I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).
Axent Wear's speaker-equipped, LED-lit Cat Ear Headphones are fun for costumes, but they don't sound very good.
Axent Wear's Cat Ear Headphones are ideal for cosplayer and ravers, but a $149.99 pair of headphones should do more than just look good. Unfortunately, while the molded, LED-lit, speaker-equipped cat ears stand out from the crowd, their performance as headphones relies far too much on bass with little else to balance it, and the built-in speakers aren't terribly useful. If you're looking for over-ear headphones that double as glowing cat ears, this is your only option. But if you want headphones that offer good sound quality, there are many, many better choices in this price range.
Design Even without big, glowing ears at the top, the Cat Ear Headphones stand out as a set of imposing over-ear cans, completely black save for the LED elements. The earcups are big and circular, with plush, faux-leather pads. They attach to the thick headband with heavy plastic hinges that let the cups fold completely inward and pivot sideways. You can expand the headphones to your preferred fit, with click stops there to keep them locked securely in place. The underside of the headband is lined with the same plush material as the earpads.
From the outside, the hard plastic earcups are thick half-domes, each highlighted with a wide ring of translucent plastic that covers the lighting elements. The edge of the right earcup holds a micro USB port for charging the built-in battery that powers the lights (the headphones themselves are not battery-powered and must be plugged into your mobile device), a charging indicator light, and Light, Speaker, and Volume Up/Down buttons.
The edge of the left earcup holds two 3.5mm jacks. One is to connect the headphones to your mobile device, and the other is to hold the removable boom microphone. The included headphone cable measures four feet long and features a three-button inline remote about a third of the way down. The boom mic is a small black puck on the end of a thin, flexible arm. The headphones, cable, boom mic, and micro USB cable for charging the lights all fit neatly in the included zip-up hard-shell carrying case.
We can't ignore the ears, though. Those big, triangular, undeniably feline plastic ears stick out about 2.4 inches from the headband at approximately 45-degree angles. They're the same black plastic as the headband and earcups, save for the speaker-like elements on the inside of the ears. Each ear has two illuminated circles the same color as the lights on the outside of the earcups (they come in blue, green, purple, or red), with silver-colored plastic borders and discs in the middle to give the impression of a woofer and tweeter.
Lighting and Speakers Pressing the Light button on the edge of the right earcup turns on the built-in LEDs, which include the aforementioned circular rings around each earcup and the faux woofer and tweeter on the inside of each cat ear. The lights are certainly eye-catching, but not blinding; the purple version that I tested lit up visibly enough to get attention from my coworkers (and commuters on the subway), but weren't bright enough to really distract people around me. The lights are ambient, not much brighter than a nightlight.
The ears feature built-in speakers, but they're not represented by the light-up woofers and tweeters. The actual speaker drivers sit behind the perforated plastic grilles that surround the lights on the insides of each ear. The speakers work independently of the lights, and can be turned on and off with a button on the right earcup.
Performance and Conclusions As is appropriate for such a rave-ready-looking set of headphones, the Cat Ears can handle thumping bass with aplomb. They reproduced the deep sub-bass of the kick drum hits in our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," without a hint of distortion even at maximum (and unsafe) volume.
While the sub-bass performance is impressive, without sculpting the high-end the Cat Ears offer a very lopsided overall sound. The headphones emphasize deep lows more than anything else, and it overwhelms most tracks. The upright bass in Miles Davis' "So What" sounds loud and rumbly, as if it was sampled to be part of a dance track. Meanwhile, the piano notes lack any sense of texture or crispness to give the song a sense of balance.
Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" also suffers from this bass-heavy focus. The steady bassline stands in the center of the mix, and while Cave's vocals can be clearly heard, the finer sibilance of his hard consonants are almost completely absent. This isn't a muddy sound, because enough presence is given to the mids and high-mids so you know you're still listening to a song and not just a backbeat, but there's very little crispness in the highs to serve as a counterpoint.
The speakers in the cat ears are another story entirely. They're underpowered and sound terrible across the board. They distorted heavily on "Silent Shout," and even at maximum volume, they put out about as much sound as a regular pair of headphones cranked up and held a few feet away from your ears. They're a weak afterthought.
The Axent Wear Cat Ear Headphones are better seen as a fashion statement than a piece of serious sound gear. They're eye-catching, and would certainly fit in at a costume party or convention, but the bass-heavy sound signature lacks balance, and the speakers might as well not even be included. They are undeniably fun headphones, but for $150, you should expect some sound quality. The Editors' Choice Marshall Major II ($189.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and Klipsch Reference R6i On-Ear ($291.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) are available for two-thirds the price of the Cat Ear Headphones, and they offer a much better listening experience in a lighter on-ear design. The Monoprice Hi-Fi Over-the-Ear Headphones ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) also sound very good, with an over-ear design you can pick up for half the price of the Cat Ears.
Axent Wear's speaker-equipped, LED-lit Cat Ear Headphones are fun for costumes, but they don't sound very good.
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I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and a THX-certified home theater professional, and I’m here to help you understand 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and even 8K (and to reassure you that you don’t need to worry about 8K at all for at least a few more years).
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