Fender has a serious reputation in the audio world, although it’s been mostly associated with guitars, amps, speaker stacks, and Bluetooth speakers. Fender has chosen this year to release its all-new Mix — the company’s first pair of over-ear Bluetooth headphones.
The new overs are a far cry from the rock god-like status of even the company’s official Lego set, however. In terms of design, they don’t deviate far from recent headphones from Sony, Bowers and Wilkins, and others. Inside, on the other hand…
Into the Mix
The Fender Mix might appeal more to ordinary people than to those who routinely set their speakers, stage, and hotel room on fire, but there’s plenty of tech inside to broaden that appeal. Fender claims 100 hours of use on a charge, though you’ll get a touch more than half that if using the company’s hybrid noise cancellation. It should still last at least a standard work week, if you’re office-bound. Two weeks if your work environment is usually silent.
40mm “hyper-efficient” (we don’t know what that means) graphene drivers handle the doubtless excellent audio the Mix puts out. A FWD Tx wireless transmitter included in the Mix box allows for lower-than-20ms latency and 24-bit/96kHz audio streaming. Spatial audio is standard, and Auracast, Bluetooth 5.3, and 3.5mm playback via an included cable are also features.
Fender says that the Mix takes two hours to charge to full, but fifteen minutes will boost you through a full workday if you’re in a hurry. That includes using ANC — that same fifteen minutes scores fourteen hours of uptime without noise cancelling.
Being an American company, Fender’s Mix headphones are available there first. The price tag is a mere R5,000 ($300), but that’s before sales tax, ICASA, and the various local resellers add their markups at home. Expect a weightier till slip when they cross the ocean in our direction.
