Do you really need a pair of smart headphones?
Not unless you really feel the need to share.
Muzik CEO Jason Hardi started his headphone company back in 2013 to, as he puts it, "connect the world." But even though he's been showing off versions of the hardware throughout the years -- and even received a small investment from Twitter earlier this year -- it's never actually made it to market. Until a couple of months ago. That's when Hardi and co. finally unveiled the Muzik One, which launched alongside a partnership with Spotify. What's the big deal? Well, the One is a pair of "connected" headphones that lets you share whatever you're listening to on the social media platform of your choice with just a tap of a button. Sharing music has never been so easy. Whether or not that's worth $300, however, is less clear.
Regardless of its song-sharing features, these headphones look and feel like a really nice set of cans. It's constructed out of aircraft aluminum and a soft supple leather covers both the handle as well as the ear cup cushions. Plus, the headphones fold inward for better portability. I've carried them around in my backpack and even my smaller shoulder bag without any problems.
What's more, those ear cushions are interchangeable; they attach and detach magnetically, so you can swap the default over-ear options with smaller on-ear versions. Both feel comfortable when nestled next to my ears though I tend to prefer the over-ear cushions as they result in less outside noise. Speaking of that, the Muzik One headphones boasts "passive noise-isolation," which really just means there's enough padding to block out environmental sound. It doesn't have the active noise cancelation like a Bose would have, for example. That said, I still thought it did a great job muffling the din of the outside world.
Speaking of which, I thought the audio quality was really quite good. Muzik boasts custom-tuned 40mm drivers and an enhanced digital sound processing that results in rich and smooth sound. Drums punched through convincingly and bass had a nice strong presence without being too aggressive. Middle and high notes sounded crisp and sharp, and both really show off the vocal range of the artist. In general, the Muzik One sounds just as good as most other premium headphones I've tried.
All of the One's controls are housed in the right ear cup, along with a micro-USB charging port and a 3.5mm headset jack if you want to use it with a wired connection. The power button is on the side, but the entire surface acts as a large touch sensor. You can turn on swipe gestures, which let you swipe up and down to adjust volume, or left and right to change tracks. Tapping the overall surface of the cup will either play and pause a song or answer a phone call.
There are also four touch-sensitive buttons on the surface. Each of these buttons can be mapped via a companion app to a variety of different functions. They include the usual music controls, but you can also set it so that it'll tell you the weather forecast, battery levels, what time it is or what song is currently playing. There are even Spotify-specific actions like the ability to follow the artist that's currently playing, play a specific playlist, save the song to "Your Music" library or to add a song to a playlist. You can also enable voice commands, have it tell you a five-minute NPR hourly news summary and connect to an IFTTT recipe or, say, turn on your Nest thermostat.
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