Beats Mixr vs Sennheiser Momentum

[nugget2013]

hello people of head-fi! i bought my sennheiser momentum's 2 months ago now and love them. but with the mixr's they have received a lot (and i mean a lot) of praise on the sound quality as they have improved a lot compared to the quality of every other pair of beats headphones..i tried them on in a HMV store and they sounded nice. so that got me wondering are they nearly equal to the sound quality of the sennheiser momentum? the only bad thing about the mixr i can think of is the comfort..

 

[ev13wt]

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Listening to beats products in the store is not a fair comparison, they have their own amp and selected music that benefits the beats sound sig. They are two different headphones, only you can decide which sounds better to YOU.

 

[rew850]

They probably hide amps somewhere and use flac or high quality files for demo, anyway beats products are not for audiophile

 

[Trunks159]

You've heard both, shouldn't you know?

 

[ev13wt]

If you want that urban wannabe gansta thug life yolo swag, just do eet.

Else, stick with style.

 

[asgiov]

I tried these out today at Target. I don't own the Momentums anymore.. but I had them for a few months and used them quite a bit... but ultimately decided to go back to IEMs for portable use.

I really love the momentums as a closed, portable headphone.

The Mixr def... seems... more neutral than any of the other beats headphones on display. But I don't know if it's in a good way.
They sounded very boring... lacked a good deal of bass extension....

I'd have to spend a lot more time with them.. but they seem to just be "poppy" with a bright sound, with absolutely no warmth to them.

The momentums are lacking somewhat in the high-end, but they sound VERY VERY smooth in both the mids and low-end extension... They are a wonderful pair of headphones to relax to. Not to mention how well they seal and block out ambient noise, despite being passive. I'd go with the Momentum, personally... but I would need a lot more time with the mixr to give it a fair shake. At least they are $100 cheaper, new, than the momentum. But you can get the Momentum here in the Head-fi or on ebay for the same price.

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Listening to beats products in the store is not a fair comparison, they have their own amp and selected music that benefits the beats sound sig. They are two different headphones, only you can decide which sounds better to YOU.

   Really? They do? For all I know, all of the headphones I see at my store aren't connected to any source, let alone amp, dac, etc. Strange to find that stores actually do that...making not only Beats but the actual store owners the rip-offs.

 

[asgiov]

   Really? They do? For all I know, all of the headphones I see at my store aren't connected to any source, let alone amp, dac, etc. Strange to find that stores actually do that...making not only Beats but the actual store owners the rip-offs.

Well.. if you want to get technical... they have to be connected to a minimum of some type of source, dac, amp to produce any sound period... Lol. Whether or not it's some high-end dedicated gear... I kinda doubt it myself....
But I'm sure they do EQ the music to benefit the specific headphones on display.

Even then... I agree that the only way to give them a fair comparison is to take them home and give them some personal time.
I did this with the Beats Studios. I wanted to like them... they are a very nice looking headphone and comfy to boot.
But they sounded pretty bad... especially for the price.

 

[TheNinja]

Quote:

   Really? They do? For all I know, all of the headphones I see at my store aren't connected to any source, let alone amp, dac, etc. Strange to find that stores actually do that...making not only Beats but the actual store owners the rip-offs.

Polishing a turd comes to mind. Its fairly common to boost headphone and speakers for that matter with external DACs, AMPs etc in retail environments as they tend to be loud and have poor acoustics. Ask to plug the headphones into your own source to get a real impression of the sound quality of any headphones or speakers, if the store can't do that then go to a small independent where they are usually more than happy to offer that sort of service.

 

[asgiov]

Polishing a turd comes to mind. Its fairly common to boost headphone and speakers for that matter with external DACs, AMPs etc in retail environments as they tend to be loud and have poor acoustics. Ask to plug the headphones into your own source to get a real impression of the sound quality of any headphones or speakers, if the store can't do that then go to a small independent where they are usually more than happy to offer that sort of service.

I agree with this 100%. In my time trying to improve whatever headphone I owned... with better amps and dacs.... in the end... you can never fix the inherent weaknesses of the headphone.
No matter how much EQ you do, or power you run through them.

The nice thing is nowadays, most stores just leave the headphones unplugged from a source, so you can just plug in your own phone or ipod. Best Buy does this with most of their headphones now... only beats and bose don't seem to allow this.

Bit off-topic:
Speaking of Bose... I think the QC15s are a much better headphones than anything beats has done. QC15s are the most comfortable headphone.. pretty much ever..
They have a really nice design. And they have solid bass extension and performance in the low-end. They don't have some stupid ridiculous steep drop off like the Beats Studios have once you hit below 50hz... seriously... they advertise a Bass-centric headphone... but it can't even reproduce sub-bass frequencies. :confused_face_2: $300?!

But who knows.. maybe the Mixrs are better. I haven't listened to them enough though.

 

[inthere]

Quote:

hello people of head-fi! i bought my sennheiser momentum's 2 months ago now and love them. but with the mixr's they have received a lot (and i mean a lot) of praise on the sound quality as they have improved a lot compared to the quality of every other pair of beats headphones..i tried them on in a HMV store and they sounded nice. so that got me wondering are they nearly equal to the sound quality of the sennheiser momentum? the only bad thing about the mixr i can think of is the comfort..

 
 
The Mixrs are my go-to DJ headphones but for extended listening I find them very harsh in the highs and mids. If they're not for professional use I wouldn't recommend them. 

 

[ev13wt]

   Really? They do? For all I know, all of the headphones I see at my store aren't connected to any source, let alone amp, dac, etc. Strange to find that stores actually do that...making not only Beats but the actual store owners the rip-offs.

There are different stores. Some just put the headphones up, true.

BOSE does this as well, check out Frys electronics dedicated listening rooms, or the simpler 5.1 setups with the booms. BOSE 5.1 systems are also always several feet away from other 5.1 systems. Their NC headphones also have their own little "try it out" section.

 

[ev13wt]

In Atlanta the Beats have their own headphone listening room in the airport lounge.

http://consumerelectronicsdaily.com/Content/Beats-by-Dr-Dre-opens-800-square-foot-demo-space-with-retail-sales-in-atlanta-airport.aspx

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Quote:

In Atlanta the Beats have their own headphone listening room in the airport lounge.

http://consumerelectronicsdaily.com/Content/Beats-by-Dr-Dre-opens-800-square-foot-demo-space-with-retail-sales-in-atlanta-airport.aspx

Wow, that is some enlightening info. Thanks.

 

[iSennheiser]

I will give my honest opinion here. Personally, Beats Mixr is right there competing with V-Moda and Momentum On-Ear, sound wise Mixr is good unlike their relatives Solo and crappy Studios. I have been using headphones from Sennheiser & Beyerdynamic and I have an Over-Ear Momentum brown. Personally, I think it's a matter of personal preference. To be truthful, I was a Beats by dr dre fans before and was the first time that I was plunged into headphone world by my friend. In conclusion, you need to test it by yourself, Genre of music that you're listening does matter to the right selection of headphones especially you need to differentiate between Hi-FI and reference headphones.
 
Peace, iSennheiser.