Hi I'm new I've often lurked here but decided to post. I came here doing a search for the Dr.Dre Beats, to see what the opinion on them where, as I used this site before to purchase my first pair of headphones the beyerdynamics Dt770 I wanted to see what people said.
This weekend I went to Curry's at Junction 9 in the Uk to do some christmas shopping with a friend. They had the Dr Dre beats on display. One display where you could plug it into your own device or use the ipod nano's. On the second display the headphones where plugged into a propietary setup. Which had 3 buttons on the top, R&B, Hip Hop and Rock, the fouth button was red volume button which you had to hold and would increase the volume.
I tried these headphones and I was impressed both comfort and sound, like I say I own a pair of Beyerdynamics DT 770 80ohm and these Dr Dre beats sounded better then those to my ears.
Here is the thing I read some posts in this thread saying you cannot test the beats for comparison, this is not the case at junction 9. At Curry's where I tested them the proprietary station had a 3.5mm input jack with a sign that says next to it "compare me", so I went home got my headphones and plugged them in to compare and the beats always sounded better over those three songs, I asked to try them on a PC with a playlist of songs I like to listen to day to day and still the Beats sounded better.
I asked the staff there if I could try the other studio heapdhones they had on display, from sennheiser HD555 to Sennheiser HD600, they had Denon AH-D501 and Bose headphones there too, the Bose also having it's own sound station with volume and sounds to try which by the way had the same comfort as the beats.
I tried those Sennheisers on the properietary sound system setup first. These are the first time I've ever tried sennheiser headphones on by the way. I really wasn't impressed with the Sennheisers at all, they didn't feel comfy almost like having cardboard inserted into fluffy pads around my ears. Where as my beyerdynamics are very close around the edges of my ears and the padding is soft, which generally speaking is so good I forget they're on my head which is maximum comfort.
Not the case with the Sennheisers I know they're there, and the gap in between the my ears and the speakers made it feel like it was floating away from my head. To explain what I mean it would be like me streaching my beyerdyanmics away from my head while I'm wearing them while keeping some contact with my head it's a weird feeling, one I didn't like.
I didn't like the sound from the Sennheisers if im honest, they sounded flat, like generic headphones I've tried in the past they don't impress me at all. I can't understand the ranting and raving about them especially at the price of £299 they where on sale for, what am I missing here? I don't understand how people like that sound. I know many will say it's because they wern't amped up or soemthing, but I tried them on a setup they had at Curry's which had an amp which was blasting music in the audio section for DJ's no real difference at all in the quality just the volume sounded louder.
In comparison to the Beats. the Sennheisers music sounds clean too sterilised while that's great for hearing every musical instrument in genre's like Jazz and classical it didn't feel like they had any bass at all in Hardcore Metal, Rock or DnB or allowed you to hear each instrument individually I'm not talking about stupid bass. I mean natural sound you hear from a Bass Guitar. For example one of my songs I listen to you can hear the Bass guitar very easily with my Beyerdynamics something with old headphones I could never hear and was amazing to finally hear what those songs where meant to be heard like.
The sound reproduction of these Beats and Beyerdyanmics sound correct the same sound when I hear a guitar being played near me or at a live concert. Where as the Sennheisers didn't even recreate it to the same level there isn't a hum when the strings are played, in one song the Bass Guitar is totally absent and hidden as the sound of the lead and rhythm guitars are overpowering the bass lines yet it's as clear as day on my Beyerdyanmics and Beats when tested, why such a big discrepancy?
Bose also had a sound station setup there for headphones called "BOSE ON EAR Headphones" and had similar comfort to the Beats sounded very similar to the beats in some regards but didn't think they where AS good in sound quality they sounded flat on a lot of songs I listen to like the Sennheisers.
While the Dr Dre beats are too expensive in store £279, it is around £220 online. A new pair of Byerdynamics is £145! so no buy for me. On top of that I don't like the idea of batteries in my headphones, I've had wireless headphones in the past and buying or recharging batteries isn't my kind of fun, that said I was more impressed with the Beats then any Sennheiser heapdhone I heard in my personal opinion. If I find a headphone that sounds as good as the Beats comfort and sound quality-wise I will have to buy them like I say my Beyerdynamics didn't hold up to them and I love these headphones been through repairs and still use them today they're solid for gaming and music.
