About two years ago an Indiegogo project came up that Anime fans could get behind. That combine Cat Ears (Nekomimi) with working speakers in them, headphones with LED lights to create the Cat Ear Headphones. The crowdfunding project was asking for around $250.000 but far exceeded their goal, ending with just over $7 million and even more pre-orders. The small company known as Axent Wear had a huge hurdle to cross 20,000+ of people backed their Cat Ear Headphones, finding a place to manufacture them all. Over the course of two years most of the backers were thinking that the company wasn’t following through with their promises till an announcement in late 2014: they had partnered with Brookstone to manufacture their headphones and will be shipping in the 3rd or 4th quarter of 2015. The Axent Cat Ear Headphones were released to the backers on Nov 30th and now can be found at all Brookstone locations for $149.99. It comes in 4 colors, Red, Green, Blue and Purple.
What do I get for my $150.00?
Headphone Audio
- 20Hz-20KHz frequency response
- 32 Ohm impedance
- 40mm drivers
Cat Ear Speaker Audio
- 200Hz-18KHz frequency response
- 4 Ohm impedance
- 32mm drivers
Functions and accessories
- Enjoy your music privately—or turn on the cat ear speakers to share with friends
- LED accent lights on cat ear speakers and earcups make a statement anywhere
- Speakers and lights are controlled independently
- Over-the-ear cushioning for noise reduction and a secure fit
- USB rechargeable—up to 5 hours of playing time per charge
- Detachable gaming boom mic
- Inline volume control plus forward & back buttons
My thoughts
I have compared these headphones with a couple other headsets like the Audio-Technica M40, Klipsch One Image and Tritton 720 using my computer as an audio source. One shortcoming for the Axent Cat Ear Headphones is the treble. It is lower compared to the other headphones but they do have good bass range with good vocal coverage. Another shortcoming is that the Cat Ear Headphones have a limited range of genres it can play well. The headphones can do well with Electronica, Vocal, Pop and Instrumental but lacks with some Rock songs and R&B music. Over-all they are good, but just keep in mind that these headphones might not be the best on the market for it’s $150.00 price tag in terms of sound quality. You can find better sounding headphones at the price point but the main draw is it’s very eye catching design.
Tags: Audio, Axcent Wear, Axent, Brookstone, Cat Ear Headphone, Green, Headphone, Meow, music, Nekomimi
