Zinken by Urban Ears Box
While at CES 2014, I spoke with the folks from Urbanears. I had the opportunity to take a look at and listen to their Zinken Headphones. I now had the opportunity to test and review the set they sent us in the mail. We received the Orange/Red aka Tomato colored ones. As you can see from the image above the packaging is the same color as the headsets that you receive.
Here is an example of another color option–>
I would definitely state that they are appealing to the fashion conscious crowd.
In terms of their design and fitness for purpose:
Here is an image of the items that arrived with them in the box.
The contents of the box, included the headphones, a unique connector cord, a sticker which went to my daughter, seemed appropriate for a 12 year old girl or anyone who likes heart stickers.
The aforementioned cord is interesting is that it can be plugged into the headsets in 1 direction whereby you can use the plus in a device like an Ipad with a 1/8th inch plug or plug it in the other direction in the other port on the headphones and use the 1/4″ plug. The second option would be great for musicians and DJ’s who need a quarter inch plug. This adds a great deal of value to the headphones.
According to Urban ears–>
These brightly colored orange on-ear headphones were developed with the professional DJ in mind. Zinken delivers deep bass, crisp mids and highs and efficiently reduces noise from the outside world. Packed with features, Zinken comes with the ingenious TurnCable for an adapter-free life and the ZoundPlug for instant music sharing. We’ve also thought a lot about comfort, and designed Zinken with swivel earcaps, an adjustable headband and specially selected materials that are easy to keep fresh and clean.
I would agree with them that the headphones are made in a decent manner, are flexible to fit most head and ear sizes, and fit nicely over the ears even for people like me with larger than average ears. What is also nice is that they are not huge and obtrusive either and are easy to wear in public.
Though the headphones are not as fancy as the expensive guys like Beats or Monster, they are a superb value for the money and have a high level of usefulness and utility.
I found that since the headphones were intended for DJ’s they lived up to my expectation that they would have good bass and nice sound quality. I was impressed by them overall.
To get a real world view, I let one of my 17 year old sons to try them out with his DubStep music, and he was impressed and now wants to keep them for himself.
The Design of the Urbanears Zinken Pro DJ headphones are simple, but in a cool way. Some of the competition is over the top in design and price, where these are not they are affordable and work well. They have a no-nonsense look to them where everything has a specific purpose within the design. They come in ten different colors and they all have a “Flat” type paint style to them. This way they can be as tame or as wild as your personal preference suggests. Around the outsides of the headband and the outsides of the ear cups, the Flat paint also has a rubberized texture to them. The part that extends out of the headband for more length is a hard plastic. The cable is very unique and intuitive. It is completely detachable. One end is a mini 1/8-inch connector while the other end has a ¼-inch connector. The right earcup has an 1/8-inch output, while the left earcup has a ¼-inch output. This way you will never need a ¼-inch or 1/8-inch adapter because you will always have either one or the other at your disposal. This cable is known by Urbanears as the Turncable. Each earvcup can also output the sound to another set of headphones so others can see what you are listening to if you wish. The cable is about 3ft but it is also coiled and can extend up to about 9ft when pulled to the max. The Turncable also has an in-line microphone and one-touch button for receiving or making calls on a compatible smartphone. I would probably not use them all of the time for making phone calls but when I am at home and on a conference call I expect them to perform well.
Overall:
I liked:
–>The design and variety of colors
–>The sound quality
–>The option of either using the 1/4″ or 1/8″ cord with the nice kevlar cord, which for those who were in the army, and am familiar with kevlar it is a good thing implying that they will last for a while
–>The well made, durable metal reinforced hinges
–>The way the headphones fold for stashing them in your bag
–>The fact that they are comfortable
What could be added value
–>A carry bag would be cool
–>A cool logo on the side of the headphones.
Overall I would recommend these to anyone that needs nice headphone for DJ’ing, up and coming musicians or audio technicians, or those that want nice headphones to listen to music, especially the young bass loving folks. One other point is that the headphones would appeal to guys and gals especially for those like my daughter who loves pink or purple or to football or sports fans who could get them in the team’s colors.
For more information or to get a pair or two for your self go to–>
More images–>
