The Bluetooth headphones world is competitive. You can buy options from Sony, Bose, Sonos, and Apple, to name just the big players, and if you’re entering this field, how do you stand out? With their Headphones (1), British technology brand Nothing has employed two key strategies: providing a distinct aesthetic at a price that undercuts competitors, and offering great sound quality. And they succeed in both.

Nothing has carried over their transparency-focused aesthetic here, with transparent driver cups that make the sides of the headphones resemble cassette tapes, featuring aluminum touch surfaces on the metal pads, and polycarbonate and other plastics used throughout. Some people love the look, while others find it quite ugly; however, an underappreciated point by both is that the look is the least important aspect of the design. Instead, it’s that these are so light yet not flimsy, and that all the controls are physical.

The headphones lack swipe gestures for any functions. You go backward and forward through tracks with a pad. You change volume with a mouse-like scroll wheel, which you also press in to play and pause. You have a distinct Bluetooth connect button. An on-and-off switch makes operation simple. It’s incredibly intuitive, and every competitor should adapt a version of this. Going between the AirPods Max and these also reminds you of how good it feels to wear light headphones. You can forget that you’re wearing these, and more headphone manufacturers need to dial in on that comfort.

The noise-canceling is great for this price, albeit not as impressive as that of industry leaders like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 headphones. The transparency mode would be good, were it not for your own voice sounding deeper and muffled, as if you’re underwater. I also wish you could change the sound effect when switching between transparency and noise-canceling modes, as the “breathing out” sound is quite distracting and unusual.

The listening modes also have positives and negatives. On the one hand, it’s great that you can listen to music in wired mode — through the 3.5mm headphone jack or USB-C — while keeping noise-canceling on, but it’s annoying that I was never able to connect the Bluetooth to Windows.

But all of this doesn’t matter if they don’t sound good, and they really do, once you’ve fixed the EQ. The default tuning is muddy and unbalanced, but Nothing provides a great software equalizer, and if you import the settings from the YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, the headphones come alive. They don’t quite have the punch of the Bose or Apple, but they have a clean, fun sound that is damn close despite being noticeably cheaper.

These aren’t perfect, and I look forward to how Nothing improves them with a Headphone 2, but these are exceptional headphones. They’re comfortable, sound great — once you fix the tuning —, and look good, and I reach for them as often as I do my Bose or AirPods Max, despite both of those costing notably more. Namely, the Headphones 1 are currently only $270, and nothing on the market sounds this good and works this well for that price.