[SilverEars]

On-ear also provides a more stable fit (every over-ear headphone I’ve tried at the gym comes off on a bench) and unique sound characteristics. Having a slightly closed soundstage can work on some songs to create a coherent approach where frequencies are still adequately separated but come together to highlight intricacies in the “beat” when the imaging is as good as it is here.

It’s funny because Solo Pro is Beats’ only great headphone. I’m glad they realized how critically-acclaimed Solo3 was and decided to improve upon it.

I don't know if it's great. Since it's bluetooth, the signal quality is limited to AAC, and you are locked onto the built in amp and DAC. I prefer passive headphone to drive out of my own personal setups.

I get a feeling that Beats or Apple will never make passive headphones again. For this price, I'd go with Sony WHXM3. I don't think it's worth the asking price for over-ear BT ANC headphone.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I don't know if it's great. Since it's bluetooth, the signal quality is limited to AAC, and you are locked onto the built in amp and DAC. I prefer passive headphone to drive out of my own personal setups.

I get a feeling that Beats or Apple will never make passive headphones again. For this price, I'd go with Sony WHXM3. I don't think it's worth the asking price for over-ear BT ANC headphone.

Eventually we’ll see lossless codec support, which will for the most part make passive headphones redundant (for consumer use).

Agreed with you on the price. They’ve taken a different approach this holiday season than they normally do with new Beats headphones and haven’t offered any promotions on the Solo Pro. A market correction should bring the price to around $199 over time — which would be a very fair price point. $299 is a lot to justify for an on-ear ANC headphone, regardless of how strong the sound quality and ANC performance is.

 

[Maukey]

Eventually we’ll see lossless codec support, which will for the most part make passive headphones redundant (for consumer use).

Agreed with you on the price. They’ve taken a different approach this holiday season than they normally do with new Beats headphones and haven’t offered any promotions on the Solo Pro. A market correction should bring the price to around $199 over time — which would be a very fair price point. $299 is a lot to justify for an on-ear ANC headphone, regardless of how strong the sound quality and ANC performance is.

I happily paid $299 for them. I honestly feel they’re very much worth this price considering what they bring to the table as far as features go. They also sound better to my ears than many of the top over ear ANC headphones. If you can get use to the smaller soundstage and less power of the Solo Pro in comparison to many of the competitive Over Ears, they are a clear winner in my book.

However, I can’t stop staring at the Grey Studio 3 going for $199 at Best Buy. I sold my Beats Studio 3 a few months back to make room for all the new headphones I wanted to try. Seeing as I would only be keeping the Solo Pro until the new Studio is released, I may send them back and grab the Studio 3 at that price. It’s still more comfortable than the Solo Pro, and while it’s sound is no where near as accurate, the Studio 3 still has a more exciting sound to my ears. I don’t think any other headphone has ever made me want to get up and dance and move like the Studio 2/3. Just something about that signature I love. Decisions, decisions.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I happily paid $299 for them. I honestly feel they’re very much worth this price considering what they bring to the table as far as features go. They also sound better to my ears than many of the top over ear ANC headphones. If you can get use to the smaller soundstage and less power of the Solo Pro in comparison to many of the competitive Over Ears, they are a clear winner in my book.

However, I can’t stop staring at the Grey Studio 3 going for $199 at Best Buy. I sold my Beats Studio 3 a few months back to make room for all the new headphones I wanted to try. Seeing as I would only be keeping the Solo Pro until the new Studio is released, I may send them back and grab the Studio 3 at that price. It’s still more comfortable than the Solo Pro, and while it’s sound is no where near as accurate, the Studio 3 still has a more exciting sound to my ears. I don’t think any other headphone has ever made me want to get up and dance and move like the Studio 2/3. Just something about that signature I love. Decisions, decisions.

I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen Solo Pro go on sale yet, but frankly they do hold up at their $299 price point as far as performance, build quality, and functionality goes. Also, some retailers are still in the holiday return period and it seemed like they were trying to command a premium over the holiday season. (I remember Solo3 was $219.99 at Amazon shortly after it launched, then $149 at Wal-Mart in the spring.)

The more I demo Solo Pro the more I come away wanting to buy a pair, as I found they have an impressive sub-bass as well as a natural mid-range and treble. Just a really solid headphone.

That Studio3 deal is decent, but I greatly prefer the sound quality on Solo Pro. I genuinely feel that Beats listened to the negative feedback and that they tuned Solo Pro to make up for all of Studio3’s shortcomings.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen Solo Pro go on sale yet, but frankly they do hold up at their $299 price point as far as performance, build quality, and functionality goes. Also, some retailers are still in the holiday return period and it seemed like they were trying to command a premium over the holiday season. (I remember Solo3 was $219.99 at Amazon shortly after it launched, then $149 at Wal-Mart in the spring.)

The more I demo Solo Pro the more I come away wanting to buy a pair, as I found they have an impressive sub-bass as well as a natural mid-range and treble. Just a really solid headphone.

That Studio3 deal is decent, but I greatly prefer the sound quality on Solo Pro. I genuinely feel that Beats listened to the negative feedback and that they tuned Solo Pro to make up for all of Studio3’s shortcomings.

Solo Pro went on sale for the first time ever literally 12 hours after that post:

https://9to5toys.com/2020/01/19/beats-solo-pro-deals/amp/

The sale appears to already be over, but I wonder how closely Beats follows Head-Fi. I’m sure they do monitor forums/social media/customer reviews. The frequency response of Solo Pro indicates to me that they’ve definitely read my review of Studio3 since they’ve fixed all of the issues I had with it. (I’d love to be added to a list for review samples.)

 

[MICHAELSD]

Solo Pro went on-sale again for $249.99 over the weekend, which didn’t gain much traction. (I posted it on a deals site, combined with a 10% off coupon bringing it to $224.99, and it got downvoted.)

It seems like Solo Pro is an excellent product: sound quality, ANC, and Transparency are all better than AirPods Pro — as they should be on an on-ear headphone. As predicted, the market is gravitating towards truly wireless headphones and even the Studio series since consumers generally prefer over-ear headphones in this price range, even at the expense of performance and build quality.

I’m on the fence as well since I find when I want to listen to music it’s usually either over a proper speaker system or truly wireless headphones. The sonic performance does match the $249 price point, and the overall package with ANC isn’t a bad deal at $299. I think Solo Pro isn’t taking off like it could have because of its timing: consumers have too many options. Even I’m a little overwhelmed figuring out a place in my life for all of the new Apple/Beats headphones.

 

[buzzlulu]

I had it...and returned it.
A nice sounding headphone which I would even pay full price for.
The problem - incredibly uncomfortable.
Most reviews point out that this is the Achilles heel to an otherwise nice sounding headphone

 

[MICHAELSD]

I had it...and returned it.
A nice sounding headphone which I would even pay full price for.
The problem - incredibly uncomfortable.
Most reviews point out that this is the Achilles heel to an otherwise nice sounding headphone

Beats Solo Pro regained Beats’ crown as Rtings’ best-sounding on-ear headphones. The comfort is unfortunate, but that’s the nature of on-ear headphones. Personally on-ear headphones are tolerable for me, especially since I couldn’t get a stable fit with the Studio. I am still waiting for Beats to release a good over-ear headphone. If they took what they achieved with Solo Pro and stepped it up in an over-ear form factor it would be a very popular product. I’m sure we’ll see a second-generation Beats Pro or Beats Studio Pro soon enough — probably around the same time Apple releases over-ear Pod headphones to complicate the purchasing decision further.

 

[buzzlulu]

Half way down the page - from today

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/01/29/kuo-on-apple-first-half-of-2020/

 

[MICHAELSD]

Half way down the page - from today

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/01/29/kuo-on-apple-first-half-of-2020/

Apple’s over-ear headphones will probably be amazing, among the best on the market. They've been excelling at all of the technical aspects (imaging, harmonic distortion, etc.) so they just need an excellent frequency response. The design is also supposed to be “almost as convenient as AirPods” so I’m curious to see what they’re planning. Manufacturers who produce high-end Bluetooth over-ear headphones should be following this very closely, since Apple could very well own that segment in a few short months.

 

[SilverEars]

Apple’s over-ear headphones will probably be amazing, among the best on the market. They've been excelling at all of the technical aspects (imaging, harmonic distortion, etc.) so they just need an excellent frequency response. The design is also supposed to be “almost as convenient as AirPods” so I’m curious to see what they’re planning. Manufacturers who produce high-end Bluetooth over-ear headphones should be following this very closely, since Apple could very well own that segment in a few short months.

I'm also curious what Apple would churn out to be announced as "high-end?" Can they develop a reference headphone that would be as great as their XDR display? Whatever tech/features they can put inside, it could be interesting as AirPods Pro has demonstrated.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I'm also curious what Apple would churn out to be announced as "high-end?" Can they develop a reference headphone that would be as great as their XDR display? Whatever tech/features they can put inside, it could be interesting as AirPods Pro has demonstrated.

I would assume it’ll be a consumer-level professional product, and may not even have a wired input.

 

[buzzlulu]

Exactly. AirPods sold 60 million pairs in 2019 and is forecast to sell 120 million pairs this year - and they do not know when shortages will end as they are continually sold out.

If Apple spun off the AirPods division it would immediately be a Fortune 150 company.

Solo Pro is impressive. I can only imagine what the upcoming Studio Pro will be like

 

[MICHAELSD]

Exactly. AirPods sold 60 million pairs in 2019 and is forecast to sell 120 million pairs this year - and they do not know when shortages will end as they are continually sold out.

If Apple spun off the AirPods division it would immediately be a Fortune 150 company.

Solo Pro is impressive. I can only imagine what the upcoming Studio Pro will be like

Forget Studio Pro, Apple’s over-ear Pod headphone is the one to look out for .

 

[SilverEars]

I would assume it’ll be a consumer-level professional product, and may not even have a wired input.

Yeah, like I've stated, I wouldn't expect it, but can only hope they design a great wired headphone.

I know will not happen as their computers have crappy built-in dac/amps and phones have no headphone jack. They will not cater to a small market.

They got R&D power and it would be cool if they can make a headphone like a F1 car to demonstrate what they are capable of.