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Review: Beats by Dre Studio

There are a handful of things in this world worth experiencing: buttered corn, mind-blowing sex, skydiving and even everyday things like a successful trip the toilet. The universe being black and white, there are also entities such as cancer, scientology, Lindsay Lohan and unscheduled bowel movements that we best avoid or hope never to be acquainted with. This review is about a play in one of the most powerful forces in mankind –music and how you’ll never hear it the same way again with the Studio Beats by Dre.

 

 

I occasionally run into people who title themselves “audiophiles”. A quick online search for the definition of audiophile gives the definition of “A person with an interest in high fidelity sound reproduction and its associated technology.”. If you ask me if I’m one, then it would be a quick no for two reasons:

 

1. It’s dangerously close to sounding like the term used for someone who an interest in sexual pursuit with children.

2. It’s a self acclaimed, aka narcissistic synonym for “refined douchebag”.

 

 

The great debate here is that fidelity CAN be subjective if being realistic. The people who coin themselves ‘audiophiles’ go to as much trouble as to use gadgets that mimic human hearing to gauge quality. This simply does not work as mere technical details should not account for anyone using the same product as ultimately, quality is in taste.

 

In the entirety of this review I won’t be using fancy shmancy charts which are no help to the regular consumer or just about anyone (99% of my good readers, the remaining 1% are “the anals”). Looking at numbers and figures does not define anything because at the end of the day it’s simply a good product or a bad product.

 

How good does it sound?

The Beats are active noise isolating. Active actually means that you have to turn them on, which means that these headphones require batteries. I have been using them for a week now and the batteries are fine but I’m expecting them to last just about a week more due to constant use. Going back –it does ‘fine’ isolating noise. Pressing on the right ‘b’ button mutes noise isolation and music so you may talk to people without removing the headphones. Noise isolation is really a nice touch because it allows you to immerse further in your music. Very handy as in some cases some of my songs felt like ‘walk-in music’ –imagine walking into a place with the right song playing at the right exact time… it really happens a lot with the Beats.

 

Do these cans sound good? Yes they do. If there’s one thing that’s always lacking in your run-of-the-mill headphones, that’s one thing it boasts… sometimes excessively of —bass. Treble is outstanding as well. Reading this won’t do it any justice –think of the best sound system you’ve heard recently. This can be a high-definition cinema or a club –the experience is taking that and keeping it for personal hearing! Bass is insanely generous, R&B tracks sound and are reproduced with much clarity. Treble is crisp and allows for "instrument separation”, allowing you to isolate and distinguish individual instruments used in the track.

 

 

Just how much clarity are we talking about? You can actually notice the vocalist pausing to breathe. Any better than that would give you an idea of the humidity in the singer’s mouth as popularly noted in ridiculously expensive electromagnetic speakers.

 

Aesthetics and comfort?

The Beats look badass great whether you get in white or black. I went with white Beats as I’ve tested the black pair and its very prone to fingerprint trails. Comfort is TOP NOTCH. Easily the best that my oversized head has ever welcomed. Rests nicely and doesn’t give you as much fatigue as it doesn’t grip your ears viciously to tire you into often breaks.

 

The box and what comes with it?

Packaging is classy. It came in a well sealed glossy box with an Apple’esque design. In one side reads Dr. Dre with:

 

"People aren’t hearing all the music.

Artists and producers work hard in the studio perfecting their sound. But people can’t really hear it with normal headphones. Most headphones can’t handle the bass, the detail, the dynamics. Bottom line, the music doesn’t move you.

With Beats, people are going to hear what the artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way I do."

 

 

Included in the box are the headphones, obviously. The Beats fold up to fit in a ‘semi-hard’ carrying case with a very cool ‘b’ logo in the middle, a nice touch for headphones at this price level. It comes with two wires: a regular red wire that’s conveniently tangle free and what monster calls an iSoniTalk wire for use with iPhones. Additionally they threw in wipes to polish off smudges, not really an issue for white Beats.

 

Should I buy it?

No, you shouldn’t. If headphones were cars…..:

 

• The earphones that come with iPods are your low end commuter cars (Cherry QQs, Kia Prides, whatever). They’re insanely cheap that people package them for free, in analogy, these cars are often grand prizes of small time raffles. They do mediocre with their job but drive them too long and they’ll eventually break down and potentially kill you —again in analogy, did you know iPod earphones are known to deafen people?
• SkullCandy (which are HORRIBLE) is your Civic. Made for ‘tweens’ with prolonged puberty issues, carrying on a wannabe raceboy attitude. They aren’t any good, in fact most of the time aren’t any better than any generic headphones you can buy at any given store. They look nice enough to slap teenage pretentiousness but with the end result of no one taking you any seriously in your chosen preference for it or future preference in cars or headphones.
• Sennheiser, Bose and similar brands are your BMW, Audi and generally mid-luxury brands. They are highly respected and always deliver good quality output. Any higher brands would fall under the Ferrari-Lamborghini level, these aren’t for the weekday consumer and I would assume that the 1% (‘anal’ readers) to take better interest in cans of this make.

 

So what are the Beats? The Studio Beats is a black BMW 7 series limousine in black sporty rims with Toyota commissioned to do make the interior. It’s coveted as 7 series cars go and always taken seriously because of the executive feel with a dash of youth. Toyota you ask? The build quality can be better. For headphones of this price you’d expect only the best and yet many owners have reports of ………snapping.

 

 

For $350 online or 22,000PHP locally, I would only recommend that you buy them if you’re into expensive wine. Like wine, any other headphones would do for your music fix, but expensive wine like the Beats will give you a different quench along with a sense of pride in being eccentric and staggeringly the complete opposite of frugal in your gadget investments. Sadly, like expensive wine, someday you’ll eventually drink it down and retire the bottle to invest in a new pair of cans in a few years.

 

 

Don’t buy them, they’re that good… seriously!