Beats By Dr. Dre Headphones Review

Subjective Testing

Gear Used:
Silverstone EB01 USB DAC
Sapphire Ivory MP3 Player

Soundcards:
Auzentech Prelude 7.1
ASUS Xonar Essence STX

Note: The beats were allowed to Burn-in for about ~50 hours prior to any auditioning.

Music

Metallica: Master of Puppets
Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan
Ozzy Osbourne: Black Rain
Nickleback: Dark horse
Robert Jonson: The Complete Recordings
Obie Trice: Cheers
Brooklyn Bounce: Best Of
50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Trying


I will admit I figured I would have bass monsters on my hands considering the influence Dr. Dre had on these headphones' design. This is always a worry when a product is aggressively marketed towards a certain market. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the bass response of these headphones; actually the bass response of these cans amazed me. The bass was deep but not boomy and had quite a bit of articulation, as we tested quite a bit of House, Techno, Hip Hop and old school Rap to look for breaks or holes in the response. After much searching there were no gaps in the bass response and all of the tones came out perfectly clear. If they were designed to have soulful bass region they succeeded in spades. The Beats smashed out whatever tracks we threw at them and kept on bouncing which was quite impressive. We also tested many other genres and were equally impressed with what we heard. What really stood out to me was the clarity in the mid range and highs. Reverberation would trail off further than with other headphones giving a much larger sense of space. The mid range was crystal clear, producing no noticeable smearing anywhere within the response. The detail on these headphones has to be heard to be believed, they truly leave nothing out of the soundscape.

The Beats have that “IT” factor that many headphones lack. When you listen to them, they make you move; tap your foot, bang your head, whatever. This quality is very hard to capture since we all know that many headphones will sound excellent but they are missing that vital ambiance that makes you "feel" the music. To put this into perspective; you can wear the Beats, listen to a song you have heard you whole life, and hear new sounds you never thought were there. The f-bomb John Lennon drops in the background of "Hey Jude", subtle cymbals chiming in the fourth movement of Beethoven's Symphony No.9, I could go on and on but let's just say that if you are listening to high-quality recordings, these headphones will simply amaze you.

Movie Listening Impressions

Ozzy Osbourne: Live at Budokan
Star Wars EpII: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars EpIII: Revenge of the Sith


Even though this isn't the Beats' advertised territory, we tested a few movies with the Beats using Dolby Headphone imaging. We found that even here the excellent dynamic range of the Beats came into play. Every raindrop, gun shot, lightsaber twirl and footfall could be heard without being muddied by even the most complicated soundstage. Speaking of lightsabers, the Lucasarts movies sounded particularly spectacular and we really got the feeling that much more attention was given to audio effects than these films are given credit for. The space flying sequences had amazing directional sound and a few times I ducked and look to the side in order to dodge a stray starfighter. The Beats could ramp up the action without bottoming out with heavy bass sequences such as explosions or crashes and presented a thoroughly crisp, clear and solid movie image during the entire reference movie set. Without a doubt, we really couldn't have asked for more.