Beats by Dr. Dre Studio

You know the Beats Studio. They're the headphones that kicked off the rest of the Beats by Dre product line, the ones you've seen on every other head on the street for the past couple of years now. The Beats Studio are the fruit of a long collaboration between the well-known cable and accessory maker, Monster, and the most well-known hip-hop producer, Dr. Dre. Advertised as the perfect mix between style, active noise cancellation and sound quality, are these really the ultimate cans for the discerning hip-hop fan?

Design: Comfortably Frail

Right out of the box, you can tell you've just bought the whole shebang. The Beats Studio comes with a CD with a few demo tracks on it, a mini-jack-to-jack adapter, an airplane adapter, a semi-rigid case (highly practical and effective against shocks) and a cleaning cloth—which, by the way, comes in handy because the lacquered finish turns the body into a real smudge magnet.

The minimalist design consists of finely curved, continuous lines, which are part of what gives the whole its iconic look. The Beats Studio definitely won't go unnoticed when you're on the bus, what with its imposing size and big, red "B" on either cup. In fact, it's meant to be noticed. So if you're looking for a product that doesn't make you stand out in the crowd, then you might want to look elsewhere. That's for you to decide!


Once you slip them on, there's no doubting that these are comfortable headphones. They're lightweight, the padding is soft and the cups don't feel too tight on your head. They're great for commuting and travelling because the body folds in and the cable detaches, making them easy to stow away.

However, there is one flaw: the hinges are remarkably frail, unacceptably so for a product of this calibre. Also, the active noise-cancellation can't be turned off, so if you don't have an extra set of batteries on you, the Studio becomes useless.
 

Audio: Hissssss

At first listen, it's obvious that the bass has really been emphasised. Now, you may be into that, but at this magnitude it contorts the sound so much that we can't help but have our doubts. Either way, with a spectrum that jumps to 7 dB all the way from 100 Hz to 600 Hz, you have to fear the worst. And that's exactly what you get: the mids are entirely submerged under a sea of bass and low-mids, and the highs are far above any level of decency, with a 10 dB(!) peak at around 8 kHz.


There's not much you can do with a curve like this, even with an equaliser. But more important than the peak in the high end is that the excess bass sounds dull and dragging, and only increases your impression that certain sounds have been drowned out. And the exaggerated high-end creates a good deal of sibilance. One thing is for sure: there's zero audio precision here. And that's a real shame for a pair of headphones that's advertised as being a reference in sound quality (see inset).

                              THD+N as a %                                                    Harmonic distortion in dB

And then there's the incessant hissing caused by the noise cancellation, which you hear even at high volumes. Where most high-quality headphones leave only a mild trace of it in the background, here it's much more present. Unfortunately, you have no choice but to put up with it, because the noise cancellation can't be turned off. This is disappointing, if not unforgivable. Because in the end, all it's really doing is replacing the ambient noise (which never disappears entirely anyway) with the hiss. What's the point?

The Beats Studio could indeed be what urban music fans are looking for. They are, after all, the primary consumer base Beats Electronics is targeting. Then again, you also have to remember that the tracks you've bought on CD or downloaded online have already been mixed in the studio with the bass in mind...