As headphones go these are midrange, both in price and performance. The rrp is £25, so not so expensive that you are going to feel precious about them, and for the price they are well made and look good, however in use the sound is definitely not amazing as I shall explain, hence these being a three star product for me.

The main feature of these headphones, as the name would suggest, is the zip. This, as you can see from the photo, is fused onto the fabric coated wires and forms the "V" at the top of the phones, meaning you can zip them up so that the wires don't get tangled in transit. This works well in terms of transporting your headphones and it gives the headphones an original design look - you can buy varied zip colours; I have the red that is pictured, but there are 9 colour choices all together - details via the link at the end of this review. I don't find the zip so heavy that it pulls the headphones out of my ears whilst in use, however if you are on the move it does sometimes swing around a little which can mean it bashes the wire, which interrupts the sound. In all other aspects the headphones are comfortable to wear - they come with a choice of 3 sizes of silicone ear buds, which is a good feature, and the 1 metre total cord length is adequate. It's a bit of a shame that there is no carry case included, and also the packaging is heavy on "plastic and annoying to open" - this British company could take inspiration from companies like Marware who have embraced a more minimal and environmental approach to their packaging.

Where headphones are concerned though, design and comfort aside it has to be all about the sound, and this is where, sadly, these headphones fail to deliver the "enhanced bass" promised on the aforementioned packaging. Although the sound is undeniably crisp and clear, whether you are listening to voice or music, there just isn't much depth to the sound and the bass is pretty well non existent whatever volume you are listening at. The housing to the headphones is of a quality hybrid alloy and they certainly look the business (and promise a frequency range of 20 Hz - 20 KHz) but sound wise they failed to impress me on first use and this initial impression has continued through further use. The headphones are adequate for listening to radio on my iPhone (they have a standard 3.5mm goldplated jack), and I use them a fair but when working on my PC, but they don't provide an outstanding audio experience - the bottom line is they look a lot nicer than they sound. On a positive note they don't leak sound, so aren't going to annoy your fellow passengers on the commute, however if you are cranking up the sound you are probably going to end up feeling a little cheated by these headphones which leave you feeling like something is most definitely missing.

It's a shame the sound, and in particular the bass, isn't better because in all other aspects I really like these headphones. They look good and seem to be really well made too - the jack is molded to protect the cable and I can't see mine failing any time soon. I would recommend them for an everyday pair of headphones, just don't expect the kind of sound detail you might get from a more expensive pair, it's just not there, these headphones are all about the design and just don't quite have the substance.



http://www.vibeaudio.co.uk/vibe-headphones/slick- headphones/

rrp £24.99, item was received by me for review as part of the Amazon Vine programme