Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Tour

The Tour was the first pair of headphones in Monster's Beats by Dr Dre range, and is billed as the in-ear equivalent of the larger Tour headphones.  Whether or not they manage to pull that off, they certainly won't go unnoticed.

Handling: stylish, yes; comfortable, no

The Tours have some of the same design features as the Beats by Dr Dre headphones, with lots of black and red.  The flat cable is tough and we can't complain about that.  The collection of accessories, though, is one of the smallest we've seen: there's just a semi-rigid case and three sets of silicon ear tips.  Plenty of Monster's competitors provide a lot more.

It's when you try them on thing that things start to go wrong.  The shape of the outside of the headphones is all wrong, and left a lot of people who tested them with sore ears.  It's a problem we've seen elsewhere in this range, and we had the same complaint with the Heartbeats.  It's even more irritating because you can't get the Tours into your ears properly: not only do they hurt while you're wearing them, they don't stay put either.

Audio Quality: up to scratch

Because these Tours are supposed to be mobile version of Monster's headphones with the same name, it's only reasonable to expect the same audio quality.  And that's exactly what we found: there's a lot of emphasis on the bass, so much so that a lot of people can't stand it.  But the bass is very well-handled, and manages to avoid falling into the usual trap of sounding like a mediocre subwoofer with washed-out, sloppy bass overpowering everything else.

In the same way, there is plenty of sound in the mid-range, leaving the treble to lose out.  If you pay attention, the treble soon ends up sounding aggressive, which is clearly a result of other parts of the spectrum taking over.  In general, the sound is clear and well-defined.

It's a shame that these headphones aren't great to wear, as that takes away a lot of the interest, even for people who really look powerful bass.