It's holiday time and that means headphones (not that it isn't headphones time all the time). To kick off the holiday headphone times I'll cover a pair of headphones I've recently come to owning, the Beats Studio Wireless.
So, what are the Beats Studio Wireless headphones? Most obviously, they're headphones produced by the often controversial company Beats (now owned by Apple). Equally obvious is that they're wireless headphones. What else can be easily gleaned about the Beats Studio Wireless? Well, they're over ear, closed back headphones that also sport ANC (active noise cancelling). Now let's get to it and get on with the review.
First off, as per usual, aesthetics and accessories along with comfort. Aesthetically, as with most Beats products, they look pretty good. The build quality is generally solid as well, mainly plastic but that's pretty common even in more expensive headphones. The couple of things that worry me about the build is that the headband is very rigid, as are the folding points which could lead to breakage later on. Also, if the sound is turned up, the cups actually rumble, they don't really rattle or have any large distortion, but there really shouldn't be any vibration from the cups on headphones at this price. Moving along to accessories, as these are wireless headphones, they come with 2 cables, one of which has a microphone. Additionally, there's a carrying case and USB charging cable and wall adapter for the charger. Overall, the packaging and aesthetics are really quite good, as you might expect of a Beats product. Comfort wise, they're pretty comfortable. The cups are a bit shallow though, so if your ears might touch the inside of the headphones. But let's get on to the meat of this review, the sound.
Immediately, two things are apparent about the sound of the Beats Studio Wireless headphones. First, as you might expect is that they have a good amount of bass, sometimes a bit too much. Second is the white noise that creeps in during quieter parts of your music and when music isn't playing. We'll tackle the second bit first to compare the noise cancelling capabilities.
I'll be blunt, if you want noise cancelling headphones, don't get the Beats Studio Wireless headphones. The noise cancelling is pretty bad. Both the Audio Technica ATH-ANC7b and ATH-ANC70 have equivalent or better noise cancelling at a significantly lower price. Not only that, but there's less of that white noise/static on both pairs than the Beats Studio Wireless. Though personally, my recommendation on the noise cancelling front is to suck it up and get the Bose QC15 or Bose QC25. The noise cancelling is so much better and the sound is more than acceptable. I won't go so far as to say that the noise cancelling on the Beats Studio Wireless is useless but it's just not up to snuff and the white noise that is ever present while they're on can be really annoying, especially since you can't listen to music without that noise cancelling on.
Now that we're done talking about the sub par noise cancelling, let's get back to the actual sound. Overall, it really isn't that bad. The bass is over exaggerated and at times can be simply too much, but it isn't particularly outside the range of other pretty popular headphones like the Audio Technica ATH-M50. That said, I couldn't get over how much bass hit there was on Use Me Up by Lake Street Dive, it was just too much for me. The bass in terms of quality is pretty decent. It's generally punchy and not overly bloated like some cheaper headphones.
Moving onto the mids, overall they again aren't really all that bad. Vocals tend to be more forward than I like but that might be more of a preference thing. That said, instruments like cellos and horns just don't seem as full on the Beats than on say the Audio Technica ATH-M50 or Beyerdynamic DT880. There's a somewhat subtle lack of detail in the entirety of the mids that sometimes makes things sound less interesting and thin than they really should be. This mainly occurs with instruments as vocals actually sound pretty good.
The highs are pretty similar to the mids. Overall, not too bad but a little thin. There's nothing about them that strikes me as strong or interesting. The lack of highs is a bit disappointing but not entirely surprising as highs are often ignored by more consumer focused headphones.
To round it out, let's talk about sound stage. The sound stage is...acceptable. Because of the increased bass and forward vocals, the sound stage can sound pretty small. If you haven't heard wider sound stages, it definitely isn't bad, but isn't as good as the Audio Technica ATH-M50 or Sony MDR-V6/MDR-7506, both of which are also closed back headphones that are much cheaper.
To recap, the Beats Studio Wireless are pretty decent headphones. Sound wise, they aren't bad, but really aren't all that good. The noise cancelling is quite poor and the amount of white noise they emit to do noise cancellation is by far the biggest flaw for me. The parting thought is, are they worth it? At MSRP $380 or $340 on Amazon, I have to say no to the Beats Studio Wireless headphones. The Bose QC25s goes for $300 and have better noise cancelling, the Bose QC15s go for $270 right now and sound as good or better and again have better noise cancelling. If all you want is the sound quality with none of the noise cancelling, both the Sony MDR-V6/MDR-7506 and the Audio Technica ATH-M50 are better for much less ($80ish or less for the MDRV6/MDR7506 or $110 for the ATH-M50). We'll continue with more headphones over the weekend. Until next time.
--CsMiREK
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