When I pulled the Nothing Headphone (1) from their box, I immediately noticed just how well-built and designed the headphones are. The quality metal earcups and intuitive physical controls could have made them a shoe-in for my favorite pair of headphones of 2025, and pose a threat to the best headphones you can buy. But sadly they fell down at what is, ultimately, the most important hurdle of all — sound quality.
I'd hoped they were going to sound good thanks to Nothing's partnership with KEF, but there were significant sonic issues that I noted in my Headphone (1) review. Any pair of headphones that effectively requires the use of an EQ isn't a good pair of headphones in my mind, given that general audiences don't understand their 100Hz from their 14KHz.
