I know this is a fairly old thread but..
Today i compared my Hifiman HE-300 to my beats studio (old version, also still has a monster logo). The studio costs 50 bucks more than the HE-300. (And i'll also throw in the beats pro detox later)
(I tested both unamped, which is in the favour of the beats studio, which can't really handle an amp)
The studio's sounded like one big blur of everything, surrounded with a huge amount of bass, they also leak like crazy for a closed headphone (I dare to say more than the HE-300, which is an open model..) and to finish it, their build quality is plain horrible.. Cheap plastic. But they are pretty comfortable, and you really can't hear a thing around you when you have them on, and you might get some attention saying 'Wow, he is wearing beats.'.
The HE-300 has very detailed sound, the bass quantity is much less, but it is way better quality. It isn't muddy and doesnt distort in any way. You can clearly hear the voices and can seperate all the instruments. It also has a better build quality (except for the cable, which is in my honest opinion the worst build quality of a cable I've ever seen of my entire life, mine broke within 4 days.), it's made from strong plastic, which looks like aluminium. They are even more comfortable than the studio's, and they look more professional (if you care about the looks, I stopped doing so.).
I also have the beats pro detox, it's just a beats pro, but then with 'Dr. Dre Detox' on the top, and 'beats' on their sides, it's also 100 bucks more and limited edition (been out of the shops for over a year now).
The beats pro is 400 bucks, while the detox was ranging from 500 to 550. They do sound exactly the same.
They have the best build quality I have ever seen, they're made from leather (not sure what kind of leather, but it's really durable.) and aluminium. The paint comes off a little bit with the detox, but I haven't had this problem with the beats pro white.
Now to the sound, they don't sound as bad as the studio, but aren't worth their price.
They don't make it such a huge blur as the studio's do, although it's still a mess of bass. It sounds good with bass heavy genre's like rap/hiphop/trap, but it's just plain horrible for an allrounder, and genre's like rock. The highs are here, but nothing too great. The mids are slightly better than the highs, nothing stunning though. The bass is here, and it sure makes itself noticable. It bleeds into the mids and the highs, and even drowns out some instruments when listening to rock. The bass is in huge in terms of quantity, not quality. If you are a low decibel listener you won't notice this too much, but when you go higher (75+ decibel) it really is annoying.
Their comfort is meh. It's not the worst, but the ear cushions are round, and just a bit too small to fit most people's ears in them (I myself got pretty small ears, so it's alright for me, but for some people it even turns into an on-ear instead of an over ear). They weight about 550g which is a lot, but doable. I really do not recommend these.
In the end the Hifiman HE-300 pretty much wins of the three, of course it could be way better if I amped it (which would be possible, and still be cheaper than the beats pro detox.)
I hope someone found this post usefull!
PS: I just got my Hifiman, and I just recently understood why everyone hated beats, just give other headphones than beats a chance, and be sure to stay away from Bose or SMS audio!
