KEF makes decent speakers, but tuning speakers and headphones are entirely different skill sets. Room acoustics, placement, and listening position have nothing to do with the direct, ear-coupled nature of headphones, and KEF’s headphones have never been audiophile benchmarks.
Headphone tuning requires accounting for ear canal resonance, HRTF, and target curves like Harman or diffuse-field—factors irrelevant to speakers. A neutral speaker in a treated room won’t automatically mean a neutral headphone.
If Nothing revisits this, they should treat it as a learning moment and work with a brand that truly specialises in headphone acoustics, not just a “big name,” and perhaps listen to the community as they did with the Nothing Ear.
