Sports headphones Adidas ZNE 01 ANC in the test: Adilettes for the ear The in-ear headphones Adidas ZNE 01 ANC attract athletes – but is the name enough to produce really good sound? TechStage tests the sports headphones. 2:00 p.m. tech stage

Adidas can also do headphones. The company (more precisely, Zound Industries, from which the audio devices come) has shown this with the on-ear sports headphones Adidas RPT-01 (test report) . But headphones would be too boring and of course you have to offer in-ears for training at the moment.

That’s why we brought the Adidas ZNE 01 ANC (ZNE stands for Zero Negative Energy) to the editorial office. Time to test the true wireless headphones extensively in our sports headphones theme world in everyday life and during training.

Like the RPT-01, the ZNE 01 ANC come from Zound Industries. The audio company knows its stuff, it also builds Marshall headphones and Bluetooth boxes, for example. And the design of the ZNE 01 ANC is by no means standard. The charging case and earphones come in either black or gray with an irregular pattern throughout. The Adidas logo on the front is subtle, but still an eye-catcher.

The earbuds follow the true wireless standard: a large upper area for the drivers and technology, where the interchangeable earbuds also sit. The small bridge is covered with grid applications, the contrast looks pretty good, especially with the black ZNE 01 ANC.

The charging cradle is rectangular and pleasantly small, it has a little more volume than two tic-tac boxes. The case is ribbed and feels good in the hand. The earplugs are held firmly in the box thanks to magnets and are charged automatically.

The Adidas ZNE 01 ANC transmit via Bluetooth 5.2 with the Android or iOS smartphone. With Android, it’s pleasantly simple, thanks to Fast Pair, the headphones appear for pairing when you open the lid. During setup, you can download the Adidas Headphones app. More about the app later. To manually switch to Bluetooth pairing mode, simply press and hold the Adidas logo on the front.

The ZNE 01 ANC are sports headphones, so they are protected against water jets with IPX5. The charging case is protected against splash water with IPX4.

Unusual for sports headphones: The Adidas ZNE 01 have neither small silicone wings nor other holders that fix them during sports. Instead, they are in a somewhat rough non-slip plastic case. We were skeptical that the headphones would really hold up during training.

So, running shoes on and off you go. During an 8 km run, the headphones held securely in our ears, so well that we even forgot them at times. This also applies to training in the gym. The headphone design team did a really good job. The big advantage is that the headphones don’t create any pressure points – really clever.

Adidas Headphones app takes care of management and firmware updates. You don’t actually need it for operation – but since you don’t need an account, you can install it quite easily. Overall, the app is okay, but we lack the setting options. Similar to the RPT-01, there is a long-press shortcut, but you can only assign it to ANC, Spotify, Adidas Running or the standard voice assistant. A volume control or a free assignment of the function would be nicer here.

If the app is not at hand, you can control the headphones by tapping them. This is convenient and intuitive in itself (1 tap – play/pause, 2 taps – next track, etc.).

However, we have a few remarks in everyday life. First of all, it’s annoying that you can’t control the volume via the headphones. Changing the different operating modes of noise suppression is also not well solved due to the lack of announcements. Users have no choice but to memorize the various sound signals. An “ANC On” or “ANC Off” would have been much more helpful here.

By the way: The headphones can be located with Android using the “Find device” app. At least partially, because you only see where they were last connected to the active smartphone. But that should be enough to see if you forgot them in the gym, for example.

Sports headphones are often associated with excessive bass? Fortunately not. Yes, the bass is clear with the ZNE 01 ANC, but the mids and highs don’t drown out. With songs like Placebo’s Every You, Every Me it’s nice to hear the details. Current songs, such as Edamame by bbno$ or classics like Zipfeschwingathe Bavarian hip-hoppers from Dicht & Ergreifd also benefit. If you like, you can use the app to exchange or adjust the balanced Adidas Equalizer settings for other presets. Unfortunately, you cannot create your own settings. The settings are fine for sports, but you probably have to play around a bit for everyday use if the bass is too extreme. Overall, we were happy to use the headphones in everyday life.

This is also due to the good noise cancellation. In a direct comparison, it doesn’t quite match devices like the Sennheiser Momemtum True Wireless 3 (test report) or the Huawei Freebuds Pro 2 (test report) , but it’s easily enough to hide colleagues in the office or noise when commuting.

We liked the fact that the headphones can play videos without aptX without any audio delays. For example, we watched The Gray Man via Netflix without any noticeable latency.

When making calls, the ZNE 01 ANC suffer from the same problem as all other in-ears. The way from the microphone to the mouth is simply long and even really good microphones have their limits somewhere. In other words, you can make calls with it, but you have to speak a little louder. At the same time, you should use a quiet corner.

With ANC and at full volume, we get just under four hours in the test, which is comparable to the Nothing Ear 1 (test report) . Not a top value, but not really bad either. In practice, we use the headphones at a maximum volume of 75 percent, so there should still be some air. The case charges the headphones three times, then it has to go to the charging station itself. The case itself charges wirelessly via Qi (best list) or in the classic way via the USB-C cable.

It is interesting that you can activate an eco charging function via the app, which only charges the headphones with a maximum of 80 percent and thus protects the battery. We were not able to verify in the test whether this is of any use in the long term, but we activated the option (after measuring the battery life).

The RRP of the Adidas ZNE 01 ANC is 189 euros. The street price is significantly lower at 145 euros. In addition to the variant with active noise suppression, the Adidas ZNE 01 is also available without ANC (cheaper and slightly different design).

What sets the Adidas ZNE 01 ANC apart from many other good sports headphones is their design. A solid hold during training, without any hooks or wings, we have never experienced that before. Nevertheless, the headphones work surprisingly well during sports.

The remaining values ​​are a good average for headphones for 150 euros: the sound is great, ANC is in the upper midfield, the battery life could be better. It is incomprehensible why there is no volume control, especially during a workout you don’t want to have to pull your smartphone out of your pocket or have a discussion with a virtual assistant. But Adidas fans can access it.

If you can do without ANC and just want the additional grip of silicone wings, you should take a look at the Sennheiser Sport True Wireless (test report) , which costs just under 100 euros . And if you’re looking for on-ear headphones for training, we recommend taking a look at the Adidas RPT-01 review .

The test is part of our Sports Headphones theme world . If you are looking for in-ear alternatives, we recommend taking a look at the tests of the JLab Go Air Sport (test report) or the Bose Frame Tempo audio sunglasses (test report) .