wind016
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2009
- Posts
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When I heard the Monster Beats Pro, I thought it actually sounded pretty good, but now I look at the Innerfidelity graphs, it seems the PRO actually measures better. Other than the treble to being tamer on the PRO which isn't necessarily a bad thing, the PRO seems to have the advantage overall.
Thoughts?
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsPro.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/UltrasoneEdition8.pdf
UPDATE: moved from page 8 after I finally got a pair for myself.
OK...
How should I say this now? I can not standing listening to the Beats Pros without EQ or for long periods. I've burned them in a few hours while I left the house and they started to open up. The bass started clearing out and I can hear more clearly. The 500-1K sibilance/distortion is still there and in addition to a painful 5K distortion. Also, the clamping is incredibly tight.
However, adjusting an equalizer like this
makes it fairly decent sounding. Warm and not very offending. Sounds good with these kind of jazz/hip-hop tracks as long as the EQ is running
or with Lady Gaga style pop music.
Vocals are pleasant and full as long as the 5K frequency is lowered. With an EQ, the headphone is not particularly offending. Without EQ, I'm not surprised people don't like them. There is much more distortion when music is playing than the graph would lead you to believe. If you do not EQ, the distortion is very apparent.
The headphone has plenty of midrange distortion, but EQing is fairly effective at hiding it. I suppose if you like a headphone which sounds like a better version of Sony XB700 and is OK with keeping the distortion hidden under EQ, you might like the Beats Pros. As for me, I'm getting irritated listening to them. EQing them doesn't make them sound bad, but they don't sound like $400. Maybe around $200 would be right as that is the amount of clarity I would expect from a $80 headphone with this amount of bass. If I had to guess, Monster demo sources have some sort of frequency recession around 5K to keep the distortion from being noticeable.
I'm not going to bother with a review. I'll be returning them.
Thoughts?
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsPro.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/UltrasoneEdition8.pdf
UPDATE: moved from page 8 after I finally got a pair for myself.
OK...
How should I say this now? I can not standing listening to the Beats Pros without EQ or for long periods. I've burned them in a few hours while I left the house and they started to open up. The bass started clearing out and I can hear more clearly. The 500-1K sibilance/distortion is still there and in addition to a painful 5K distortion. Also, the clamping is incredibly tight.
However, adjusting an equalizer like this
makes it fairly decent sounding. Warm and not very offending. Sounds good with these kind of jazz/hip-hop tracks as long as the EQ is running
or with Lady Gaga style pop music.
Vocals are pleasant and full as long as the 5K frequency is lowered. With an EQ, the headphone is not particularly offending. Without EQ, I'm not surprised people don't like them. There is much more distortion when music is playing than the graph would lead you to believe. If you do not EQ, the distortion is very apparent.
The headphone has plenty of midrange distortion, but EQing is fairly effective at hiding it. I suppose if you like a headphone which sounds like a better version of Sony XB700 and is OK with keeping the distortion hidden under EQ, you might like the Beats Pros. As for me, I'm getting irritated listening to them. EQing them doesn't make them sound bad, but they don't sound like $400. Maybe around $200 would be right as that is the amount of clarity I would expect from a $80 headphone with this amount of bass. If I had to guess, Monster demo sources have some sort of frequency recession around 5K to keep the distortion from being noticeable.
I'm not going to bother with a review. I'll be returning them.
