Appearance and Fit

The first thing you notice about the Beats Studio by Dr. Dre is that it draws attention – a lot of attention. The glossy plastic exterior is very flashy, although it is somewhat easily scratched if you don’t take care of it at least compared against matte exteriors. It’s also a fingerprint magnet but that’s easily taken care of by the included microfiber cloth for wiping. I’m not a fan of the excessive amount of branding on the  There are apparently also white and Boston Red Sox versions of the headphones if black isn’t your color.

Weighing in at a tad less than 0.6 pounds, the Beats are definitely lighter than most professional studio headphones which are usually in the 0.7 pound range, so they’re a good choice if you’re out and about often.

However, the lightness comes at a cost – the headphones feel a bit flimsy. The plastic is very noticeable, especially because the ear cups are able to freely move around so they make clanky noises when you take them off.

The good part is that the Beats are superbly comfortable. The vinyl ear cups are a generous size so that they surround your ears instead of push on them like smaller cups tend to do. They don’t get too hot nor wet so they can definitely be worn for extended periods of time with no problem.

The headphones can conveniently collapse when you put it away in its nice solid storage case so that you won’t damage the nice shiny glossy sleek look. Its materials, especially the leatherette cushions, feel high end without risking comfortability.

Sound Quality

Monster’s powered isolation technology actively cuts external noise, so you experience all the rich details your favorite artists want you to hear. It even has a quick mute button on the right side of the headphone (the Beat logo) by holding it, allowing you to listen to any surrounding noise without turning off the headphone.

The bass is very tight and punchy rather than boomy,  which works well for rap songs. However, the bass slightly overpowers any weak midtones, so classical music won’t be good for these headphones. Surprising, the Dr Dres perform well with treble as well, with crisp tones especially on vocals. Instrument separation is not great though, many tracks will sound like some of the background instruments are melded together. Overall, if you want solid bass these are a great choice, because that’s where these headphones shine.

The Beats Studio comes with an additional Monster iSoniTalk iPhone enabled headphone cable with built-in answer button and microphone so you can hook it with a smartphone and take calls as well.

The headphones will not run without batteries; the 40mm drivers are too large to be powered without an external power source. Instead of a proprietary rechargeable lithium ion battery, the Beats Studio by Dr. Dre requires 2 AAA to be switched on. This may be a good thing or a bad thing – it’s great because AAAs are available pretty much anywhere so you can pick up a couple and carry them with you, but it’s not very environmentally friendly and makes the form factor a bit larger than necessary. Regardless, just make sure you turn it off when not in use to so that the AAA’s power will not be wasted.

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