Some time ago I had read about an Indiegogo for a new headphone by a company called
Mu6. Now often these things get funded and then the product never sees the light of day as some of you have found out. But, these headphones by Mu6 were funded and they ultimately did make it to release. Fast forward to this week, after having reached out to
Mu6 about reviewing their new headphone,
Space 2, they sent me one for review.
Specs -
The
MU6 Space 2 are advertised to have 40db in Adaptive active noise cancelling, 3D Touch Control, Auto Pause and Play, Transparency mode, APTX\APTX LL, foldable\portable, 24hr battery life, USB C charging, Bluetooth 5.0, App Control, leather pads, and Voice Assistant
Accessories -
A view of the headphones in the case
They came in in a nice zippered case with MU6 logo, and the accessories included were a 3.5mm cable for wired listening and a USB C charging cable.
Design\Features -
When I first held the Space 2, they felt substantial without feeling heavy. They are made from a strong form of ABS plastic while utilizing aluminum to augment their flexibility\rigidity. The thick leather ear cups are comfortable over your ears with ample room for different ear sizes to cover with ease. The material used is breathable so your ears will not get warm and will be comfortable. The inner material used is made of nylon. The adjustable headband is comprised of strong aluminum to make it strong while padded with leather to make it comfortable. There is just the right amount of clamping pressure. I was able to use them for hours while working from home. Of course, everyone is different regarding fit and so on, but they work for me. The headphones have nice strong aluminum hinges to allow them to swivel\pivot allowing for the Space 2 to collapse for portability or be put in their case. The Mu6 Space 2 can also fold flat if you want to transport them without the case if you run into space concerns. On the left earcup you have two buttons and the USB C connection and 3.5mm connection for wired use. One button is for power\pairing while the other controls the active noise cancelling. The right earcup is where this sets the Space 2 apart from many of it’s competitors by utilizing touch controls by swiping in different directions to pause\play, advance\reverse tracks, voice assistant, change volume and so on. Of course, this takes some practice to do, but after using the controls it becomes second nature. Finally, one nice feature is the built-in infrared sensor that pauses the music when you take off the headphones and automatically resuming the music when the headphones are back on your head. I found this quite handy throughout the day when I was interrupted by my kids or something else while using these.
Controls -
Close-up of the right cup
This is where the Mu6 Space 2 take a little getting used to. The right earcup uses swipe controls on the outside of the cup. To fast forward a song, you must swipe to the right and to go back to the previous track, you would swipe left. To increase volume you swipe up and swipe down to decrease it. Tapping the cup with your palm pauses\resumes whatever you are listening to. Alternatively, a covering the cup with your palm activates voice enhancement mode, which decreases the volume by 20% to hear your outside surroundings for safety and so on. It took me some time to get used to these controls, maybe I am slow, but after using them for a day it was pretty easy to do. You can also download the
Mu6 app to change the strength of the active noise cancelling, setup auto-power off, enable\disable auto pause\play language, reset, and cloud-upgrade to update the firmware. Speaking of firmware, I upgraded these to version 2.0.
Battery\Connectivity -
The left ear cup with the buttons and USB C port
The battery life for these is 24 hours which was more than enough for me during the day. The estimated battery time loses about 4 hours when Active Noise Cancelling is on, but 20 hours should suffice for most people at work or on a long flight. It is very easy to charge these with the supplied USB C cable and they will be fully charged again in around 4 hours. I always use a 2 amp charger for all my usb devices instead of connecting to something low power like a usb C connection on a laptop.
Because these use Bluetooth 5.0, the connectivity was great. I often forgot them somewhere on the other side of my house(over 3000 ft), and the Space 2 were still connected without issue. Because of the whole Covid-19 thing I could not go to a lot of places with these, mostly around the neighborhood while walking my dog. I tested having my LG G8 ThinQ in either my from left or right pocket and also my back pockets, there were no dropouts. I also tried them with my phone in my Defender case while outside and there were no problems.
Sound -
The Space 2 incorporate AptX low latency so the headphones can accept high-bitrate audio like flac files and this allows for very low lag\latency for music and videos. I listened to a variety of different genres such Jazz by the likes of Dave Brubeck, or Prog metal by Dream Theater, thrash metal like Megadeth, rock music, and so on. From my various listening sessions with these headphones, I came to the conclusion that they had a fairly well-balanced sound signature. I found that the highs were there, and I could not discern any distortion. Vocals were separated and well defined. The bass and mid-bass were present, although as with many consumer headphones, they were more bass centric. Drums and bass were produced well with the Space 2. The sound-stage overall was very good, with clear separation. I switched between the strong and normal active noise cancellation and did not hear the music get muddy or muted like with some other headphones I have used in the past with ANC on. They are claimed to have up to 40db of noise cancellation, being able to adapt to outside sound. While I don’t have any instrumentation to test this, I did find the active noise cancellation(ANC) to be very good. It made my listening to music or while on a call easier to concentrate on, comparable to Bose. Overall, I did not find listening to them fatiguing at all and listened for several hours at a time.
Calls -
Throughout my time using the
Mu6 Space 2, I had several chances to use them on conference calls and personal calls. I found them to be more than up to the task and had no trouble hearing the person on the other end of the call. On several occasions I asked the person on the call if I sounded strange or robotic and they said my voice sounded natural. I have not thought twice when using these in my work situation.
Conclusion -
Now having using these for some time, I have found them to be a great addition to my stable of headphones. While there is a learning curve to the swipe controls, I found them very easy to use. I also liked their durability and their comfortable fit and ergonomics. Taking the aforementioned characteristics and adding superb sound quality make them a great choice if you are looking for an alternative to much more expensive options from other companies.
