silicone? That's dumb as hell. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:37.760 Love you. Bye. The way this mechanism adjusts, I might 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.080 worry about getting hairs caught in it or it [music] causing like kind of 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:45.400 pressure points for people who have maybe larger heads. I personally didn't 00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:48.560 find too many issues with it. For the ear phones, you have swivel that can go 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:52.960 all the way flat for storage. And you have some kind of spring-loaded tilt 00:04:50.840 --> 00:04:55.560 that it's really it's it's like it's weird. What I do find is that it causes 00:04:54.400 --> 00:05:00.120 these have a bit of clamping pressure that people may not enjoy so much. I did 00:04:58.919 --> 00:05:04.440 not find these to be particularly comfortable. I found that they got a little bit warm. When I put them on, I 00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:07.960 can really tell they're kind of hugging my ear the whole 00:05:05.880 --> 00:05:11.640 time. I don't really have super big ears, so usually this isn't an issue, 00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:14.360 but your mileage may vary. They remind me so much of the AirPods Max ear cups 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:19.280 that I really just think that they should pull off with magnets. Oh, and look at that, there is some sort of 00:05:17.320 --> 00:05:23.760 flashes of pink also on the inside. That's cool. And actually, with the pink 00:05:20.520 --> 00:05:25.160 ones, you can see through to the driver 00:05:23.760 --> 00:05:29.880 housing a little bit better. Dude, non-removable ear cups is kind of 00:05:27.400 --> 00:05:33.040 bad. I see screws underneath the ear cups when I bend them. These really 00:05:31.320 --> 00:05:35.880 don't feel like they come off. Shame on you, Nothing. Shame on you. 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:41.440 All right, it seems like these cups aren't coming off. If they do, it's it 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:41.440 feels destructive. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:48.480 It's not a pleasurable experience. It took a lot of effort. Yeah, you just kind of got to really rip on them. But, 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:53.200 hey, no shame on you. In terms of other features, these come with Bluetooth 5.4. 00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:55.960 They are IP52 water resistant and dust resistant, 00:05:54.840 --> 00:06:01.680 which means that they can probably handle like a little bit of sweat if you're getting a little active. The 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:06.880 battery life that they claim is 62 to 135 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.240 hours depending on your ANC and codec usage. Oh, and that's another important 00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:14.240 thing. This has the LDAC audio codec. So if you're 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:17.520 somebody who cares about having really high quality audio connection, even if 00:06:16.200 --> 00:06:24.520 it comes at the cost of battery life, well, you got it. They do by default only use 00:06:21.280 --> 00:06:27.400 AAC. I would have loved to see maybe 00:06:24.520 --> 00:06:32.000 some of the Qualcomm codecs, but getting LDAC is pretty cool on a lower priced 00:06:29.960 --> 00:06:35.560 set of cans. They also have Google fast pair for easy adding to any sort of 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:39.280 Android device. These charge to full in 2 hours, but if you need a quick top up, 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:44.120 you can plug them in for 5 minutes and you will then get 5 more hours of audio 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:48.360 playback, which is pretty cool. Oh, look at that. I like the text that they do to 00:06:46.440 --> 00:06:51.440 denote the left and the right side. I think that's all there is to say about 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:55.520 the outsides. So the only thing there is to do is take a listen to what's inside 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:59.320 and that's audio, good sound hopefully. I'll let you know after this message 00:06:57.040 --> 00:07:02.800 from our sponsor. Hey, you. Yeah, you. I like your computer case. It's looking 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:06.560 pretty cool. But I bet it would look a lot cooler if you had a Corsair XENEON 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:09.919 Edge in there. Wouldn't you love a sleek display that shows your system temps, 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:13.760 weather apps, or your Twitch chat? It wouldn't even be that hard to install. You could just screw it right into your 00:07:12.400 --> 00:07:19.720 radiator mount. You could even have a picture of your cat inside of your case at all times and she's going to look up 00:07:16.640 --> 00:07:21.800 beautiful on that 2560 by 720 60 hertz 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:25.440 refresh rate display. So listen up. Add another display to your setup with a 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:28.240 Corsair XENEON Edge at the link below. I I can report that the pairing process 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:32.680 was pretty smooth once I found the Bluetooth button. So let's take a listen. 00:07:30.640 --> 00:07:36.320 Okay, first thing I noticed, ANC is quite good. I um 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:41.800 don't find that it's causing any sort of like pressure sensation or anything like that. ANC on the whole has gotten a lot 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:44.760 better in just a few short years even as it's climbing down to cheaper and 00:07:43.400 --> 00:07:49.960 cheaper headphones. It's great to see. When you pair the headphones, you are also prompted to download the app, and I 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:54.320 think that Nothing has a great companion app. There's easy control over the noise 00:07:52.280 --> 00:07:58.080 cancellation settings from the level of noise cancellation that you want, 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:01.640 adaptive mode, transparency mode, or thank you, the ability to just turn it 00:07:59.760 --> 00:08:06.480 off. And when it's off, these honestly have pretty decent isolation. These also 00:08:04.320 --> 00:08:09.640 have spatial audio. I don't really care for that. They have the concert mode and 00:08:08.280 --> 00:08:17.800 cinema mode, and I don't really know what the difference is, but it's usually off. You also get access to a full 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:19.480 parametric equalizer. Uh you can use a 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:23.960 simple equalizer or use pre-made profiles, but you can go to each of these bands and adjust not just how loud 00:08:22.280 --> 00:08:27.280 or quiet you want each of these sections of the audio spectrum to be, but you can 00:08:25.400 --> 00:08:32.080 also adjust the Q factor, which changes how steeply the audio is curved for that 00:08:30.440 --> 00:08:34.680 specific frequency. It's really cool, and that means that if you have any sort 00:08:33.479 --> 00:08:39.240 of problems with these headphones, you can dial in your preference as you 00:08:36.560 --> 00:08:42.919 please. And you can even scan a QR code or make a QR code to share your 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:45.680 equalization preferences to make sure that you can get a headphone that sounds 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:49.760 good to you or to share with your friends cuz you have so many friends when you're EQing headphones, I'm sure. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:54.160 That's not fair. I have friends and I EQ headphones. You also have decent control 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:57.920 customization. You can put a lot of different stuff on your button, 00:08:55.920 --> 00:09:01.520 including press and holds um and on your roller and on your paddle, though 00:08:59.520 --> 00:09:06.680 there's a couple things that you cannot change, like the paddles don't have a 00:09:04.040 --> 00:09:10.080 ton of customization, but that's okay. But with how much you can customize most 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:13.800 of the other controls and how much you can control easily on this headphone, I 00:09:12.640 --> 00:09:17.720 don't think you're missing out on too much. You can also set up dual connection via this app so that the 00:09:15.920 --> 00:09:20.760 headphones will specifically remember two devices that it'll more easily shift 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:24.680 between, so you don't have to deal with the like kind of like shaky handoff like 00:09:22.920 --> 00:09:28.360 Bluetooth 5.4 does technically support like 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:32.600 multi-point connection, but it's really, really clumsy. The dual connection on 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:37.760 this app makes it work a lot better. But that's enough about the app. Let's give 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.760 these things a listen. 00:09:42.560 --> 00:09:48.880 Okay, so these are kind of weird. On one 00:09:45.560 --> 00:09:51.120 hand, they have a decent amount of bass, 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:55.840 but on the other hand, they kind of end up sounding like muffled. It's weird and 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:59.480 it kind of shows up in a lot more like acoustic or like rock stuff, whereas in 00:09:57.480 --> 00:10:02.000 EDM, I think it sounds pretty good. I think like it's almost like hollow. Like 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:07.840 what they did is that they had like a lot of bass, but then they were worried about it becoming like bloated and you 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:10.800 losing detail in the mids, so then they like cranked down the low mids or 00:10:09.760 --> 00:10:15.040 something. And it feels like they've almost like kind of sucked the soul out of a lot of some of the music. Outside 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:20.520 of that, I think that the treble reproduction is good if not a little bit peaky, but it it kind of feels like it 00:10:18.680 --> 00:10:25.600 has enough sparkle to be like more attention-grabbing. It's more of a V-shape, but I'm just kind of 00:10:23.400 --> 00:10:29.440 really weirded out by what they did with the bass. Could you bring it back with 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:32.400 the EQ? I think you could. I bet you we could. In fact, actually, I already did. 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:38.720 I took a little bit of time, spent some time with the EQ to bring it back, and I think that these sound a lot better. And 00:10:35.920 --> 00:10:41.960 that's This is exactly why the EQ's awesome, because if I find that these 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:46.280 headphones aren't up to my preference, then I can just kind of fix that. And 00:10:43.760 --> 00:10:49.360 what I did was improved that like weird scoop in the low mids, and things feel a 00:10:47.920 --> 00:10:53.720 little bit more lively without feeling bloated. Though, these are still kind of a bass-heavy headphone. I'm still kind 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:57.200 of impressed with the ANC, honestly. Also, something to note, once you've applied the EQ to these headphones, if 00:10:56.480 --> 00:11:01.720 you're going to be listening through USB-C or 3.5, they will hold whatever 00:11:00.160 --> 00:11:06.560 your previous settings were when you were connected to the app, which can be 00:11:03.640 --> 00:11:10.440 good or bad. But what does Labs have to say? Let's see if I was spot-on with 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:13.440 this. Okay. Interesting. Wow, the charts look really 00:11:12.160 --> 00:11:18.080 bad. What we're looking at here is a frequency response and variation graph. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:21.240 The white area is basically the preference of what most people would 00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:26.000 think sounds good. The red is the difference in our test results across 00:11:23.280 --> 00:11:29.400 tests and different testing apparatuses. So, you kind of have an idea of the 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:32.280 range of where these headphones may fall depending on your head. None of this is 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:36.760 guaranteed. You always have to give it a listen to tell if you really like it, 00:11:34.400 --> 00:11:40.920 but it did I think for me this graph looks worse than it sounds. That scoop 00:11:38.640 --> 00:11:43.720 in the mid-bass does really really harm the music out of the box, and the treble 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:47.880 peaks that I was talking about where I was saying there was kind of some sparkle. I didn't find it too annoying, 00:11:46.640 --> 00:11:52.960 but you can see that there's a lot of variation across our testing, which means that like depending on your head 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:56.280 or even like the way it sits on your ears could mean that you could get a 00:11:54.520 --> 00:12:00.160 very different experience, which is exactly why you can EQ in the app. But, 00:11:58.760 --> 00:12:03.680 I think that we shouldn't really be expecting a lot of people to do that. 00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:05.920 Nothing we should be trying to release the best headphones we can, and these 00:12:04.920 --> 00:12:12.640 seem like a big step down from your previous headphones as well as from the even cheaper CMF headphones from the 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:16.720 budget nothing brand CMF. Yeah, Labs really didn't like it. Labs notes, "This 00:12:14.560 --> 00:12:19.200 sounds bad. Just straight up bad." I don't think they sound as bad as the 00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:23.680 graphs make them look. I'll say that much, but that's just my personal preference. I don't think it was that 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:26.800 awful, and the EQ I was able to put on it fixed a lot of the problems, but 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:32.360 that's pretty disappointing. So, let's talk about price. These come in at $200, 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:36.680 which is okay for the features it presents. Getting 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:40.839 access to multiple codex, getting Bluetooth 5.4. The battery life on these 00:12:39.160 --> 00:12:44.760 is supposed to be killer as well as having a pretty capable ANC. They're 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:49.880 good on paper. It's a shame that they weren't able to really tame the audio. 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:54.200 And especially frustrating since they've had prior success doing this. So, I 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:57.280 don't really know what went wrong. But maybe if you find these on sale or you 00:12:55.440 --> 00:13:00.120 really like the style and you like the rest of the features, you can fiddle 00:12:58.640 --> 00:13:04.680 with the EQ to find something that will make these sound a lot better. $200 for 00:13:03.520 --> 00:13:08.240 headphones that will block out a lot of noise in a noisy office is If you don't 00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:12.480 care that much about sound quality, then you have a lot of other options that can 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:15.120 also do decent ANC, have decent features from cheap brands. Like Soundcore for 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:19.800 example has a lot of stuff that's competitive under the $200 price point. Maybe they can fix the sound, or maybe 00:13:18.280 --> 00:13:23.040 you can fix the sound yourself. All I know is that we can't fix the fact that 00:13:21.560 --> 00:13:27.040 we're at the end of the video. So, thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed 00:13:24.760 --> 00:13:30.600 this, why don't you check out Linus's unboxing of the cheaper CMF headphones. 00:13:30.040 --> 00:13:35.520 I don't know what he thought specifically, but from what I've read, apparently they were pretty decent.