Beats by dre studio Austrslia

Not going to lie, these things are gorgeous. That’s the whole Beats by dre Austrslia “thing” though, style over substance for the most part. Are most of the headphones made by the company pieces of crap for real? No, but they’re not much better than a brand like, say, Bose.

The Beats by dre pill model is grey, has the Beats logo on the side and look pretty comfortable. That’s good, because they are comfortable. They’re honestly the most comfortable over-ear headphones I’ve ever put on. I can’t use the new Apple Ear Pad/Bud/Whatevers because they don’t fit into my ear properly. Oh well. They’re also really light, which I wouldn’t have guessed.

The cord is red, which is also something that is unique to Cheap Beats by dre, and I wish it would have shipped with a more understated black or grey color. Having said that, it’s extremely good quality and it shows. Well done.

Anyone can tell you if something is pretty or not, so let’s get to how they perform.
How they perform

Forget about price, let’s just think about pure performance. I had our own Josh Constine put them on during a train ride, and I have to say that the noise cancellation did the job. However, the headphones seem to miss the extreme “highs” and “lows.” If you’re looking for a sound with deep, deep bass, don’t get the Executive model, you’ll be really disappointed.

Having said that, the sound is really crisp and there’s no crackling or interference from the noise cancellation at all. I haven’t used them on an actual plane yet, but I felt that the train test was close enough to share my thoughts.

I’ve used them with my iPhone, Nexus 7 and my laptop, and the sound is consistent over all devices. Clearly, the sounds coming out of my MacBook Pro are superior, but that’s only because I was not listening to heavily compressed or streaming music.