Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
At under $200, the CMF Headphone Pro could be one of the best examples of a great deal, delivering a nice design, noise cancellation, good sound and more to a budget price.
You don’t have to take a flight to enjoy noise cancellation, but for the past few years, you did need to pay a reasonable price to get a pair of decent noise cancelling headphones.
While the technology practically pioneered by Bose has seen lots of great choices from other brands over the year, one thing has been fairly consistent: the price.
Good noise cancelling headphones tended to command north of $300, pairing with great sound and a solid battery life to boot. It’s no wonder our selection of the best noise cancelling headphones tends to charge prices between the $300 and $500 mark, though a few get in above that, even.
Fortunately, the market is changing.
These days, the cost of ANC headphones is falling, with both new and old brands popping up regularly to show what they can do differently. That was the case with Anker’s Soundcore brand, and it’s the case with some of the less expensive options from Sennheiser and Sony.
Transparent phone maker Nothing showed off its first noise cancelling over-ear headphones this year in the Headphone (1), and it’s not done. There’s actually another model out from Nothing’s less expensive sub-brand, CMF.
Priced at $179 in Australia, the CMF Headphone Pro seem almost too good to be true. Noise cancelling headphones made to be stylish and budget conscious, while also coming from a brand that has delivered high quality gear? What the what?
Are these real? What’s the catch?
Design and features
A retro design in colour sets up the CMF Headphone Pro, a pair we have an unmistakeable desire to call the “Headphones Pro” because headphones tend to be plural, but we’ll let it go for the moment. If you see an error or two in this review, it might be intentional. Maybe.
The design certainly is intentional, though. It’s a style that feels like it could have been plonked out of the 80s, with large around-ear cups held in place by the rest of the headphones, little circular pucks that hold it together in one of three colours: light green, light grey, and dark grey.
Nothing certainly loves playful designs, and its own gear is an example of this, but we feel safe in saying this pair is easier to like than the transparent approach to tech the brand applies in its other tech, notably the Nothing Headphone (1), another pair that lacks the plural form.
It’s simple and slightly shiny and easy on the eyes, too. The CMF Headphone Pro are an easy pair to consider simply because they’re minimalist and not unattractive. We don’t mind them at all, and neither did the kids.
Inside, there’s a 40mm driver tuned by Nothing, tell you that yes, you are getting a pair of Nothing headphones, even if it’s from the sub-brand CMF.
There’s support for five microphones on the headphones covering a hybrid active noise cancellation technology, able to switch between various modes including transparency mode and full ANC, and while Bluetooth connectivity is how most people will be connecting, the headphones also support a 3.5mm headset jack and cable (included in the box).
Nothing and CMF have also included support for high-res audio by way of the LDAC format should that be exciting to you, as is support for the Nothing app, and a low water resistance rating of IPX2. Don’t go swimming with these things on, as they’ll break. Don’t even get caught in a storm if you can (there’s a small cloth pouch in the box, use that to cover them if you can).
In-use
To use them, CMF and Nothing have also provided a bunch of controls, possibly more than you might expect a headphone to have.
You won’t find touch controls like other pairs, though, because like the design, the headphones are a little more old school by comparison. Instead, think dials and buttons and even a slider, with these headphones going for the tactile experience overall.
There’s a button for power and Bluetooth pairing, the latter kicking in if you keep holding it down while you power it on and wait until the LED starts blinking, and there’s also another button to trigger whatever smart assistant you want to use.
A notched roller dial on the right is mostly how you’ll control the headphones, a bit of a throwback to the unique roller used on the Headphones (1), where volume is controlled by dialling it up or down, and music playback is paused and played with a short press in. If you want to change noise cancellation modes, that’ll be a long press here. A double press will skip tracks and three presses in quick succession go back.
You’re basically controlling the headphones from one tactile dial and button. It’s such an assortment of controls that make the CMF Headphone Pro that little bit different and unique, but there’s one more surprise here, too.
Not only do you get a tactile volume wheel with notches in it, but you also get a customisable slider you can apply to bass or treble, allowing you to increase each depending on how it’s configured in the app.
It’s one of those extras that can be defined in the Nothing X app, and gives people who like more of each a little bit more.
Prefer a meatier bass sound for some hefty dance and trance? Give it a little more. If you’re someone who wants less bass, maybe change the feature to treble and slide it on up to give it a little more.
You’re not going to end up giving it a little more like the extremes of Make Some Noise, but you can definitely give the track you’re listening to a little bit more (bass or treble, that is).
Performance
If you don’t want to give it a little bit more, you can leave that slider where it is and just keep things the same.
That’s how we’ll test the headphones like normal, turning to our sound test, which you can test against your own headphones, too.
For this review, we’re actually testing two presets, because the CMF headphones come with “pop” preset, but that can colour the sound. Meanwhile, the “custom” setting tends to flatten it all. We suspect most people will stick with one of the preset varieties of equaliser settings, but flat is closer to what a standard sound would be.
So diving in, we’re covering both, and as usual, that starts with electronic, where the flat sound of Tycho and Daft Punk is nice and balanced, but loses out on the bass. But when you switch to one of the presets, such as pop, the bass becomes meatier and just kind of oozes over everything. The sound is a little bit warmer, if not more dynamic than you might expect.
It’s a similar picture in upbeat sounds: listening to Carly Rae Jepsen’s power pop “Cut To The Feeling” gives you a flat but restrained balance in flat, with the bass lacking oomph, and the same is true in Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk”. Switch the EQ setting and the bass flexes more muscle, pushing a brighter and punchier sound at times.
That vibe continues regardless of the sound: Bowie was flat but balanced in the custom setting, but delivered more punch than the songs originally came with, while Rage Against the Machine definitely delivered a brighter impact when an equaliser setting was triggered.
The flat sound of “custom” is nice, but it pulls punches. Meanwhile, changing the sound using the presets lifts it slightly, though never quite delivers a full sound, so to speak. Jazz and rock were rounded, and the sound was nice, but they’re not quite as solid as other headphones around.
Take the bass of FKA Twigs: we’re always looking for a guttural sound, but neither preset nor flat custom sound offered it there.
But for many people, the sound of the CMF Headphone Pro is perfectly fine, and there’s another aspect that’s great: the volume. There’s plenty of it. We hit a comfortable sound between 30 and 40 percent. That’s not bad at all.
Noise cancellation
One area that doesn’t feel quite as solid as the performance is the noise cancellation, which does the job, but feels like it could be better.
Don the cans and keep noise cancellation going, and some sound will get in, while some of the background sound is restrained and slightly quelled.
It’s a “fine” noise cancellation, but it’s hardly the best. It does the job, though could be better.
Spatial audio
CMF also includes a little bit of “spatial audio”, but it’s not spatial in the way it might be for a pair of AirPods, or even how Bose simulates the spatial soundtrack with its own head-tracking.
Instead, CMF uses a couple of EQ settings to emulate an open space, offering “cinema” and “concert” as the way you can reimagine your sound, so to speak.
In practice, the emulated environment can open it up, but tends to just make it a little echoey and brighter overall.
Some audio through these modes might sound nice, but we found ourselves making our way back to the comfort of simply leaving this featured turned off.
Battery
One area that gets high marks is the battery life, which when armed with noise cancellation can pull as much as 50 hours of battery life.
Officially, CMF quotes “100 hours”, and while that’s theoretically possible, you’ll need to forgo active noise cancellation to get close to that amount. We’ve not yet found a pair of ANC headphones where we’d intentionally skip noise cancellation for a little more battery life, and the up to 50 hours here suits us fine all the same.
The fact that the CMF Headphone Pro headphones can survive a trip across to the other side of the planet and still have room in the tank for more is a win worth celebrating.
Value
The price is the other feature worth talking about, and practically singing about, because these are priced incredibly well.
In Australia, the CMF Headphone Pro can be found for $179, making them an affordable choice for a new pair of noise cancelling headphones.
We won’t say they’re the top of the noise cancelling headphone class — they’re not — but for under $200, they are an absolutely stellar bargain. They are possibly the best noise cancelling bargain you can find in over-ear headphones.
What needs work?
The one area that needs work is the noise cancellation, which despite its five mics and adaptive approaches to ANC just don’t seem to be as good as they could be.
The lack of a flat sound is a minor issue — you’ll mostly spend time in pop or rock EQ settings — but we’d wager that the active noise cancellation’s relative ho-hum effect is the worst part of these headphones.
It’ll be fine on a flight, and the Headphone Pro will definitely ease back and quell some of the noise on trains or while you’re walking around. They’re just clearly not as good as high-end models.
Noise cancellation isn’t really the main focus of the CMF Headphone Pro.
What we love
Value more so is.
The price is definitely right, but that’s not all that we love about the CMF Headphone Pro. There’s also just how well thought out the pair is, especially when compared against the other pair of Nothing headphones, the Headphone (1).
While that may seem like the obvious competitor, CMF have made things a little easier and better overall.
The controls are similar but somehow easier, the design is more mainstream and easier to connect with, and credit to Nothing and CMF for the earpad replacement design, because it’s one of the easiest and well-priced you can find.
If you need to replace your pads or alternatively just want to, the Headphone Pro ear cushions are $39 for a pair and simply unscrew, allowing you to easily screw in a new pair.
While that’s not as easy as the magnetic pad replacements Apple uses on its AirPods Max, these headphones are also a lot less expensive, and the replacement policy is easier than some other cans.
Bose’s QuietComfort headphones, as good as they are, need you to do some earpad surgery to get replacements in place, as do a pair of Beats. Meanwhile, Sony’s WH-1000XM6 models and below can’t have their pads easily replaced.
Dyson’s headphones are about the closest to what CMF is doing, and are designed for a different market with a more expensive price tag. We’re not sure anyone is really nailing the sub-$200 headphone mark with replaceable pads, providing a way to customise and easily fix any pad problems later on.
It’s quite clever.
CMF Headphone Pro vs the competition
While there is a lot that competes with the CMF Headphone Pro in the noise cancellation space, the reality is there’s not a lot that’s great at the price point Nothing is pitching the pair at.
Sub-$200 is a weird sort of place for active noise cancellation, and the sort of gear you get around here typically isn’t great, or great looking. The CMF Headphone Pro is both.
In terms of what competes with this pair, you can find only a handful of pairs that truly compete on price, including the JLabs Lux for $179 and the JBL Tune 770 for $199. We’ve not tested either, though JBL tends to make consistently decent pairs, and if they’re anything like the JBL Tune 760 we reviewed a few years ago, they’d end up being good value.
However, CMF’s variant on the Nothing Headphone (1) is exceedingly good value. At this price, it’s almost too good.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
It can be all too tempting to see a good value and dismiss it outright. There has to be a catch, there just has to be one. No company delivers great value for the sake of it. There has to be a catch, right?
With the CMF Headphone Pro, the catch is getting a good bargain without necessarily the best noise cancellation. That last part does the job, but could certainly be better. Noise cancellation isn’t why you’re buying the Headphone Pro.
You’ll consider the CMF Headphone Pro because they’re fun, vibrant, well-featured, and most of all, great value. These are a solid bargain, and a fantastic choice for headphones under $200. Recommended.
