Mionix Nash 20 Headset Review

1. Introduction2. Mionix Nash 20 Headset3. Testing4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

When testing a headset, it has to be said that the results will be hugely subjective.

If you read through Zardon's monster round up of The Best Headphones Money Can Buy 2014, then you can see why we try to avoid letting him near any headphones that cost less than £200.

For regular folks, the £100 that Mionix want for the Nash 20 will put it toward the upper end of the spectrum, with plenty of competition from Razer, Medusa etc available under the £100 mark.

First, let's start with the kind of features that the Mionix NASH 20 claims to offer. We'll take these one at a time, then get into our results from hands-on testing:-

• Design
  High value placed on this by the company's founder and we have to say that they have nailed it. The overall look and feel is excellent.
• Sound
  We'll talk specifics in a bit, but overall the audio quality is good. Sadly the volume levels are lacking.
• Comfort
  They have nailed this. If there was such a thing as a ‘pair of comfortable old slippers for your ears', then the Nash 20 would be those slippers.
• Circumaural
  They try to give the impression of a truly 3D aural landscape, but – overall – this analogue stereo headset  just isn't as a effective as the digital 5.1/7.1 solutions we have seen in the market for less.

As usual, we put every audio device through a strenuous series of tests – chosen to push every aspect of a speaker/headset's ability to deliver. We'll start with the ones where the Mionix Nash 20 excels and work our way down.

• Soft/crisp
  Listening to Corinne Bailey Rae's Like A Star in it's live format is a great way to check how the unit deals with soft and crisp sounds.  When she hits the soft section just after the 3 minute mark, we enjoyed a great set of shivers down the spine.
• Lush
  Still keeping the volume relatively low, we moved onto songs like Sweet Baby from Prince. We would link the song, but it's a little hard to track down. The Nash 20 does a good job of delivering the complex arrangement, without losing anything from the ride cymbals.
• Deeper
  Tracks like With or Without You from U2 are soft, but in order for the track to work effectively, they need the bass to be driven and clear. The Mionix Nash 20 starts to struggle here. There simply isn't enough presence to deliver a really effective experience.
• Heavy Rock
  Very few tracks dip their toes in the water before landing like a juggernaut quite like Die Young by Sabbath. Sadly the lack of volume means we can't push the drivers quite as much as we would have liked.
• Dub Step
  Predictably, the Nash 20 doesn't turn up for the event. While playing Teflon on a serious system with warrior-class speakers or headset will be enough to clear the wax right out of your ears, the Mionix Nash 20 runs home to mummy.

These results carry forward into gaming and home entertainment.

While the mic is crystal clear and the ‘flip up to mute' is a neat feature, the ‘circumaural' experience cannot compete with a product that takes a digital feed and genuinely provides multiple points of origin for each sound. We'd love to see a 5.1/7.1 headset come out of the Mionix relationship with SK. That could well be interesting.

Our favourite BluRays include Star Trek: Into Darkness and – as we expected – they lack true penetration/immersion. Also, if you are inclined to sit and watch your main TV with headphones on (for example, if there are kids in the house and you want to blast the volume at 1am), then wireless would be the way to go.

If you think John Williams is the God of the Movie Soundtrack and you rate the effort that George Lucas & Co put into creating THX etc, then you'll want to give this headset a wide berth.

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