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slycatThose that know me know I like my tech. I often search high and low to find the device that best suits my needs and for the right price and once I do, I obsess and obsess about that device until I find a good deal on it and then I put my money down on it. This is probably the main reason why I have the debt I have (but also the gorgeous telly I have!), and I've been doing it again recently. This time it's been about headphones.
Now normally, headphones haven't really been a big deal for me. I know for a fact that I'm not a fan of in ear headphones as I often find them uncomfortable and they don't always stay in. I had been using a set of Sony MDR-NC6 noise cancelling headphones which I had bought in a vending machine at San Francisco airport back in 2006 for $75 and I was very impressed with the noise cancelling effect and comfort of the headphones. However, the headphones aged and had been damaged. I had to get the plug replaced after accidentally ripping it off having getting the cable snagged while in a hurry and more recently, the left channel decided to no longer produce any noise. This made me resort of my Shure in ear headphones which were bought during a Play.com sale for £35. Shure have a good reputation for quality of headphones but these were the cheapest model Shure did (and I don't think they even do them any more). They're "noise isolating" headphones which means you have to jam them in your ears to block out outside sound, but I just find them uncomfortable and the sound quality wasn't as good as the Sonys. Therefore, I have been looking for a new over ear headphones to replace my now dead Sonys. I knew I wanted to get noise cancelling as it's nice to be able to block out the outside world when listening to music.
A few weeks back, I went to check out the new Best Buy which had opened locally and they had headphones called Beats by Dr. Dre Studio (Made by Monster Cable) on demo. I had a go and despite the fact they were only hooked up to an iPod Nano, they produced the most fantastic detailed sound I had ever heard from a set of headphones. The whole background of the shop and all the hustle and bustle was cut out by the noise cancelling and I was immersed in the music. They were playing Jazz. I don't even like Jazz but I fell in love with the quality of sound and this opened my eyes to high end headphones. As it was opening weekend at Best Buy, they were on offer at £279.99 with a free 8gb iPod Nano. That seemed rather steep for headphones and I had no interest in getting an iPod Nano and so let it lie.
Since then I've been looking over various high end headphones like the Sennheiser PXC450s and the Bose QC15s as well as the Beats. The general consensus from reviews of the Bose headphones seem to state that they offer the best sound of any noise cancelling headphones and the noise cancelling feature cannot be beat, but they were £100 more than any of the other options so I really couldn't justify paying £300 for a pair of headphones. I'm a big fan of Sennheisers having owned a set of PX 200s previously and obviously I'm aware of their reputation and while the Sennheisers got some great reviews, a number of them commented on the lack of a punching bass and while I know it's not that relevant, they didn't look that great. I much preferred the look of the Bose ones but as I've said, couldn't justify the cost of those.
So the choice came back to the Beats, and I scoured a lot of reviews about the Studio variety of headphones. All the legit reviews I could find praised the quality of sound on all ranges, some aired concern over build quality and only people posting in forums who hadn't tried them seemed to be complaining about over powered bass. It seems after doing further investigating, the Beats which had the overpowered bass were the cheaper Solo variety of Beats and not the Studios. I know they're made by Monster Cable, the same people who get away with selling digital cables which cost over £100 that do the same thing as the £10 equivilents. However the reviews account for this and still praise the headphones.
So having made my decision, price then became a factor. The official site still lists the headphones as having an RRP of £279.99 but many site were selling them for around £220. About 2 weeks ago, Amazon were selling them for the rather remarkable price of £175 and so I thought to myself I would pick them up at the end of the month for that price. However, it seems that was a time limited deal as they went back up to £230. So back to scouring the internet for deals and I finally found them going for £174 and free delivery from a place called Odds and Pods. I had never heard of the place before and so had to do some more research to find out if they were a reputable reseller. Turns out they had very positive reviews and so today, I finally decided to put my money down on the headphones and so I should get them later this week.
Now back to what the subject of this post refers to, the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio are very "fashionable" headphones. So much so, people may think I would go for them for their looks over their quality, however as I had said previously, I had tried them and fell in love there and then with the sound. I'm aware of the marketing for the headphones as they appear in artist's music videos and also they're obviously called Dr. Dre headphones. I have to be honest here, I'm no fan of Dr. Dre and don't really care for his opinion on sound quality. The headphones could be called anything and they'd still have the sound quality I enjoyed. Of course, due to their cost, marketing and desirability, they could end up making me a target for mugging like the white Apple headphones can do, but I think this will just mean I shan't be wearing them at night while walking around London. Ultimately, they tick all the boxes of requirements I have from a new set of headphones. They have rather good noise cancellation, look rather stylish rather than bulky like the Sennheisers, and they have other cool features like the fact the cable connects seperately to the headphones meaning it'd be very hard to break the cable due to getting it snagged like my last headphones. Of course, part of me thinks I maybe should have gone for the cheaper Sennheiser PXC350s, even if they are bulkier :P
Now normally, headphones haven't really been a big deal for me. I know for a fact that I'm not a fan of in ear headphones as I often find them uncomfortable and they don't always stay in. I had been using a set of Sony MDR-NC6 noise cancelling headphones which I had bought in a vending machine at San Francisco airport back in 2006 for $75 and I was very impressed with the noise cancelling effect and comfort of the headphones. However, the headphones aged and had been damaged. I had to get the plug replaced after accidentally ripping it off having getting the cable snagged while in a hurry and more recently, the left channel decided to no longer produce any noise. This made me resort of my Shure in ear headphones which were bought during a Play.com sale for £35. Shure have a good reputation for quality of headphones but these were the cheapest model Shure did (and I don't think they even do them any more). They're "noise isolating" headphones which means you have to jam them in your ears to block out outside sound, but I just find them uncomfortable and the sound quality wasn't as good as the Sonys. Therefore, I have been looking for a new over ear headphones to replace my now dead Sonys. I knew I wanted to get noise cancelling as it's nice to be able to block out the outside world when listening to music.
A few weeks back, I went to check out the new Best Buy which had opened locally and they had headphones called Beats by Dr. Dre Studio (Made by Monster Cable) on demo. I had a go and despite the fact they were only hooked up to an iPod Nano, they produced the most fantastic detailed sound I had ever heard from a set of headphones. The whole background of the shop and all the hustle and bustle was cut out by the noise cancelling and I was immersed in the music. They were playing Jazz. I don't even like Jazz but I fell in love with the quality of sound and this opened my eyes to high end headphones. As it was opening weekend at Best Buy, they were on offer at £279.99 with a free 8gb iPod Nano. That seemed rather steep for headphones and I had no interest in getting an iPod Nano and so let it lie.
Since then I've been looking over various high end headphones like the Sennheiser PXC450s and the Bose QC15s as well as the Beats. The general consensus from reviews of the Bose headphones seem to state that they offer the best sound of any noise cancelling headphones and the noise cancelling feature cannot be beat, but they were £100 more than any of the other options so I really couldn't justify paying £300 for a pair of headphones. I'm a big fan of Sennheisers having owned a set of PX 200s previously and obviously I'm aware of their reputation and while the Sennheisers got some great reviews, a number of them commented on the lack of a punching bass and while I know it's not that relevant, they didn't look that great. I much preferred the look of the Bose ones but as I've said, couldn't justify the cost of those.
So the choice came back to the Beats, and I scoured a lot of reviews about the Studio variety of headphones. All the legit reviews I could find praised the quality of sound on all ranges, some aired concern over build quality and only people posting in forums who hadn't tried them seemed to be complaining about over powered bass. It seems after doing further investigating, the Beats which had the overpowered bass were the cheaper Solo variety of Beats and not the Studios. I know they're made by Monster Cable, the same people who get away with selling digital cables which cost over £100 that do the same thing as the £10 equivilents. However the reviews account for this and still praise the headphones.
So having made my decision, price then became a factor. The official site still lists the headphones as having an RRP of £279.99 but many site were selling them for around £220. About 2 weeks ago, Amazon were selling them for the rather remarkable price of £175 and so I thought to myself I would pick them up at the end of the month for that price. However, it seems that was a time limited deal as they went back up to £230. So back to scouring the internet for deals and I finally found them going for £174 and free delivery from a place called Odds and Pods. I had never heard of the place before and so had to do some more research to find out if they were a reputable reseller. Turns out they had very positive reviews and so today, I finally decided to put my money down on the headphones and so I should get them later this week.
Now back to what the subject of this post refers to, the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio are very "fashionable" headphones. So much so, people may think I would go for them for their looks over their quality, however as I had said previously, I had tried them and fell in love there and then with the sound. I'm aware of the marketing for the headphones as they appear in artist's music videos and also they're obviously called Dr. Dre headphones. I have to be honest here, I'm no fan of Dr. Dre and don't really care for his opinion on sound quality. The headphones could be called anything and they'd still have the sound quality I enjoyed. Of course, due to their cost, marketing and desirability, they could end up making me a target for mugging like the white Apple headphones can do, but I think this will just mean I shan't be wearing them at night while walking around London. Ultimately, they tick all the boxes of requirements I have from a new set of headphones. They have rather good noise cancellation, look rather stylish rather than bulky like the Sennheisers, and they have other cool features like the fact the cable connects seperately to the headphones meaning it'd be very hard to break the cable due to getting it snagged like my last headphones. Of course, part of me thinks I maybe should have gone for the cheaper Sennheiser PXC350s, even if they are bulkier :P
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:19 pm (UTC)Anyway, they're relatively cheap compared with the £1800 Sennheisers I found during my searches!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:44 pm (UTC)The site seems to favour the Audio Technica brand, and the only active noise cancelling headphones they do are the ATH-ANC7b. I had read up on these before making my decision but it seems they had less than favourable reviews.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:44 pm (UTC)I use some gorgeous Sennheiser Aurvana Live! which I adore. I'm not a fan of in-ear headphones and prefer cans, but I got pissed at how fugs they all were. Skullcandy had just been launched over here, so I picked up one of their huge pair. The sound was actually pretty good, and I could hear things on the tube without pumping up the volume to a million - a miracle! Unfortunately, the build quality was terrible. They'd made the headset from inflexible plastic, so of course one of the arms snapped as I put it on my head. Boo. Two replacements later and with no help from Skullcandy themselves, and I said goodbye to them and hello Sennheiser - who, by the by, replaced my Aurvanas within 3 days when I complained that the left ear was cutting out occasionally.
I was looking at the Beats but I couldn't really justify the pricetag, and I wasn't a fan of how they looked. The Lady Gaga pair, however....
no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:49 pm (UTC)Seems Skullcandy get similar comments to what the Beats do which is that they're sold on their looks and not their quality. Personally I don't know what Skullcandy headphones sound like but it seems hard to find fair reviews of them. It does seem that the reviews are unanimous about the build quality tho. I do think they look a bit ugly tho!
no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 10:57 pm (UTC)I was attracted to them simply because they looked different. I'm a special snowflake etc etc. The sound quality was surprisingly good, but they were just brittle as anything. I was sorely disappointed, but it did get me into the idea of being an audiophile haha.
Oh, my mistake, my headphones are actually by Creative, not Sennheiser... I have my eyes on a pair of those but I can't quite justify the £200 price tag yet XD
no subject
Date: 2010-07-26 11:00 pm (UTC)I can't really afford £175 headphones, this is why I have an evil credit card. I wanted a new noise cancelling pair before I went on my flight for Eurofurence in a month's time tho.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-27 09:37 am (UTC)