Product Type – Circumaural, wireless headphones with smartphone features
Price at the time of review – £349.99
Product Link – Buy Parrot Zik
Verdict – Perfect portable choice for those looking for innovative features and a lovely design.
Pro’s – Beautifully designed and filled with technology, plenty of opportunity to adjust sound to taste.
Con’s – The high sound quality is not retained when using the cable in passive mode.
Introduction – The Parrot Zik, designed by Philippe Starck, is a wireless headphone with gesture control, noise cancelling technology and their very own app. Surely designed to be a gadget fan’s dream audio accessory, they have a host of features including a sensor that pauses the music when you take them off.
Description – The aesthetics are really impressive, the ear cups are covered with smooth matte rubber, the metal frame is in matte steel finish. Pairing the headphones up using Bluetooth is simple and gives a decent range but the Ziks also feature Near Field Communication (NFC) for quick pairing – a first for headphones – although your music player will need this technology too. The Ziks have their own custom-made Parrot Audio Suite app which is available on iTunes. You can use it to monitor battery life, control noise-cancelling, add a “Concert Hall” effect, which can give the impression of listening in a variety of settings. There’s also EQ so you can fiddle until the sound is just right.
Included peripherals – With your Parrot Zik headphones you will get a Micro USB cable, Line in cable (3.5mm), a Li-ion battery (800mAh), a Protective pouch and a helpful Quick-start guide.
Application – The Parrot Zik will also enable you to make and receive calls when paired to your phone. They use several microphones along with a bone conduction to enable your voice to cut through surrounding noise.
Describe the sound – Sound quality is impressive for a Bluetooth wireless set, as mentioned you have a lot of control so it is hard to describe a distinct sound signature. They are warm with a quite quickly rolled off top end, they have a comfortable and fun sound and in wireless mode have really nice stereo characteristics, they do not retain their character when used with the included cable however, in this passive mode without their technology they are unimpressive.
Comparisons – Also see Sennheiser PX210, Jaybird SB2, Volume DH-B38, Sennheiser MM550X.
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