Beats - Solo Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling On-Ear Headphones - Black

I purchased my Ivory Solo Pro headphones in December. Overall, I have been very satisfied with the satin gold Solo3 headphones that I already have, and I decided to get another pair for work. I was originally going to get a second pair of Solo3, but I chose these because they were on sale and the Solo3 had risen higher in price anyway than when I had got them about a year and a half ago. Sound - The sound quality on the Solo Pro headphones is excellent and the noise cancelling works effectively. I prefer to use the noise cancelling rather than not. With noise cancelling on, it lasts approximately 20+ hours or so. Like the Solo3, they do last about the same when noise cancelling is not on, at approximately 40 hours. Both headphones have good battery life - obviously, the Solo3 I charge less often due to no noise cancelling. If you are still considering Solo3, honestly, they have just as good of sound, sans the noise cancelling. Soundwise, I can recommend them both. Fit - overall, the fit on my Solo Pros are better. The Solo3 hurt pretty bad on my ears the first couple weeks when I initially bought them, but the Pro has larger ear cups which overall feel much more comfortable. Frame - The frame is sturdier. It's honestly a really great design from Apple/Beats. I noticed that the Solo3 are a tad more flimsy when folding/adjusting, etc. The Pro headphones are overall more hardy than the Solo3. Color - Currently, there aren't as many color options with the Solo Pro as there are with the Solo3. I chose Ivory for Solo Pro, and really like this color. See photos. Very sleek ivory color. Case - the case the headphones come with is more durable, so if you drop your headphones the case for Solo Pro provides better protection. As a whole, as an owner of both Solo Pro and Solo3, I would recommend the Solo Pro for sure if you're willing to spend the extra money. Solo Pro are less clunky as well. Instead of pushing and holding a button to turn on/off, you just unfold/fold them. The Bluetooth "jingle" when connecting is also less annoying. Better design, better design, and a little better sound quality overall.

So I bought a pair of these and the Bose quiet comfort 35 11 , and I got to say I didn’t expect these to complete with the Bose but wow they do I actually thing the stereo separation left to right is a little better on the beats , but the Bose seem a little more detailed when listening to easy rock music and are a lot more comfortable but they will destort at high volumes if you have a good source when listening to hip hop. When testing the same song Gerry Rafferty- get it right next time the beats hit 93 db at the highest note , while the Bose highest was 91 . The noise canceling obviously is better on the Bose but the beats is not bad . There is really no winner out these 2 with the beats on sale your almost 100 dollars cheaper. So bottom line if you want a pair for the gym and on the go these beats are perfect if your going to be wearing them for more than a few hours go for the over ear Bose , Sony . Etc the skull candy over the ear I was actually thinking of as well as Best Buy has them on display. The build quality on these is excellent as well I must say these are not your cheaply plastic made beats from the past they are solid

I was never a fan of beats. I stood in front of the headphones for 2 hours and thought about it. But bought them online for me because I need some gym headphones. They are more than enough. I like the sound very much. Noise-canceling is great. I only hear minimal noises in the gym. It's hard to believe, but these are my favorites right now. Sure there are others like Sony etc. But walking around in the gym with such over-ear headphones with sweat on my ears, no thanks. And they would also be too big on my ears for me. But I like the Sony as well. Great sound. But for the gym? Just beats..... I can now write a whole novel here. Our tastes are all different. Just order the headphones and judge for yourself. For me, these are the ideal gym headphones. Not too heavy and not too tight for me either. Also, my ears don't get tired after 30 minutes, as other reviews claim. We all have different ears too. I don't want all that EQ messing about where I need or want to adjust the sound. I only want a big butt-kicking sound. Small auricles, right on the ear, and easy to use. I only bought it as an open box. But I'll never do that again. As I said, I didn't want to waste too much on these headphones because I wouldn't say I liked the brand or because I wasn't interested. But when I unpacked the headphones at home, I saw that they were already used. Dirty, squeezed in, and the wax was still on it. I exchanged them on the same day and bought brand new ones. The supervisor was so nice and still sold it to me as an open box because he saw my disappointment. I was very grateful to him for that. Thanks so much !!

I love these headphones. I have a smaller head and smaller ears and it fits comfortably, unlike other headphones that would slide down the side of my head. The noise cancelling is amazing and it tunes out the sound of airplane engines and car engines. I’ve gotten so many compliments on them too since the color is so vibrant.

I can’t believe I own a set of Beats headphones. More importantly, I can’t believe I’m loving them. Let me explain why. Until now, I was never impressed with Beats. To me, Beats headphones were more about making a statement with the “b” on each ear cup for people who don’t really care about great sound. That was until I listened to the new Beats Solo Pro. I’ve had mine now for a few days and have spent many hours listening to all genres of music. I can honestly say the Solo Pro is really really good! These are most definitely not the Beats which were. These Beats go in a totally new direction and I’m honestly stunned at how much I’m enjoying them. Gone is the boomy, mushy rattle your head bass with little regard to mid and upper frequencies. Gone is glossy, cheap plastics. When Apple bought Beats a few years ago, Apple has been infusing Beats with higher and higher levels of quality, especially in terms of sound. And these Solo Pro are without question the best Beats headphones I’ve heard. In typical Apple fashion, these come packaged superbly. Once you remove the outside plastic wrap on the box, you flip one side of the box down to fold all sides of the box flat in Apple-esque style to reveal the carrying case, with the headphones inside. There’s a hidden slide out tray with the Lightning to USB cable and a caribiner you can attach for extra’s if you need to carry additional accessories or attach them to your backpack. My daily drivers have been a much more expensive pair of high-end Bluetooth, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), over-the ear headphones. Are the Solo Pro the equal of them? No, but they also cost less. and they sound really good. Beats has done a terrific job with the look and feel of the Solo Pro. They come in multiple colors from light to vivid blue, black, ivory, gray and like the pair I have, red. The design is modern and sleek looking. Beats is using high-quality plastics, which are matte finished and seemingly impervious to fingerprints. Behind the plastics are aluminum, which is anodized to compliment the color of the headphones and everything moves and slides with a feeling of long-lasting goodness. There is no power button on these puppies. To turn them on you unfold them on and you fold them back to turn them off. The ear cups are not leather but are certainly soft and didn’t make my ears sweat like some cheap pleather I’ve worn before. Underneath is memory foam which is soft and adjusts to the contours of your ears well. For iPhone/iPad user like me, you’ll love how simple it is pair these headphones. Apple uses the H1 Chip in their new headphones. Once you unfold them to power them on, they instantly pop up on your iPhone screen (without having to go into Settings/Bluetooth) and you simply tap to connect. Going even further, if you have multiple iDevices, the headphones will now be paired with every device you have which uses the same Apple ID. With six devices under the same Apple ID, it’s a blessing to be honest. You can pair them to any device which accepts Bluetooth headphones. So, Android you’re not left out. Apple says they are Class 1 Bluetooth. Their range is beyond amazing. Many BT devices have a range of around 30 – 40 feet at most. Not these puppies. You can go way further from your paired device than I’ve gone with any BT headphone I’ve ever owned. I didn’t lose connection until I got at least 100 feet from my iPhone. There are no latency issues with videos either. On the Apple side, there is no App for the Solo Pro. There is a Beats App available for Android for pairing and firmware updates. There are no EQ settings. You either like how they sound, or you don’t. Or you can download an EQ app, if you feel you need one. In my opinion good headphones shouldn’t need equalization to sound good. I don’t adjust EQ on my other headphones, even though I can. These are truly tap and play headphones! Controls on the Solo Pro are physical, not touch. From personal experience with touch controls, the concept is better than reality. An unintended swipe can pause or change your music when you didn't want to. The Solo Pro controls are simple and intuitive. Press the center of the right ear cup once to pause your music. Tap it again to play. A double press skips to the next track or a triple press goes back to the previous track. Hold the top of the button to increase volume and hold the bottom to lower volume. Press and hold the center button to bring up the virtual assistant or if you're an Apple user simply say "Hey Siri." The only other control is on the left ear cup, where you can turn ANC and Transparency Mode on or off. Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) in the Solo Pro is adaptive, meaning the headphones monitor outside sounds to apply the right amount of noise cancellation without negatively impacting your music. While noise cancelling is great in noisy environments, there are times you need to hear some of what’s going on around you. So the Solo Pro also includes Transparency Mode. With Transparency Mode, you’ve got noise cancellation, but you can also hear outside sounds. This is one area the Solo Pro outshines all my other headphones. Outside sounds don’t sound digital or altered. Some people place a huge amount of importance on ANC. I don’t buy headphones for ANC. I buy headphones for their sound quality and ANC is just a nice addition. To that end the ANC and Transparency Mode on the Solo Pro is all I could ever need and then some. Let's talk comfort. No matter how good headphones sound, if they're not comfortable you won't enjoy them. I’ve read reviews where people said they are uncomfortable. One person complained they couldn't run with them. To think these would make good running headphones makes no sense to me. For running, choose a good pair of earbuds which lock in place, not an over the ear headphone which can bounce when you run. I found if you don't extend the ear cup arms far enough from their shortest length, they can be a little tight. But if you adjust them to extend lower on your ear, the comfort level increases significantly. It did for me and I wear glasses, which hasn't been an issue at all. Maybe Apple will offer these in an over the ear version at some point. Anyone considering these will just need to try them on at their Best Buy store to see how they feel on their head. A final note about comfort: There is no "L" "R" markings on the ear cups. That doesn't mean it doesn't matter which way you wear them. It matters a lot. The right ear cup has the lightning charging port and physical controls for pause/play/volume/answer/track selection. Trust me, if you put them on backwards, they're most definitely not comfortable. It made me wonder if some people who thought they were uncomfortable, wore them backwards? Sound trumps all when it comes to headphones. These aren’t the Beats of just a few years ago and was for me, the single biggest surprise. I commented earlier that bass doesn’t overwhelm and it doesn’t. But bass isn’t lacking either. If you play music with heavy bass, it’s powerful, with great oomph. It just doesn’t cover up what the rest of the music is doing and that’s why I think they’ve improved significantly. Symphonic music is full, with a great sound stage. Piano music resonates perfectly. Vocals sound smooth and natural. And the highest frequencies, such as cymbals, triangle or harpsichord are brilliant, without sounding shrill or harsh. Remarkably, turning on ANC didn’t diminish the sound stage, which often happens with headphones using noise cancelling circuitry. Call quality with the Solo Pro was terrific. I’ve made/answered several calls with them. I could hear them clearly and they could hear me clearly. Battery life on the Solo Pro is great! You can get up to 22 hours of play on a single charge with ANC or Transparency on. If you don’t use ANC or Transparency, you can get up to 40 hours on a single charge. That’s FORTY HOURS!! And if you need to recharge on the go, you can plug in for 10 minutes (Fast Fuel) to get 3 hours of play time. It wasn’t long ago getting up to 6 hours was considered great for wireless headphones. With all the praise, is there anything to criticize? Here are the few cons I can think of, which really don’t amount to anything significant: 1. The carrying case provided, while nice and soft is well, soft. I don’t like soft cases. I purchased a hard case to provide more protection during transport. 2. The Solo Pro doesn’t offer a wired connection. I you want or need one, you can buy an Apple lightning to 3.5 mm headphone plug for $35. 3. It’s disappointing to see Apple chose lighting to USB to charge these. It’s time (IMHO) for Apple to retire the Lighting connector. With Pro in their name, I would have expected USB C. 4. These don’t pause if you take them off your ears (you need to remember to tap the right ear cup once to pause them), which I find odd, given much less expensive headphones pause if removed. 5. For those who want to adjust EQ, you can’t since there’s no app provided. If you think you need one, there are options in both App Stores. If this all I can come up with, it’s honestly trivial and in no way should stop you from giving serious consideration to the Solo Pro. All in all, the new Beats Solo Pro, bring Beats forward many steps from the Beats from just a few years ago. They’re well-made, with premium feeling materials. They sound terrific, in fact far better than I expected. They’re for the most part comfortable and for $300 are a really great value. Beats, you made a believer of me and that’s not easy to do. Or maybe with quality and sound like this, it was. Note: I took one star off for comfort and for not pausing when taken off your head. Otherwise, these are 5 star headphones.