Thought this might be interesting for the jet-setters in the Web 2.0 world. Monster Cable, the makers of cable, just sent us the new Beats by Dr. Dre, a pair of noise-canceling “studio” headphones aimed at the mid-range audio consumer. At $349, these are priced at exactly the same point as the Bose QuietComfort 3 which I’ve used for over a year now. I’ve been wearing the Beats for the past hour and found them on par with the QC3s in terms of noise reduction. They have very crisp bass and a nice separation as well.
Best of all the, the Beats use AAA batteries instead of the QC3’s battery pack, which means you’re not stuck if you forget to recharge. I’ll be taking a flight tomorrow and I’ll bring these along to test - I’m just about sold on the QC3s when it comes to noise reduction but I’m game to try these out in a real-world scenario. Look for a full review next week but until then pop over to CG to look at some more photos.
i think this post belongs to crunchgear. why is this on techcrunch. cross promotion?
isn’t this a crunchgear thing?
“the makers of cable, just sent us the new Beats by Dr. Dre”
CNET sends the products back after reviewing them. Does CrunchGear?
TL - http://offur.com/BetterThanTechCrunch
we keep them and resell them on the black market. do you need 5 macbook airs and a box full of iphones?
CNET has a locked cage in the basement of the building similar to a Police evidence cage where they store all the merchandise under lock and key so employees can’t steal any.
What precautions does CG take to make sure people don’t pick up and leave with stuff?
BTW, The Bose QC3’s were heavily advertised on TV. That’s the only reason they were so popular. Most people do with the $1 or free set that the airline gives them.
TL - http://offur.com/BetterThanTechCrunch
Who cares? Whether TC keeps the product, gives it away, gives it back or blends it has no bearing on the objectivity of the review.
I don’t read chrunchgear. maybe i should but i just like it here a TC. thanks for That Mike.
Hey I have an idea…
Instead of telling us which headphones audiophile expert John Biggs likes better… why not just call up each manufacturer and find out the official Attenuation Values for each headphone so that we can all tell which one is officially rated to cancel more noise than the other?
Is this thing Bluetooh? Where are the wires?
They need to drop the price to $279. Still classy but competitive against Bose.
High quality in-ear canal phones block out more noise and sound better. That’s a fact.
The cables are detachable.
And the noise-cancelling is pretty freaking amazing, let alone the overall sound quality.
Is this a new start-up or did I land on engadget?
Oh, god. If the choice is between Monster Cable and Bose, just steal my wallet and leave me with nothing. Be done with it already.
I know, guys, I know. I like to give everyone equal airtime.
Grado Labs SR60s are the best of the lower priced headphones on the market. End of story. If you don’t believe that, you need your hearing checked.
Monster Cable and Bose is crap.
I love my Bose headphones; they make long-haul flights infinitely better! What makes these “by Dr Dre”? The name makes them sound like they cancel out the airplane noise by playing a constant soundtrack of gangsta rap.
monster cable? MONSTER RIPOFF
Agreeing with many of the others in saying that neither Bose or Monster Cable make products that reflect the price on the box.
If you looking for noise canceling, go with in ear canal, they block more exterior sound and maintain audio quality much better than active noise canceling headphones.
If you just looking for high quality sound, Grado Labs is the way to go.
Their products have been worth the cost for me.
i’ve used these headphones as an early beta tester. i LOVED them. i was so into it that i’ve been evangelizing to people for months that they were going to come out. i’m happy to see the article here. great minds….
Fo’ us po’ folk, how do they compare to Sony’s at $49 or Aiwa at $59?
based on my experience, Audio Technica QuietPoint performs better than Bose QC3. i always use the former while i’m on a plane and CalTrain
http://www.audio-technica.com/.....index.html
I quess I shouldn’t be surprised at the comments on my sites once I read the ones here. Hey Michael, I think this article is fine at TechCrunch. I also don’t always read CrunchGear. It is just a trip how readers love to direct, I guess that is called “interactivity.” I suppose even you have to justify what you put in your own columns
The only thing that is tech worthy is that these cans use AAA batteries.
Hypothesizing Michael’s real end game is to get more of the Hip-Hop traffic. Dre’s lyric for you “Man, this is what I’m talkin about
Chicken-head, chicken-fed, with a dick in your mouth”
Dre thanks you for helping him ring up the cha ching factor in royalties
Don’t expect a cut B!
BTW, WTF does Monster Cable know about headphones? Talk to me about real headphones by Grado and Sennheiser
Anyone who buys Monster HDMI cables for $100 is a born sucker. Or even worst Monsters power conditioners when you can buy a Belkin for at least HALF the price.
i’m going to have to agree with the general shit-talking toward monster. they’ve historically charged at least a 100% price premium for their brand name across every product line they offer. and bose falls into the same camp.
grado and sennheiser make the best headphones IMO, and their models at the beats pricepoint blow these headphones and the bose ones out of the water.
for noise-cancelling, shure’s in-ear headphones would beat a thousand dollar pair of can headphones based on the physical fact that, well, they’re plugged directly into your ear canal and come with a number of different sized sleeves to adjust to your particular ear size. they also fit in your pocket.
get the shure SE310s over these overpriced headphones, unless if it’s worth $100+ to you to have the monster/beats logo on them.
From the review:
“They have very crisp bass and a nice separation as well.”
No sh*t Sherlock, of course they have nice “separation”, they are headphones! ALL headphones have nice “separation”.