All iPads Does anyone have parrot zik Bluetooth headphones?

[Ghost31]

Thinking about moving on from my overpriced beats to another pair of overpriced headphones. Well...less overpriced because it looks like they cut the price of the old ones in half!

What I'm wondering is how you're experiences have been, how you manage Bluetooth connections between devices and if you still think it's worth it. Like say I want to listen on my iPad instead of my iPhone. Do I manually go into Bluetooth settings and click connect or do I just put on the headphones?

 

[Ludatyk]

I have the Ziks 2.. Have had them over a year now. Best headphones I've purchased... It saves the last connection you used. For example.. if you used it on the iPhone last.. you'll have to disconnect from the iPhone and connect to the iPad. But if you used it on the iPad last.. then you won't have to worry about connecting.

They recently updated the app to support the 6 & 6 Plus resolution... I'd doubt they will ever update the app to support the iPad Pro resolution. And.. one nagging thing I hate about it.. is that it doesn't show battery bluetooth indicator. I also have the Phiaton BT 220 NC... those are pretty coo too. With those they connect to both my iPad & iPhone at the same time... but not so with Ziks. But the Ziks do sound amazing anyway..

 

[whtrbt7]

I have Zik 2.0 too. While sound quality is great, it does so with a couple of workarounds. First, the Bluetooth version is lower because they can pipe more bandwidth via the older BT version. This means that newer BT version enhancements aren't available. The second is that the app controls while great means that there are options you can ONLY control via the app and not even through a x86 machine. I also switched to manually assigning the connection since auto switching BT connections doesn't work. Lastly, my unit had a repair done to the earmuffs due to a manufacturing defect where the leather would split where it was fused together.

Overall, they are currently the best sounding BT headphones I have used so far compared to at least 6 other options I tried. If I have to live with the slight inconvenience of using them, I gladly do it for the drastic increase in sound quality without being tethered via 3.5mm jack.

 

[Ludatyk]

Lastly, my unit had a repair done to the earmuffs due to a manufacturing defect where the leather would split where it was fused together.

Yeah, Parrot didn't do a good job w/ the earmuffs.. I had issues with mine.

I was planning on sending mine to Parrot to get it fixed and I had a ticket from RMA to do so, but decided to get it stitched myself. Figured it woulda taken awhile for them to receive & return it repaired.

 

[Ghost31]

Yeah I keep reading review after review talking about how great they are but for the fact that the ear muffs fall apart or something. To have that happen with such expensive headphones? Yikes...

My first experience with the parrots were in an Apple Store. I was going to buy a pair of beats studio headphones and the Apple Store guy tried real hard to convince me not to. Opened up a pair of parrot zik 2's and paired it with my phone and had me listen and was very passionate about how good these were. After about 30 minutes of him telling me how great they are and that buying beats would be a mistake, I got the beats anyway. All these months later, I regret it. I just wasn't willing to pay $400 for a pair of headphones at the time. Now that they're half that price, oh baby...my body is ready!

Only concern I have right now besides the ears falling apart is the battery life. How's it been with you guy? And are the zik 3's that much better? Only difference I see is wireless charging, but I don't care about that

 

[Ludatyk]

Only concern I have right now besides the ears falling apart is the battery life. How's it been with you guy? And are the zik 3's that much better? Only difference I see is wireless charging, but I don't care about that

Yeah., I paid for them when they were 400 bucks.. When it was first available. I had the original Ziks... I been waiting on the Ziks 2.. Parrot couldn't give a date yet at the time for some reason, but when they became available on Amazon.. I had waited for reviews before jumping on board.

But the battery life is solid.. Not too bad. It all depends on what you enable. With Noise Cancellation, Equalizer & Concert Hall all enabled, then battery life will vary. I tend to just enable Noise Cancelling and sometimes Equalizer.. I occasionally use Concert Hall.

I actually purchased a separate battery so I don't miss a beat. I don't plan on buying the Ziks 3 just yet... In addition to wireless charging Ziks 3 also has the ability to listen to music over USB.

 

[Ghost31]

Yeah., I paid for them when they were 400 bucks.. When it was first available. I had the original Ziks... I been waiting on the Ziks 2.. Parrot couldn't give a date yet at the time for some reason, but when they became available on Amazon.. I had waited for reviews before jumping on board.

But the battery life is solid.. Not too bad. It all depends on what you enable. With Noise Cancellation, Equalizer & Concert Hall all enabled, then battery life will vary. I tend to just enable Noise Cancelling and sometimes Equalizer.. I occasionally use Concert Hall.

I actually purchased a separate battery so I don't miss a beat. I don't plan on buying the Ziks 3 just yet... In addition to wireless charging Ziks 3 also has the ability to listen to music over USB.

This pretty much sold me on it. Can I wirelessly use this with my Apple TV and ps4? That would...that would make me explode with happiness

 

[Ludatyk]

This pretty much sold me on it. Can I wirelessly use this with my Apple TV and ps4? That would...that would make me explode with happiness

Apple TV.. Yes. Don't own a PS4, but I have a Xbox One & unfortunately it don't work on that. But I have the Apple TV 4 and it connects just fine.

 

[Mr.C]

I know you are asking specifically about the Parrot Zik's but I thought I would chime in with an alternative option. I can't comment on the Parrot Ziks although I did look at them when doing my research a few weeks ago. I was looking for a new set of bluetooth headphones that also provided noise cancellation as well as the bluetooth aptx technology for better sound quality and better lip synching when watching video.

I was using the AKG Y45BT's before. I decided to go with the Senheiser Momentum 2.0 OEBT's. The Zik's are over the ear whilst the Momentum 2.0's are on ear. So far they have been great. I have them paired with my iPhone 6S Plus, iPad Air 2, Retina MacBook Pro and Apple TV 4. I don't need to disconnect them from one device to use them on another. I just connect them to which ever device I want to use them with. They sound great too. They fold up and come with both a hard case as well as a bag. They also come with a charge cable, a cable for wired sound, and an inflight adapter. However there are no controls on the cable for wired connection.

The only thing is I haven't found a way to turn the noise cancellation off although Senheiser states even with it on you can 22 hours of playback anyway which is more then enough for my daily needs. There is no app for them and all controls are done on the headphones or through the apps or software you're using on what ever device. My iPhone does show like with all other bluetooth device connected to it how much battery life is remaining.

Sorry about diverting the discussion but I just wanted to mention another possible option. If you're specifically interested in the Zik's only you can disregard my post.

 

[Cnasty]

Still on the holy grail search for the right bluetooth companion headphones for my ATV. Thanks for this thread.

 

[Commy1]

It was my thought when that little panic rumour of Apple possibly dropping the handphone jack in the newest iPhones, that it would be a tremendously positive thing for bluetooth headphones if they did. It is old technology and I don't think an existing pair of headphones exists today that can't fit a bluetooth transmitter.
I've been looking at all Bluetooth headphones for years, Beats, Bose, Parrot, Monster, etc but none of them seem to fit the bill perfectly.

 

[Ghost31]

God dammit...I told myself I wasn't going to get it yet. I'm going to research this more first! And save more. I don't have the money. I really shouldn't!

Then I saw a couple YouTube videos, more specifically this long mf'ing video

And before I knew it I was on Amazon clicking buy within a couple minutes. It was like...waking up after a hangover and not realizing what just happened. This is the very definition of impulse buy. I was gonna wait but dammit...these things just seem so damn awesome!

So I got it with next day shipping. Should get it tomorrow and I can't wait to use this thang with my Apple TV 4, iPad pro and iPhone 6s. Probably gonna buy a spare battery too. Love that they made it easy to just swap those suckers out

 

[Ludatyk]

I was gonna wait but dammit...these things just seem so damn awesome!

Congrats! Yeah, they are definitely awesome.

I had an Apple Watch before, but sold it before Parrot had the chance to support it. I'm just glad they updated the resolution for the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus. I can't stand apps that don't support the resolution of the newest iDevices. But tomorrow will be here before you know it, so.. You'll be able to experience the Zik's awesomeness!

 

[whtrbt7]

This pretty much sold me on it. Can I wirelessly use this with my Apple TV and ps4? That would...that would make me explode with happiness

It works with the new Apple TV and for the PS4, you can plug it into the controller but SONY didn't open up the BT protocol to other BT headphones that they didn't approve yet. I hope they just standardize this at some point. Connected to the PS4 controller isn't too bad because it works as a gaming headset.
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Congrats! Yeah, they are definitely awesome.

I had an Apple Watch before, but sold it before Parrot had the chance to support it. I'm just glad they updated the resolution for the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus. I can't stand apps that don't support the resolution of the newest iDevices. But tomorrow will be here before you know it, so.. You'll be able to experience the Zik's awesomeness!

Oh the updated Zik app supports iPad Pro but it functions slightly differently now. It has pages that are sort of 3D that you swipe through instead of flat pages from before like on the iPhone and smaller iPads.
[doublepost=1456848091][/doublepost]One thing that makes me hold off on Zik 3.0 is that Apple is going to take away the 3.5mm jack. I would like Zik 4.0 to support plugging into lightning and USB 3.0 for HD audio. Realistically, we need either wifi or a higher bandwidth wireless connection for headphones to support wireless Hd audio.

The Zik 2.0 headphones are still the best sounding BT headphones on the market right now. Unfortunately, it still is lower in audio quality than high end studio monitors but if you're outside and you are wearing over ear or on ear monitors, you're going to get street noise anyways. The only way to have near perfect audio quality while you are out on the street is to have in ear noise isolation monitors but the downside is that you can get run over by a car since you can't hear any noise outside.

 

[Ludatyk]

Oh the updated Zik app supports iPad Pro but it functions slightly differently now. It has pages that are sort of 3D that you swipe through instead of flat pages from before like on the iPhone and smaller iPads.

Not sure what you mean by smaller iPads... The Zik app that's optimized for the iPad works for the iPad Mini as well. But Parrot hasn't updated the app to support iPad Pro resolution.

 

[Ghost31]

Well would ya look at what just came less than 24 hours since I pressed that "buy" button!

 

[Cptnodegard]

I bought a pair of Zik 2s when my QuietComfort 25s were sent in for repair, as I use the headphones too much to wait for that (ended up taking 6 weeks, so good call). I modified my QC25s with a Bluetooth receiver, so both are wireless NC headphones for me (but not normally).

After I got the QC25s back, I though about selling them and sticking with the Zik, but ended up slapping my modification back on, and haven't touched the Zik again since. The Zik are basically a collection of good ideas very poorly implemented, to the point where I don't find it's worth it. Everything's just so extremely half-assed.

As an example, the update that came at the end of last year took a year to come out. It adds Apple Watch support, but not as a glance, so it's essentially no faster than using the phone. There's a setting to change the color of the app, which is a freaking settings app, but there's no way to remap the controls on the headset to either disable them (as the useless touch buttons are easy to accidentally hit) or set them to do something else (like switch NC mode, which would be highly useful in traffic).

Making a good product is a process. Parrot seems to be interested in instant money, so they make a product with a certain amount of features, and then release that, and essentially declare end of life the day it's released.

 

[SvP]

The Zik's are over the ear whilst the Momentum 2.0's are on ear.

For me the bone conductive sensor on the earpad had a huge effect on both letting thru my own whistling or mumbling while on noise canceling, and making phone calls. (just wanted to add to it)

I have them paired with my iPhone 6S Plus, iPad Air 2, Retina MacBook Pro and Apple TV 4. I don't need to disconnect them from one device to use them on another. I just connect them to which ever device I want to use them with.

I remember (mine are returned, regretfully: also earmuff defect) my zik's working in the same way. It remembers the last device, but if you tap the (pre-paired) connection on the ipad it just switches.
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Well would ya look at what just came less than 24 hours since I pressed that "buy" button!

I'm jealous. I hope you'll like them as much s i did

 

[ParanoidDroid]

Can you please confirm, whether the Zik 2 does work with the latest Zik Watch app? Can you use parrot's app on the Apple Watch and configure Zik 2 just via the Apple Watch app.

Zik 3 work with their Apple Watch app, I was wondering if Zik 2 worked too?

 

[Ludatyk]

Can you please confirm, whether the Zik 2 does work with the latest Zik Watch app? Can you use parrot's app on the Apple Watch and configure Zik 2 just via the Apple Watch app.

Zik 3 work with their Apple Watch app, I was wondering if Zik 2 worked too?

The Zik 2 & 3 uses the same app therefore both utilizes Apple Watch functionality.