[AlwaysForward]

I'm weary of Kickstarter headphones since they rarely turn out as good as they sound on paper, but they could be a game-changer if they're as good as they sound.

There's no shame in having a bass-emphasized consumer headphone and an audiophile headphone. I'm thinking an Audeze headphone is also in my future, perhaps iSine10.

Yeah I generally refer to Kickstarter as "Scamstarter." But these guys really impressed me. I recruit deep learning / artificial intelligence researchers for a top 4 AI company for a living and know startups very well. These guys had all the marks of a great pedigree in a startup. From the patents to the respected research lab origin, to the credentials of the guys driving it and probably some stuff in between. For example, when they did their FB live video and mentioned they're engineers who don't want to over promise...Well, the way they said it sold me. I've been in a LOT of conversations with the world's top Researchers and Engineers and heard that kind of restraint from top guys in the past... These guys sound like the top 5-10% I look for. So I took a risk on them. I'm not suggesting you do too but keep an eye on them.

Bass cans are fun if well executed and belong in any listener's collection if they like EDM/Pop/Rap tunings. If it's balanced but bassy, it'll be GREAT for movies.

If you try the iSine, get the Cipher for portability. Even if you have to get a used iPod Touch used for $100 or so.

 

[RamGuy]

I've direct hate to no person only the product.....
..until now; you opinionated little toe rag hope that's personal enough



Mainly I am (joking). Beats Hate is a relatively little harmless bit of fun

However I still question that $350 price tag represents good value
When Audio Technica can sell you a seemingly very competent BT headphone like the
Audio-Technica SonicFuel ATH-AR3BTfor £99 or $119 you have to question what premium you put on the image or style :-? or those special Apple exclusive features of the Beats. Is it really 3 times as good

Beats are by no means the only culprit when it comes to being on the band wagon of excessive pricing. There is a trend for inflated prices for Bluetooth headphones at the moment. It's almost as odious as the arms race of 'summit level ' headphones. Cashing in on a current craze

£300/$350 and less is the domain serious home Hifi headphones. Some of the best headphones in the world built to give you years rather than months of pleasure.

Only the very finest portable headphones belong in this price range.

All in my obviously minority opinion mind

In regards to ATH-AR3BT things is rather easy for me as they are not sold in my country, so they are automatically off the list. And starting comparing wireless (use them on-the-fly aka "portable") headphones with open-back "home-only" headphones like Sennheiser HD600-800 etc is like comparing Apple's to Orange's if you ask me. They don't serve the same purpose, not at all.

I do agree that you get some real kick-ass value out of a lot of great headphones. Why people spend tons of money on "gaming-headphones" when you can grab a pair of Philips Fidelio X2, Sennheiser HD598, HD600, HD650 etc for pretty much the same price or even lower is beyond me. But when it comes to wireless headphones that you will most likely take with you when you commute and whatnot you can't really compare them with these open-back headphones that are next to useless in these situations as they don't isolate at all, they will leak sound like crazy and will have a really hard time being powered by your mobile phone to begin with and most come with cables that are really think and long so they are not suited for that kind of use, not by any stretch of the imagination.


And when it comes to "value for money" it's a really subjective argument. How much money someone has and is willing to spend and how one prioritise vary drastically from person to person. I for one is really fortunate as I live in a high-income country with a wealthy economy where price for electronics has to be perhaps the overall lowest compared to average income we have. If you take the average income for a US citizen I bet the average price for electronics compared to the average income has to be at least twice as high compared to what we have in my country. And not sound like a complete douche, but paying 350 USD or 100 USD for a pair of headphones doesn't really make that huge of a difference for me personally and the added convenience of the Apple W1 is worth the money itself unless the audio quality and ANC is really crap.

I have a pair of AirPods and they don't work that great while commuting due to no isolation and how the leak noise, but man going back to using my B&O BeoPlay H9 after getting used to the seamless switching and pairing that the Apple W1 provides compared to how awful it works with the BeoPlay H9 and how crap the microphone on the H9 are compared to the AirPods makes me want to tear my hair off at times.

 

[whsbuss]

What I find disturbing is how many here already comparing the Studio 3 to other headphones. Really? They aren't out yet! I like to keep my head out of the sand until I hear/see them. I won't defend Beats but I will give them a chance.

 

[MICHAELSD]

What I find disturbing is how many here already comparing the Studio 3 to other headphones. Really? They aren't out yet! I like to keep my head out of the sand until I hear/see them. I won't defend Beats but I will give them a chance.

There are a lot of good wireless headphones out now, hopefully with more coming. Will wait for hands-on testing/FR charts before I start comparing Studio3 to those headphones, but I think Beats is only getting better as a brand.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I wonder which other Beats headphones will be refreshed. We will likely find out Tuesday but I'm hoping for a new PowerBeats4 since there are a lot of build complaints on PB3. It'd be brilliant to see AirPod-style Beats headphones but I think they'll save that for next year. I expected to see Solo4 with minor changes and the addition of a Lightning port but since they didn't add one to the Studio3 I'm not sure there's much else they can do.

 

[MICHAELSD]

By the way, I feel I should probably justify why an audiophile who will spend whatever for the best sound is so excited about Beats Studio3: these are the exact features in a wireless headphone I've wanted for over a year.

- Best-in-class wireless reliability/range.

- Flawless AAC support!

- Comfortable over-ear design second to Bose in overall comfort, based on the previous model.

- Hopefully audiophile-tuned sound with bass emphasis. Even better if it beats Sony and Bose.

- ANC that can be disabled. (I could do without ANC but I don't mind it if it can be disabled without affecting the sound negatively.)

- 40+ hours of battery life with ANC disabled.

- Materials designed for everyday use. (Premium materials like leather and metal aren't conducive to workouts.)

Only feature it's missing is a Lightning connector as I don't use micro USB so it's a bit inconvenient to have to switch cables to charge it. I'm honestly so pumped that Beats Apple is releasing it I'm tempted to pre-order. Could care less that they're Beats branded if they sound as good or better than the competition.

 

[AlwaysForward]

By the way, I feel I should probably justify why an audiophile who will spend whatever for the best sound is so excited about Beats Studio3: these are the exact features in a wireless headphone I've wanted for over a year.

- Best-in-class wireless reliability/range.

- Flawless AAC support!

- Comfortable over-ear design second to Bose in overall comfort, based on the previous model.

- Hopefully audiophile-tuned sound with bass emphasis. Even better if it beats Sony and Bose.

- ANC that can be disabled. (I could do without ANC but I don't mind it if it can be disabled without affecting the sound negatively.)

- 40+ hours of battery life with ANC disabled.

- Materials designed for everyday use. (Premium materials like leather and metal aren't conducive to workouts.)

Only feature it's missing is a Lightning connector as I don't use micro USB so it's a bit inconvenient to have to switch cables to charge it. I'm honestly so pumped that Beats Apple is releasing it I'm tempted to pre-order. Could care less that they're Beats branded if they sound as good or better than the competition.

AND they're stylish. Hope they deliver a great consumer tuned studio sound. I'm probably going to sell my other overears and order these this weekend. I don't use the MoFi or M50 anymore after getting the iSine20 and Quad Drivers so there's no reason to keep them.

 

[MICHAELSD]

AND they're stylish. Hope they deliver a great consumer tuned studio sound. I'm probably going to sell my other overears and order these this weekend. I don't use the MoFi or M50 anymore after getting the iSine20 and Quad Drivers so there's no reason to keep them.

How do the iSine20 and Quad Drivers compare? I'll probably end up with iSine10 if I like the store demo next week but Quad Drivers seem like a good option as well. I want one quality wireless over-ear with an exciting tuning and one headphone with pristine clarity.

They are more stylish than Bose and Sony's offerings so that's a plus too! A bit lame to recycle the design though and only offer a few new colors.

 

[AlwaysForward]

How do the iSine20 and Quad Drivers compare? I'll probably end up with iSine10 if I like the store demo next week but Quad Drivers seem like a good option as well. I want one quality wireless over-ear with an exciting tuning and one headphone with pristine clarity.

They are more stylish than Bose and Sony's offerings so that's a plus too! A bit lame to recycle the design though and only offer a few new colors.

The iSine is just on another level with the Cipher Cable. These two sets really got me addicted to FAST headphone driver clarity, which is another reason I'm so excited for the ORA.

I bought the Quad while waiting for my backordered iSine because I wanted a good value IEM that isolates. It does not disappoint. It's tuning is harmon-esque but with a solid 2db boosted bass. The speed of the BA drivers & diamond like carbon dynamic mixl, as a whole, was a revelation to me. I was also surprised to find they had a pretty decent soundstage. They're very fun and engaging. The vocals have this incredibly airy quality to them.

The iSine is simply 2x or beyond the Quads in every imaginable sonic dimension. Soundstage, speed, distortion, frequency tuning, separation, imaging. You name it and it's better. I've never owned anything as ridiculous sounding. However, I went through quite a learning curve with trying various tips and insertion depths. If you try the iSine, go straight for the orb shaped foam tips. Err on the large side to start. You want them to kind of expand in the middle of your outer-ear canal. When you use that tip/depth, the iSine frequency response all of a sudden become an open back set of planar over-ears in the image you hear. With a perfectly matched rig Inside the cable. If you want ultimate clarity on the go, this is it. I use the same tips/depth with the Quads as well.

The Quads are a bit more comfortable and portable. They're great at the gym with the comply sport tips. They also are great for tuning out the loud office at work. I'm glad I got them but the isine owns my listening time.

I feel that striving for clarity in an ANC set is a losing proposition since I've got the two aforementioned IEM and the ORA on order. But I am a BASS fan and have been looking for a great fun set that doesn't require carrying extra dongles.

The aforementioned features on the Studio3 are just sexy as hell and I can clearly see how they would make it into my rotation if they're fidelity-basshead tuned with best in class tech & portability.

 

[MICHAELSD]

The iSine is just on another level with the Cipher Cable. These two sets really got me addicted to FAST headphone driver clarity, which is another reason I'm so excited for the ORA.

I bought the Quad while waiting for my backordered iSine because I wanted a good value IEM that isolates. It does not disappoint. It's tuning is harmon-esque but with a solid 2db boosted bass. The speed of the BA drivers & diamond like carbon dynamic mixl, as a whole, was a revelation to me. I was also surprised to find they had a pretty decent soundstage. They're very fun and engaging. The vocals have this incredibly airy quality to them.

The iSine is simply 2x or beyond the Quads in every imaginable sonic dimension. Soundstage, speed, distortion, frequency tuning, separation, imaging. You name it and it's better. I've never owned anything as ridiculous sounding. However, I went through quite a learning curve with trying various tips and insertion depths. If you try the iSine, go straight for the orb shaped foam tips. Err on the large side to start. You want them to kind of expand in the middle of your outer-ear canal. When you use that tip/depth, the iSine frequency response all of a sudden become an open back set of planar over-ears in the image you hear. With a perfectly matched rig Inside the cable. If you want ultimate clarity on the go, this is it. I use the same tips/depth with the Quads as well.

The Quads are a bit more comfortable and portable. They're great at the gym with the comply sport tips. They also are great for tuning out the loud office at work. I'm glad I got them but the isine owns my listening time.

I feel that striving for clarity in an ANC set is a losing proposition since I've got the two aforementioned IEM and the ORA on order. But I am a BASS fan and have been looking for a great fun set that doesn't require carrying extra dongles.

The aforementioned features on the Studio3 are just sexy as hell and I can clearly see how they would make it into my rotation if they're fidelity-basshead tuned with best in class tech & portability.

Every feature should be great on the Studio3, but I hope build quality is improved. I will admit on my Solo3 the battery estimation is usually wildly incorrect I.e. it'll jump around randomly, saying it's at 18% then next time I use them without charging in between it'll say 40%. It's a bit annoying because I've had them say they had battery left but ended up dying so I just charge periodically. Will get them replaced before I buy the Studio3 though. I foresee better build quality on the new model.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I just stopped at Target and saw that they put out new colors of the Solo3 that are similar to the new Studio model and got unreasonably excited thinking they got the Studio3 early and accidentally put it out on the floor.

Some other notes:

The old Studio are impressively comfortable, even if the very old demo smells terrible.

Bose's QC35 are solid headphones, maybe with a slightly sharp treble but with natural mids and a decent but boomy at times bass. If Studio3 surpasses their sound quality I'll be very happy.

I've recently realized that Solo3 are finicky in regards to fitment: you need a perfect fit to hear them as intended. Without a perfect fit the bass and imaging aren't nearly as good. I love the visceral bass (when properly fitted) provided by the on-ear design that I'm hoping the same fun sound or better will be achieved in the over-ear form factor.

 

[MICHAELSD]

This seems to be a very popular thread with guests, probably due to its appearance at the top of Google results. You're welcome, head-fi .

 

[MICHAELSD]

I'm unreasonably excited about these. I love the sound of the Solo3 even if it isn't the most analytical signature. Super anxious to hear what the same team accomplished with an over-ear headphone.

 

[andrenb]

I just pre-ordered a blue version of the Beats Studio 3.0 for 310$ from an online store in my country (Norway) and I'm really excited about trying these out. I use Bose QC35 as my daily drivers for work and the daily commute and I'm ready to try something new.

 

[daanodinot]

The lack of a Lightning port is almost a deal-breaker for me. I won't buy it, unless the sound quality is spectacular. I wish Apple would license W1, but alas.