CMF Headphone Pro tested: Good over-ear headphones for little money
15.11.2025
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Jan Johannsen
The affordable CMF Headphone Pro over-ear headphones sound good, are pleasant to use and set visual accents.
After Smartphones and Smartwatches CMF, the affordable brand from Nothing, now also sells headphones. As a debut model, the Headphone Pro offers little cause for criticism - and is available for less than 100 euros/francs.
Turn, push and slide
In terms of operation, the CMF Headphone Pro borrows from the Headphone (1), which I found very satisfying with its haptic controls. In addition to two buttons on the Headphone Pro, these are the «Energy Slider» for sliding and the pressable rotary wheel called «Multi-function Roller».
With the «Energy Slider» - energy slider in German - I can adjust whether treble or bass is emphasised directly on the headphones. The movement of the slider is small, but the difference is still clearly audible. The bass either booms piercingly or remains discreetly in the background. I would still like a little haptic feedback when the slider is in the centre.
«Multi-function Roller» - Roller for short - is the fancy name for the rotary wheel that I use to adjust the volume. If I press the wheel, I start or pause playback and answer a call. Double and triple press to skip forwards and backwards during playback. Pressing and holding the roller switches the noise cancellation to transparency mode.
With the «action button» I activate Spatial Audio and switch between concert and cinema mode. One is for music and the other is for when I sit down in front of the TV and press and hold the button to start the voice assistant on my smartphone.
I have become very accustomed to the fact that headphones pause playback when I take them off. The fact that the CMF Headphone Pro doesn't recognise when they are being worn is a correspondingly negative aspect. It's not a bad thing to press the stop button yourself, it's just unfamiliar. Important in this context: the automatic standby function only switches the headphones off when no music is playing - and only after 30 minutes at the earliest.
For the look: replace the ear pads
The ear pads of the Headphone Pro can be removed with a simple twisting motion. This could be useful if they are worn out. By replacing them, you can also adapt the colour appearance of the headphones to your own preferences. The replacement ear pads add orange and light green to the three colours of the headphones (black, white, light green). They cost 25 euros in Germany from Nothing direkt. They are currently not available online in Switzerland.
Source: CMF by Nothing
Personalised sound and other settings in the app
The Headphone Pro can already be used with a normal Bluetooth connection, but more options are available with the app «Nothing X». In this app, I customise the button assignment of the headphones. I don't have complete freedom, but I do have several options for each control element.
With the equaliser, I can choose between five presets - pop, rock, electronic, voice enhancement and classic. I can also set my own preferences, with 13 levels to choose from for treble, mid-range and bass.
I can create a personalised sound profile in the Nothing app, using technology from Audiodo. To do this, I indicate for each ear whether I can hear a sound or not for numerous frequencies. The app makes adjustments based on my feedback. I can accept these or switch them off again with one click. For me, the personalised sound results in a clearer sound and the bass is less buzzy.
In the app, I can also set the active noise cancellation with up to three levels and the transparency mode as well as select the modes for spatial audio. I can also switch between LDAC or AAC as the codec in Nothing X.
Good sound and helpful noise cancellation
Nothing equips the CMF Headphone Pro with 40 millimetre drivers with nickel-plated diaphragms. A 16.5 millimetre copper voice coil is also responsible for the sound output. But enough technology. How does it all sound?
I think it sounds very good. It starts with clearly understandable voices in podcasts like «Down Set Talk» or «Heldendumm». Music has a room-filling effect even without active spatial audio - in other words, it doesn't sound like it's coming from just one point. The sound is clear and the treble is clearly audible. The bass booms powerfully without drowning out the mids.
For example, with «Come with us» from 100 Kilo Hertz, I'm pleased that I can easily hear the trumpet and saxophone between the drums, vocals and guitar riffs.
The bass on «Um den Block» by Marie Curry, on the other hand, is voluminously noticeable in the background without covering up the instrumentals or the vocals.
Even Whitney Houston's octave range, for example in «I Have Nothing», is fully emphasised by the Headphone Pro. The orchestra, which comes in again and again, takes up its space without obscuring the vocals.
The CMF Headphone Pro supports spatial audio. Spatial playback is far from standard in the price range below 100 euros/francs. Appropriate material is required for this type of playback to come into its own. Otherwise you won't hear any difference. With the concert and theatre modes, Spatial Audio is intended for music and films and gives the sound a spatial effect. The effect can even occur with podcasts. However, I find it unusable there and have deactivated Spatial Audio using the corresponding button.
With the Headphone Pro's active noise cancellation, you can shield yourself well from your surroundings. It absorbs up to 40 decibels. That's enough to keep you quiet in the office or miss the parcel carrier ringing at home. When travelling, the noise from trains or planes does not disappear completely when you are sitting in them. However, they will be much quieter and you won't have to work against them at high volume.
Long battery life and fast charging
The CMF Headphone Pro has a long battery life. However, the maximum specification of 100 hours is halved if you use the active noise cancelling function or talk as well as listen when making calls. But even 50 hours is a good value. I haven't measured these figures from the manufacturer, but from my experience of using them, they're about right.
The headphones are charged via a USB-C port. It should charge enough power for four hours of music playback in five minutes. A full charge takes around two hours.
In a nutshell
Inexpensive over-ear headphones that lack almost nothing
From now on, the CMF Headphone Pro is my recommendation if you are looking for good over-ear headphones and don't want to spend a lot of money. For a double-digit amount, you get comfortable and good-sounding headphones with a long battery life and effective noise cancellation. I am also impressed by the haptic controls.
If you want, you can customise the look of the Headphone Pro. You can also create a personalised sound profile in the Nothing X app.
The energy slider allows you to quickly change the bass intensity and would be even better with a noticeable centre position. I have also become very accustomed to automatic pausing of playback when I take my headphones off - but the Headphone Pro does not offer this function.
Pro
- Value for money
- Long battery life
- Haptic operating elements
- Good sound and effective noise cancellation
Contra
- No automatic pause when losing weight
- Energy slider without lock in the centre
Header image: Jan Johannsen
Jan Johannsen
Senior Editor
Jan.Johannsen@galaxus.deAs a primary school pupil, I used to sit in a friend's living room with many of my classmates to play the Super NES. Now I get my hands on the latest technology and test it for you. In recent years at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, now at Digitec and Galaxus.
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