[Johnathanta]

Over the past three days I've samples all four of these headphones (None of them burnt in however) for about 2-3 hours each.
I'm no pro and no audiophile, just giving my opinion to people who are interested in getting any of these cans.
 
I go by what I hear.
This review is ideal for bass-heads / majority of teens with a budget under 200$
 
HEADPHONE   PRICE (Boxing week in toronto!)
Sony XB-500    49.99
Sony XB-700    119.99
Beats Solo HD 149.99
Beats Studio    229.99
 
My final pick, XB-700!
 
Reviews:
 
Sony XB-500
-Head rattling hard pumping bass that you can physically feel. More bass than 700's.
-Amazing comfort, greater so than the higher-up XB-700 model. Cups your ears and does not engulf them like the 700's.
-Bass overpowers vocals and reducs crispness on heavily layered songs. Exp. John O Callaghan - Find yourself, the chorus "You'll find yourself, you'll find yourself" the "s" in self is a hiss, very annoying to someone who enjoys lyrical trance.
 
Overall
Great Comfort
Powerful bass
Bass is too heavy and can reduce quality of layered songs
8/10 for the price, amazing if you love hip hop, not-so-layered electronica
 
 
 
Sony XB-700
-Clean, smooth bass, doesn't rattle your brain but is emphasized. Less bass than 500's but better bass overall.
-Comfort is kinda weird, depends on your ears. I have dumbo ears, the cups feel TOO big, loosey goosey. However, great seal nontheless.
-Crisp music all around, I'm no expert, but the instruments / vocals can be picked out independantly without fuzz or distortion.
 
Overall
Good Comfort
Clean enjoyable bass
Crisp sound and undistorted quality of layered songs
9/10, a little steeper, but the sound is so much crisper!
 
 
 
Beats Solo HD
-So comfy! I'm not a fan of on ear, but you can't even tell with these
-Heavy bass, physically felt. Punches too hard to be enjoyable for long periods of time. Great if you love obnoxious bass (No hate)
-Bass is way to heavy, the vocals are sloppy. NOT CRISP at all.
 
Overall
-Comfy as hell
-Obnoxiously bassy
-Sound is not clean, just heavy on bass and physical pounding
 
6/10 Would not reccommend
 
 
Beats Studio
-Amazing comfort. 10/10.
-Bass is heavy, but enjoyable because of the over ear design. Bass is better on studio's because it does not feel like someone is driving a mallet into your ear's each time you listen to deadmau5.
-HD Solo's are crisper. That is saying very negative things.
 
Overall
-10/10 Comfort.
-Just under obnoxiously bassy, enjoyable (If your a basshead)
-Sound is not crisp.
7/10 If you love bass (hip hop and techno) and don't mind your vocals being fuzzed, these are epic.
 
 
 
 
This is my review, my own non-expert opinion.
Hope it helped some of you guys.
Loving my XB-700's

 

[BotByte]

I almost bought some XB-700s, yet I found grados and fell in love
 
I tested the beats, and xbs at Bestbuy (I wasn't there to buy anything)
 
And I have to say:
Beats were pretty uncomfortable, solos were ok with good ear pieces, yet the pros were heavy, like lead. I felt like they were going to fall off and break my wrist or something.
Xbs were nice, I'd like ot rip off the earpads and glue them on my grados though, mmm.... memoryfoam
 
Good reviews, but I feel as if you haven't tried many high (talking top tier) headphones. You talked mostly about bass, which is a main thing with the xbs, and beats.
I would of bought the beats solo, but I tried some portapros from a friend, and I'm ordering them later this week
 
Copy and Paste the same in the headgear reviews please, some people use the section to decide on what to buy.

 

[sugarkang]

It's the 50mm driver. 
I couldn't straight up promote the XB-700 over the 500 because I'd never heard the 500. 
But I figured it would be something like going V600 to V900.
 
The 700 is just an amazing deal. 
They look absolutely dumb though haha.

 

[Johnathanta]

Depends if you can rock it 8)
I'm 18 years old, they look cool to me

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Did you try EQ any of them? XB700 are configured to be clearer sounding unEQ'd compared to XB500, I found XB500's mids/vocals to be a bit better than XB700 but default like you said the upper bass range especially 125 - 250Hz or so masks the mids a bit so that needs a bit EQing and should be a bit lower than 31 - 62Hz in comparision. I'm suprised you heard sibilance with the XB500, I've found XB500 to be very gentle with the 's'-sound. Maybe it varies a bit from sample to sample, I must have gotten a very nice one and female vocal trance is among my fav genres. To reduce sibilance I'd tweak 2kHz and 8kHz to be slightly lower in that case, I noticed those are far higher boosted in comparision to 4 and 16kHz.

 

[sugarkang]

Hey Johnathan,
 
Since you A/B ed them, can you verify that this graph is accurate?
Or at least, may your input on how this graph might be misleading?
Maybe then we can just outright avoid discussion about which is "better"
and let the buyer decide if he wants more bass/mids/treble.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I've described the differences several times in older threads and yea the graph is quite accurate of how I'd interpret it when looking at it. I first bought the Sony XB700 and used it for about 2 weeks or so maybe and was very satisfied with it (more so than the Beyer DT770 Pro/80 and ATH-M50 that both were roughtly twice as expensive) and then I got interested in trying the XB500 just in case and liked it even better.
 
The main differences are that the XB700's bass is quite similar or tiny bit more emphasized in deep bass which is slower/softer/boomier and XB500 besides quite similar deep bass also delivers bigger punchy upper bass as well that has more impact no matter if you play songs with not so deep bass to the deepest possible bass I could also "feel" it better on XB500 but I could "hear" it about as well or sometimes even slightly better on XB700 (the difference was more easily noticable in some PC games actually from explosions, you heard it but couldn't feel it as well on XB700 compared to XB500). Both headphones had the capability to deliver bass below my hearing capabilities (16~18Hz downwards or sth like that) as I could feel it tickling my ears but not hear it. From a total bassquantity stand point of view, XB500 delivers more bass. So while XB700 might have the strongest deep bass of all headphones I'd guess, XB500 probably easily takes 2nd spot as they are very very close how they handle deep bass.
 
Mids are very similar, I thought after lots of critical listening the XB500's mids were slightly less recessed and more forward / up-front which can probably be explained from the higher boosted high frequencies on XB700 (the more you boost other frequencies the less you will hear the others, it works both ways so mids especially at 1kHz would also have to be a bit further boosted on the XB700 to be on the same levels) but it's not a night and day difference. The highs are quite significantly brighter on XB700 (just slightly too bright for my personal taste) but not Grado-style, it's just I personally prefer just tiny bit darker highs but I think for most people XB700's highs are probably not disturbingly bright and they weren't for me either really but I think it still sounds better (mids especially) when they are tiny bit more darker sounding than on the XB700.
 
Overall the XB500 is the more forward/warm/aggressive sounding (compare Ultrasones) and XB700 is more laid-back (Sennheiser/BeyerDynamic style). XB700 has thus often slightly better instrument separation but the stage itself seems equally wide on both and very great for headphones in this pricerange probably due to their unique design.
 
So in my opinion:
 
XB700 is more suitable for people that prefer laid-back sound and deep & soft bass and brighter highs and XB500 for people that prefer more warm/forward/aggressive sound and great balance between deep and upper bass and smoother highs.
 
For me everything that is different for XB500 compared to XB700 is a positive thing but it could very well be negative things for another person with a different taste and I'm glad I've found a headphone that sounds exactly according to my own prefers now but I still can't believe it how a 43 EUR worth headphone can sound this great though. xD

 

[sugarkang]

Thanks for your input rpgwizard.
Johnathan's input would also be helpful so we could have one thread to point to for future buyers.
You prefer the 500 and he prefers the 700.
Good to have both opinions, like Siskel and Ebert.

 

[Johnathanta]

 
Quote:

I've described the differences several times in older threads and yea the graph is quite accurate of how I'd interpret it when looking at it. I first bought the Sony XB700 and used it for about 2 weeks or so maybe and was very satisfied with it (more so than the Beyer DT770 Pro/80 and ATH-M50 that both were roughtly twice as expensive) and then I got interested in trying the XB500 just in case and liked it even better.
 
The main differences are that the XB700's bass is quite similar or tiny bit more emphasized in deep bass which is slower/softer/boomier and XB500 besides quite similar deep bass also delivers bigger punchy upper bass as well that has more impact no matter if you play songs with not so deep bass to the deepest possible bass I could also "feel" it better on XB500 but I could "hear" it about as well or sometimes even slightly better on XB700 (the difference was more easily noticable in some PC games actually from explosions, you heard it but couldn't feel it as well on XB700 compared to XB500). Both headphones had the capability to deliver bass below my hearing capabilities (16~18Hz downwards or sth like that) as I could feel it tickling my ears but not hear it. From a total bassquantity stand point of view, XB500 delivers more bass. So while XB700 might have the strongest deep bass of all headphones I'd guess, XB500 probably easily takes 2nd spot as they are very very close how they handle deep bass.
 
Mids are very similar, I thought after lots of critical listening the XB500's mids were slightly less recessed and more forward / up-front which can probably be explained from the higher boosted high frequencies on XB700 (the more you boost other frequencies the less you will hear the others, it works both ways so mids especially at 1kHz would also have to be a bit further boosted on the XB700 to be on the same levels) but it's not a night and day difference. The highs are quite significantly brighter on XB700 (just slightly too bright for my personal taste) but not Grado-style, it's just I personally prefer just tiny bit darker highs but I think for most people XB700's highs are probably not disturbingly bright and they weren't for me either really but I think it still sounds better (mids especially) when they are tiny bit more darker sounding than on the XB700.
 
Overall the XB500 is the more forward/warm/aggressive sounding (compare Ultrasones) and XB700 is more laid-back (Sennheiser/BeyerDynamic style). XB700 has thus often slightly better instrument separation but the stage itself seems equally wide on both and very great for headphones in this pricerange probably due to their unique design.
 
So in my opinion:
 
XB700 is more suitable for people that prefer laid-back sound and deep & soft bass and brighter highs and XB500 for people that prefer more warm/forward/aggressive sound and great balance between deep and upper bass and smoother highs.
 
For me everything that is different for XB500 compared to XB700 is a positive thing but it could very well be negative things for another person with a different taste and I'm glad I've found a headphone that sounds exactly according to my own prefers now but I still can't believe it how a 43 EUR worth headphone can sound this great though. xD

This is 100% completely accurate as compared to my listening experience of these two headphones. XB500's are agressive and deliver that bass you can "feel". XB700's the seperation and lower bass is what won me over. XB500's can be fatiguing! XB700 are excellent for falling asleep to and listening on the subway, thats why I ended up choosing them

 

[Johnathanta]

Quote:

Thanks for your input rpgwizard.
Johnathan's input would also be helpful so we could have one thread to point to for future buyers.
You prefer the 500 and he prefers the 700.
Good to have both opinions, like Siskel and Ebert.

700's seem to have a broader sound stage, and hit the lower bass amazingly. Songs like "teach me how to dougie" are so much more enjoyable and richer on the 700's. By genre preference it would seem that xb500's would be better for me because of their punchy agressive feeling but It's actually too much for me. I don't find listening to the xb500's for a long period of time to be nearly as enjoyable as chilling out with the 700's. Mind you, I got the 500's in toronto for only 49.99 and the 700's for 119.99, I am tempted to keep both. 700's for prolonged listening and 500's for when I'm at the gym.