[Germancub]

They actually look like they tried, a little. I like the metal (esque?) accents. But I'm really getting tired of this one huge letter on the side. First the B, now an S? Real creative!

 

[crinacle]

So is it worth its price tag, in Head-Fi money?

 

[Adamora]

Honestly why bother with these brands, id rather go for the tried and tested instead of going into uncharted waters and getting eaten by sharks. ( i dont care if theres a chance of finding treasure)

 

[tupac0306]

Dr.dre, P diddy, Justin biber, 50 cent. Lady gaga. Now ludacris.. what's point. None of them is able to carry on a successful music carrer. Ludacris did "baby" with justin biber, found out it doesnt work, now his is trying to sell headphones as well? I bet part from dr dre. none of them really know "sound" professionally.

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

 
Thanks for the review David! Are you able to compare it to the Audio Technica M50 or Ultrasone HFI 580? I think those two are the biggest competitors for bass and clarity at that price range.

I suspect I will get to further comparisons after I review the whole Soul line, but I'm not really convinced that the Audio Technica and Ultrasone models are really in the same market even with their bass-related reputations.
 
 
Little story
I recorded a hip hop act this weekend...well not truly recorded...more like the  guy brought a few samples and I put up a mic in the booth and he did his thing and then we mixed it etc.  
 
Afterwards, I had him listen to it back on a pair of HD800s.  Then I had him listen to it back on the Soul SL150.  
 
His preference: SL150
 
Are they the better headphone for me? No... of course not.
 
Do I know why he prefered the SL150?  Yes.....a lot of people have been trained to accept more bass as better.  In that sense a lot of people would prefer the SL150 to the SR009 or the Orpheus etc.  That's why the market is so different.  
 
For those looking to recreate the feeling of natural sound - an abundance of clearly rendered overtones - natural transients - low harmonic distortion - a flat frequency response....all these attributes are not something that the mass market is trained to appreciate or even aware of, and it's like a foreign concept to many people to suggest that something with less bass could be better sounding than something with more bass.  I know that irks a lot of head-fiers and audiophiles.  But it shouldn't because then you have companies creating products specifically designed for your tastes.
 
For what it is, the SL150 is a great value and the reason why is that it does what its market would like it do, for less money than its competitor does the same thing.  However, to go one step further, the SL150 is just a bit better sounding than the competitor at the same price point.  The type of consumer that will be considering Beats or Soul, is often not going to consider Ultrasone or Audio Technica.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea well headphones are a lot more about than just the frequency response balance (if it was then we could just invest in a high quality hardware EQ and just adjust the balance and save money), some headphones sound bad even if they are perfectly balanced. I don't treat frequency response and sound quality as the same thing, you can have good sounding bassheavy headphones and you can have bad sounding bassheavy headphones, which is it in this case?
 
There's no need to put them into different consumer markets, either they are good or bad products and all products can be directly compared to each other.

 

[Ishcabible]

Quote:

Honestly why bother with these brands, id rather go for the tried and tested instead of going into uncharted waters and getting eaten by sharks. ( i dont care if theres a chance of finding treasure)

Because that's hardly fun.
 
I gave Fanny Wang a try and while I wasn't the biggest fan of the sound, at least I found out instead of wondering what the Wangs sound like.
 

 

[DavidMahler]

I look at it this way....

Pretend headfi were a site dedicated to dining and fine eateries.

Even though you can get a better meal than mcdonalds, if a franchise came out with a new dish which challenged the Big Mac at its own game, it would have an audience and be perfecty worthy of praise. But it would be too far of a stretch to compare a Big Mac to a Morton's filet. The same can be said about cheaper meals. You can probably score a tastier meal for 10 bucks than mcdonalds meal but if the markets are different, it would be tough to justify a comparison

 

[Runo]

Prepare ship for ludacris speed soul!
 
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who they're made by? I guess the development/technology wasn't done by him, but licensed?

 

[Astrozombie]

So the Beats are McDonald's and the Soul are In-N-Out?

 

[SkitZ0]

Is it me or do they look almost EXACTLY like the Beats?

 

[Adamora]

Quote:

Because that's hardly fun.
 
I gave Fanny Wang a try and while I wasn't the biggest fan of the sound, at least I found out instead of wondering what the Wangs sound like.
 

 
And that's where different opinions come in! its what makes the world go round <3!
 
 

 

[HeadphonesCom]

Please find the new SL300 review here

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Sounds like SL300 is fairly mid-forward which would be a good thing, there's too many bassy U or V-shaped frequency response headphones out there.

 

[DavidMahler]

Quote:

Sounds like SL300 is fairly mid-forward which would be a good thing, there's too many bassy U or V-shaped frequency response headphones out there.

Yes, the SL300 is a bit more mid forward than the the Beat Studios.  The two headphones do sound a lot alike though.