Headphone Pro

Got mine for the intro price $78 US and at that price point they are fun,sturdy,relatively light, and very capable. The energy slider does nothing for me but the tactile controls are legit. The ear cups are super comfy and my ears don't sweat with prolonged use. I wish the mids were cleaner but I am happy with the amount of EQ control available especially when you consider the price. Max volume is a little too low for me but overall I like the fit, finish and feel and the sound is consistently good.

Something to note - I am an amateur audiophile at best. Edit - it has been brought to my attentions that users here will not understand that this is a review that is done with keeping the price point in mind. Everything I have said is for a headphone under 100 dollars or equivalent. These are in descending order of my personal priorities: 1)Sound quality - 9/10 They sound really, really good straight out of the box even without touching the “energy slider“ or EQ and personal sound profile. With EQ (-1 dB Bass, +1 dB mids, -1 dB treble), personal sound profile and energy slider turned up a little bit, they sound phenomenal for headphones under 250. Bass is not boomy or muddy at all, it feels controlled and punchy and the highs sound very good. With the energy slider turned all the way up, it reaches stupendous amounts of bass but still not “boomy“, you can still hear vocals and instruments over the all encompassing bass. CMF products usually do have quite punchy and fairly precise bass in general so there’s no surprise there. Stereo imaging is great, I listen to densely layered tracks fairly often ( Kings of Leon, Queen, Wallows, arctic monkeys and the like) and it does an excellent job of creating a sense of ”space“ between each element, be it bassy synths, vocals, cymbals, kick drums, etc. Soundstage is quite wide (easily in the 250-300 dollar price range in other brands) 2) ANC and transparency - 8/10 ANC is decent, nothing special but it did do a great job of blocking out the noise of the underground metro on my daily commute and crowd noise as I pass through busy streets. It does struggle with high pitched sudden noises but with the large earcups have plenty of passive noise cancellation, so where the ANC might struggle, the noise still feels muffled. Transparency is quite good; from an objective point of view, price notwithstanding. I can hear voices very clearly when talking with people and even outside with a lot of ambient noise, there’s no ”overboosting“ of everything. This transparency and ANC for me is comparable to the older generation Bose headphones from a few years ago, which at the time were industry leading in transparency and ANC. I personally had the QC 35 2 for the longest time (which was my last wireless over ear and then I switched to wired). 3) Comfort - 10/10. From my subjective perspective, they feel great to wear for hours on end. I had them on for about a total of 10 hours since yesterday afternoon (3 with just ANC / transparency on) and a couple more total hours with them around my neck. They are quite lightweight but don’t feel flimsy or fragile. The ear cups themselves are a soft pleather with foam that feel very, very soft. Only thing is I noticed that was a drawback of sorts was heat build up in a hour or so of continuous wearing and I have to take them off for a few minutes but that’s universal for all headphones for me (even headphones with velour ear cups). They fold 90 degrees so the ear cups sit flat against your body when it’s around your neck so they feel secure and comfortable. 4) Controls - 10/10 CMF really cooked with this one, I picked up the controls within minutes because they are so intuitive. I even have one of the buttons set to 'no action' because I genuinely didn’t need it at all but you can program it for one of 4 functions. Side note - I’ve seen reviews saying there’s not much use for the bass slider, I wholeheartedly disagree. I listen to a multitude of genres and it’s really helpful when I listen to acoustic heavy music to dial the bass down and then dial it back up for hip hop without having to open the Nothing app. For 80 EUR on prime day deal or 100 EUR or equivalent retail, these are an absolute steal.

Who made you the arbiter of deciding what good headphones are? Also, who looks at a review for a budget ANC headphone and goes, “hmm….. wired open back headphones with high impedance paired with an amp sound so much better, this person doesn’t know what good headphones are.“ Perhaps it’s someone who simply doesn’t or chooses not to understand relative viewpoints and nuances. I wouldn’t review open back headphones and go, “the passive noice cancellation is horrible“ because that’s just plain stupid. I’ll say it again, headphones that are comfortable for you, may not be comfortable for me and vice versa. Do the AKG and Sennheiser have a high clamping force out of the box? Yes they do but they loosen up significantly over time and I have to take breaks anyway due to my being prone to heat build up around the ears with the hundreds of pairs I’ve used in my life. So it pretty much resets every 45mins - 1 hour.

I’ve had mine for about 10 days now and I gotta say, I’ve seen reviews saying the energy slider doesn’t change much but I can certainly feel an insane amount of sub bass with it turned all the way up. So much so that it’s uncomfortable after about 30 seconds. It might be an issue with unit variation or higher rates of product defects but my roommate also got one and his energy slider also works the same as mine. I’ve seen frequency response charts online as well of energy slider turned all the way down vs all the way up and there’s a clear distinction. I also agree that the soundstage doesn’t feel boxed in especially after I tweaked the EQ to boost mids while cutting a bit of bass. Custom EQ does drop volume but it’s not as drastic on mine, I listen at about 50-60 percent volume on these at most, any more is very uncomfortable as opposed to the presets in the EQ which for me, 40-50 percent is more than enough. I’d recommend exchanging it if you can since it could simply be a defective unit where the energy slider is not working.

Yeah if you bought it off Amazon, just exchange it and see if it’s still the same. Take a look at the frequency response charts online - it’s truly an insane and excessive amount of bass when energy slider is turned all the way up, which is drastically different from your experience. There’s people that are very into that but sadly I’m not one of them.

Something to note - I am an amateur audiophile at best. These are in descending order of my personal priorities: 1)Sound quality - 9/10 They sound really, really good straight out of the box even without touching the “energy slider“ or EQ and personal sound profile. With EQ (-1 dB Bass, +1 dB mids, -1 dB treble), personal sound profile and energy slider turned up a little bit, they sound phenomenal for headphones under 250. Bass is not boomy or muddy at all, it feels controlled and punchy and the highs sound very good. With the energy slider turned all the way up, it reaches stupendous amounts of bass but still not “boomy“, you can still hear vocals and instruments over the all encompassing bass. CMF products usually do have quite punchy and fairly precise bass in general so there’s no surprise there. Stereo imaging is great, I listen to densely layered tracks fairly often ( Kings of Leon, Queen, Wallows, arctic monkeys and the like) and it does an excellent job of creating a sense of ”space“ between each element, be it bassy synths, vocals, cymbals, kick drums, etc. Soundstage is quite wide (easily in the 250-300 dollar price range in other brands) 2) ANC and transparency - 8/10 ANC is decent, nothing special but it did do a great job of blocking out the noise of the underground metro on my daily commute and crowd noise as I pass through busy streets. It does struggle with high pitched sudden noises but with the large earcups have plenty of passive noise cancellation, so where the ANC might struggle, the noise still feels muffled. Transparency is quite good; from an objective point of view, price notwithstanding. I can hear voices very clearly when talking with people and even outside with a lot of ambient noise, there’s no ”overboosting“ of everything. This transparency and ANC for me is comparable to the older generation Bose headphones from a few years ago, which at the time were industry leading in transparency and ANC. I personally had the QC 35 2 for the longest time (which was my last wireless over ear and then I switched to wired). 3) Comfort - 10/10. From my subjective perspective, they feel great to wear for hours on end. I had them on for about a total of 10 hours since yesterday afternoon (3 with just ANC / transparency on) and a couple more total hours with them around my neck. They are quite lightweight but don’t feel flimsy or fragile. The ear cups themselves are a soft pleather with foam that feel very, very soft. Only thing is I noticed that was a drawback of sorts was heat build up in a hour or so of continuous wearing and I have to take them off for a few minutes but that’s universal for all headphones for me (even headphones with velour ear cups). They fold 90 degrees so the ear cups sit flat against your body when it’s around your neck so they feel secure and comfortable. 4) Controls - 10/10 CMF really cooked with this one, I picked up the controls within minutes because they are so intuitive. I even have one of the buttons set to 'no action' because I genuinely didn’t need it at all but you can program it for one of 4 functions. Side note - I’ve seen reviews saying there’s not much use for the bass slider, I wholeheartedly disagree. I listen to a multitude of genres and it’s really helpful when I listen to acoustic heavy music to dial the bass down and then dial it back up for hip hop without having to open the Nothing app. For 80 EUR on prime day deal or 100 EUR or equivalent retail, these are an absolute steal.

Exchange it if you can because on mine, the bass gets insanely high when slider is turned all the way up

Something to note - I am an amateur audiophile at best. These are in descending order of my personal priorities: 1)Sound quality - 9/10 They sound really, really good straight out of the box even without touching the “energy slider“ or EQ and personal sound profile. With EQ (-1 dB Bass, +1 dB mids, -1 dB treble), personal sound profile and energy slider turned up a little bit, they sound phenomenal for headphones under 250. Bass is not boomy or muddy at all, it feels controlled and punchy and the highs sound very good. With the energy slider turned all the way up, it reaches stupendous amounts of bass but still not “boomy“, you can still hear vocals and instruments over the all encompassing bass. CMF products usually do have quite punchy and fairly precise bass in general so there’s no surprise there. Stereo imaging is great, I listen to densely layered tracks fairly often ( Kings of Leon, Queen, Wallows, arctic monkeys and the like) and it does an excellent job of creating a sense of ”space“ between each element, be it bassy synths, vocals, cymbals, kick drums, etc. Soundstage is quite wide (easily in the 250-300 dollar price range in other brands) 2) ANC and transparency - 8/10 ANC is decent, nothing special but it did do a great job of blocking out the noise of the underground metro on my daily commute and crowd noise as I pass through busy streets. It does struggle with high pitched sudden noises but with the large earcups have plenty of passive noise cancellation, so where the ANC might struggle, the noise still feels muffled. Transparency is quite good; from an objective point of view, price notwithstanding. I can hear voices very clearly when talking with people and even outside with a lot of ambient noise, there’s no ”overboosting“ of everything. This transparency and ANC for me is comparable to the older generation Bose headphones from a few years ago, which at the time were industry leading in transparency and ANC. I personally had the QC 35 2 for the longest time (which was my last wireless over ear and then I switched to wired). 3) Comfort - 10/10. From my subjective perspective, they feel great to wear for hours on end. I had them on for about a total of 10 hours since yesterday afternoon (3 with just ANC / transparency on) and a couple more total hours with them around my neck. They are quite lightweight but don’t feel flimsy or fragile. The ear cups themselves are a soft pleather with foam that feel very, very soft. Only thing is I noticed that was a drawback of sorts was heat build up in a hour or so of continuous wearing and I have to take them off for a few minutes but that’s universal for all headphones for me (even headphones with velour ear cups). They fold 90 degrees so the ear cups sit flat against your body when it’s around your neck so they feel secure and comfortable. 4) Controls - 10/10 CMF really cooked with this one, I picked up the controls within minutes because they are so intuitive. I even have one of the buttons set to 'no action' because I genuinely didn’t need it at all but you can program it for one of 4 functions. Side note - I’ve seen reviews saying there’s not much use for the bass slider, I wholeheartedly disagree. I listen to a multitude of genres and it’s really helpful when I listen to acoustic heavy music to dial the bass down and then dial it back up for hip hop without having to open the Nothing app. For 80 EUR on prime day deal or 100 EUR or equivalent retail, these are an absolute steal.

Yeah, it’s pretty good, some of the best mics I’ve used on headphones, except for Bose and AirPods Max; those are on a different level. even in the middle of a crowded street, the person on the other side has no problem hearing me. The wind noise reduction could be better, it still works for moderate wind but if there’s a strong wind, it’s not so good. In an office environment it works very well, I use it at work for calls a lot and I’ve never had a problem with it.

Cmf by nothing are great value

So far, I am in love with my Waze Headphones and my Nothing CMF Nothing Headphone Pro. Waze has better ANC. Nothing Headphone Pro has a better soundstage and microphone

hey! probably too late now, but i just got them and can confirm that the ANC works when connected via wire :)

I'm by no means a huge fan of these cmf headphone pros, but I do have to say they are way better the anker q45, in my opinion. I thought the q45 was one of the worst bluetooth headphones as far as sound, but for comfort their large pads were nice, and the anc was great, but these cmf have good comfort too, albeit maybe lesser anc quality... maybe. Cant judge them side by side, sold those q45s as soon as i could

I bought also the CMF Headphone Pro for 80€ in light grey (almost white), it very confortable and hold in place well. Sound and ANC is Okay but I was expecting more from their marketing, a side by side comparaison with my firends QC45/XM4 from 5 years ago show how much you can have for less money. I was not aware you could not use it while charging so I'm returning it. I ordered the refresh W820NB Plus Gen 2 (2025).