The Beats headphones were left at my house last night, so I decided to do a live test of them. I have available in my recording rig a total of twelve identical headphone amps (three Presonus HP4 units). I plugged each of my headphones into separate inputs and plugged a high end Audio Technica microphone into my rig and fed it, pure analog, straight to the outputs so I would hear whatever it was picking up perfectly. I calibrated the outputs of the headphones to within 0.5dB SPL to ensure volume didn't influence sound quality. I used a 50 foot long cable for the mic and I placed it in my kitchen while my stepson was making snacks and futzing. Then, along with my wife and good music producer friend, I switched between headphones to see which sounded the most natural and provided the most detail. Since we were switching rapidly, I didn't include the IEMs in this test. They take too long to insert correctly.
What was surprising was that we all generally agreed with the results. Here's the list in order of realism and accuracy to our ears.
1) AKG K701
2) AKG K240 DF
3) AKG K240 S
4) Sennheiser HD580
5) Sony MDR-7506
6) AKG K271
7) Grado SR225i
8) Sennheiser HD280
9) Grado SR80
10) Free earbuds that came with my Zune 64GB
11) Beats Pro by Dr. Dre
12) $2 lightweigh over the head headphones you get from the stewardess on long flights
We all agreed the Beats were just unnatural. The bass was overly boomy and rumbly. The treble was tinny and harsh. And there were sounds in the kitchen we simply couldn't make out, like when it was obvious that utensils were clicking together on all the other headphones, it sounded more like wooden drumsticks clicking together on the Beats Pro. At one point we could all hear my son subtly humming a song to himself on all of the headphones. You could not hear him at all on the Beats Pro. It was silly!
The music producer buddy of mine was laughing his ass off because he is starting to see musicians, record company people, and young intern wannabe recording engineers show up at the studios he works in carrying Beats headphones with them as their "reference phones". It is common for engineers and producers to use their own reference headphones and even nearfield monitors, but usually everyone can agree that the choices for those products makes sense, even if they are not right for everyone. He was laughing because the most critical aspect of reference monitor headphones for a mixing engineer is the uncanny ability to hear every single minute detail coming from every single mic and sound source in the studio. A mixer has to hear everything and fix even the most soft and subtle issue (like hums, buzzes and clicks) and enhance every single good aspect of the subtle nuances of the sound. With the Beats by Dr. Dre, you simply cannot hear it.
This is the future!
There was a similar issue back in the early 1980s when American loudspeaker companies started using the term "Studio Monitor" in the names of the consumer products. I remember seeing Infinity and JBL consumer products showing up in studios, which was silly. Not necessarily because they sounded poor. It was silly because they simply could not play nearly loud enough or handle the constant loud levels required in studio environments. Oh, and none of them were reference quality enough for serious studio work. They were good for listening to a mix on what was then the common sound for home audio. Still, most of the bozos who thought they could get the performance of a $5,000 pair of studio monitors from a $500 pair of Infinity speakers were often VERY disappointed when they eventually failed.
