How are Beats by Dr. Dre?

"Good" headphones = a lot of things.  But, generally speaking, many people look for flat frequency responses.  If they don't like flat responses, they like some sort of colorization that is pleasing.

Beats are highly skewed to the bass side of things.  They are most definitely not neutral or flat.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing because many people like colorization in their music.  But, the part that turns many people off to the Beats is they are over priced, over hyped, and under perform.  You can buy headphones with similar colorization much cheaper.  I think people have less of a problem with cheaper headphones that don't pretend to be hifi like the Beats try to be.

Bloated muddy bass with almost no treble detail. Stereo imaging is terrible (to me it sounded like every song was in mono) Overpriced, overhyped. They look pretty good though.

A lot of bassy headphones (like Ultrasones or Denons) have very quick, punchy, detailed and precise bass. And while they do sacrifice a bit of highs and mids from time to time, they still have detailed highs and mids. The Beats have flabby and slow bass, and no mids or highs whatsoever. Usually that is a sign of cheap equipment, something you shouldn't see in headphones that cost in the hundreds of dollars.

A good example, a friend of mine recently got the Monoprice 8323's, and when comparing them to his friend's Beats Solo HD ($200 headphones), said they sounded almost the same.

Thing is, the Monoprice 8323's are - I kid you not - $20.

The Solos are not *that* bad. But for $350 they are. For $50 they'd be a decent deal.

It's not that surprising, these headphones come from Monster Cable, the company that is famous for selling $2 HDMI cables for $200.

The hype fell a bit short for me.  I didn't find the bose all that much worse for the price, and then I found this place... Not a fan of the styling as well.  They seem gaudy and overdone. 

They have noise canceling that only serves to add digital noise instead of removing ordinary noise, they have bloated bass and lower mids but absolutely no sub bass, and no detail to speak of.  

Their colorful all plastic construction is also prone to breaking.  

Does anyone else get ear aches from active noise cancelling? It was prevalent in the Beats Studio, but completely unbearable with the Bose QC3's.

Build quality is a complete farce. Literally slightly-flexible plastic with padding stuck to it.

Sound wise, not too bad, but the fact that you spend $300 for $100~120 sound is just ridiculous. Along with the aforementioned build quality, Dr Dre is a laughing stock in the eyes of informed consumers and audio enthusiasts alike.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NinjaSquirt 

Bloated muddy bass with almost no treble detail. Stereo imaging is terrible (to me it sounded like every song was in mono) Overpriced, overhyped. They look pretty good though.

No accounting for taste regarding style, of course, but I never regarded the Beats as being "all that" in this regard. But you can spot them a block away, which was probably the Big Idea from a marketing standpoint.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phos 

They have noise canceling that only serves to add digital noise instead of removing ordinary noise, they have bloated bass and lower mids but absolutely no sub bass, and no detail to speak of.  

 

Their colorful all plastic construction is also prone to breaking.  

Frankly, I've yet to hear a pair of active noise-cancelling headphones that don't make me feel like I've lose all hearing acuity above 9khz.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneKnowIt 

 i like the skullcandy better but check out opendoorheadphones.tk out it gave a great review on the beats and skullcandy check it out

This guy is getting on my nerves. Can he be blocked already? I'm afraid to follow the link he's given on every Beats or Skullcandy thread.

what everybody said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taowolf51 

A lot of bassy headphones (like Ultrasones or Denons) have very quick, punchy, detailed and precise bass. And while they do sacrifice a bit of highs and mids from time to time, they still have detailed highs and mids. The Beats have flabby and slow bass, and no mids or highs whatsoever.

As an Ultrasone owner, I support this all the way.

Everything that's been stated already. They have poor quality. They aren't that bad. (unless they are the solo's) but for the asking price with rarely any discounts. They are terrible in value. the sound like said is bloated and muddy. the low end is this false very muddy low end. It muddies the mid and highs(the pros not so much) but the mids and highs are also just terrible on these