kef space one wireless

Hi-fi prowess and high design combine to take on the big guns of noisecancelling headphones £279 uk.kef.com

The Porsche Design collab headphones look out of this world, but do they have the sound to match?

Considering this is a collaboration between hi-fi maestro KEF and Porsche Design, the credentials of these headphones are impeccable. With Bluetooth aptX for wireless playback and active noise cancellation, and at a similar price, the KEF Space One Wireless are going up against the likes of the class-leading B&W PX and Sony WH-1000XM2. That’s one hell of a space race.

Porsche accent

With KEF on sound duty, Porsche Design’s deft touch is the black and aluminium build (a blackon-black finish, instead of the silver, for the gothier among us). It’s a looker for sure – visibly higher quality than the plastic competitors, and the leatherette band and memory foam ear cups sit comfortably and firmly. It’s not exactly a reinvention of the form, but it looks great. One slight shame is how they don’t fold down for tighter packing, but they do come with a case.

You get a few controls on the underside of the right ear cup: track skipping, a play/pause button that also answers calls, and a switch to turn noise cancellation off when needed. We’re not big fans of these controls. They’re a pain to differentiate between without looking, and they’re missing a volume control. We think Sony did it much better with the touch-sensitive panels on the WH-1000XM2.

Given that the KEF Space One Wireless costs the same as the Sony and B&W headphones, we were expecting the same level of smart extra features. Sadly there’s nothing like the PX’s auto-pausing when you lift an ear cup, or the WH-1000XM2’s ability to put a hand over an ear to temporarily drop the volume and let in outside sounds.

The KEF’s noise cancellation is really good, rivalling the best out there. Put them on and the outside world fades out pretty much instantly. The all-important audio quality is impressive too. It’s rich and detailed, with poised bass and no lack of detail, especially around the treble.

If we’re going to get picky, we prefer the Sony and B&W sound. Why? Compared to the Sony, for example, the Space One treble feels a tiny bit hard, with a little less warmth at the top of the mid-range. Don’t get us wrong, the KEF sound is great, but in a head-to-head it wasn’t our favourite. And that’s the story here, really: the Space One Wireless do little wrong, but its rivals do more, even better, for a similar price.