Fender Mix Headphones Reviewed: A Guitar Icon's Bold Entry into Consumer Audio

Fender, a name synonymous with electric guitars and amplifiers since 1946, has ventured into the competitive world of consumer audio with its new Fender Mix headphones. Positioned as premium, noise-canceling over-ear headphones, the Mix aims to challenge established brands like Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser with a more accessible price point and unique features.

While the headphones bear the iconic Fender name, the consumer audio products are developed and produced by Riffsound under the Fender Audio brand, which is owned by the Fender Corporation. This licensing model mirrors similar ventures, such as Zound Industries' previous collaboration with Marshall audio products.

Fender Audio's Ambitions: Premium Features, Competitive Pricing

Unveiled earlier this year, the Fender Mix headphones boast a feature set designed to stand out in the crowded audio market. Key offerings include extended battery life, thoughtful design choices, lossless Bluetooth streaming capabilities, and user-swappable components. Fender Audio seeks to deliver a high-quality listening experience without the premium price tag typically associated with top-tier competitors.

Innovative Modular Design

The Mix headphones feature a highly modular design, allowing users to swap ear pads, ear cups, and the headband, with ear cups attaching via USB-C ports for easy customization. A practical design element is the integrated storage slot for the lossless Bluetooth dongle within the left ear cup, ensuring it is always available. The right ear cup provides access to a removable battery, suggesting future user-serviceability.

Intuitive Physical Controls

Onboard controls prioritize physical buttons over touch or gesture-based options. The main control is a versatile five-way joystick for play/pause, volume adjustment, track skipping, and pairing. A separate button manages noise-canceling modes, cycling through Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), transparency, and off, including Auracast pairing.

Audio Performance: Lossless vs. Stock Tuning

Sonically, the Mix headphones achieve their peak performance when utilizing the included lossless Bluetooth dongle. In this mode, the often overpowering bass present in the default tuning is more refined, allowing for greater detail and a more balanced soundstage. Listeners report an immersive experience, with instruments and vocals creating a surrounding sound rather than distinct left-right channel projections.

Conversely, the stock tuning is notably bass-heavy. While this may appeal to some users and enhances certain genres like metal, it can overpower delicate tracks in bluegrass, jazz, or synth-heavy electronic music, potentially muddying the overall mix.

Noise Cancellation and Battery Endurance

ANC performance is described as respectable for common office or coffee shop environments but struggles with louder human voices and sudden noises. Transparency mode provides natural audio during calls. Battery life is a significant strength of the Mix headphones, with Fender Audio claiming up to 52 hours with ANC enabled and an impressive 100 hours with ANC off (at 50% volume). Real-world testing corroborates strong endurance, showing considerable charge remaining after nearly 30 hours of mixed ANC and transparency use.

Absence of Modern Features and Call Quality Concerns

To achieve its competitive price point, the Fender Mix headphones omit several smart features common in many premium headphones today, such as automatic EQ adjustments, adaptive ANC, wear detection for auto-pausing audio, and gesture controls. Additionally, there is currently no companion app for fine-tuning EQ or other settings, though one is reportedly in development. Call quality is identified as a weakness, attributed to the use of only two microphones, resulting in merely adequate voice transmission and poor background noise blocking, necessitating quiet environments for calls. Despite the modular design, the full potential for customization is currently limited, as additional swappable parts and color options beyond the initial white (light gray) and black are not yet available for purchase.

Key Takeaways

  • Fender Mix headphones aim to offer premium noise-canceling features at a mid-range price point ($299).
  • Features a unique modular design with swappable parts, integrated lossless Bluetooth dongle storage, and a removable battery.
  • Achieves superior audio fidelity in lossless streaming mode, mitigating an otherwise bass-heavy stock tuning.
  • Boasts exceptional battery life, offering up to 52 hours with ANC on.
  • Lacks advanced smart features like wear detection, adaptive ANC, and a dedicated companion app (app is pending).
  • Call quality is moderate, with insufficient background noise cancellation.
  • Current customization options are limited due to parts not yet being available.

The Verdict: A Promising Start with Room for Refinement

The Fender Mix headphones present a compelling package with clever design choices and capable audio performance, particularly in lossless mode. However, the pronounced bass in the default tuning and the absence of expected modern smart features, compounded by the lack of an immediate app for customization, place them firmly in the mid-range category.

At its current price of $299, the Mix faces stiff competition. While it offers enough to be a solid daily audio accessory for many, a slightly lower price point might make it a more decisive recommendation for those seeking a balance of innovation and value.