Beats by Dr. Dre Studio Headphones Review @ [H]

Gmok Bonecrusha said:
I KNOW you want to justify a purchase a lot of times. We all do it. But this was borderline silly! You have decent equipment to make a great comparison on, and you still choose the inferior product? With someone pointing out to you the differences? I laughed.
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Its the placebo effect. The human brain is incapable of being objective.

That's why - for things that really matter, like clinical trials of drugs - we design double blind studies in which the drugs are compared to a placebo, and neither the person taking them,or the statistician analyzing the data knows which is the placebo and which is the real drug.

If you honestly believe something is better, it will be better to you, regardless of the actual facts. If you believe something is worse, it will be worse to you, regardless of the actual facts.

The human brain is messed up like that., and can not be trusted, no matter how smart you think you are.

This - more than anything else - probably explains the extreme political divides caused by us perceiving different realities. the human brain will mold to make your experience be closer to what you want to believe than what is actually true. This affects everyone.

In your case, your friend is probably hearing the headphones as better than they are, because he is convinced they are great. To make matters worse, you are probably hearing them as worse than they are, as coming in you believed them to be worse. This widens the gap between your and his experience. Him experiencing them better than they are, you experiencing them worse than they are, and both of you thinking the other is crazy.

The take away from this? Don't trust your brain, and trust other peoples brains even less :p Whenever possible try to remove your subjectivity, by blind testing.
 
Yep, another example of the placebo effect and the sheep will fall in line and follow the crowd.
They are sold with the hype of "Dr Dre" behind them so appeal to those of that style of music.
They have an unusal design and come in bright smooth, i.e. flimsy, plastic.
Sound wise they are mediocre, run of the mill drivers boosted by a cheap amp circuit designed to make them initially sound impressive - except they're not, but then those fooled into the hype, like with a lot of things, fail to notice that and instead hail them as great when, the fact of, they wouldn't know good sound reproductio if it hit them with a hammer. As long as the bass is high then they must be good.

They are cheap Monster cans with a badge, marketing hype and amp boosted output to make them sound something they are not.

I think the "technical support" and lack of publishing standard, run of the mill specifications says it all really.

Great review.
 
I didn't need blind testing to know how crapy these things are. When I listened to BB's demo they only produced a lot of bass, and go figure! they used a song with TONS of bass. I won't even say that the bass was that impressive, it was good but not asking price good. I would buy these if they were priced competitively with other head phones over mediocre, I'm starting to get a small collection of good headphones and can appreciate the different approaches each company makes.

Now to make a lot of money so I can get some Senn's 650s.
 
Yes HTC investing $300 mill for effectively a crappy Bassboost sytem.

Yayyyyy.
 
excellent review :) sorry for the necro but this is a sticky soo...
we really need to get the word out. these cans are the most prevalent ones on campus and it's really getting ridiculous.

Craig
 
ChwyNiblet said:
I was thinking about either these or Bose IE2's.
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Hopefully after this review you won't be thinking about it so much.
Why an IEM, now(as your other choice was headphones)? personally I think the IE2s are pretty crummy for the cost.

Craig
 
The only thing that the Dre line headphones are good for is RAP/RNB only or SALVAGING the housing for another headphone driver.
 
D4hPr0 said:
You guys surprised? I have never seen anything of quality coming from the Monster brand.

Grado SR325 FTW. :)
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grado, sennheiser, akg, dennon, beyerdynamic, hifiman...

all of those companies make [much] better cans for half the price - granted the beats® do have active noise cancellation...

doesn't make up for the muddy audio and massive price tag
 
jamhamm said:
grado, sennheiser, akg, dennon, beyerdynamic, hifiman...

all of those companies make [much] better cans for half the price - granted the beats® do have active noise cancellation...

doesn't make up for the muddy audio and massive price tag
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Yeah...that noise cancellation makes them interesting for subway commuters. I can't really hear my DJ1 Pro's that well on the subway :(
I'll probably have to go back to in-ear headphones.
 
Gmok Bonecrusha said:
Not to resurrect....And it's long.

My bud just bought these cans. He did purchase them used, but they look new to me. I JUST finished listening to them 20 minutes ago. He ran them over my house to show me what he purchased. He knows I am into headphones...

He purchased the "Detox" version. He piad 600 bucks used. They are at most worth 200 bucks. But I know why people are buying them now. If you have never held or heard a quality pair of headphones, these will seem to be amazing. This will sound silly, but the weight and the APPARENT build quality make them seem more than they are. Hey! If they are heavy, they MUST be good!

1st thing that I noticed as I held them, was how damn heavy they were. They are HEAVY. Pain inducing heavy. Did I mention they are heavy? I can't picture wearing these at a couple hours at the most. 2nd thing I noticed was the hinges are going to break quickly. The screws holding the cups/hinges in place have too much pressure on them. I tried to show him, and he looked at me like I was crazy. They will come out, or get worn out fast. I wanted to take them apart to look a bit closer, but he would have killed me. Literally.

Nothing extensive on my part for listening, like gaming and movies. I just wanted to hear them with some music.

I hooked them up to my modest Mav Audio setup. Initial impression was they did not sound bad at all. I was shocked. They are comparable to my Denon 2K's in sound. Closer sound stage. The Denon's did NOT blow them out the water. Played some La Vie En Rose. The bass was ok, a little sloppy IMO, but not so much I would say bad at all. The highs and mids were just flat out better on the Denons. I tried to point this out to my bud, and he couldn't tell the difference. I could definitely tell though. Armstrong's voice was just much cleaner, along with the horns.

I played some Jay Z and Little Wayne per his request. And THIS ladies and gentiles is why they sell. They don't bottom out on the deep bass songs. And oh gawd lawdy, did he notice that! And I quote "I TOLD you these were amazing!" "You hear that son!" "Yeah +++++!" I just rolled my eyes.

I again tried to point out that my 200 dollar Denon's sound better than his 600 dollar Dre's. How he is only listening for bass and not everything the music has to give him. He wouldn't listen. I had to pull out the big guns....The HE-5LE's.

Both cans are around 600 bucks mind you. The He-5LE's are like 100 bucks more.

I shit you not. He says that everything sounded too far away, too much space and air. They weren't loud enough. And he hears too much background noise (whatever that meant). I must be crazy to pay that much for some no name headphones. That's all he kept saying as I pointed out to him what I thought he should be listening for. He again thought I was nuts to think my headphones sounded better. I wanted to punch him!

I KNOW you want to justify a purchase a lot of times. We all do it. But this was borderline silly! You have decent equipment to make a great comparison on, and you still choose the inferior product? With someone pointing out to you the differences? I laughed.

I could NOT wait to type this out. I'm going to send him this link so he knows what I thought!

And dude brush your teeth before you come over next time!

/longwinedness over
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Thanks dude. Made my day. Oh placebo...
 
People shell out the big bucks for status, then insist their prized possession must be better. Happens all the time.

/insert easy car analogy
 
Aluisious said:
People shell out the big bucks for status, then insist their prized possession must be better. Happens all the time.
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Agreed. This happens.

The way I look at it though is that if these things were actually good headphones, they wouldn't need to spend a huge amount of money on a celebrity name in order to sell them...

Aluisious said:
/insert easy car analogy
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Please go ahead, I'd love to see where you want to take this :p
 
eizen said:
Yeah...that noise cancellation makes them interesting for subway commuters. I can't really hear my DJ1 Pro's that well on the subway :(
I'll probably have to go back to in-ear headphones.
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I find that ultrasones are hard to power up, even those with low impedance like yours. if you want to keep them, maybe get a fiio e5 or similar cheap amp, it would be much better already. keep in mind these cans are meant to be plugged into a dj mixer, these things have much higher output than the typical portable mp3 player.
 
Haha.. *waits for Labron cans to come out*

From my experience it's unsurprising that people buy into Beats (Bose, etc.) because they haven't heard anything better than the crappy earbuds that come with their iProduct. Basically, audio is a case of not missing something you haven't heard yet.

From that perspective it comes down to marketing and popularity, and Beats are the in thing to have. It doesn't matter a whit that they are subpar to other headphones (that often come with a cheaper price) because people won't know what they're missing.

On top of that we have a tendency to rationalize big purchases like a $500 set of cans, along with the placebo effect Gmok illustrated so nicely. ;)

Let people listen to the Beats for a couple of years, then show them something new. Or maybe they just follow the next line of marketing hype. People that are serious about their audio will eventually follow the right path.
 
Right im sure we'll see the entire Patriots squad walking off the tour bus with their beats headphones on.
 
Phoenix333 said:
You want good headphones that are DURABLE? Get a set of AKG K-240 studio headphones. They're practically indestructible, 55 ohm impedance, frequency response of 15Hz to 25,000Hz, and everything sounds like it should. The entire audio range is present, crisp, and clear, and they sound the same after two year's worth of use as they did on day 1. I listen to everything from Gregorian Chants to Rachmaninoff to Slayer in these, as well as using them for gaming and entertainment. As for position, it's a pure, unprocessed stereo signal so everything is always where it should be - left, right, or center on screen. Depending on your sensitivity to sound and how loud you want to listen to things you might need to amplify them since they are 55 ohm, but I have found that running them off a standard stereo output from a PC or portable CD player that they're plenty loud. I do not listen to music so loud that it hurts my ears, and I tested my headphones about 6 months ago using an FM synthesis generator to make sure the frequency range had not degraded. They're not noise canceling or anything fancy and they're not very portable, but they sound excellent and you can wear them and wear them and wear them, plus they have a 10 foot detachable and replaceable cable that fits 1/8" or 1/4" jacks. The 1/4" adapter threads on and both the 1/8" and 1/4" plugs are gold plated. They'll set you back a mere $99. They're made in Austria.

A little background about myself in regards to audio. I can hear the entire frequency range of my headphones from 15Hz to 25,000Hz and I can hear frequencies above this as well. I can detect 1Hz differences in waveforms, for example, a 10000 Hz sine wave vs a 10001 Hz sine wave. I also have what is referred to in music as "perfect pitch". I'm not a musician or audio expert, but I do have excellent hearing and I am very difficult to impress. To date these are the only headphones I have tried that are as close to what I would consider perfect sound, plus you could literally beat Dr. Dre's headphones with them until they shattered and the AKG's wouldn't break.
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if it smells like a turd.........it most definately is......
 
today in class, I overheard some kids in front of me arguing over what was better: Beats or Skullcandy
... I facepalmed right there, seriously
 
ripken204 said:
today in class, I overheard some kids in front of me arguing over what was better: Beats or Skullcandy
... I facepalmed right there, seriously
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Should have slammed down your hand and screamed at the top of your lungs "Get a budget and grab a pair of Stax SR 009!" :D
 
So my son in law (the tool) asks me what I think of beats head phones. I told them they were ok if your listening to Justin Berber or Madonna. He said "cool beans, thanks"
 
I've seen so many of these returned at work for a number of various reasons. While I like the sound of some of Monster's products they lack durability. At least, with the more expensive Monster headphones they offer a one time replacement.
 
beats are bout is about definitely is how they look. That's the whole basis Beats line. It's basically jewelry/apparel you can listen to. Much like Skullcandy and Wesc stuff which Overprice hype job low quality.Too much bass i dont like it.Im happy with my hd25 best portable ive ever had.
 
Beats combined headphones and fashion at a premium price.... Technology and fashion is *precisely* what Apple does.

This purchase makes perfect sense for Apple.
 
Prod1702 said:
Hey Kyle I just saw this review after seeing that Apple bought Beats. I saw that you talked about the DT-770 lasting years. I have had my DT-770 since 2006 and they are still going strong. I love them. Just wanted to let you know not knowing if someone else told you or not about how long they do last.
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Forever if you take care of them.
 
Prod1702 said:
Hey Kyle I just saw this review after seeing that Apple bought Beats. I saw that you talked about the DT-770 lasting years. I have had my DT-770 since 2006 and they are still going strong. I love them. Just wanted to let you know not knowing if someone else told you or not about how long they do last.
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I've also had my DT770's since about 2006 or so.

They are still going strong, though the cable is damaged after I pulled a stupid and tripped over it, yanking it pretty strong, so now I have to hold them at a certain angle, or I get no sound on one side. trying to decide if I want to re-cable them, or just get something newer.
 
It never fails to amaze me as to how intentionally ignorant people can be. Google something before you buy it perhaps?

This is what I imagine beats sound like:

 
spaceman said:
This is what I imagine beats sound like:
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haha i love Bloodsport i've seen it easily 20 times. i auditioned Beats at Best Buy (not an ideal environment) a couple years back and they sounded pretty decent to me. similar to my DT770 Pro's. they're just a little inflated in price for what you get, but i understand some people paying a premium for aesthetics.
 
Porter_ said:
haha i love Bloodsport i've seen it easily 20 times. i auditioned Beats at Best Buy (not an ideal environment) a couple years back and they sounded pretty decent to me. similar to my DT770 Pro's. they're just a little inflated in price for what you get, but i understand some people paying a premium for aesthetics.
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Agree with this. People pay for style over substance all the time.

Forget the sound...my issue with Beats, are they just feel so cheaply made.
 
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