is beats by dr. dre really that good?

at the price of 400CAD there are quite a few other choices too, but is it "that" good?

 

I suppose it depends on what you want. The general verdict is that they're surprisingly good, and they have good functionality overall to boot.

However you may find for example you prefer the earbud-type, or maybe a lighter, cheaper set which isn't powered.

The Sennheiser HD25-1 is an example which weighs less than half as much as the Beatz and sounds very decent as well as providing high passive isolation, and is about $200. Not as pretty or obvious on your head though and it does have a tendency to mash down your ear cartilage quite hard in order to provide that high passive isolation - once again, it's all about what you might consider important.

 

I tried one last time, it was pretty good. great bass w/ clear voice.

 

"good" is pretty subjective. If it's cost-wise, then no. They're the worst and overpriced. They're made by Monster Cables and they're notorious for overpriced products. You can get something better for the same price. For usage, If you don't want to amp your headphones, then these noise-cancelling self amped headphones will do, but do consider the cost.

Sound quality wise I have no idea since I've never heard them. Are they oriented for Hip hop and rap (that's what I think when I think of Dr. Dre) meaning bloated bass/more bass?

 

I think stuff like that is what you say when you've actually listened to it, isn't it? I mean - I realise that on the web most people's fact is what they assume things to be, but it might a) help to actually have some experience of what you're commenting on or b) not bother commenting at all.

 

I listened to a pair at Best Buy.. they sound good but not for the price they are charging. Much better headphone can be found for cheaper. I do however like the cord on the earbuds.

 

They're $250 at canada computers... don't bother with best buy.

Go read some reviews on the internet. All the reviews I've read said build quality is really cheap, and you need a battery working at all times for the headphonse to work.

 

I really like Beats. To me they sound very good and thats all that matters. I believe Fry's Electronics selling for 399 or less.

 

I have only seen those pairs but I would probably ask this question at website like Head-Fi. If you are a bass-head, BeyerDynamics is a good brand. Denon is worth an audition too. I do not know how the Beats stack up against it though.

Those Beats were designed by Monster Cables, who have a reputation for overpricing their products. At that pricepoint (~$400 CAD), there are a lot of great high-end headphones brands that are more established than Monster Cables.

IMHO, they might be a little overpriced for the sound quality you get. You are paying for the Dr. Dre branding and the hipster-chic look.

 

The fact that they say "Monster" and "Dr. Dre" on them probably adds an extra $250 to what they should actually cost, and no, I don't have to listen to them to tell you that.

 

I have them. They are definitely not worth the MSRP, but you can get them at around $200.00 on eBay. I most likely wouldn't pay the full MSRP, however they are some sick headphones.

 

Thanks for the Head-Fi reference. Went there and it opened my eyes to other alternatives.

 

Just be careful with your wallet!

 

If you go to Head-fi.org, you wont see anything there but top notch headphones are are very pricey and goes for the money fairly well. Those guys knows quite a bit like we know about notebooks fairly well.
The "beats" headphones you're talking about, if you ask in the Macbook forums (which I dare you to), you're probably going to get a good "yes get them" because 1) Those headphones are sold/promoted/ and displayed in apple stores with their iphones/ipods. and
2) Because it was in an apple store, ifans would buy beats as a complement accessory to their hundreds of other iequipments.

I had a friend who had them and I used them for about a good 2 days until I finally realized that they were not for me.

The bass is heavy as they rattle your ear, but enough of that does gets very annoying after a few hours, though the the rattling seemed awesome the first 10 minutes.
The price is WAYYY over the top for the sound quality you get for those.

Head over to head-fi.org and you'll get adviced on much better quality headphones for that price.

*oh and remember that if you commit to beats, remember that you're also buying it for the name brand as well.

 

Thanks for that site boss there amazing they give so many review......Id recommend it too!

 

What you get at Head-Fi is a bunch of peer groups with about as much actual experience as the people on this thread, but who read more about headphones

 

problem with head-fi is that you will be recommanded a shure 530 when you don't need one -_-'

thanks for all the input

 

Quad post ftw

 

Jeez... I'm really sorry about that. I kept getting 404's when I posted, couldn't go back into the thread, site was like treacle generally - so I tried a few times, gave up and browsed elsewhere.

 

it would take much less effort to find an informed opinion on head-fi than nbr, when it comes to headphones.

 

I'd say read around on head-fi, for a good few weeks. It is kind of a pain cause you always get suggested the same few headphones, which you may like or may not. But for that price, I'd go with the Ultrasone HFI-780's I haven't heard the beats, but I'd eat my hat if they sounded better than the 780's.

 

Then again, no one needs beats.

 

i think eazy e is better

 

I think the biggest problem with Beats by Dr. Dre is the MSRP price.

I saw this a month ago watching Ncix Tech Tip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6w8WTNTlnY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fncix.com%2Fproducts%2Findex.php%3Fsku%3D35892%26vpn%3D129346%26manufacture%3DMonster%2520Cable&feature=player_embedded

 

i like the cord is detachable, i like the active noise cancellation

but yes, price is way too much

ps. i spent 2hours on head-fi today it almost got me into buying IE8(se530/westone3/etc)

phew~

looking into se310/scl4/se420/er4p still -_-'

 

You may want to check out the Phonak's too.

 

gonna settle for a hf2 if i can have it at a much lower price.

i am still not liking the idea of over the ear as it seldom works for me.

er4p is a little steep but if i cannot get the hf2 low i might consider that instead. the mic is a bonus but not a must.

i knew i would had spent too much

 

The price... OMG

 

I think they should be "Beats By George Clinton", because Dr. Dre would be Dr. Nobody without Parliament Funkadelic

 

Thanks for the valuable feedback on our headphones. For more reviews and info about Beats By Dr. Dre headphones go to www.beatsbydre.com
- The Beats Online Street Team

 

Thank you for the edifying thread necromancy, Street Team.

- Yo dawg. Word. And that thing with the arms.

 

I am using Ultrasone DJ1 PRO's and they sound better than my dads Sennheiser 580's.

They sound very good, I use them for music editing, trips, and drumming.

 

What source you using with the HD580's. Those are pretty high ohm headphones, if you don't have a nice enough source then you wont get their full potential.

 

The preconceived notions a lot of you have about head-fi are very false.

-If you were to go to head-fi and say "hey guys, i have 60-80 dollars to spend. I listen to X and Y and will be using them also for Z", you aren't going to get posts saying "OMG GET THE SENNHEISER ORPHEUS, STAX STAX STAX, etc". They are educated and provide you with links to the best headphones for your planned use/budget. They may sometimes show you other headphones that may be a few bucks more than your budget, but it's just to give you alternatives.

-Vogel, you might like to think these people just read up on headphones. I'm not saying they don't, but they have FAR more physical hands on experience with headphones than people on this site will(generally at least). You find very educated people on the subject at head-fi. I've seen a few sound engineers from MIT post their reviews of the higher end headphones. And the community is pretty tight knit. They have a lot of headphone meets, so while some of the members don't have a lot of money to have a huge collection of headphones, they can meet up with people that do and they are able to try out/compare a huge amount of high end headphones/amps/sources.


As far as the beats are concerned. I'm not a fan. The only way these things could truly be a competitor towards like Denon D1000's would be to have a price tag of ~<125 dollars. I've tried out the headphones and the clarity was somewhat decent. A bit over the place thanks to the emphasis of the bass, but other than that, the big thing that struck me is you can't have dead silence on the cans. Sure they block out sonud very well, but what i'm assuming is caused fro mthem being battery powered, is when you reach silence, or track changing in an ipod, you get a somewhat humming, almost...white noise, in your headphones. Not good.


Pluss for the price of 300-400, you could get Sennheiser Hd600's and a Zero DAC/amp, which would outperform the beats by FAR.

 

no, they suck. you can get much better headphones for the price of beats by Dr. Dre.
check out forums.head-fi.com. they will help you make a good decision.

 

Steggy,

I can understand that many forum'ers misinterpret my stated opinions ranging from the occasionally somewhat dismissive to the extended rant, with lack of familiarity. After all - it's the Internet and everyone has an opinion. As a general rule however I tend to only comment on things I have opinions due to experience.

With a niche and non-'audiophile' product like the Dres, and one above all made by Monster Cable, a brand which will have many budget audiophiles frothing at the mouth despite the fact that they'll pay more for inferior cable from one of the niche suppliers who has a more audiophiler-than-thou image, you are highly unlikely to get an anywhere valid response even via an echo on Head-Fi - because one of the peer-group 'heads' there will have to pick it up (usually unlikely) before opinions will start being regurgitated quickly, or someone's going to have to put in some work in a clearly objective comparison.

 

I get your logic. Those who know the subject well wouldn't want to shell out a lot of money on something they suspect to be terrible. But in this case, these headphones are sold in retail stores that have return policies. So people can buy them try them then return them. Also the fact that they have displays at the apple store at least, makes it easy to get a first impression from the headphone.

 

just go bose, never had a problem with them. save 100 bux

 

Buy Other Sound Equipment

 

Just get some sennheisers or some AKG, or some Grado or something thats not priced 10 times what it should be(bose and monster).

 

Ice Cube is better

 

Be satisfied with what ever you get. Don't waste money on the percieved notions of quality. Had been on such audiophile trips and burned up a lot of cash, I learned the true meaning of satisfaction after that.

 

You've just made a great case for them. See?

I said what I said because I know Head-Fi's dynamics. And also because I have an Orpheus and I didn't get there in one leap. It's a board that's interested me for a while from a marketing perspective since it was an Internet backwater before the iPod changed everything - and it's been interesting to watch the online community change. One of the problems is that so many of the reviews stand as isolated prose that it's extremely difficult to draw a relevant comparisons, and many people simply repeat others. Add this to the low cost of entry and a currently young demographic and ironically for a forum which is about sound quality, you have very low SNR.

NBR - like many other forums - has potentially exactly the same problems, but the presence of the editorial reviews hugely mitigates the irrelevance of the regurgitated and 'me-too' opinions.