“Honestly, I saw kind of a void in the headphone market, where the most recent culturally relevant brand was Beats,” says Mulroy. “It just felt stale.”
Mulroy is the CEO and founder of a new audio brand called Daisy, headquartered in California. It bills itself as “a team of industrial designers from outside the audio industry”, aiming to shake up the already saturated headphone scene. The Daisy One headphones, revealed on Tuesday, are the company’s first product.
These retro-style headphones are meant to go head-to-head with big premium noise-canceling cans like Apple’s AirPods Max and Sony’s WH-1000XM6. Those are headphones that typically cost $450 to $550. Daisy One has dropped their price a bit to $399. The goal is to sell sleek noise-canceling headphones at a slightly lower price than the big dogs.
“I knew we’d be competing with big companies: Sony, Bose, Beats, Apple,” says Mulroy. “I didn’t really mind that competition. Everything is going to be good.” But competition across the price spectrum in this space is fierce, from London-based Nothing and its attractive over-ear headphones and Anker’s SoundCore budget options (one of which won WIRED’s blind test) to premium cans from Bowers & Wilkins or Grado.
Courtesy of Daisy
Daisy one looks really nice. They are durable and long-lasting, made from aluminum with a composite TR90 head strap, a material widely used by headphone manufacturers. (“You can still do it,” Mulroy says, stretching the headband.) They’re a bit heavier than their competitors, at 318 grams, or about three-quarters of a pound. The ear pads go on and off via a magnetic connection. They work with Bluetooth but also support USB-C and 3.5-mm auxiliary wired connections. The headphones come in three color options – silver, a blue shade called Pacific, and a greenish-brown shade called Kelp.
The design aims to highlight some California chic, as most of the designers are based in the state. Some of the people on Daisy Crew are former engineers at Harman Professional Solutions, a Samsung-owned audio company. The actual sound system inside is developed by Utah-based company ((nxc)) Systems, with which Daisy contracts. Stored on the device itself are ambient sounds recorded in California, such as ocean waves or the jungle atmosphere of Big Sur. There’s also a guided breath-work exercise to help people relax in stressful places like airports.
The Daisy One headphones have a battery life of approximately 35 hours with noise canceling on and 45 hours with it off. Despite the marketing that these are reliable headphones that are designed to last, there is no way to replace the battery. Mulroy says the company is working on this for future models. The headphones have also received mixed reviews, with some early testers on TikTok criticizing the transparency mode on the headphones – which lets sound play out so you can hear your surroundings – saying they leave a lot to be desired. Mulroy is aware of that complaint and says it can be upgraded via a later software patch.
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