Beats Solo 3. I'm going to be diplomatic. Sort of.

Mellotronix

Super Member
My son and I always cringe when we see a perfectly happy looking citizen sporting Beats headphones. To be honest, neither of us has ever had a pair even close to our ears, so our assumptions are based on irrational stereotypes, biases, and generalizations.

Earlier this week I received a brand new set of Beats Solo 3 on ear 'phones for FREE with my new MacBook Pro. After a brief test drive, I decided that they needed to be broken in, so I paired them with my old mac and ran them on shuffle mode under a pillow in my studio closet nonstop until the battery died. Surprisingly, that's about 40 hours. Holy shit. 40 hours on one charge? I'm impressed. The computer moved all over the house and never lost track of the wireless Bluetooth Beats hiding in the studio closet. I'm even more impressed.

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Today I listened to them for several hours including a ProTools session where I was doing some drum replacement work using Superior Drummer 3. Music was mostly prog.--Anathema, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Tool, and King Crimson. That's what I listen to, so I could care less how they sound with Jennifer Warnes or that Hallelujah dude.

The ergonomic design of these Beats including the built in multifunction buttons and bluetooth features are fabulous with Apple products. Ease of pairing, wireless range and access to controls are all excellent and I've already mentioned the battery life which is phenomenal.

If only the sound were a bit more refined. The calling card here is bass and while you would expect a closed, on-ear design to excel at mondo bass, it is not as invasive as I have been led to believe. The Solo 3's were relatively non-fatiguing, and once I got used to the 200-400 Hz traffic jam, the music sounded OK. I have a pair of AiAiAi TMA2's that sound very similar, but they were purpose built for noisy nightclub DJ work and maybe the draw for these Solos is just that. They remind you of the bloated sound system at your favorite disco. Still, after years of mixing and mastering with Byerdynamic 600 Ohm DT880's and more recently DT1990's, the Beats Solo 3's take some getting used to. But I can say with certainty that the top end is slightly burnished, but it's not the fault of the über bass. Unfortunately, the Solo 3's just lack detail in the upper mids, and sibilants are soft. Lots of listeners are probably gonna love the perceived lack of harshness.

Do they sound horrible? Not at all. Do they sound quirky in a fun sort of way like the AiAiAi's? Not really. Could I find a use for them? Absolutely. I have a feeling that if you can get your mix to sound good on these Solo 6's, your project will probably sound good on almost anything, including those free earbuds that the airlines pass out. So I'm keeping them, and I found myself liking them quite well for sampling drum sounds and mixing drum kits.
 
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Regardless of the comments some folks throw their way, they've radically stepped up their game since the first generation. Radically.

Sure, they are no Sennheiser or AKG, but that's not their demographic.
 
I bet that the Apple ownership has been good for the actual tech going into their products.

Still way overpriced if you have to pay retail.
 
A few years ago I received a set of the Beats Solo 2.0. I was surprised by the sound of them, after reading and hearing how bad Beats were as a hole. I ended up liking their sound, but I have a problem with the material they use on the earpads I must be allergic to the cloth, but they are fine when I place a cut up tee shirt over my ears. The earpads aren't replaceable. Does anyone know of a spray or something along the lines of Scotchguard, or something similar I could try or replacement pads I could use?
 
A few years ago I received a set of the Beats Solo 2.0. I was surprised by the sound of them, after reading and hearing how bad Beats were as a hole. I ended up liking their sound, but I have a problem with the material they use on the earpads I must be allergic to the cloth, but they are fine when I place a cut up tee shirt over my ears. The earpads aren't replaceable. Does anyone know of a spray or something along the lines of Scotchguard, or something similar I could try or replacement pads I could use?

I'm pretty sure those pads are replaceable.

I'd try anything that does not have actual Beats branding.
 
I bet that the Apple ownership has been good for the actual tech going into their products.

Still way overpriced if you have to pay retail.

Considering the fact that you can purchase a set of Grado 325's or choose from a whole raft of Senns, Byers, etc., for the same price, yes, they are overpriced. The most recent upgrades involved the Bluetooth wireless system which is outstanding, but they didn't do any upgrades to the drivers.
 
Regardless of the comments some folks throw their way, they've radically stepped up their game since the first generation. Radically.

Sure, they are no Sennheiser or AKG, but that's not their demographic.
I never tried the first generation of these popular cans, but you are probably correct.
 
I am convinced that outside of the picky audiophile crowd, Beats are representative of how people listen to music these days. Rap and Hip Hop have taken over the music business and are now the best selling and most listened to genres, overtaking the traditional mainstays of country and pop. So it makes sense that hyped bass is the raison d'e tre in headphones and earbuds. The subdued upper midrange and treble allow users to crank these 'phones up so that the bass is slamming the eardrums without any harsh higher frequencies interfering.
 
Demographic.....

For people that buy exactly what others buy and for the same reason....cause someone they know bought a pair. I checked out a pair of the Beats 3 at the PX (on base mini-mall) against the headphones in my backpack Senn 280 Pro and the difference is startlingly obnoxious. I’d say about 30% of the music isn’t even being reproduced, so I would wonder why anyone that is able to pay attention to detail would own something so lacking. They don’t sound real bad, and they don’t sound real good either...
 
They positioned themselves in the marketplace to attract younger listeners using a lot of urban-music ad campaigns. and it worked well for them. I'm sure they'd love to broaden their market by appealing to other demographics now. Could be a long row to hoe for them, but building a better headphone alone won't do it - they need to expand their marketing strategies. That's what I think, anyway.
 
Demographic.....

For people that buy exactly what others buy and for the same reason....cause someone they know bought a pair. I checked out a pair of the Beats 3 at the PX (on base mini-mall) against the headphones in my backpack Senn 280 Pro and the difference is startlingly obnoxious. I’d say about 30% of the music isn’t even being reproduced, so I would wonder why anyone that is able to pay attention to detail would own something so lacking. They don’t sound real bad, and they don’t sound real good either...

I think your assessment is right on here. Auditioning headphones, like any audio product, is an interesting endeavor, especially if you have been hooked on a certain sound--like Sennheiser, or in my case Byerdynamic, for a long time. Headphones are so immediate, personal, and intimate that their differences are much more pronounced than loudspeakers or phono cartridges. You have to listen for an extended period in order to allow your ears and brain to reset. Oftentimes I've found that my first impressions are not very accurate. With my AiAiAi TA2's, again freebees from the now defunct HelloMusic website, I thought, "My goodness, there are no high frequencies. No wonder they were giving them away with the Tannoy studio subwoofer that I purchased." I read reviews that talked about how great the midrange and treble frequencies were, and all I could think of was, "What midrange and treble? Am I going deaf?"

But something unusual happened. I took them on vacation with me and used them to mix a couple of songs and listen to music for pleasure. They were the only 'phones I listened to for three weeks. I got used to their sound and started to appreciate the decidedly quirky way in which the vocals and instruments were presented in their 3-D soundstage. It was like the rhythm instruments were moved back a few feet and the singers stepped forward while the bass and kick drum were being played live in my living room. They were completely non-fatiguing on airplanes and trains because of their hefty bass and 4K dip. The bass did not get lost in the din, and the higher frequencies did not induce tinnitus at high volume. I thought, OK, this makes sense. If you were a DJ in a noisy club and needed to cue up, you could crank these babies and hear all of the details while minimizing damage to your hearing.

When I returned home, my Grado's, Byers, and Senns all sounded toppy and shrill. That effect lasted longer than I expected, but, while the human ear is pretty inefficient compared with other mammals, the human brain with its ability to evaluate and reason makes up for it. We adjust to novelty effects quite quickly.

Having said all of that, I recognize that a bad design is a bad design and if the frequencies are not there to begin with, it's a problem. If the frequencies are there but presented in a manner different to that which I am accustomed, I can adjust, and sometimes I start to enjoy the difference in presentation. It provides me with a different perspective on my music which can be really cool. I remember auditioning Magnapan speakers a few years ago, and I thought, "Wow, that's a really unique presentation! I could probably get used to it and really enjoy it." I remember being intrigued with Bose 901's in the '70's and trying to talk my dad into buying a pair. Again, novel, unique, new horizons to explore and all of that. In hindsight, I could never get past the fact that the 901's need such an extreme EQ shift to be listenable. That whole 901 paradigm seems like a design flaw to me now, but I digress.

So, are the FREE (I can't emphasize that enough:) Beats as bad as I had imagined? Am I an deplorable music snob? Do I have a narcissistic streak that eschews pop culture in favor of a more (perceived) intelligent lifestyle? Do I hate every product that I see pro sports figures using? Do I think that product branding has gone way too far in its influence on consumers? Do I write way too much when I get on internet forums because I spent my career giving three hour lectures and writing bloated journal articles that nobody ever read?

No to some of that and yes to the rest of it.
 
The Solo 3 wireless, Studio 3 Wireless, and Beats X have the Apple W1 chip like the Airpods do. Regardless of price and sound that makes them excell at range, battery life, and connectivity with iOS and OSX devices.

Pair them once and they're automatically shared with every device on your iCloud, which in my case is two computers, two phones, and an iPad.

It's an arrangement that works out for me while I stream video and listen to podcasts. My wife gets to watch what she wants on the TV and I watch what I want on my iPad with the active noise canceling enabled.

Studio 3s were a pricey media solution but it was worth it for me for how often I use them, which is daily/nightly.

Certainly not my first choice for music. I have Solo 2 wired headphones I bought from a friend for whom I could verify original purchase. The Solo 2-3 are musically better, and the Solo 3 wireless is supposed to sport 40 hours of battery, but no noise canceling.
 
Mello - I enjoyed your entire soliloquy. But the LAST sentence completely made my day. Rock on... and that means in any manner that suits you. "Take it easy, but take it!" Thorne
 
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