Since I first laid eyes on these awesome headphones, I instantly put them on my “must review” list and waited patiently for SMAC to bring them to South Africa. Here they are, and here’s the headphone review.
I don’t need to point out how well designed these headhones are, do I? They’re the result of another collaboration between Philip Starck and the design influence shows. Now I’m not one to wax lyrical about the design merits of a gadget, but when the work has been done, it’s worth mentioning.
The headphones sit on your head comfortably thanks to an artificial leather band which runs down in to curved connections to the noise cancelling ear pieces. This is one of the best features of the Zik by Starck, they’re true noise cancelling headphones. When you put these cones on your ears, the world quite literally drowns out, and it’s you VS the music.
But that’s where the looks end. Because the cups do a lot more than just look good. On the plastic surrounding, Parrot have included a capacitive touch panel for swiping through volume and tracks. This is a very cool, if not the coolest, way to interact with your music.
The cups also house 5 microphones, two of which analyze the sound around you for noise cancellation, another two work to find any residual noise and the last one handles voice calls.
Connect via Bluetooth and you’re rocking in no time. Run out of battery and you’ve got a micro-USB port to plug in to and continue listening.
The Zik by Starck is also jam packed full of insane and cutting edge technology. Just to name a few: Near Field Communication, Bluetooth connectivity, active noise cancellation, head detection which pauses and plays as you take the headphones off or on and a jawbone sensor for speech clarity.
My two bones to pick in this gadget review are small but important.
Firstly, there’s no external charger for the onboard lithium-ion battery which they say will give you between 5 and 20 hours of use depending on what features you use (I got about 7 hours). That means you’ll need an extra battery which costs a couple of hundred rand and you’ll have to keep track of what’s charged and what’s not. That’s annoying.
The other issue I take with the Zik by Starck headphones is that they aren’t terribly portable. You get a good quality suede bag to transport the headphones in, but even when folded flat as they’re intended to be transported, they’re still quite bulky, far more bulky than a set of Beats by Dre which is what I travel with regularly. If you’re on a trip, even for a weekend, the last thing you want is valuable luggage space taken up by huge ear cups and a leather head boom.
Zik by Starck headphones are made for the music fan who has discerning taste and sips a brandy while listening to the latest Rolling Stones album before deciding it’s crap and they should have just been happy to live off royalties. This kind of listener doesn’t even know who Kesha is and Psy is just an abbreviation for Psychology.
At R4 000, the Parrot Zik by Starck headphones are not what I’d call cheap. In fact, they’re not what I’d call reasonable. They’re bleedin’ expensive, but on the other hand they’re also tremendously advanced, deliver outstanding sound quality and do the job of a few gadgets in one. A decent buy, but they’re not easy to travel with.
Get it: R4 000
From: www.dionwired.co.za
