Sony MDR-1RBT vs Parrot Zik 3

Sony MDR-1RBT has a balanced sound with no glaring flaws.

Sony MDR-1RBT lasts 30 hours on average.

There's padding for ears and head, it's light (weights only 300g) and easily adjustable to allow multiple hours of use without discomfort.

These headphones support the near field communication standard to easily establish connection with your smartphone.

You can use these headphones both as a wireless and a wired device.

The Zik 3 features a solid build. The headband is made out of metal and can flex a good bit without breaking. Headband adjustment is quite stiff, which ensures that your adjustments stay in place. The ear cup surfaces are covered with leather which makes the headphones look and feel premium.

You can remove the right ear cup cover to gain access to the headphones’ battery. You can replace the battery if the performance is diminishing, or you can bring a spare, charged battery to swap in with the depleted one for longer playback use.

The bass reproduction is full and punchy, yet does not get overpowering. Bass hits sound tight, fast and have fairly good depth. The mids sound natural while the highs are clear, yet a bit rolled-off. This allows the Zik 3 to deliver fairly clear sound without getting harsh.

The punchy bass makes these heapdhones work well with popular modern genres like EDM, hip-hop and the like yet can still work well with pop, jazz, classical and similar music genres.

The noise cancelling is fairly effective. While it does not cancel out all ambient noise, the feature reduces a good chunk of it, so it does not interfere too much with your music.

You can swipe left or right for previous or next track, tap to play or pause as well as answer calls with the headphones on. This can be very convenient, as you do not need to deal with small and difficult to press buttons.

The Parrot Zik 3 features Bluetooth as well as NFC connectivity for wireless use, which is great for modern smartphones or devices. If your music player does not have wireless connectivity, a 3.5mm jack can be used.

When you take the headphones from your head or put it back on, the music can automatically pause or resume. The Zik 3's Presence Sensor detects such motions, negating the need to manually pause/play the music.

From a full charge with all of the audio features on, you can get around 7 hours of listening time. However, if you choose to run these in airplane mode (wired connection with noise cancellation) you can get around 16 to 18 hours of use.