Beats Studio pro full sized, mini reveiw. - Page 2

That coloring is what makes the Beats so magical for me. That and they look so pimp.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishcabible 

Okay, the mids on these aren't really muffled. They're colored loudly in an incredibly weird unnatural way. So much so that pretty much every frequency smears with the adjacent one. It's not really "good" for the price, but seriously. I like these more than the M50's everyone seems to be so devoted to. The Pros are actually fun to listen to (outside of the BB thing.) and not meant to sound accurate. But they kinda realized that and ran as far away as natural as possible and made something that makes AT's mids sound neutral.

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingtz 

We need to sticky this review so people will stop asking if the Beats are any good.

I like your idea, it will stop people asking about the Beats. 

A few weeks ago, a guy from my class but the Beats Studio, and I asked him if I could listen to it. 

I would start by pointing out that at this point, the best headphones I had tried were the Superlux HD681 and the Grado SR60i's.

Now, I'm not sure if it was the audio file, the source, which was his laptop, or the Beats, but holy mother of god it sounded terrible... I honestly prefer my old Sony MDR-ED21LP over that sound.. Agreed, the Beats are fantastic looking, but that's pretty much the only thing they have going for them.

All this makes me curious. I don't doubt, i would listen to them just to experience how bad they sound.

Could be a brilliant marketing idea too. Advertising Beats as the world worst headphones. You know, some people actually are into this kind of things, makes them feel erm...special.

LOL
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteCrow 

you're dead to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArmAndHammer 

That coloring is what makes the Beats so magical for me. That and they look so pimp.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishcabible 

Okay, the mids on these aren't really muffled. They're colored loudly in an incredibly weird unnatural way. So much so that pretty much every frequency smears with the adjacent one. It's not really "good" for the price, but seriously. I like these more than the M50's everyone seems to be so devoted to. The Pros are actually fun to listen to (outside of the BB thing.) and not meant to sound accurate. But they kinda realized that and ran as far away as natural as possible and made something that makes AT's mids sound neutral.

 

 

 

Bass masking mids is more of a bass issue than mids being muddy, if you would be able to test them again and use an MP3 player that has an EQ the first thing I would do is to bring down the frequency slider closest to 125 - 250Hz range. Sounds like that's the issue here. Not trying to justify Beats Pro but they are probably meant to sound very colored and EQing usually helps quite a lot for these kinds of headphones if you try to adjust out the stuff that's bloated.

If you think the Beat Studios are bad, the Beats Solo HDs would probably put you off music for life! Comparing to the Solo HDs, the Studios actually sound good, I really don't understand what the Best's 'HD' is supposed to mean, because they don't produce any details or clarity at all. But now I'm quite curious to hear what the Beats Studio Pros sound like, I hope they don't have active noise canceling like the Studios because to me, it's a waste of batteries.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanielofDenmark 

 

 

A few weeks ago, a guy from my class but the Beats Studio, and I asked him if I could listen to it. 

 

I would start by pointing out that at this point, the best headphones I had tried were the Superlux HD681 and the Grado SR60i's.

 

Now, I'm not sure if it was the audio file, the source, which was his laptop, or the Beats, but holy mother of god it sounded terrible... I honestly prefer my old Sony MDR-ED21LP over that sound.. Agreed, the Beats are fantastic looking, but that's pretty much the only thing they have going for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteCrow 

but do you really want to spend 450+ on a pair of cans that you have to EQ the hell out of to get a decent sound when you can buy some HD600-650 or hundreds of other cans for the same price?

I wouldn't mind in case the EQ'd result is superb. I don't see the prob people have with EQing, there's very small chance that exactly every bits in a headphone falls just 100% perfectly to your taste, I always make sure any device I pick has a decent EQ with it. Even those who are already good sounding from start might just get tiny bit better with some EQing too. Headphones with too big flaws won't magically become amazingly sounding with EQ alone but it wouldn't hurt to try anyway. I will most likely never use any headphone completely unEQ'd no matter price of the headphone as I see it highly unlikely that any headphone sound 100% like how I prefer it to sound like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteCrow 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishcabible 

Okay, the mids on these aren't really muffled. They're colored loudly in an incredibly weird unnatural way. So much so that pretty much every frequency smears with the adjacent one. It's not really "good" for the price, but seriously. I like these more than the M50's everyone seems to be so devoted to. The Pros are actually fun to listen to (outside of the BB thing.) and not meant to sound accurate. But they kinda realized that and ran as far away as natural as possible and made something that makes AT's mids sound neutral.

 

And if anyone is completely turned off by the Beats' sound, then I suppose they're turned off by basically every closed headphone south of $1000. (discounting the AKG K270/K271 and likely a few others) Because most of them have a V curve, which the Beats have.

hmm, well I liked my sennheiser HD 448, not Vcurve, like my ultrasones, not Vcurve, hated the pro's not sure of response graph. Point being I did not like them, that's my opinion and they are way way way over priced for what they dish out. also I will try and relisten, but I did thing the mids were way to muffled by the bass and highs, what did you listen to with them? I had to use the in store little music player and that only have hip-hop/wrap on it.

The Ultrasones (all of them) have V-curves. Pretty evident ones too (Okay, I'm probably being harsh, but for some reason V-curves put me in a depressive state when I listen to something with a V-curve for at least an hour.) I used a Sony A726 with basically every typical genre save for polka in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

Bass masking mids is more of a bass issue than mids being muddy, if you would be able to test them again and use an MP3 player that has an EQ the first thing I would do is to bring down the frequency slider closest to 125 - 250Hz range. Sounds like that's the issue here. Not trying to justify Beats Pro but they are probably meant to sound very colored and EQing usually helps quite a lot for these kinds of headphones if you try to adjust out the stuff that's bloated.

I tried EQ, and it made the bass less muddy. Probably should have said that before. Yeah, the sound is a bit more clear, but still really colored.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteCrow 

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

Bass masking mids is more of a bass issue than mids being muddy, if you would be able to test them again and use an MP3 player that has an EQ the first thing I would do is to bring down the frequency slider closest to 125 - 250Hz range. Sounds like that's the issue here. Not trying to justify Beats Pro but they are probably meant to sound very colored and EQing usually helps quite a lot for these kinds of headphones if you try to adjust out the stuff that's bloated.

but do you really want to spend 450+ on a pair of cans that you have to EQ the hell out of to get a decent sound when you can buy some HD600-650 or hundreds of other cans for the same price?

Isn't that what amping effectively does too? In addition to providing the necessary power to the headphones anyways. There is not ONE amp that isn't colored in any way (show me one and I'll eat my words) so you're technically EQing them in some way. Sure, software EQ will distort, but hey, these are fun chill out/rock out headphones. Most people won't care quite as much for the purpose of these. (Is the same the case for an hardware parametric EQ?)

And you try using an HD600 for hip hop. Or bring one outside to use in a train. Sure, you could get a PRO900 used, which will (hopefully) be better for about the same price, but I digress. It's already been said literally hundreds of times that the Beats are overpriced, but the thing that annoys me is that people on both sides of the Beats war are blinded by the brand name. They don't completely blow (far from it. I didn't think they were any worse than the M50 to my ears.) and they aren't amazing ($300 can get me a 'Sone for the same price. Or a Lambda.) The Beats Studios are worth half the price they sell for. Maybe a bit more because of the NC. And the Pros are at least competitors to the HFI-780. Nothing more, nothing less.

That being said, I don't plan on ever buying a pair of the Pros. I'd rather save that $400 have 2/3rds of the $600 or so I need for a W11JPN or something which will likely be leagues better for jazz and the like.

Oh, I may be able to defend the Studios and Pros, but there is absolutely nothing positive I can say about the Solos, other than that they make music. Well, they make music sound incredibly muddy. I'm sure EQ can fix them, but considering there's always a broken pair at Best Buy, I'll pass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishcabible 

I tried EQ, and it made the bass less muddy. Probably should have said that before. Yeah, the sound is a bit more clear, but still really colored.

Colored sound is still preferred by some people though, I doubt many of the people buying Studio Pro are expecting to get a neutral sounding can and probably doesn't want that either (well I doubt many people going for those even know what they really want as I don't see the average Beats user being the guy who really knows their stuff with sound), I also like a bit of a colored sound (in form of warm sound with a bass emphasize and gladly a bit forward mids and just slightly on the dark side of neutral highs) and would be highly interested in demoing a Studio Pro but not the point I'd buy it before trying but since I don't know any places where I could try them I don't bother.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPGWiZaRD 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishcabible 

I tried EQ, and it made the bass less muddy. Probably should have said that before. Yeah, the sound is a bit more clear, but still really colored.

Colored sound is still preferred by some people though, I doubt many of the people buying Studio Pro are expecting to get a neutral sounding can and probably doesn't want that either (well I doubt many people going for those even know what they really want as I don't see the average Beats user being the guy who really knows their stuff with sound), I also like a bit of a colored sound (in form of warm sound with a bass emphasize and gladly a bit forward mids and just slightly on the dark side of neutral highs) and would be highly interested in demoing a Studio Pro but not the point I'd buy it before trying but since I don't know any places where I could try them I don't bother.

Exactly, but I just said so in case anybody expected miracles through EQ. I assume by dark highs you mean rolled off/veiled? You probably would like these. Not enough to pay retail on them though. Maybe half the price. I honestly hope nobody pays $400 for these when you could do so much better for the same price, or a bit more. Although for portability and durability, these seem to be rather high on the list of things to consider. The sound is just somewhat off-putting because while they're immensely fun, they seem to get really annoying after a while. Sure, they're fun, but they're not incredibly detailed and tone and timbre is pretty far off from realistic imo. Still way better than most people give them credit for because of their name.

Yea dark highs means same as rolled off/veiled. But I just want it tiny bit, nothing too extreme, the XB500 which has slightly rolled off highs I boost the most so it probably gets quite close to what people would seem like "neutral" with my EQ settings I suppose. Yes I agree $400 is probably too much and concidered I already think once XB500 is EQ'd it's near perfect for me and this costs 8 times less. :p I don't get tired by "fun" or colored sound though and I'm not looking for best possible clarity either, with the preferred amount warmness to the tonal balance I find optimal for me it's impossible to get clarity of a $400+ headphone but that's perfectly fine for me.

Using this EQ config XB500 sounds near perfect for my taste (I may sometimes boost all values a bit more while keeping the same profile to get more forward/aggressive sound though):

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