Beats by Dre headphones are known for 1. being really expensive, 2. being worn by athletes and rappers, 3. for sounding good.
When I first bought the Black Studio Beats by Dre, and the anticipation was unbearable. I'd dropped big money on a hyped item before: the 4th generation iPod. At the time it cost $299 which was astronomically higher than any music listening device at the time. It was a device ahead of its time, whose pricepoint is now accepted given its widespread adoption. At the time, $20 for a CD player, $60 for a MiniDisc player (which I stupidly bought).Long story short...iPod was expensive, but worth it, it was ahead of its time. My dad only wishes i put that money in Apple stock, which would be well worth $10k now. Although it was expensive at the time, it turned out to be a good investment.
Back to the Beats...super hyped, super expensive, super quality, it had the workings of another good investment. To everyone but the pickiest audiophile, they will blow your mind when you demo them at any Apple store. But to be honest..thats all they're good for...demoing.
These headphones look and sound amazing. You're sold right? Its hard to explain...but my friend and I can both concur, we found ourselves preferring $14 Sony MDR-V150's over the Beats Studios during our marathon study sessions for Finals.
The Beats Studios are just too intense, they seem comfortable initially...but eventually become a pain. The on/off button just accentuates how "epic" your experience should be (despite the fact that you could just be browsing youtube videos or listening to podcasts). Noise-canceling in case you didn't know, involves the headphones listening to ambient sounds and projecting a negative frequency to cancel out this outside noise. The frequency, while effective, gives me a headache. Also, a pair of AAA batteries lasted me 11 days. The sound leakage wasn't a very big problem since I don't really bump my music too loud, but I hear this is a problem to some.
Sure, I (felt like I) got a lot of attention from people who thought I was ballin' when I wore the headphones around campus. They are a sort of status symbol, like the white Apple earbuds were back in the day. You had to drop a lot of money for the right to have red cords coming out of your ears. Even factoring this luxury tax, they aren't worth it as primary headphones, even at the discounted price I got them at (60% off). I liked being seen wearing them more than actually wearing them. Props to Dr Dre and Monster for marketing these well and creating this fad. I unfortunately can't recommend any alternatives at a similar price-point, the Beats just look WAY better than the competition right now. I'll be looking into Beats earbuds or possibly the Solo HD's, but not the Studios. They are excellent for certain times and situations (ex. when demoing "The Game" to friends) but how often do those situations really arise? To me: not often enough.
