As an owner of the original Studio Beats I was hard pressed to spend $300-400 again on another pair of noise canceling headphones. Fortunately, Amazon had a great Goldbox deal around Christmas that made this decision somewhat easier ($275). These headphones are lighter, sleeker and the noise leak is much less than the originals. And best of all, these are Bluetooth wireless. So I've been using these everywhere, from pairing to my iPhone, or my MBP, wireless makes it just so easy to use these whereas with my original headphones I find myself avoiding using them because I would be tethered to something and would be getting tangled up in long extension cables or on a short leash from my phone or computer. Now I can just toss these on and play my audio. That alone makes they pretty compelling upgrade if you own the originals and are looking for an excuse to upgrade.
My old pair will be given to my wife or kids to use on the airplane for the noise cancelling capabilities.
Sound: These cans still sound great, the sounds stage is still slightly mid-low heavy yes, but I don't find them as heavy on the low end as before. The improved cushioning on the ear pieces might have helped in this regard, because find myself not turning up the volume as much but hearing much better. The highs on these seem a bit more clear than before making these tied for the favorite headphones I own. My Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 were my favorite headphones before I bought these but now they are about neck and neck, Audio-Technica are open air headphones that produce a nice sound stage throughout all frequency ranges, but Beats isn't that far off, and you get many more features (but you're also paying for them too).
Noise cancellation: Again with the improved cushioning, these headphones are made much better than the originals. It is far more difficult to hear the outside world with these on my ears even without the headphones on, once I turn the headphones on the active noise cancellation kicks in and it virtually blanks out the outside world. There seems to be an improvement in the noise cancellation as well from the originals because I find myself much less irritated when I use these headphones without audio playing. Sometimes I just need quite and need to concentrate and with the original Beat Studio headphones I found it made a droning/pulsing white noise that would feel a lot like change of pressure in my ears like when you take off on an airplane. It sometimes gave me headaches. With this latest version of the Beats Studio, the droning/pulsing is much less and I can just wear these to give myself some piece and quiet in noisy environments. Once I turn on the audio for music, movies or audiobook, the outside world is pretty much gone.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth pairing, simple and easy, turn on the headphones, turn on Bluetooth pairing on your device and when the Beats are connected they will play a little sound bite. When you turn off your Beats or your Bluetooth on your device, the headphones will play a different sound bite. If you need to switch from one Bluetooth source to another, simply turn off the Bluetooth or disconnect the Beats on one device and connect on the other. Makes switching from iPhone to Mac very easy. You can skip tracks with the headphone, change volume and start and stop audio (or video if you're watching something) right from the headphone left side controls.
Battery: Charge time seems fairly normal, you can get about 80% charge within an hour. Though I haven't timed from completely drained battery to full, I don't think it takes more than 3 hours to get a full charge. The headphones last a while so you should be able to get an entire day of audio play if you need to. Good enough battery life for most long flights or frequent use. The only disappointing feature I find with these headphones is that I cannot switch out batteries if I need to. I haven't tried pulling off one of the covers but it looks like the side cover can be removed if you have a small screwdriver.
Weight: These headphones feel significantly lighter than the original Beats Studio headphones I own. They are overall a smaller profile making packing and traveling with these much easier. The case is about 30% smaller than the original but lacks an internal pocket for holding accessories but so long as you can pack away a micro-USB charge cable somewhere you should be good to go.
Appearance: Comes in many different colors and I like the titanium colored ones I purchased. They are unintrusive looking and keep a low profile. But there are several other color combinations to fit your style. Before Beats introduced other colors, for better or worse you had to look a bit obnoxious, somewhat like Ed Hardy shirts 5 years ago. With the white or gold colored headphones they look "softer", matte finishes look a bit more masculine and bold solid colors like red and blue for those people that like to stand out.
Overall: These headphones are spendy but if you can afford them they are definitely worth it. The build quality is superb and the noise cancellation and sound quality are top notch. Even if you owned an older version like I do, these are worth looking at and even replacing the originals.
Reviews with images
Very Impressed! Wireless capability is Amazing!
I am very happy with these headphones! I absolutely love the wireless feature. This is my first pair of wireless headphones and it would be hard to go back. I got a nice deal on these. I don't know why the Titanium ones were on sale, but they were only $229. And a bonus, I had a $70 gift card balance. I had been researching headphones for a few weeks wanting a new pair. I'd been keeping an eye of the Solo version, but this was too good of a deal to pass up. Titanium is probably the color I would have chosen anyway. They are a little less flashy. That's the one thing I actually don't like about Beats. Beats in general do feel flashy to me, but these are a fantastic looking pair of headphones.I do feel Beats are overpriced and you are paying for the name. However, they aren't as bulky as other brands and I love a deep bass and I know other brands such as Bose have a flatter more even sound. My last pair was Bose. They sounded good, but so far these are better. The sound is crisp and I'm very impressed with it. I do have a set of the Urbeats earbuds that have good sound as well, so I knew the sound would be decent. Of course, these surpass the earbuds.The fit is a little tight, but that also secures the sound and prevents leaking, which is something I hate. I've asked and been told, the sound doesn't leak badly. That is a big turnoff for me, when others in the room can hear what I'm listening to. If there is anything that annoys me, it's having to endure someone's headphone noise in a quiet room. I've been wearing them to bed at night and after a couple of hours, my ears do get a little sore. However, I've only had these a little under 2 weeks, so maybe I will get used to the fit and that will lessen. I've already noticed it's not as bad.My only con is battery life. I haven't had it last 12 hours. Maybe 6-8 of playback. But I plug them in and they charge fast.Overall, I'm very impressed! Would I pay $379 for them? Probably not, that's a lot of money and I'm not sure if they would be worth that. I guess it will depend on how well they hold up. If they last me 2+ years, then maybe I would drop that kind of money. Time will tell. But so far, so good! If you can get a deal on them, I'd go for it. I'm glad I did.
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