Something the younguns will probably enjoy (and I’d actually encourage on the bus, rather than blaring out tinny sound from phone speakers). The two plugs also allow for something called “ZoundPlug”, which effectively lets you daisy-chain your headphones with a willing partner to share audio sources. Some volume controls wouldn’t have gone amiss, but aren’t the end of the world. Each of the speaker housings has a plug for you to reverse the cable.Īway from the DJ side of things, the remote is basically just a single button for ending calls and fast forwarding or pausing music. On top of that, the cable also has a mic/remote and a coiled section that provides some extra give without making you trip over yourself. There’s so many clever little features on these headphones, one of which pretty much justifies the purchase… the reversible “TurnCable” cable features a 3.5mm mini jack on one end to plug into your phone or other favourite media player, and a full-blown, grownup 6.3mm jack to stick in your mixer or controller. All the colours are tasteful (though not to everyone’s taste), and even after about a month of daily use, they still look fresh. The headphones I was given to review are the Pumpkin Zinkens, which, although not the official DJWORX brand colour, fit in nicely with the many, many other orange things littering the studio. The ten colour choices for these headphones help you stand out as an individual (or blend in with black or grey if you wish). There’s no in-your-face branding (Lookin’ at you, Beats), with the only hint at who made them being a small fabric label on the headband. You can tell a lot of thought has gone into producing these, and the minimalist look lets the functionality do the talking. I have to say, the design is undeniably Scandinavian. Everything is packaged up nicely.Īs for accessories, the headphones simply come with the reversible cable and a 3.5mm TRS adapter to use with hardware that gets confused by the mic/remote functionality of the TRRS connectors. I always think it’s worth noting when a company cares about presentation, and as you can imagine, the box for these is as bright and bold as the headphones themselves. Urbanears have clearly thought hard about the presentation and practicality of their headphones.
Reasonably priced, functional headphones for DJs, available in a rainbow of colour options. As soon as I saw them, I looked forward to putting them through their paces. For a small company known for their media player headphones, this is a brave move.
The Zinken DJ headphones are Urbanears’ first foray into the pro DJ market. Having recently taken a trip to Norway, I can say that the likes of IKEA are de rigueur for that beautiful corner of the world, and Urbanears is no exception. Scandinavia is the spiritual home of great industrial design, a philosophy that “lifestyle headphones” company Urbanears take to heart.