[Girevik]

I came across a deal on some Beats Studio headphones and am considering jumping on it.  People seem to either love or hate beats, and I wouldn't consider getting them except this seems to be a really good price ($100 "grey market" with 60 day vendor warranty or $150 with the 1 year Beats warranty).  I've not seen anything else with active noise cancelation for that price.
 
So, I'm wondering if the Beats Studio are worth it at that price, and if not what else is there that would be better for a comparable price?  The reason I'm interested in the active noise cancelation is that I run sound for my church but am not very good at it.  I like to use the headphones to isolate a given input and with the current headphones the ambient noise almost drowns out the headphones.

 

[zunehdrocks]

I came across a deal on some Beats Studio headphones and am considering jumping on it.  People seem to either love or hate beats, and I wouldn't consider getting them except this seems to be a really good price ($100 "grey market" with 60 day vendor warranty or $150 with the 1 year Beats warranty).  I've not seen anything else with active noise cancelation for that price.

So, I'm wondering if the Beats Studio are worth it at that price, and if not what else is there that would be better for a comparable price?  The reason I'm interested in the active noise cancelation is that I run sound for my church but am not very good at it.  I like to use the headphones to isolate a given input and with the current headphones the ambient noise almost drowns out the headphones.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/celebrity-headphone-deathmatch-monster-and-beats-dr-dre
Things aren't looking too good for the noise cancelling.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsStudio.pdf

 

[zunehdrocks]

I came across a deal on some Beats Studio headphones and am considering jumping on it.  People seem to either love or hate beats, and I wouldn't consider getting them except this seems to be a really good price ($100 "grey market" with 60 day vendor warranty or $150 with the 1 year Beats warranty).  I've not seen anything else with active noise cancelation for that price.

So, I'm wondering if the Beats Studio are worth it at that price, and if not what else is there that would be better for a comparable price?  The reason I'm interested in the active noise cancelation is that I run sound for my church but am not very good at it.  I like to use the headphones to isolate a given input and with the current headphones the ambient noise almost drowns out the headphones.

Are you considering iems? You can get a pretty good amount of isolation by using the right tips (maybe triple flange or foam).
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/ShureSE215.pdf
http://theheadphonelist.com/headphone_review/yamaha-eph-100/

 

[Girevik]

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/celebrity-headphone-deathmatch-monster-and-beats-dr-dre
Things aren't looking too good for the noise cancelling.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsStudio.pdf

I haven't the foggiest what any of that means.  I'm not an audiophile....just a regular guy looking for a good deal on some decent over the ear headphones.

 

[zunehdrocks]

I haven't the foggiest what any of that means.  I'm not an audiophile....just a regular guy looking for a good deal on some decent over the ear headphones.

The main point on the PDF was just the isolation graph. The lower the number, the higher the noise blockage. The shure se215's isolation graph destroys the original beats studio's. If isolation is priority, (and you're considering iems) it seems like a good choice.
There's a mini-review of the original beats studio on the last section of the first artical.

 

[Tavilyn]

IEMs are in-ear monitors, btw, in case that wasn't clear or in case you hadn't figured that out. Also, active noise cancelling is usually a bad idea, in my humble opinion.

 

[Zimplizity]

If you don't mind using IEMs there are lots to choose from in that price range. From my experience I'd recommend the Shure SE215 since they're not too expensive (around $100) and the isolation is in my opinion pretty good. If you are looking for closed on-ear headphones and don't worry too much about the active noise cancellation, maybe take a look at the Audio-Technica ATH-M50 or the Beyerdynamic DT770, which are a bit more expensive. However the best isolation you can probably get is from IEMs.

 

[Girevik]

Are iems any different than "ear buds", or is that just the uninitiated's term (or shorthand) for iems?.  I do generally prefer ear buds to headphones when I listen, but for some reason I thought headphones would be better for using with the board.
 
Maybe it's just my perception (or bad experience), but I also thought that the buds seemed to be less durable than larger headphones so I've been hesitant to spend a lot of money on them.  I don't want to spend a ton of money (for me $100 is a lot to spend on headphones, for you some of what I spend a lot of money is probably insane

)  then have one of the speakers quit working due to a short.  I'm probably just getting sucked in by the perceived "value" of a $300 pair of Beats for $100.  But I do like the idea of being able to replace the cable should it go bad.
 
I've thought about taking my buds in and try, but they're just the cheap ones that came with my phone (pretty good quality from what I can tell, though).  It never occurred to me to try plugging in the iems that the bad uses into the board if t there's one not in use.

 

[Tavilyn]

I'm pretty sure there's a difference between earbuds and in-ear monitors. One sits in the outer ear and is pretty easy to knock out; the other is placed into your ear a goodish way and usually stays there a bit more. I don't have tons of experience with this, I'm afraid.
Personally, I'd go with a set of closed cans over in-ear monitors, but that's nothing more or less than personal preference. Many different headphones have detachable cables though; that's not a Beats phenomenon.

 

[Girevik]

I guess I've been using "in ear" all along rather than "ear buds".  I guess I learned something today.  Still don't know if there's a difference between in ear "headphones" and "monitors", but I guess it doesn't really matter.
 
I understand that Beats isn't the only one with the replaceable cord...just pointing out a feature of them I liked.  I really like what I've read about Sennheiser, and I know a lot of them have detachable cords.  But when I compared looked at their active noise cancellation headphones they were out of my price range.  Maybe I should revisit them if the noise cancelation isn't relevant.

 

[Zimplizity]

The Shure SE215 IEMs have detachable cords aswell and as I said, the noise isolation is really good imo

.

 

[zunehdrocks]

  I guess I've been using "in ear" all along rather than "ear buds".  I guess I learned something today.  Still don't know if there's a difference between in ear "headphones" and "monitors", but I guess it doesn't really matter.
 
I understand that Beats isn't the only one with the replaceable cord...just pointing out a feature of them I liked.  I really like what I've read about Sennheiser, and I know a lot of them have detachable cords.  But when I compared looked at their active noise cancellation headphones they were out of my price range.  Maybe I should revisit them if the noise cancelation isn't relevant.

"Monitors" tend to be flatter in frequency response but thats not always true. Sometimes its just a buzzword.

 

[Girevik]

Ok, I'm ALMOST sold on the SE 215's but....I was somewhere this weekend and saw the Jaybird Bluebuds X.  They seem to get pretty good reviews as well.  I'm not sure if I want wireless or not, but can anyone compare them to the Shure's?

 

[Zimplizity]

Sorry, don't really know a lot about them compared to the SE215. So free bump, maybe someone else knows

 

[Girevik]

Never mind...moot point. I assumed they had a Bluetooth dongle they could be plugged into anything. Instead, they have to be connected BT device. I don't want to be that limited.