I must start off by saying that I’m no audiophile. I love my music alright, but I don’t love my music so much to the point of being obsessed with bit rates. I’m just a mere consumer, and I must say that although these headphones may be a tad overpriced, they do provide a fantastic listening experience.
The first impression these headphones give you would be their physical design. Monster Beats by Dr Dre Studio headphones provide pleasant eye candy, as opposed to boring the boring headbands that make up the bulk of the headphone market. These headphones are sure to grab attention when you walk outside along the streets. Available off the shelf in black, white, the newly introduced red as well as the novelty Red Sox edition, alternatively, you may choose to customize your headphones, with Colorware giving you the opportunity to pick the colors for basically every part of the Studios.
Let us move on to comfort. The Monster Beats by Dr Dre Studio headphones are sufficiently padded with an artificial, leathery material that provides excellent comfort to the user. They do not make you feel sore after hours of use, so bid those uncomfortable long bus rides goodbye now! The ear cushions provide much warmth and snugness. However, being in a tropical country like Singapore with temperatures going over 30°C (86°F), my ears started to sweat after an hour under the hot sun. So if you live in a place with high temperatures, then you might not want to wear them outside.
The Monster Beats by Dr Dre Studio headphones come with a detachable cable. Something I really liked. Too many headphones are rendered unusable after the cable gets damaged. Monster Cable managed to solve the problem by using detachable cables. When you somehow get your cables ripped apart, you can simply purchase a new cable, which saves you the cost of buying yet another expensive pair of headphones. I must also mention that Monster used an extremely thick cable for these headphones, rendering them virtually tangle free…what else would you expect from a “cable” company?
The Studios also feature active noise cancellation. Switch them on and they cancel off ambient sound to provide you with a better listening experience. The downside to this is that you have to pop 2 AAA batteries into the left ear cup, and the headphones don’t work unless they have working batteries. This should not affect most people, as the batteries can last for quite a considerable amount of time.
Onto what everyone has been waiting for, the sound quality. As these headphones are Dr Dre endorsed, one would expect much from it, especially with all that hype. For the common man on the streets, these headphones sound really good. My only gripe was that the bass was not strong enough, but then again for headphones to be used in recording studios I can’t complain much. If strong bass support is a requirement, then you should check out the Monster Beats by Dr Dre Solo or Solo HD which support stronger bass. To be perfectly honest, for the amount of money you pay for a pair of Monster Beats by Dr Dre Studio headphones, you can probably buy a pair of nicer sounding headphones. However, those headphones may not carry as much swag as these do, and if you’re not an audiophile, these headphones should do perfectly well for you.
In Conclusion
While the Monster Beats by Dr Dre Studio headphones are a tad expensive, they are definitely worth paying for. Not only do they provide good sound quality, they are also stylishly designed and fantastic to look at. There isn’t much to dislike about these headphones, and claims that they’re overrated are in my opinion, very much exaggerated. True enough you can get better sounding headphones for the same amount of money, but for the average consumer you will hardly be able to discern the difference.
