You have seen them on the heads of pro athletes, celebrities, and urban commuters. These stylish headphones with the bright red lower case “b” on them. Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are quickly becoming the must have accessory for the audiophile. We needed to find out what makes these headphones so sought after so we gave a pair a run for their money.
The look: When we liberated the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones from their box you could instantly see you are dealing with a high quality piece of equipment. The headphones are made out of lightweight aluminum, held together by what looks like steel rivets. Despite the heavy metal look of the headphones, Beats by Dr. Dre are light and very comfortable. The ultra padded ear cups fit nicely over the ear cutting out most outside noise. If you do need to monitor the room, each cup is on a swivel.
The part of the design I like the best is the removable audio cable. The part on any pair of headphones most likely to go is the cord. Once the cord is gone, the headphones are gone. Beats by Dr. Dre have solved this issue with a removable audio cable, which can be plugged into the left or right earpiece.
The sound: I listened to a range of music with the Beats by Dr. Dre. Every style was clear and crisp. When listening to Gov’t Mule’s breakout CD Dose the bass was so clear I could swear I could tell what kind of amp the bassist was playing through. I could hear the distinct punch of 10 inch speakers – could Allen Woody be playing through an Ampeg SVT? Upon doing a bit of research Allen Woody does play Ampeg. I don’t know if Allen Woody used a Ampeg SVT on for this recording but these headphone are giving me the most realistic bass I have ever heard in a pair of cans.
Beats Pro is the reference headphone designed by audio professionals for audio professionals. Particularly, those who prefer a clean yet forceful sound. Built from strong yet lightweight aluminum for rugged use on-the-go, flip up ear cups let you monitor the room without taking Beats Pro off your head. And dual input/output cable ports enable you to share mixes by daisy-chaining headphones.
I had the same experiences listening to Hip Hop, Jazz and Rock. I was noticing nuances that I have never hear on disks I have been listening to for years. As I closed my eyes I could visualize the music, I felt as if I opened my eyes the musicians would be in the room surrounding me.
I also gave the Beats by Dr. Dre a bit of a workout doing some music production. When mixing down studio projects I found the Beats by Dr. Dre to be just as true as my reference monitors. The big difference being Beats by Dr. Dre allowed me to focus on the stereo separation in my mix.
Where I really had fun with these headphones was plugging them into my VOX amPlug metal practice headset guitar amp. My Gibson Les Paul sounded like it was hitting me in the back of the head. After a while I forgot I even had the headset on and felt like I was standing in front of a wall of concert amps with 12 inch speakers. Once again, I could almost see the stacks of amps if I closed my eyes.
Overall: In my years of music production, performance, and listening, I have never experienced a set of headphones that change the game as drastically as Beats by Dr. Dre. These headphone make me want to revisit my entire music collection to see what else I have missed in my favorite songs.
For the review we demod the Beats by Dr. Dre Pro which have a street price of around $399 and they are worth every penny. These are the last set cans you will ever have to buy.
