Creative Zen Hybrid SXFI Wireless Over-Ear Headphones with Super X-Fi Technology, Adaptive Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation, Ambient Mode, Up to 70 Hours (ANC Off), Low Latency Mode (Black)

I was suggested this product by Creative by a friend as i am a Bose user for the past 40 years from Headphones to speakers, so gave it a shot and picked one up from here at Amazon, Product satisfied my requirements in the quality of the product and the music, price wise cheaper and affordable as well

Zen Hybrid SXFI is Creative's 2024 latest SXFI headphone with the SXFI speaker virtualization chip embedded inside the headphones. Without the SXFI, it is a good value headphone around the $100 CAD mark. Out-of-the-box the headphones is bass heavy like most consumer headphones today, but you can customize it to your liking with the Creative mobile phone app which allows you to access ANC and SXFI toggles and 10-band graphic Equalizer settings with Bass/Tremble/Preamp levels. The app also allows you to update firmware. Personally, I think SXFI is wasted on this headphone since the Bluetooth protocol currently only supports outputting stereo audio, so only 2.0 Speaker virtualization is possible. It still makes certain reverb-friendly tracks more "interesting" but it gets boring after a day or two. Don't forget to personalize the embedded SXFI model by capturing your head and ears with the separate SXFI app for optimal experience. I have also tried it with a LG G4 TV via Bluetooth and surprisingly 2.0 virtualization was almost good as surround and I believe SXFI has a lot of potential for home theater headphone setups. Design is beautiful and even though it is mostly plastic, it still looks premium. However, ergonomics is uncomfortable for all-day use. I tried to use them for an entire day and after a couple of hours the headphones make my ears hurt and sweat, and unfortunately, I'll be returning them only for this reason. On the other hand, I have also purchased Zen Hybrid Pro SXFI for comparing the two and it looks like I'll be using that one instead as it has better ergonomics and is more comfortable and also supports proper 7.1 speaker virtualization via the SXFI chip inside the BT-L4 dongle. So you might want to consider that as an an alternative.

Super xfi sounds great. Impressive for Bluetooth.

Pros: Accurate sound signature Spatial audio is really cool Cons: It is uncomfortable The app is super slow

I'm a fan of these over all but my ears don't like them with my glasses on. The sound right out of the box was a little muddy to me but the Creative app does a pretty amazing job clearing things up. The 'Music' and 'WarFrame' presets are my favorite but you do have the option to customize the EQ yourself entirely as well. I think ANC is on par with the price, they're no Bose but at a quarter of the price of the Ultra's I don't think anyone would expect them to be. SXFI is... interesting. The wide soundstage is nice but like a lof of built in surround sound effect it does add a little more reverb that I enjoy when listening to music but it can add some fun to a movie when used for that purpose. The low latency mode does a solid job if you have a device that compliments that feature and I love that it can be enabled easily with the button controls. I think those are all the bullet points, I'd give these cans a 5th star if the cushions were thicker but between the performance, price and long battery life it's hard to go wrong with these.