I purchased a pair of KEF’s Porsche Design Space One Noise Cancelling Headphones back in April. I bought through Zola because they offered a $50 credit when you sign up and create a registry.
(Scroll down to learn how to save an additional $11 on these headphones).
I decided to buy them because I have been traveling a lot, and the noise on the plane was always really loud. The retail price is $419.99.
They were backordered for about a month, but I was pretty excited so I just waited eagerly. I’d never had fancy headphones before, let alone noise-cancelling ones. I’ve now had them about a week—here’s my review.
PROS | KEF Porsche Design Space One Review
I’ll start with the pros of these headphones, broken down into categories. I’m not going to go into technical specs, because you can see them all here, and to me it’s more about how it works in person than how it looks on paper.
STYLE
The Porsche Design Space One headphones dress to impress. They come in a nifty case that slips perfectly into my laptop bag for easy travel and protection.The ear pieces rotate sideways to fit more snugly into the case. It also comes with a spare battery (for the noise-cancelling feature), and a bonus splitter in case you want to listen to something with a friend. The headphones themselves are really sleek, and definitely remind me of a fancy car. I feel pretty cool wearing them. The cord is flat rather than round, which I haven’t really seen before.
SOUND
I haven’t ever owned headphones that cost more than $50 before, so the sound on these really blew me out of the water. It’s very clear. An amazing experience for listening to music, lectures, or movies. There’s a great bass too that’d I’d never experienced with headphones before. Too cool.
CONS | KEF Porsche Design Space One Review
Sadly I ended up returning these headphones, for one main reason.
COMFORT
As much as I loved the sound from these headphones, I just couldn’t get comfortable wearing them. For one, there is a lot of pressure pushing inwards from the sides. I am an average-sized woman, with a normal-sized head. I can’t imagine how much pressure you’d feel if you were a man with a larger head.
The other part I couldn’t get acclimated to is the pressure from the top of the headphone strap. It’s a strange shape—it’s more flat than rounded, so at the very top of my head the hard metal pushes down.
All in all I couldn’t wear these for more than 15 minutes at a time—and when I removed them each time, I felt intense relief. It’s a big shame because the sound was out of this world.
SAVE $61 | KEF Porsche Design Space One Discount
If you are planning on buying these headphones, I can share with you the way I saved $61 on them.
First of all, sign up for an account at Zola using this referral link, and create a registry. You don’t need to spend a lot of time on it, just place an item or two into the registry. Once you’ve done that, you will be given a $50 store credit.
Secondly, sign up for Ebates. You will have to install a little widget in your browser that will show you when certain stores are offering cash back.
Lastly, head back to Zola. Click on the Ebates widget and hit “Activate 3% Cash Back”. Now go through purchasing your headphones. You’ll receive the $50 Zola discount and Ebates will refund you 3% of the purchase price ($11).
My Porsche Design Space One Review Summary
Rating: 7.5
The sound was amazing, and it would receive a 9 or 10 if that were the only measure. However, these headphones simply aren’t comfortable. There’s too much pressure pushing both from the sides and the top. I had to return them.
But if you still want to purchase, definitely use the tips in the Discount section above to save $61.
