We've covered MPOW accessories before and find them to be a nice, budget minded option to consider. One of the company's latest offerings is the Muze, a Bluetooth over-the-ear headphones with noise cancelling technology and hands-free calling features.
As with other headphones we've looked at from MPOW, the Muze is nicely constructed and modestly priced. Performance was good and if you don't mind the over-the-ear style, the Muze headphones are worth considering.
Design
The Muze headphones are foldable making them nice and compact, well suited for backpacks, briefcases and the likes. The hinges are solid and the earpieces snap into place nicely.
The headband of the headphones are covered in a soft rubber and the earpieces are nicely padded. Control buttons for hands-free calling, volume, power and pairing are scattered about the left earpiece and the noise cancelation button (ANC) is on the right earpiece. Your micro-USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack also rests on the left earpiece.
The buttons are raised ever so slightly but you'll still need to use a fingernail to slide the power and ANC buttons up or down. The buttons you press responded nicely to the touch.
The Muze is shipped with a 3.5mm headphone cord that can be used when you need (or prefer) a wired connection. The Bluetooth headphones also ship with a USB cable for charging through your PC or USB enabled wall plug.
The headphones extend at the earpiece to adjust the fit (as opposed to extending at the headband). Fit and feel for the Muze headphones is comfortable. They do feel a heavier than other over-the-ear headphones but not to the point of irritation.
My only nit with the design of the Muze headphones is that the matte finish can be a dust magnet. The headset does have a slight plastic feel but not a cheap plastic feel. Overall, the MPOW Muze headphones come across as a nicely built set of Bluetooth headphones.
Performance
Sound quality was good with the MPOW Muze and the noise cancellation worked rather nicely. It drowns out the sounds of the world to let you concentrate solely on the music or video audio. Just be careful not to tune out the world too much. My wife had to throw something at me to get my attention while I had the MPOW headphones on.
Pairing the Muze headphones was simple. Just press and hold the pair button until you hear the audio confirmation that the headphones are ready to pair. From there just follow the pairing steps from your Windows Phone or PC.
Music playback controls were a little bit of a mixed bag. The volume keys double as volume control and song advance. A short press of these keys adjusts the volume and a long press advances to the next song or backs up to the previous tune. This feature worked fine but I wouldn't have minded seeing separate song controls on the right earpiece.
The multi-function button that sits on the left earpiece controls hands-free call functions and pause/play features for music. A short tap pauses the music and a long press plays the music. I had no problem pausing the music but could never get the headphones to resume play.
Speaking of hands-free calling, the Muze will answer, end, reject and re-dial calls. Support is present for voice dialing but it is device dependent. The multi-function button will control all of these features through a series of taps, double taps and long presses.
No real complaints on the hands-free feature of the Muze. It was a little odd making calls with the noise cancellation feature. I often found myself yelling simply because I couldn't hear myself speak.
Battery performance wasn't too shabby with about 10 hours of constant use per charge. MPOW rates the battery at up to 12 hours of working time. Just remember to turn off the noise cancellation when you turn off the main power.
A low battery alert will sound and the ring around the multi-function button will turn red when you need to find a power source.
The audio cable is a nice touch should the Muze's battery run dry. The only catch is that you'll have to control playback, pause, etc. from your device and noise cancellation will not work. However, fear not, the padding on the Muze's earpieces does a nice job on their own to cancel a good bit of the external noise.
Overall Impression
The more I used the MPOW Muze headphones, the more they grew on me. The headphones worked nicely with my Windows Phone and my Windows 8 laptop. The controls were nicely arranged and while I would have liked to have seen independent controls for music playback, what is in place worked. I did have trouble resuming play once paused from the headset but a simple tap on the screen made up for this shortcoming.
Sound quality is on par (if not slightly better) with most headsets and the noise cancellation will allow you to enjoy your music or video audio without distraction. The Muze headphones were comfortable and while they headset had a little heft the headphones didn't weigh you down.
I think the most attractive feature of the MPOW Muze Bluetooth headphones is the price. At $69.99, they should appeal to those looking for a wireless stereo solution that won't break the bank.
You can find the MPOW Muze headphones through various third party retailers such as Amazon.com (opens in new tab).
