- Daisy One: new headphones from a new brand — and they’re not cheap
- No app, heavier than average, smaller drivers…
- …but I really think the dedicated ‘Still Mode’ button on the ear could be a winner
You’ve never heard of Daisy (the California tech company; you might have heard of the flower), but it wants you to. Or hear it…’s debut over-ear headphones, which are called Daisy One.
These new cans retail for the not insignificant price of $399 / £364 (about AU$700), money which, it’s important to say, could buy you some Sony or Bose cans. So why buy these instead? Refreshingly, instead of playing the heavy hitters at their own game, Daisy throws out the rulebook on how to convince you.
Take the cans’ sound chops; instead of using the same 40mm drivers that almost everyone chooses, Daisy has opted for a 35mm option, tuned by former Harman engineers and weighted towards the low end. It is quite uncommon in more expensive wireless models, where neutral sound is typically the goal.
Then there’s the design: it’s heavier than average at 318g and uses a sleeker, metallic look than your average over-ears, and comes in silver, dark green or blue (no traditional “charcoal” option here).
Perhaps the biggest selling point – something many brands (and reviewers) could consider a minus – is the lack of an app. Instead, control is done on the headphones, with a dial for volume control and play/pause, and a dedicated button that plays soundscapes recorded from around California. And what a dial/button it is! It puts me in mind of Montblanc’s bijou earphones or indeed the nib of a Montblanc pen.
What this button offers is called ‘Still Mode’, and it includes access to rainfall sounds, five-minute breathwork tracks, ocean waters and more, but from the headphones themselves — ie. without having to open an app or keep your phone connected to its source device.
There’s noise reduction on the spec sheet too, but maybe Daisy knows it can’t beat the class leaders at that game. Where most flagship cans want to give you silence with ever-improving ANC algorithms, Daisy pushes a different route straight to the desired effect of said stillness: a calmer mind – and one better able to focus.
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do it
By turning traditional headphone faults (see the lack of an app and a slightly smaller driver) into selling points, Daisy makes it clear that it’s trying something different.
It is not clear if this is by design or by accident. In an interview with Wired, company CEO Jack Mulroe confirmed that the designers were “outside the audio industry”. So the brand brings some fresh perspectives, but potentially some shortcomings — Mulroe admits “I’ve been tweaking transparency for months” as I tried to fix the issues.
In recent years, we’ve seen headphone fans embrace new brands, perhaps more so than in other tech sectors. The likes of the CMF Headphone Pro, Nothing Headphone (a) and Soundcore Space 2 have proven popular (at least I’ve seen people out wearing them) and you can tell from the very end of the next train carriage that they’re not from the traditional Sony, Bose or Sennheiser line-up.
We’ve seen other headphone startups try to help users stay calm and focused, albeit using very different technology. Take Neuralable’s ‘brain-hacking’ headphones, which monitor your brain activity while you’re wearing them and thus aim to help you achieve a state of flow. But Daisy’s this approach is different again and it strikes me that Daisy’s approach might be taking a more hands off approach (and leaving our gray matter alone) sounds more conducive to calm…
In the end, it’s always good to see a new brand step up to the plate, especially if it thinks it can make a difference for the big dogs. It will be very interesting to see what impact Daisy One has and where the company goes from here.
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