Beats Launching New Studio3 Wireless Headphones With Pure Adaptive Noise Cancelation

[flat five]

I wonder if these actually sound different or that they just kept the same sound like the solo 3’s and just added the W1 chip

they probably sound like the studio wireless 2..
which, imo, sound freaking great.. not really sure if they can be made to sound better. (though more advanced noise cancellation could lead to a better sound in certain environments)
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What's with all of the hate for micro-usb? I own 3 pairs of headphones, 4 battery packs, and a couple of bluetooth speakers that use micro-usb. Never had a problem. What is the advantage of usb-c? What devices do you all use that uses USB-C for charging?

usb-c is reversible.. (same with lightning).. there's not a 'right' way to use the plug (as long as it's not sideways).. you barely have to look at the plug in order to use it.

a further problem with micro-USB (to me at least) is even when you have the right orientation, there's still a bit of uncertainty about it being the proper way.. ("am i shoving this in the wrong way? or proper?)..

idk, i had a pair of studio wireless break because of a plug malfunction.. bought another pair and am super careful when charging them but i'm nearly positive i won't buy a 3rd set with micro-USB.

 

[convergent]

Same for me.
I'd need noise cancellation during my commute since taking public transit means having to deal with a lot of people around me chatting all the time, but I find headphones to be really inconvenient. I like them at home, where I don't really need to be isolated since the environment is quite and I still want to hear my daughter if she cries.

I bought a pair of BeatsX some 4 months ago, and they're great for commute. They don't provide noise cancellation, but if I press them into my ear canal I can get a good sound isolation. Battery life is good, pairing is great thanks to the W1, reception is awesome. I can walk away from my desk while taking a phone call and get quite far before I start having signal problems. My Apple Watch gets disconnected well before my BeatsX do.
Of course you don't get the same quality while listening to music, but you have find a trade-off between sound quality and portability.
Plus, they charge via lighting. Beats is Apple now, I wonder why they keep releasing new products with micro usb

There are in-ear solutions with NC included, e.g. the Bose QC-20 (wired) and QC-30 (wireless). They don't provide as good a noise insulation as over-ears, so they don't reach the amounts of noise reduction that their bigger brethren can. But for small in-ears they seem to do astonishingly well. I can't stand having that silicon tips in my ear canals (and so far I also did not find any that would really fit), but you seem to be okay with it, so maybe you give the Bose's a try.

A product is not planned and developed over night. What gets released now, has probably started as project quite some time ago. Changing a product design gets costlier, the later in product development you take the decision. Plus, there are usually long-term contracts with suppliers and the traditional beats customers are used to Micro USB (remember the outcry when Apple changed from 30pin to Lightning?).

I'm sure Apple will eventually unify connectors between Apple and Beats. Just takes some more time.

I just switched from the QC25 to QC20 and agree with these comments... the noise cancellation is great, but I always struggle to keep a tight fit of in ear earbuds. I have both of these now, and given the choice am going with the lighter smaller kit for travel.

This announcement of Beats with good noise cancellation is great. Bose seems to dominate this space - they are what I usually see on the planes. Looking forward to reviews to see how they hold up against the Bose QC35s. I hope Apple will proliferate this noise cancellation down to their Beats earbuds. I have no interest in Air Pods.

 

[Taraba]

Don't bother with the Bose Quiet Comfort 35. Buy the Sony MDR-1000X instead.

Well having had a chance to use all of those mentioned including Sennheiser PXC 550, latter is in my opinion best of the bunch. Much better built quality than Bose or Sony, sound wise excellent for noise cancelling wireless headphones and for my head, very good comfort. My best advice would be to try all three to feel how they fit. If you need in-ear option, I really like Bose QC30 that I use when I want less bulk and than I will use glasses for longer period.

 

[jmgregory1]

I've been very happy with Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 headphones. The noise canceling works well enough (for both in-flight and noisy office use), but the best part is how they sound. Clear highs, tight and strong bass, no muddiness. Plus they last for 24 hours on a charge (ANC on). They're not the best looking and after about 10 hours, my ears get pretty hot, but that would be true with almost any tight fitting over the ear headphones.

 

[doctor-don]

$349.95...that is some markup. I bet they cost $20 to make.

Say WHAT?!!!!

Those prices are ridiculous. Won't be buying them. Anything over $49 is too much for a set of headphones.

It makes me wonder why Apple decided to enter the relationship with Beats. Bose also are overpriced. Some of these companies jack up the prices because of brand identification - my comment is my opinion and has absolutely nothing to do with trolling.

 

[flat five]

It makes me wonder why Apple decided to enter the relationship with Beats.

have you heard of Apple Music?
that was Beats Music when Apple acquired the company.

 

[morcutt11]

Don't bother with these. Get the Bose QuietComfort 35 instead.

Have you tried them both side-by-side?
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This comment doesn’t make sense unless Bose magically starts shipping headphones with W1 chip.

The comment doesn't make sense period. It is synonymous with saying "there is a new product out that I have no personal experience with whatsoever, but I can tell you with absolutely certainty that it is inferior to some other product that I personally prefer, even though such comparisons are highly subjective and the new product (that I have never seen) was specifically engineered to be better than the product that I'm recommending."
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Wonder if these are in-store at Apple?

Nope - they ship mid-October.

 

[Zachari]

$349.95...that is some markup. I bet they cost $20 to make.

You must be new here.
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Really funny how the timing of the new Beats release lines up nicely with the end of the education promotion (free Beats headphones).

This literally happens every year.

 

[mattopotamus]

Don't bother with these. Get the Bose QuietComfort 35 instead.

Actually the Sony MDR 1000's sound better and have more features.

These Beats actually are priced right based on the competition, and that battery life is impressive as hell.

 

[b11051973]

I have a pair of Beats Solo3 wireless headphones. They work great, except they make my left ear hurt after like 2 hours of use. I have them at work, and would like to be able to wear them more than 2 hours.

I'm wondering if it is because the Solo are smaller, and more an on ear thing? These Studio headphones are more over ear, I think? Like the "cup" is large enough that the padding would rest around the outside of my ear, and not on top of it.

I think I might pick a pair of these up. If they work out for me, I'll give the Solo to my niece.

 

[macgabe]

How do these compare comfort-wise to QC35s? That's the reason I didn't go with the Sonys

 

[Abazigal]

$349.95...that is some markup. I bet they cost $20 to make.

News flash - all the headphones likely go for way more than they cost to make.

 

[truthertech]

Poor recommendation.



Sennheiser's PXC-550 (and it's "business brother" PXC-660) does this already. In fact, it was my choice last year when I tested the Bose QC-35 vs. Sony MDR-1000X vs. Sony MDR-100ABN vs. Sennheiser PXC-550:

• Bose was most comfortable and had superb NC, but horrible sound. Bass is too soft and imprecise. Buttons for operation are rather big - good for operation, bad for looks. The buttons are too close and of the same size, which makes it a bit more fiddly to use them.
• Sony MDR-100ABN was feeling heavy on the head, which - together with hard ear cushion - made them less comfortable, with mediocre NC, but good sound. Single-axis folding still leaves it rather bulky and operation a tad confusing due to various buttons instead of touch control (like with the MDR-1000X or the PXC-550). Liked the can design and the intense colors. And it was the most inexpensive.
• Sony MDR-1000X was still not as comfortable as the Bose, had good sound and NC, but build quality was a bit lacking. Plus the lack of user-servicing (battery, ear cushions - Sony requires you to have those done by an authorized service center, which is costly and time-consuming). Folds flat nicely due to 2-axis folding. Touch control is nice, as is the "eavesdropping" via external mics. Did not like the design that much, though. The "leathery" cover of the cans made it feel a bit tacky to me.
• Sennheiser PXC-550 was nearly as comfortable as the Bose, was very close in terms of NC (which is variable and can be adjusted in a companion app, together with adjustment of sound modes), offered a good sound and is user serviceable. Connetion to two devices is possible in parallel (unlike e.g. the Sony's), but that's not crucial for me. "Eavesdropping" as with the MDR-1000X. I also like the user interface via the touch pad in the right can (though you need to adjust to the required tapping speed) and I really(!) like the automatic on/off when folding/unfolding (which makes it nice and flat due to 2-axis folding). NC also works without BT connection (others like the MDR-1000X switch off automatically in that situation) and you can continue to listen while re-charging. In total, to me it offered the best package.

If going for Sennheiser wireless, take the PXC-550 (PXC-660), as argued above. Or - if you don't need good NC, but prefer superb sound, good build quality and classy looks, take a close look at the Momentum line. The HD1 edition seems to incorporate better NC, while keeping the Momentum's basic construction, but I did not listen to that set yet.


Comfort- and NC-wise, Sennheiser comes close with the PXC-550, which has far superior sound and better user interface (touch pad) than the Bose.

I wouldn't characterize the QC35 as sounding "horrible," but the Sony MDR1000X is clearly better to me. Unlike Bose, Sony isn't standing by, and just came out with the successor to the MDR1000X, the WH1000XM2. The previous model had some great features, and this takes it to a whole new level. They also improved the appearance and addressed the "leathery" issue you raise. If the sound remains very good, and it improves on what many already claimed to be the best NC, then this may be the one to definitely get for over the ear wireless NC. Again, that's the problem with Bose, they no longer have clearly the best NC, and never had the best sound, so when you combine that with fewer features at a never on sale price, they may be facing some strong headwinds.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/31/sony-wh-1000xm2-wireless-headphones/

The 100ABN by Sony is indeed uncomfortable and the failure to fold flat is huge issue, that you don't realize until you try to wear them folded flat around your neck for a break. That said, the ABN's are frequently on sale at a very low price, so if you are willing to accept some comfort trade off, and the folding issue, they are the cheapest with good sound and reasonable NC.

 

[GermaniDIOT]

I'm sorry to say but the sound quality is still not great. I tried them last night at a launch event in Berlin. The NC in a room full of people talking didn't hit me hard either. I bet the Sony MDR-1000x still perform better.

 

[whsbuss]

I'm sorry to say but the sound quality is still not great. I tried them last night at a launch event in Berlin. The NC in a room full of people talking didn't hit me hard either. I bet the Sony MDR-1000x still perform better.

You tried the new Studio 3 headphones?

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

I suspect Beats will have gone for the same boomy, bass accentuated sound signature that Bose do with their NC headphones. I used to use Sennheiser NC phones but they have a tendency to produce odd whistling noises too frequently. For my listening in noisy environments, which tends to be either audiobooks or classical music, I use Shure in ear passive NC phones but about 90 minutes is my limit with those before I want to attack my ears with a pot scrubber. For longer flights, I use AKG 495 active NC over the ear phones, which have a sound signature that is far clearer than the Bose QC35 I have used and without their booming as well, which is just plain tiring. They are excellent for classical music. The rechargeable batteries last around 40 hours on the AKG. Having been so pleased with those, I then bought a set of the AKG 390 in ear phones with active and passive NC. Sadly, very poor is my opinion on those. Not a patch on the passive Shure ear phones.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

I've been very happy with Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 headphones. The noise canceling works well enough (for both in-flight and noisy office use), but the best part is how they sound. Clear highs, tight and strong bass, no muddiness. Plus they last for 24 hours on a charge (ANC on). They're not the best looking and after about 10 hours, my ears get pretty hot, but that would be true with almost any tight fitting over the ear headphones.

Excellent recommendation. I have the BackBeat Pro 1 and 2, and they are extremely good. Much better than the beats for a lot less money. I'm actually wearing my 1s right now .

Say WHAT?!!!!

Those prices are ridiculous. Won't be buying them. Anything over $49 is too much for a set of headphones.

rofl

I'm sorry to say but the sound quality is still not great. I tried them last night at a launch event in Berlin. The NC in a room full of people talking didn't hit me hard either. I bet the Sony MDR-1000x still perform better.

Beats have never sounded nearly as good as they cost, and they have some of the industry's worst noise cancelling that hisses and doesn't seem to block out much. I'm glad that they're addressing the noise cancelling, but again, they'll just never sound like a 350 dollar pair of headphones. They are a plastic fashion accessory and are easily outclassed by headphones that cost half as much.

 

[whsbuss]

I knew as soon as this was announced, the Beats haters would come out in force. Can't we all just buy what we like and keep the opinions to ourselves?

 

[feep]

What's with all of the hate for micro-usb? I own 3 pairs of headphones, 4 battery packs, and a couple of bluetooth speakers that use micro-usb. Never had a problem. What is the advantage of usb-c? What devices do you all use that uses USB-C for charging?

USB-C is aggressively pushed by the mac-hardware division, with lot's of caveats for the consumer since there was no USB-C market before.

So users where sold once by apple that they should bite the bullet and commit to the new standard for the greater good in the future. The latest move by apple might be perceived as they actually aren't as devoted to it as expected and people feel left out.

 

[Nozuka]

Might it be because Apple support Bluetooth AAC? That's 256kbps AAC, the exact same quality as Apple Music offers on "High"? APT-X is only 356 kbps so it's hardly any better and it has a major drawback in the fact that you have to re-encode all the audio as none of your audio on iOS, Android or anywhere else really is encoded using SBC which is the codec APTX uses. So if Apple had used APTX the audio would be encoded lossy 256kbps AAC, then re-encoded/transcoded into lossy SBC before playback. Re-encoding/transcoding from one lossy encode to another will almost always reduce the quality even further, even when going to a higher bitrate. It will NEVER be able to improve the quality as you can't take a lossy format and add back information that has already been lost during the first encoding.

So there is basically no way that APTX could improve the audio quality for Apple. For Android it makes more sense as Google has no guidelines for what codecs is being used in their apps, so some apps features MP3 (LAME), other OGG Vorbis, some Opus, some AAC, other FLAC etc... When you have no control the best thing is to simply relay on whatever gives you the highest bandwidth and APTX has an edge with its 356kbps vs 256kbps for AAC.

But for Apple, especially with iOS where 99% of all audio is encoded using AAC as that's what Apple guides all developers to use in apps and is what pretty much every music streaming services uses on iOS it doesn't make any sense to use APTX (SBC) over AAC.

that's not the point i was trying to make. they can improve the sound quality in whatever way they choose to, as long as they do it. they can offer music with better quality through itunes/apple music too. but nothing is happening so far. which is sad. but who knows, maybe they will surprise us next week.

but you did clear up some things i was not aware of, so thank you for that.

 

[chriscl]

I have a pair of Beats Solo3, which I love. I use them every day on my commute on the train, and I get >35 hours out of a charge.

But the only thing that nags me is the Micro USB. It just means when I travel (and I travel a fair bit) I have to carry three cables (Lightning, for the iPhone, USB C for the MacBook and micro-USB for the Beats).

That's about two cables too many!

(come the glorious day in the future when everything is USB-C, I'll be a happy man!)

 

[jmgregory1]

Excellent recommendation. I have the BackBeat Pro 1 and 2, and they are extremely good. Much better than the beats for a lot less money. I'm actually wearing my 1s right now .


rofl


Beats have never sounded nearly as good as they cost, and they have some of the industry's worst noise cancelling that hisses and doesn't seem to block out much. I'm glad that they're addressing the noise cancelling, but again, they'll just never sound like a 350 dollar pair of headphones. They are a plastic fashion accessory and are easily outclassed by headphones that cost half as much.

I had the Pro 1's as well, but passed them down to one of my kids to use. The only thing I haven't liked on the Backbeat Pro's is the sensor that automatically manages play and pause has never worked right for me. It would stop music if I tipped my head or sometimes wouldn't stop it if I removed the headset. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, as it's easy enough to tap to stop music if / when I need to.

 

[b11051973]

I think the Solo3 went on sale at Best Buy last year in like December. $50-100 off. I'm thinking I'll wait to see if these go on sale between Thanksgiving and Xmas.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

I had the Pro 1's as well, but passed them down to one of my kids to use. The only thing I haven't liked on the Backbeat Pro's is the sensor that automatically manages play and pause has never worked right for me. It would stop music if I tipped my head or sometimes wouldn't stop it if I removed the headset. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, as it's easy enough to tap to stop music if / when I need to.

You can disable that through the Plantronics Hub app on your computer. Just connect your headphones via USB and you'll have a few settings you can play with.

 

[Zachari]

That deep blue color is SEX. I love it. I am ordering it when I get home from work.