Beats by Dr. Dre Review - It's not challenging to design headphones that win raves from bloggers and consumers. Just give men and women a massive, fat bassline and you are able to expect to be showered with praise for "phenomenal" beats, "exceptional sound...
Nov 16, 2010 | 
Author: laverva60Producer Dr. Dre either felt exactly the same way or was persuaded by a sufficiently sweet pay package to lend his name to a new contender within the high-end headphones category. "Beats by Dr. Dre" are built by premium audio brand Monster, which has so far specialized in offering oversized cables for hi-fi enthusiasts - making individuals believe, some critics say, that the sound ought to be much better simply because the cables are bigger and just about every inch or centimeter of cord costs a relative fortune.
The "Beats" are far from a bargain either, selling for around $350 inside U.S. But in case you have discerning ears they might properly be worth the money. After you get past the übersized cost plus the awkward, marketing-inspired name, you are free to get pleasure from the music - and i generally discovered the great doctor's hearing aid to provide plenty of listening pleasure. You will find some minor glitches, which we'll get to in a second, but overall the "Beats" deliver a sound experience that quite a few men and women may well find positively ear-opening.
Here's what you receive for your cash: First off, the "Beats" are basically additional than just a pair of headphones. Thanks to a built-in microphone in one particular of your two offered cables, they also double as a headset for musical mobile phones, such as selected Blackberry versions and Apple's iphone (the plug fits first-generation iphones, too). Secondly, the "Beats" offer a sure amount of noise isolation and are clearly intended to compete with Bose's Tranquil Ease and comfort models, which are particularly common with travelers and command an equally high-flying value. Consequently, Monster supplied its new kid around the block with everything it needs to have a fighting chance. So you get a travel case, a couple of adapters that let the "Beats" play on planes, and even a cleaning cloth - which, mind you, Isn't just any sort of cloth, but a "Monster Clean Cloth with Aegis Microbe Shield". Shure, whatever. (Oh, sorry, that is a different brand.)
Out in the box, the "Beats" didn't wow me at all. Actually, we were off to a poor begin. The "iSoniTalk" cable with its built-in microphone has a button that lets you answer phone calls - basically, it's a little plastic box having a clicker, and it is really not sealed. At very first, I thought this was a manufacturing defect, and when I lightly pulled around the cover to inspect this "defect" more closely, the cover right away came off. Monster says there was an issue with the glue in the initial production run that has since been fixed. And certain adequate, a few drops of additional glue quickly reversed the damage to my review unit, too, but you may have to wonder why the designers decided to leave the talk button contacts open to moisture and other outside influences.
Next step: power up. Two Aaa batteries are included - this isn't some low cost China toy, soon after all - but I wish Monster had gone with a rechargeable answer, like Bose did. The battery compartment's cover feels cheaply created for a high-end headset, and putting it back in place was far more fidgety than it ought to have been. On the other hand, as soon as you get past the preliminaries the "Beats" turn out to be a substantially a lot more pleasant proposition. I observed them comfortable to wear for hours, even though at 270 grams - roughly half a pound - they're not exactly featherweights.
The earcups are nicely cushioned and completely enclose the ear - a style that helps to lock out ambient disturbance. In addition, the "Beats" come with "active sound reduction", which is just another word for noises canceling and requires adequate energy that there is no music unless the headphones are switched on; in other words, if you run out of batteries you are out of luck. This is similar to Boses's Quiet Comfort versions, but various from selected other noise-canceling headphones, for example Sennheiser's PXC 250, which may be used with out batteries as well. (Naturally, in that situation there's no noise-cancellation effect; you need electrical power for the electronic circuits that do the heavy lifting.)
To test the noise-blocking impact, which Monster puts at a maximum reduction of 14 decibels, I took the "Beats" to a busy intersection where a construction crew was at work. The headphones did an admirable job of shielding me from the ruckus - a slightly better job, truly, than Bose's Tranquil Comfort 3, which might be as a result of the fact that the QC3 sit on top from the ears instead of encasing them (as their sister model Peaceful Comfort 2 does). By comparison, Sennheiser's PXC 250 barely managed to supply any insulation from the commotion in any respect - not surprising, really, as they are a compromise among basic disturbance cancellation and compact size. The "Beats", actually, are so effective at isolating you from your environment that you may perhaps locate the mute button from the proper earcup really helpful - when pressed, it permits you to hear what's going on from the outdoors world without taking off the headphones.
Still, it was at residence, under additional relaxed listening conditions, that the "Beats" genuinely started to shine. Their balanced sound and broad spectrum of musical talents promptly won me over. New Order's "Blue Monday" sounded appropriately energetic, virtually metallic, while the Thievery Corporation's "Un easy histoire" floated by as calmly and smoothly as a cocktail hour on the Copacabana. On Jack Johnson's "What You Thought You Need", the Monster headphones plunged deep into the cellar the second the bass drum kicked in, but at precisely the same time never threatened to overwhelm Johnson's subtle acoustic guitar strumming. The last Shadow Puppet's "My Mistakes Were Built For You" bathed in full symphonic glory, and trance classic "3rd Earth" by Scott Bond and Solarstone exploded into pure thomping energy immediately after a really calm, casually playful piano intro - after again showing that the "Beats" are the rare breed of headphones that manage to handle numerous musical styles equally properly.
By comparison, my Sennheiser PXC 250 sounded thin and nasal ( though still being much better than quite a few other headphones I've tried), along with the Bose Tranquil Comfort and ease three typically seemed to lack in transparency. Listening to the same song, instruments felt crammed together when i was wearing the QC3 but distinctly separated when i picked up the "Beats". It is the distinction between walking via a narrow corridor or over a wide open field - suddenly you feel the air. And while it is a bit like comparing apples and peas, I also gave my Bang & Olufsen A8 earbuds a try. They held up surprisingly nicely, considering their design puts them at a natural disadvantage in bass reproduction - as expected, their greatest weakness compared towards the "Beats".
The only headphones in my collection that really gave the Monster pair a run for their income were Denon's AH-D1001, which sell for about $200 less. Around the "Locust Mix" of Phillip Boa's "Deep in Velvet" they dived proper down into precisely the same depths of bass as Dr. Dre's creation (some 20,000 leagues under the sea), plus the subsequent minute they treated Yann Tiersen's delicate "Goodbye Lenin" score with equal caution as Monster's, careful not to break anything. Only in direct comparison did the "Beats" handle to nudge ahead from time to time - not by considerably, but overall they just sounded a bit roomier and a lot more natural.
Whether that - and the much better sound insulation - are worth the extra cash you'll need to decide for yourself. Considerably of this is a matter of taste anyway, so be sure to listen before you buy, as an example at an Apple store or Best Buy outlet (Monster's official retail partners).
The one troubling problem I found was that the "Beats" seemed to have a tendency to create interference noise, similar to what you sometimes hear when you place a mobile phone near a loudspeaker. Initially I thought the problem was related to using the Monster headphones with my iphone, but the problem occurred with several ipods as well. It was enough of a concern that i contacted Monster. The company sent a second review unit for comparison. This one showed similar symptoms but considerably much more a lot more rarely - once or twice a week at most during several hours of listening - so the initial pair of "Beats" might have been defective.
In the event you mostly listen to classical music you might also find the faint background hiss distracting - it's no a lot more than a slightly elevated level of white noise related to the noise-reduction electronics, typical of this kind of headphones. Nevertheless, sensitive ears may well notice it in tranquil passages.
None of this, on the other hand, is to take away from the fact that Dr. Dre and Monster have managed to design a truly impressive set of headphones - 1 that kicks bass devoid of neglecting the rest of whatever music you'll let it play with. The raves are already pouring in, and this time they are justified.