Music is my passion. I don't think I ever go through an entire day
without listening to a song or two, and I often spend hours during the
day listening to my favourite songs and albums, either relaxing or when
i'm on the bus or train. Because I listen to music so regulary, I
decided a few months ago that I would invest in some good quality
earphones with some of the money that I recieved for my 20th birthday. A
good quality pair of earphones make the world of difference to a song;
you hear things in the song you never even noticed before - every little
detail in the vocals and instrumentals is crystal clear, and things you
never noticed before become apparent, even the tiniest, smallest sound -
for example, the first time I listened to one of my favourite songs
wearing the dre beat headphones, I actually noticed a tiny little gasp
during the singer's vocals that I had never heard before despite
listening to the song very regulary. In fact, I never realised how
rubbish my much cheaper earphones were until I got these. I am not the most tech savviest of people and so despite reading all of the technical details on the website before buying my pair of headphones, I still wasn't completely sure if they were 100% worth the price tag. I decided in the end to pop into my local Apple store, as most Apple stores have an area where you can try out the stock and get assistance from a sales person with the advantage of being able to ask them questions - I wasn't prepared to spend almost £300 on a pair of headphones without knowing everything I possibly could about them. A few days after my birthday I gathered my money together and headed off to my local Apple store with a friend. I asked an assistant about these headphones and he couldn't praise them enough. I know that sales people are trained to 'big up' the products, however he seemed genuine and even said that he owned a pair himself.
The only thing that slightly put me off was that these headphones are quite bulky (physically - they're lightweight); I am the type of person who is really self concious. I mentioned to the guy that I was worried people would look at me funny if I wore these in public and he just laughed and said the only reason people will look is 'cause they look so good, and to be honest they do - they're very sleek in appearence and despite being quite bulky and big compared to in-ear earphones they are extremely lightweight and very comfy to wear, but i'll go into that later. On a side note, there are actually in-ear versions of these headphones available (which I was totally oblivious to until seeing them in HMV - d'oh!) but after having the headphones I wouldn't want the in-ear version as these are much comfier and hold the sound better if that makes sense. After trying the headphones on, and going through all of the features, my heart was set on buying a pair - I was very, very impressed, as was my friend, and I happily handed over my cash. I paid £279.95 for these headphones, which no matter which way you look at it is alot of money. You could almost buy a laptop for that, at the end of the day, which is why I was so intent on knowing everything I could before purchasing them. Were they/are they worth it? Definetly. I really think that the quality shines through, they look amazing and the sound quality is flawless.
One of the great things about these headphones is that there's a variety of colours to choose from, meaning that they feel more original and unique - with apple earphones, they all look the same and are very generic, they don't stand out from the crowd and are tell-tale apple earphones. With these though, I feel like they have a colour/design to match anyones personality, you can walk down the street with them on with your mind at rest that it's unlikely no one else will have the same pair of headphones as you, and it's a nice feeling to feel unique! I am the kind of person who likes to merge into the background, and would usually stick to a nice simple colour such as black, or perhaps white/grey. Because I was spending so much money though, I wanted them to be special, and look a bit different to the norm, which is why I settled on the gorgeous baby geen ones. Even brighter colours are available, including pink, yellow, red, purple, etc. My boyfriend owns a red pair which look stunning, but I am not quite brave enough to wear them - not in public anyway! I was a little concerned that because of the glossy appearence, my headphones would become scratched within a short period of time. These are actually scratch resistant though - I have had mine now for over 3 months and I can, hand on heart, say that there's not a single scratch on them - considering that I use them several times a day and take them pretty much everywhere I go, I think this is pretty amazing! Saying that though, I am very careful with my pair and clean them with the cloth provided daily.
The packaging that the headphones come in is run of the mill, it is a simple cardboard box which has a bit of padding inside. There is of course an instruction manual included, along with the headphone cable, a case for the headphones, batteries, an adapter and a cleaning cloth. I love the case that it comes with as it's such good quality - it's basically a hard 'shell' with a fabric finish, it's padded inside and it keeps the headphones secure when i'm on the move. The headphones fit into it perfectly and you can take the cable out of the headphones easily meaning it doesn't take ages getting the wires to go into the case properly. The only disadvantage with the case is the size, obviously it's quite large in order to fit the earphones into it properly. As I am a girl this is not a problem for me and I can just put the case into my hand bag but for guys they will have to carry it, unless of course you're a guy who has a bag (I don't know many guys who have bags though!) alternatively you can just keep them round your neck when you're not listening to them which is quite a cool look! The headphones can be folded in three different ways, so even if you would prefer to keep them in a smaller, neater case this would still be possible. I personally use the case provided as I am paranoid of them getting mishapen which I know won't happen but that's just the way I am!
These headphones were created by the music producer Dr Dre, who designed them to be able to have "precision-engineered, advanced speaker design, powered amplification, and powered noise cancellation" (taken from Amazon) in order to let the person listening to them hear every detail of a song. I love that they are noise cancelling as I can listen to them on the bus and not have to catch glimpses of other peoples conversations or listen to babies crying. I also love that even when I am listening to my music on full blast, no one else can hear it - they don't leak sound at all. With every other pair of earphones and headphones that I have heard this has always been an issue, but with these I can sit back and relax, and not worry that the old lady next to me on the bus can hear the guy rapping about sex and drugs! Haha. So that is a huge benefit! The sound quality is amazing. I can not begin to describe it - it's like being blind then being able to see.. the previous headphones I had, (£35 ones) I considered to be good quality. They had the ability to blast out music and the sound, I thought at the time was crystal clear. These headphones though put them to shame, the sound is amazingly crisp, it gives clarity of the beats and the base is just mindblowing. It's almost like being in the room with the singer, it feels like the whole sound is in the room around you and I personally feel like i'm in a little bubble when I have them on, in my own little world. Listening to any genre of music with these is an amazing experience, but when it comes to drum and bass it's even more spectacular - everytime the beat rises it feels like my entire body is moving with the music and it's like i'm at a rave with the music artist stood right in front of me blasting out the music. Seriously, these headphones are the music equivilent to HD/3D tv - just amazing!
As I have already mentioned briefly in my review, with these headphones you do definetly pick up on sounds you never knew were there before. Even the tiniest little sounds - I was listening to an acoustic song the other day and noticed a bird singing in the background for what must of been 2 seconds or so. I'd never, ever noticed it before and it made the song so much better! The quality is breathtaking and I don't regret buying these for a second; they were worth every penny. They're comfortable to wear and I love the feel of them; it's like my ears are being hugged! The 'ear cups' are spacious but don't move around when i'm walking or feel loose, nor do they feel too tight. The headphones adjust well to my boyfriends massive head(!) too with no issues. The headphones are padded, they're described as being 'plush' and feel luxurious, they don't make my ears feel clammy or anything like that, and the plastic bit that rests on the top of my head is nice and lightweight and I often forget i'm wearing headphones, they are just as lightweight as in-ear headphones. Even though they are lightweight, they don't feel flimsy or tacky and I personally think that even by holding them you can tell that they are high quality.
The headphone cable that comes with the headphones is red, which I love. It's around average length, it's long enough for me to put in my pocket then wind through my jacket or coat so that it isn't visible. The other cable that comes with it is black, it's for use with iPhones and it has a microphone with it, however I have never used this. The main disadvantage to these headphones is that they run on batteries, and unfortunetly the battery is usually completely run down after 3 days at the most. It takes 2 triple A batteries which are easy to insert etc and the headphones also come with an adapter. The volume on these headphones is brilliant, it goes very, very loud which is ideal for when you're working out and even when the volume is low, every lyric is still clearly audible. I usually use these headphones with my iPod, however they also work fine with my laptop and my boyfriend uses his with his iPad. They can also be plugged into decks. Overall, these are expensive but I can not fault them at all. The quality is outstanding, and I 100% reccomend them.
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