Monster Beats Solo HD (PRODUCT)RED Headphones with ControlTalk

JaCe_jai

New Head-Fier
Pros: Bass, Comfortable, remote control, build quality, folding mechanism, ability to use own 3.5mm cable
Cons: Price, brand-name (a lot of people will laugh at you), theft target
Summary as per above- good bass, easy to carry/portable with folding mechanism and bag, iPhone remote+mic on the left (rather than the right- which is great for those who use their left hand to adjust whilst using right hand on the mouse!), closed ear which is comfortable for me, surprisingly strong build quality which feels like it can endure normal everyday use, ability to use own 3.5mm cable in case you wear the one it comes with out (this has been the death of many fo my previous Sennies), nice packaging, etc.
 
Catch is everyone sees them and laughs especially if in a professional environment/workplace (or if they're an audiophile), and you become a theft target if you use these in public. That, and they're expensive for what it is.
 
Ultimately though, I enjoy them because they are very comfortable on my large head and they block out the noise at work but if necessary I can still *just* hear when someone talks to me, etc. The heavy bass helps put me in the zone.
Night Crawler
Night Crawler
The only one laughing is Dre, all the way to the bank! :wink:
Kent0
Kent0
Seriously? 4 for Audio Quality? you make Dre's wallet full of Gs
streetdragon
streetdragon
audio quality 4? what? value 2.5? more like 0.5 for both of the fields.

KodaO

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Bass, mids, and highs all level out with decent burn in, portable, comfortable
Cons: Incorrect burn in leads to very muddy, distorted bass
 So every audiophile known to man, or at least that I have listened to, has bashed the Beats, Soul, Streets ect.. line for being an awful, bass prominent headphone. I agreed for the longest time until I actually got a pair of Beats. (They were a gift and I always thought they were a fun personal listening headphone)
 
Just as with any other cans, I gave them a 20 hour burn-in period and was blown away. They sounded amazing, better than my XB700's, and almost on par with the sound signature of my DT770's. I don't know if it's just my ear, but I was very impressed.
 
Out of the box:
 
Lows: The lows on these cans out of the box are VERY exaggerated, drowning out almost all of the mids and highs to the point where its not fun to listen to anything except for dubstep, house, hip hop, ect...
 
Mids: One word, LACKING. Vocals are almost non-existent behind the bass, and some instruments are impossible to distinguish in the noise.
 
Highs: Well defined, you can still slightly distinguish the crash of a hat, or the hit of a snare, but they are still drowned out by that all powerful BOOM.
 
After 20+ hours of burn in...
 
Lows: Much more controlled, still heavy but controlled. They don't drown out the other important frequecies NEAR as bad as before.
 
Mids: I can HEAR THE VOCALIST! When listening to Our Truth - Lacuna Coil, the intro is very bassy and before burn in, Cristina Scabbia was non existent, but now her intro lead is clearly legible and enjoyable.
 
Highs: No senseable change, still quite pronounced, but a little harsh at higher volumes. The crash or a cymbal will want to make you take them off if your volume levels are too high.
 
 
Comfort: The pads on these cans are amazingly comfortable, i love the way they feel on my head and have worn them for extended periods (4 hours+) with no fatigue.
 
Isolation: Internally, they block ambient noise well, externally they radiate TERRIBLY, Especially in a quite environment, When tested in public, people could clearly hear the music coming from the Solo's at 40% volume.
 
 
 
Overall: Not a bad pair of cans AT ALL, I believe they are the only Beats product worth what they run retail. (150~ dollars depending on where you look), if you are looking for a more balanced headphone, look into a pair of Audio Technica WS55's or WS70's.
GL1TCH3D
GL1TCH3D
When I tried them, they sounded like someone was scraping metal against metal. Just so tinny and horrible. Everything was grainy, tinny and unenjoyable unless I'm thinking of something else...
A
asdfghjkzxcvbnm
they are terrible
MarcadoStalker7
MarcadoStalker7
Incorrect burn-in?
So, if you don't get a 24/192 Lossless Pink Noise and a 10k dollars headphone amp and DAC it don't have the correct bass?

Sdeary

New Head-Fier
Pros: Attractive Design, Nice Clean Base
Cons: Poor/Flimsy Construction
Great set of cans for going out and about in town though for the heavy price you would expect far better build quality, the headphones themselves are made almost entirely form plastic and do feel somewhat on the fragile side, however, the cable is of a very high quality and is difficult to tangle as is expected from monster cable. Two cables are provided and as well as the cable being removable so too are the ear-cups for cleaning or replacement. Sound quality is very good with great sound separation and nice clean bass that doesn't over power or wash out the highs and mids unlike their predecessor the beats by dre solo's, its a huge improvement fot the extra $20. The finish is also different as the solo's are matt but the new solo hd's are ultra glossy which looks good for about five minutes until their covered in fingerprints a micro-fibre cleaning cloth is also provided. The beats by dre solo hd's use the same drivers as the beats studio headphones but without the active sound cancelling making them a great alternative to somebody who cannot afford the extortionateprice of the studios as so long as the user is in a reasonably quiet enviroment the sound wwuality should be roughly the same. These headphones are at a competitive price for their audio quality although you are left with the feeling that your spending $40 on the box, $10 on the case, $30 on the brand name 'beats' (which isn't too bad because they are well recognised and always a point of conversation) and only $120 of the $200 price on sound quality.
 
 
kyuuketsuki
kyuuketsuki
I must ask, how long have you had the Beats for? Because, from what I have hear and read, the build quality, cables included, is pretty horrid. The idea is nice, the flat tangle free design, but the point of connecting is weak and breaks easily. This causes the user to get the cables replaced, though they might need to replace the headphones sooner as the build quality is even worse on those.
Also, I find it quite sad when a company feels the need to upgrade a product to "HD" and advertise improved build quality when the product costs more than $100. At a $200 price point, that shouldn't have been a question.
I have another question... where are you getting your information about the drivers from? Please cite, because upon searching I could not find any useful driver information on either the Solo or the Solo HD, other than it uses titanium coated drivers. No information on size, frequency response, impedence.... nothing at all. So how do you know they use the same drivers? All they say is that it has the same sound (Which I know they don't as I have heard both). If you are going to make a claim like that, having proof would be nice. In fact, Monster doesn't seem to release any information about their drivers aside from that titanium technology thing. I think I read somewhere that the Studios had 40mm driver, but that is it.
I'm not saying you are not entitled to your opinion, but please try to use information that is 100% confirmed if it is not your opinion so as to not mislead people.
PS: Don't assume price breakdown, because as we all know, Monster products are notoriously overpriced, and that sort of information is arbitrary and has no basis of truth.
Dawls
Dawls
the build quality is crap, brittle plastic

hd800op

New Head-Fier
Pros: Thumpy bass, sparkly highs, overall nice warm smooth sound,
Cons: Recessed mids, absolutely terrible without amplification, bass can be muddy, expensive for specialty headphones, unforgiving of lower bitrate
First off, I'm going to say that I didn't pay for these, they were a gift.
Second of all, I do like them, they work well for me

Ok so long before I had any audiophiliac knowledge, I wanted beats for the boomy sound, good looks, and because I was a bit insecure to be completely honest. In spite of this, I had still heard other headphones which sounded better than the muddy mess that attacked my ears upon receiving my gift and was prepared to return them, when I tried on an off chance to run them through my dad'so amplifier. The difference was the single greatest difference I had ever heard amplification make to a headphone, even to this day. These headphones work nicely, at a 200$ level when you treate them right, but are remarkably demanding. iPods and whatever they use for display in store do no justice for these. Sounds decent, but, the average consumer looking for a nice bassy but good headphone is not in possession of a decent amp, and even if they do, it takes away from the point of these which is to be portable. Big mistake, Beats. My guess, from close listens is that they took whatever driver was in the original studio and jammed it into a smaller frame, which sounds like a good thing, but there was a reason why the beats studio sounded better; the active noise cancelling coupled with the amplification effect added value for your average joe who doesn't have a clue about bitrates, frequency response, or preamplification. Either way, I'm not entirely sold on the value, but it's far from what head fi makes it out to be. In terms of comfort, I have never had a problem, but friends of mine have experience some clamping and fatigue after listening periods longer than an hour or 2. Durability... Well I have had them for 3 years now with no problems, but the cables seem to fall apart constantly, which is a big no no with a headphone of this cost IMO, but not an uncommon one. Maybe I just treat my cables like ****.

Opinion as it pertains to marketing:
You dun goofd Beats. The poor reproduction under normal portable conditions gives the impression to the listener that they are paying an enormous premium for the product. Relying on it being someone's first decent headphone works for a time, but with companies like Sennheiser waiting to snatch up disgruntled beats customers their long term market strategy is doomed unless they rework it to be more easily driven, cool the bass down a bit, and do some serious damage control in terms of overall opinion on the company. No, they will aren't and will never be open headphones with a flat response, they intentionally color the music for bass lovers, and they will never be a Superlux of value, but these headphones are actually decent, and need to be able to show that they are more effectively.

NOTE: Burn in time was about 20 hours, made a pretty big difference, toned the bass and sharpened the treble. Mids still iffy.

Bottom line:

IF you have a decent portable amp, don't mind carrying around said amp, enjoy bassy headphones, and like the looks, go for it.

EDIT: I am lowering the rating of these to 2.5 stars. I was too easy on these cans, better off getting ue 4000s.

LazBro123

500+ Head-Fier
Pros: Decent Comfort, Good Bass, Looks Good
Cons: Poor Value, Not Durable, Overpowering Bass, Sound Quality
 
     I sort of liked these headphones when they were working. They were comfortable, but the sound quality was not that good. Too much bass and it overpowers the mids and the highs. Around 4 months later, no sound came out of the headphones. I paid $200 for headphones and they break? Also, these headphones do not sound like $200 headphones. They sound like $50 headphones. Do not buy these........ Buy anything else, from Audio Technica, Sennheiser, AKG, Grado, Shure, Beyerdynamic etc..... I am sending these back to get a replacement pair.
PomPWNius
PomPWNius
Glad you learned the lesson, just sorry you learned the hard way :frowning2:
LazBro123
LazBro123
Yeah lol. I replaced the Beats Solo HD with the Audio Technica ATH-M50. They was 40 dollars cheaper and are 1000000000x better than the Solos. :)

iceshark

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Sleek styling, popular name, portable, relatively comfortable
Cons: Bass is lacking, highs and mids are muffled, comfort varies by wearer, overpriced
Now that I've sold these headphones and traded them in for a pair of the Shure750djs, I will now go ahead and give you my comparison between these too and how these headphones are lacking in general for price.
 
Value: I bought my Srh750's for $108, their retail is around $150-200. The HD's are $180-200. The Beats headphones are better than a standard low quality pair of headphones because of their bass, which I feel is not the greatest quality but VERY apparent. It is how buyers are lured in, especially those who had the Apple earphones with no physical bass at all. I think buyers catch what I will call "bass obsession," where that feeling of pumping bass is so new and powerful they simply can't resist! On top of that, the brand name, portability, and styling catch their eye, and next thing you know they are ringing it up in the check-out line without any forethought on other headphone possibilities. These headphones may be a decent alternative for Skullcandy's, but just remember what you are buying when you buy these headphones- it is not the sound quality.
 
Audio Quality: While I owned these headphones and had little experience with quality sound, I did still  notice the drowning bass. I once turned the EQ on my iPod to Treble Boost, and I heard a horrid, painful, spikey treble. Imagine someone poking your ear with a little needle. It caused my ears to be very fatigued quickly, but as soon as I turned off the EQ the bass suddenly drowned out everything. It was like I threw a pillow at the singer's face and tied it there for the rest of the song! These headphones are very lively in term of bass, but that is about it. The bass is very unnatural and lacks variety and depth, which is something I instantly noticed with my purchase of my other headphones. Once the customer overcomes his bass obsession and looks for finer sound quality, or runs across a pair of Sony XB500's, for example, he/she will leave these headphones in a second.
 
Design: These headphones are flimsy. I do like the sleekness and thin design for portability, but it wouldn't take much effort to snap the sides. They are very easy for around-the-neck carrying, and unlike my new, large cupped headphones which feel like a neck brace and seem abnormally large around my neck, these are pretty comfy. However, I found that my hair caught caught in the headphones a lot, which shouldn't be a problem for men, but women may occasionally have to yank a strand of hair out of their head when they wear these headphones. I would like to say that if you want to buy these headphones, you are mainly buying them for their design and brand name. If you want anything else besides mediocre sound quality, don't consider these. The build isn't great, and for those who aren't careful or all too used to their indestructible earbuds, you will likely break these quickly. However, their exterior styling is unlike many headphones currently on the market, and makes a great style accessory. I believe they look better on your head rather than alone; very low-profile styling.
 
Comfort: I am not used to comfortable headphones. I have never owned a comfortable pair of headphones in my life. With this said, I would still complain slightly with the long-term wearing of these headphones. Many say these headphones are very plush and comfortable, but in my case it is only temporarily. This could just be a personal discomfort, but it is very predominant after some time, so I thought I'd mention it anyhow. Wear these headphones for more than an hour, then remove them. I find that I don't notice the soreness that much till I remove them. Then, a painful soreness shoots through my ears and I never want to put them on again. Obviously, this is a fault of the on-ear design. My Shure's are also uncomfortable, but I can wear them for hours and not worry about any pain (over-the-ear headphones). One fault with over-the-ear is the fact that if you own glasses, you can't really wear them with them or have to skooch them up a tad, but that's besides the point. :p On-ear typically become uncomfortably after an hour or so of wear, unless you have a notably comfortable pair. So in the end, these are short-term use headphones, because you'll need to give your ears a rest not just from the sound but from the pads too. In the short-term, however, I will agree they are quite smug, and noise isolation is surprisingly impressive!
 
Overall: Not worth it. If you are on head-fi, you shouldn't even be looking at this review! You should be asking around about a real pair of headphones, because that is what the forum is for. If you're going for design, go to a Best Buy or electronics shop and look around, because it would be a waist of time if you looked here. Most of our headphones look big, mushroomy, and don't have well-known brand names in the "trendy" department. If you're buying headphones to impress the people walking by you, these are pretty good, just don't have one who knows sound quality try it on.

Lan647

1000+ Head-Fier
Pros: Fairly comfortable. Doesn't try to pierce your ears to their knees like some others.
Cons: The sound in every way. Disgustingly plasticy. Overpriced.
I've heard these once. All I did was shaking my head. They didn't sound piercing so technically they weren't painful to listen to but oh boy did they sound bad! 

Weird, muffled bass that lacks depth and sounds like you've turned the mid-bass up using a badly implemented digital EQ? - Check. 
 
Thin, recessed, muddy mids? - Check
 
Recessed treble with the resolution of airplane earbuds? - Check. 
 
Really no reason to buy these for anyone. I'd say they're worth maybe... 30 bucks. But they are more expensive then the Audio technica M50 and they even fall short of those in terms of looks (the plastic just looks and FEELS really, really cheap) which is the main selling point of these Beats cans anyways. 
 
The fit and comfort is pretty good though, but thats seriously the only good thing. 
 
Stay AWAY from these! Don't think ANYONE having heard better will argue that these are awfully overpriced and just poor-performing headphones. 
Lan647
Lan647
Nah never heard the Solo original. They say those are worse still...
thecansmancan
thecansmancan
i heard they got the idea from a pair of headphones stolen from a soviet test facility. they've proven more effective than any atomic bomb...
Lan647
Lan647
Hah!

EPICFAILXD

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Nothing
Cons: Everything
No, no, no.
EPICFAILXD
EPICFAILXD
Really wish i listened to my dad when he said you should have bought the v moda m80's.....
thecansmancan
thecansmancan
Hey, so um, after that fantastic review here's another. With just a little more detail. As in it actually goes in depth an describes how bad it is.
zorin
zorin
An excellent, excellent review, It made my day. The Beats deserve nothing less than these few sterling and succinct words.

Mister A

New Head-Fier
Pros: sleek style, big bass
Cons: flimsy, muddy sound, overpriced
For $200 headphones, I gotta say these perform pretty abysmally. I'll tell you about 3 things: design, comfort, and sound. I borrowed these for a week for the purpose of studying them, and the friend I borrowed them from assured me they're real.
 
Design
These are a nice looking pair of headphones. The sleek design shape and shiny finish make these aesthetically pleasing in a somewhat flashy way. It feels kind of like they were designed to be flashy and easy to show off, especially for high schoolers that want to brag about them.
 
While the thick plastic headband makes these headphones look strong, they're actually pretty flimsy. The plastic that makes up the headband is brittle and feels like it could break easily if you stretched it a little too far. I had to be very careful while handling these, because I felt like if I wasn't they were going to break. I didn't even bother testing these to see if they could stand up to dropping, because I was almost sure they'd break if I did. Considering the $200 price tag, you'd expect something a little more solid.
 
 
Comfort
These aren't very comfortable to wear, but at least they're not painful. After about 30 minutes, they start feeling like head clamps, so I had to take them off for a few seconds and put them back on. Not a deal-breaker, but it's still annoying.
 
 
Sound
Bass is definitely the strong point of these headphones. It's very abundant in the sound signature. While I personally like this, anyone seeking an accurate frequency response should steer clear. A problem with the bass was that it sounded somewhat "mushy," not punchy like the bass on my Sennheisers or Bose. I prefer punchy bass over mushy bass.
 
Mids are nothing to brag about. They're present but sometimes a little overshadowed by the bass. The clarity isn't so good either.
 
Treble is vieled and rolled off at the top. Some detail is also missing too.
 
 
Conclusion
I know it sounds like I'm bashing these headphones, but I'm really not. I'm simply judging them from the $200 standard, and from the $200 standard, they're horrible. If I was judging these from the $40 standard, these would actually have gotten a 4 star rating. If we ignore the price, these aren't horrible headphones. But when you buy these at the normal price, you're overpaying by $160. Is the Beats brand really worth that?

turimbar1

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: big mid-bass
Cons: slow (cannot handle more than one sound at a time), no mids, no highs,
they have these at my work, both earpieces have popped out of the frame (not completely, they are still hanging on by one hinge) and the foam on the top is starting to separate from the frames. The bass is big but does not extend at all and when there is any bass, the response is so slow that the mids and highs are barely rendered. there are occasions when the highs sound good, but they are rare. these phones are not detailed at presentation by anyones estimates.
 
As an electrical engineering student, I feel very sorry for the electrical engineers who had to design these, because I am certain that their input was thrown out completely, either that, or they are not very ethical fellows (monster is known for being unethical in pricing and design, especially on their hdmi cords).
 
The frequency response on these is not good (to say the least), also it handles fast changes in frequency poorly. This is fine for music with a slow beat and little emphasis on detail, but it falters when playing bebop or fast classical music, or rock.
 
the koss portapros seem more detailed while exhibiting less bass. they have much better mids and the highs are not too dissimilar, except perhaps slightly more detailed.
 
The sony XB700 has both bigger and more detailed bass (while being able to extend to the deepest freqs). That is the phone I recommend if you are a bass head.
 
The product(red) is good because it is supporting a good cause, but you would be far more helpful to the cause (and your ears) if you bought some koss portapros for 35$ and donated the 165$ you have left to a reputable organization.
Sdeary
Sdeary
yea it was a bit one sided, they arent that bad, and i like how u didnt mention its excellent and truly worthy of recocgnition cable which is very high quality, detachable and tangle resistant...
turimbar1
turimbar1
Monster makes some fine products (turbine coppers), but the majority of stuff is overpriced by a huge margin (audio cables, video cables, usb cables, and dr. dre's whole line basically). headphones in general already have high markup prices (sennheiser and others are no exception), but the beats line is marked up into oblivion.
I want to help foster audiophiles by leading them away from the way overpriced, and keeping them in the budget area, thus allowing them to get more headphones and DACs and amps and other equipment to aid them on their journey.
What I have said here is both my estimation based on what I have heard, and what has echoed around headfi for a VERY long time.
the cable is not high quality, I forgot to mention that the plastic on the outside of the cable is riding up on the headphones I am talking about and may soon tear. the cable is nothing special really, and is not especially good for 200$ headphones. people complain about the cable quality of my UE triplefis and say that the cable is terrible for 200$ headphones, but its cable is better than the beats solos (not to mention the BASS and treble on the triplefis are AMAZING).
your glowing review was not taken in light of comparatively priced headphones, which is truly what reviews are for, they are for comparing against other impressions. Maybe I should compare them to my hd555s (on sale now for 80$ on amazon) but the comparison would only lead to my above conclusions.
Or should I compare them to my modded fostex t50rps (msrp 75$), which some say beat sennheiser hd650s?
should I compare them to my intimately detailed yet bass booming triplefis ( 200$)? they would be destroyed in every aspect (especially bass) but comfort.
I said that they had big mid-bass (which is true). this is just about the only thing positive I can say about them in comparison to any decent headphone I have heard. That was my attempt at being two-sided.
Danneq
Danneq
Not the first time I have heard the Monster Beats being compared to the Koss PortaPro. On a Swedish price comparison site, a reviewer wrote about the Beats Studio: "Soundwise, they sound about the same as the PortaPro, which I have been using for several years. These headphones have got built in amplifiers, so the sound is a bit more powerful, and the noise cancellation shuts out sounds from the outside. But I thought there would be a bigger difference between these two headphones."
So I think you have got a point, turimbar1. If the Monster Beat headphones were to be priced more in a category fitting the sound they deliver, it would probably cost less than $100.

thesurvivor90

New Head-Fier
Pros: Seal on ear, isolation, louness, comfort. Build quality isn't bad.
Cons: Everything else.
Build and comfort: These cans are compact. I don't know how durable these are. They seal good on ear and gives good isolation. 
 
Sound: People are saying that beats have earth shattering and well extended lows. These are complete lies. The bass in non existant. What's existant is something heavily bloated around 150-350hz range. 150-300hz isn't considered bass (150hz could be). First time you put them on, you think that people who say beats are bad are lying. But as the music progresses, you feel everything being dissolved in that bloated 150-350hz range. I find £40 xb600, even £20 xb30ex (which is an iem) to be sounding so much better than solo hd. 
 
Verdict: £130 will be burnt if one pair is bought. 
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