SOL Republic Tracks

What we have here with the Sol Republic Tracks is a headphone that can go head to head to Beats headphones.
 
There are many reasons why they can but I've condensed it down to key reasons why the Tracks can go up against Beats
 
1. Price
 
Beats retail at around $200 - $300
 
Sol Republic Tracks retail at around $40 - $75
 
2. Durability
 
Sol Republic has invented a headband that is near impossible to break and trust me I've tried bending and stretching this way and that way but yet and still they still are in pristine condition
 
Beats on the other hand are easy too break too easy in fact. After a month of steady use my Beats broke for no apparent reason as I opened them which just boggles my mind how such an expensive headphone can be so cheaply made.
 
3. Sound Quality
 
The Sol Republic Tracks as a Beats competitor naturally are focused on Lows more than the highs and mids which I have to admit for the price they do this very well. I was able to listen to Seal's Daylight Saving and could clearly hear the bass and it wasn't too overwhelming.
 
The Beats on the other hand focus too much on bass while listening to the same song some of the detail was cut off. Now I get that these were tailored with hip-hop and R&B in mind but headphones at least in my opinion should still be versatile.
 
Are the Sol Republic Tracks perfect? No
 
Are they worth the buy? Yes

These are a great entry/mid level pair of headphones. I think any mainstream person should give them a try because of their reasonable good sound quality, (Much better than mainstream Monster headphones, and for a much better price!) And their cool style. I will go over the headphones in-depth, concerning the sound quality, comfort, isolation, and build, etc. I will write this review mainly to the regular consumers. 

Introduction - About the Company
Sol Republic is a global electronics consumer company. Sol Republic was founded in 2011, by 3 men named Scott Hix, Seth Combs, and Kevin Lee. SOL is an acronym which means "Soundtrack of Life". It's meaning is that the company strives to offer quality headphones for people from any lifestyle.
 
Value
Firstly, you guys should know that the Head-Fi link is linked to the wrong pair of Sol Republic headphones. The REAL Sol Republic Tracks are only 60-70$, which is incredible value for all the benefits that you can make out of these headphones. These being more mainstream than other "audiophile" headphones, I expected them to be more expensive. However, compared to all the Monster brand headphones, these are a steal for their price, and for their price they actually provide reasonably well sound quality, with other benefits I will name later in the review. So overall, their value is awesome and I feel like you get a good pair of headphones out of what you pay for.
 
Build
The build of these are incredible. I can't stress enough how sturdy and durable these headphones are. You can bend the head-band perfectly straight horizontal and it won't even show any signs of breaking. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. The body of the headphones are made of a hard plastic, and the ear-cups are a plastic-leather type material. You could drop these headphones to the ground and have nothing happen to them. But, something to note, the sides are sleek and seem like it could be scratchable, so you should be aware of that. Also The headphone's parts are interchangeable, which means if you break it you can easily buy a replacement. There is one flaw, however, and this is the cables. The cables are easily breakable and I have seen many people complain about their cables breaking and them having to buy a 15-20$ replacement cable. This is why you shouldn't fiddle or play with you Sol Republic cables, they are fragile. I admit, I did that quite a lot; I would roll it in my fingers, twirl it in my fingers, etc. And I ended up paying for it. So now you know, be careful with your Sol Republic cable. 

Boxing & Accessories
The Tracks boxing isn't too fancy, but it is relatively nicely packaged up. The cover looks cool also. The Tracks will be packaged in Pieces, and you will have to manually put it together. (The headphones themselves are lying parallel to each other, and the headband is above them. The cord is wrapped up and in more packaging.) Also, the Tracks come with a leather carrying pouch.

Sound Quality
The sound quality is something that mainstream people can enjoy much more than audiophiles. After all, once you go audiophile, you never go back, right? This is more than average good sound to the average person. and don't let me talking about the sound this way push you away from getting these, hear me out. The sound of these headphones are purely fun, and punchy. The highs are great, but the mids on these are a bit dark and muddy. The mids aren't completely terrible, but they don't really have the "pizzazz" that most people look for. The treble is fairly good. Now, to the bass. Wow, for their price, these headphones have an incredible amount of sub-bass. (By the way, amping these headphones is unnecessary, it won't make much of a difference.) If you're wondering what sub-bass is, sub-bass is the bass that you can feel. The Sol Republic Tracks sport a quick, punchy bass on the surface that you can feel; not that broad, boomy, muddy bass that many mainstream headphones have. 
Now, talking about the sound-stage: These headphones don't have much depth to them, everything is on the surface. This is why I said that audiophiles wouldn't appreciate them; because they are a bit on the flat side. However, towards the regular consumer, no difference would be heard. (It's true, they were my first pair of good-quality headphones, and I really didn't notice or care until recently when I compared them to one of my Audio Technica headphones.) I say all this because I believe both audiophiles and regular consumers will stumble upon my review. So, remember, these are flat sounding. Next, I will compare these to the Beats Solos, a big mainstream headphone.
 
Beats Solos vs. Sol Republic Tracks - Firstly, the Sol Republic Tracks have an obvious price advantage to the Beats Solos. Tracks are nearly 90$ cheaper then the Solos. Now that that's out of the way, lets compare build and sound quality. The build for Beats Solos is a cheap plastic. This is one of the places where Beats gets the most hate, especially by mainstream people. Unlike Sol Republic Tracks, Beats don't have interchangeable parts, so if you break the cord, you break the whole thing. If you break the headband, you break the whole headphone. Beats have a very weak headband that is prone to snapping--Which I have already seen with three of my friend's Beats. However, comfort-wise I think the Solos and Tracks are neck and neck. They both have nice, plastic leather ear cups. The rest, comes down to the sound quality. Beats are renowned by mainstream people for their bassy headphones. The Beats Solos and the Tracks have very different types of basses. Beats Solo's bass is a bit more darker and muddier, while Tracks have clear, punchy bass. The Beats Solos may have a bit more of bass quantity than the Tracks, but it shouldn't make much of a difference. The Beats Solos have a little bit more depth in sound, however, they extremely lack in treble. Their highs don't compare to the Sol Republic Tracks either.
Overall, with no biases, I think Sol Republic Tracks wins over Beats Solos. The price and build quality of the Tracks was a deal-breaker, and the overall sound quality of both headphones is somewhat similar, the beats being a little better in that they have more depth. However it is too small of a difference to be a deal-breaker.

Fitting and Isolation:
First I'll talk about the fitting of these headphones, then later in this I will give information on it's isolation.
The fitting for these headphones are great. You can't really go wrong with these. The ear-cups are soft on your ears; you could wear these for hours upon hours with your ears getting fatigued. There is very little pressure put on your head, which makes them very, very comfortable to listen to music on. You can adjust your headphone to literally any size you want; using Sol Republic's unique headband adjuster. (It truly is a unique idea, there are no headphones like it with that kind of adjustment.) Overall I give Sol Republic 9/10 in comfort, which I believe would be one of the very positive things about these headphones. 
The Isolation is quite well. Leakage is also minimal. I think it is very adequate to be used on planes or other means of travel. You can hear any little things that are happening, and if somebody is talking to you their voice will be muffled. Surprisingly these have much more isolation than my over-the-ear Audio Technica headphones. You shouldn't have to worry about hearing background noise unless you are in an extremely noisy environment.
 
Helpful Specs:
Headphone Type: On-ear
Channels: Stereo
Wires: 3.5 mm stereo connection
Cable Type: Y-Cable
Removable Cable?: Yes.
Interchangeable Headband?: Yes.
Inline Controls: Volume, Mute, Microphone.
 
Conclusion:
These headphones are great for the average consumer looking for a cheap pair of headphones that has great audio quality, amazing comfort, and an awesome build that consists of interchangeable parts. They are very customizable; As in you can buy just about an color head-band or cord to match your style. They are also sound-isolating. Not to mention, these are very fashionable headphones. I confidently say that anybody will enjoy these as they take steps into the better audio-quality world. 
My name is Cody, and I hoped you enjoyed my review! If you have any questions/comments feel free to comment down below!  

I was impressed with the build quality. The headbands would never break, and the earpieces (aka "Sound Engines") are made of metal. I'll be comparing this headphone to the Grado sr80i and the Audio Techinca ATH M50, which both cost a little more than the Tracks. I used Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix) AAC (256 kbps) as a testing song as this song is poorly mastered in such a way that any form of boominess or bass leakage would be detected quickly.
 
Overall, I was very impressed with the bass on the tracks. It has a very strong, punchy bass, free of any sort of bass leak (which the ATH M50 suffered) or boominess. This is done without sacrificing the quantity of the bass (where the Grado sr80i suffered).
 
However, the mids and highs is where the Grado sr80i and the Audio Technica M50 would rip the Tracks into pieces. The highs are not as precise as the Grado sr80i and the ATH M50 despite the siblance (ATH M50) or shoutiness (Grado sr80i). The mids are absolutely ABYSMAL. It is very muddy and poorly defined. The melodic line of Summertime Sadness Remix is poorly defined after the drop of the song. Same goes with the bassline. To add salt to injury, the Koss Portapros (a headphone that cost half as much as the Tracks) has better mids than the Tracks. Overall, the Tracks sounded like a bass modded Grado sr80i underwater! Because of this horrendous flaw, I cannot recommend this headphone other than anyone who wants a Beats Solo on the cheap. 
 
Only get them if there is at least a 40% discount.

For $ 129 these are very very good. Kind of like a more sophisticated Dr Dre headset....No - they are not SN 225 is, but for the trendy style conscious set, they are great. If you tried these, you would be very surprised....The muddy sound of the Dr Dr es - immediately turns one off. However, these are nearly as deep,m yet a lot clearer. Considering price, style, size, and audio quality - you will not be disappointed.....This is my strong op pinion - Soon, they will come out with a true audiophile high quality headset, -----that will truly blow everything else out of the watter. This company has a bright future ahead of it.......Watch out traditional entrenched manufacturers - these guys are picking up speed very fast, when they do catch up to you, they will simply blow past you so fast, you wind up on your ear in the weeds...Wait and see !!!!

Packaging:
Well organized and detailed information on the package, the box also has a clear plastic window to preview the product inside the package so you know what you're buying.

 
Unboxing:
With the headphones you'll receive two informational papers, stickers, user manual, a small paper listing their website, Twitter, Facebook, and contact number, and last but not least; the headphones themselves.

If you want to read what's written on the papers, here's links to the pictures I took of them.
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad235/EpicPie/DSC00548.jpg
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad235/EpicPie/DSC00549.jpg
 
Build Quality:
The headphones feature a very simple design that makes the headphones fairly modular as the speakers come off the headband, the earpads clip onto the speaker piece(similar to some of Sennheiser products), and the cable is detachable as well. The cable uses two 1/8" plugs to plug into the right and left speaker of the headphone and a standard 3.5mm jack to plug into your DAP. The earpads and headphone pad is made out of pleather.

The headband is made from what SOL Republic calls "FlexTech" which is what makes the headband virtually indestructible(I have already bent the headband ridiculously to test this, the headband didn't even break or show any signs of stress and maintained it's shape.)

Worth noting that the build in microphone and volume control only works with certain devices that aren't i-Products. The compatibility list can be found on the SOL republic website here: http://www.solrepublic.com/culture/news/headphone-compatibility
 
Sound Quality;
Worth noting: These headphones don't have much instrumental separation.
 
Bass:
These headphones have a very accurate and boomy bass, sub-bass shines, you'll feel the vibrations on your ears from any bass heavy song or genre such as Dubstep. The bass doesn't get muddy or distorted even at higher volumes which is a plus.
 
The standard Tracks are bass oriented which is their strong point in the sound signature of the v8 sound engine that these cans have.
 
Mids:
The midrange is fairly flat and sounds congested, not a whole lot of dynamics.
 
Highs:
The highs sound rolled off and shallow. The highs are present, just not airy.
 
Soundstage:
Soundstage is some what there, the sound imaging is pretty much non-existent. Music just sounds like it's being pushing into your head, when you hear music through these headphones it doesn't sound like it's surrounding you.
 
Conclusion:
SOL Republic did a great job with designing the Tracks headphones, they're incredibly comfortable to wear over a long period of time due to the softness the earpads and headphone pad have.
 
The sound quality will appeal more to the DJ crowd as most of all DJ headphones these days seem to be very bass oriented. With the unique aesthetics of these headphones it seems to appeal more to an adult crowd that isn't as educated about high-fidelity and headphones but still want something stylish and decent sounding.
 
The Beat's line by Monster Cable has a social status effect upon the younger generation(kids, young teens, and young adults), I don't see that at all with these headphones as they aren't endorsed by celebrities. At the price of MSRP of $99.99 there are many other significantly better headphones you could pick out that would sound incredibly better compared to the Tracks headphones though I would recommend these to a bass head.
 
I believe the v10 sound engine in the Tracks HD solve the problems of the flat Mids and Highs the standard Tracks have, so the Tracks HD should be worth trying out if a retail store near you has them on their demo display. These headphones honestly don't sound as bad as the Beat's Solo's and Studio's so don't be turned away to try them.

For those of you who want to buy these, for $99.99 you can buy these at an Apple Store or Best Buy.
_________________________
Notes: SOL = Soundtrack of Life
 
I would go over the functionality of the built in volume control and the quality of the microphone but it didn't work on my Microsoft Kin.