I purchased several headphones this year. I’m still not entirely sure how or why, but it happened.

I do some calls. Not a big number, but still more than one per day on average. Both planned and unplanned. That means I need to be able to open my laptop and jump on a call at short notice. To make that work, I either need to carry a sufficiently good headset everywhere, or keep one at each place where I take calls. Since I have three such places, I ended up buying three different JBL headsets over the years, plus one backup in my backpack at all times, just in case.

One day, the best one of the JBLs broke down, and I replaced it with a flashy new SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7. They were so much better than the rest of my headphones that I started carrying them with me everywhere, gradually ignoring both the other headsets and the backup from my backpack. They are wireless, but came with a backup cable. Even if the wireless connection failed, I could always plug them in, and I did once or twice during calls.

Still, something didn’t feel right. My backpack became heavier, and the lack of a proper case made me feel like I was going to crush them sooner or later. So I decided to order another, similarly priced headset for the co-working space, together with an external microphone. After some research, I went with one of the leaders in the budget headphones category: the Fiio FT1.

Here come the only two ugly photos of the headphones, for reasons that will be revealed below:

Pros

• The headphones sound well. The sound is clear and pleasant. My ears aren’t trained enough to judge things like depth or soundstage, but to me they sound sufficiently good without a wow.
• More comfortable than the old JBLs.
• Very solid cable. It feels durable and will probably survive cat encounters.
• Good box, which I adopted for my other headphones.
• Build quality is fine.

Cons

• Exaggerated bass. My current favorite band, Lorna Shore, sounds noticeably off in the bass-heavy parts. I often find myself lowering the volume during those moments. Over time, this also becomes tiring when listening to metal, unlike the SteelSeries.
• I don’t like how they look. I find them quite ugly, and this might actually be their biggest problem for me. They don’t spark any joy. They’re bulky, seemingly built around hiding the 60 mm dynamic driver rather than elegance.
• Less comfortable than the SteelSeries. While they may be better than the JBLs, they can’t compete with the light, well-designed Arctis Nova 7. I’ve already been spoiled by something that fits my head better.
• No microphone. This greatly limits their usefulness for work. In practice, I only use them at my desk.
• Mediocre isolation. I have the feeling my external microphone picks up some of the sound leaking from the headphones, which can be an issue during calls.

Overall, I don’t think I made a wise choice buying these. I don’t listen to as much music as I used to, and they’re not particularly good for work calls either. I genuinely don’t know who they’re made for.

Perhaps somewhere a marketer decided the market was ripe for headphones that look audiophile, sit in the pricing range of gaming headsets, and ultimately sound like a gaming headset. The result probably sells well, but I’m ready to move on from them long before they show any real signs of use.