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I am very impressed.

I got these for many reasons. But most of all to check out the tech. I have been wearing my Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphones while rollerblading for quite some time now; probably about 2 years or so. I was hoping that these would be able to replace them and I can now say they have. But for my specific use and needs.

I rollerblade about once a week, for about 2 hours and about 30 km. I listen to music throughout my entire session, quite loud and use RunKeeper (GPS) to keep track of my session. I was worried that Bluetooth headphones were not going to be able to keep up with that both for battery-life and sound quality. However I was certainly looking forward to getting rid of the cable running from the headphones to the iPhone in my pocket.

I've had the Zik for a couple of weeks now and have been waiting for it to stop raining, here in the Paris area, so I could give it a full run on my rollers. Finally the sun shone early this morning and I gave it a good workout. I repeat: I am very impressed.

The headphones are big. But they do not feel big. They are extremely comfortable and long-wearing. I wear spectacles and generally a baseball cap while rollering. They never became uncomfortable at all either on my ears, behind my ears or even on my head. I was worried they would be heavier than the P5s. But I did not notice any difference. They are extremely well-balanced and I didn't feel the bar across the top of my head.

About half way through my session it started to rain. As the rain became a bit hard I took the Zik headphones off and replaced them with my P5s which were in my rucksack. I didn't want to get the Zik headphones too wet both because they were basically new and as they are battery-charged I was worried I might damage them in some way. Fortunately this allowed me to immediately compare them to the P5s which I used for about 30 minutes. There was no noticeable weight difference at all and no difference in over the ear comfort. The difference in sound power however was noticeable. The Zik can be really loud! And that's just how I hoped they would be!!

I hadn't realised how much more powerful these amplified headphones would sound. When I crank up the volume the power is awesome. The amplification accompanied by the equalizer and concert hall effect which I managed on my iPhone as well as the active noise cancellation is downright amazing. The sound levels are great for what I wanted them for: loud, outdoor (noisy environment), sporting activities. However the sound coming through the Bluetooth 2.1 wireless, although excellent, is a bit compressed and "airy" and this is especially noticeable on my older MP3 tunes. Most of my MP3 songs are ones I ripped from my CDs and they are at 320 kbps and they sounded wonderful. But some of the iTunes + songs I have on my roller playlist definitely sounded more compressed than usual. But I just loved how loud I could crank up my tunes while skating. These are great for my needs. But I don’t believe I would fully appreciate them while listening to jazz or classical at home and hoping for high-fidelity.

Bluetooth pairing was dead simple. I paired it with several different devices without even having to enter a code. Once the headphones were paired with a device all I had to do was turn them on and they were ready to use. The headphones apparently have NFC functionality as well which I have not tested.

The tech effects, which were honestly what I had bought them for, were more than just fun. They were quite practical. Being able to change the volume by stroking my finger upwards on the earpiece was definitely fun. Being able to skip a song or replay it by swiping forwards and backwards on the earpiece was excellent as sometimes I’ll rest for a bit and I want to get back to the beginning of the song that’s playing. My favourite, however, is the 2 pause functions: a simple tap on the earpiece and it pauses the music while another tap and it starts again or take the headphones off and rest them on my neck and the music pauses. Now I can do all of that without pulling the iPhone out of my pocket. I used to be able to do all of these tasks on the little dongle hanging from the P5 headset as well. But I always had to make sure it wasn’t pinched by my rucksack and I had to find it while rollering. I also had to remember how many pinches to do to move forward or backward. Often I ended up pulling out my iPhone and trying to swipe the screen with my sweaty fingers which was not practical. The only negative point I have as regards the magic touch-sensitive earpiece is that it is only on the right ear. I found this out while testing the headphones the first day and it took me an hour to realise I had them on “wrong”. I watched the video on You Tube and noticed that the power light was facing forward and on the right ear. When I turned the headphones around like that they worked fine. But I am left handed and it is a bit awkward for me to do all of this controlling with my right hand on my right ear. However that is more a question of comfort than anything else and I’m quite used to it now.

I enjoyed playing around with the iPhone app the first day I tried them. I was able to set up my own equalizer settings and concert hall effect and it’s the best way to check the battery level of the headphones.

On the same magic earpiece are 2 microphones built in to the cushion part. They are used for the active noise cancellation. But they are, obviously, also used in phone conversations. I did not have any one to call during my session and I have not yet tried out that part. I assume they are as good as my P5 was although I liked how the P5 controls and microphone were on my left.

Overall I am very impressed with these headphones and they have now earned a place in my roller rucksack in place of my P5s. They may even get used in my office as they work wonderfully with my iMac and MacBook Pro as well.