[Audio-Phile]

Happened to be in Best Buy today, and of course they have Souls front and center, flanking the Bose display with the Beats on the other side.  Talk about a trainwreck.  Anyway, I figured I'd give them a chance, how bad can they be? (that was a dumb question).  I barely made it 30 seconds into the Touch The Sky remix with the XX (gorgeous song btw and great for demos) before I had to take them off, I couldn't take it.  Hell, I had to use a pair of HD429s buried in the corner just to clean my palette, so to speak.  Just to remind myself what a REAL pair of $200 headphones sound like, I had to put on a set of HD558s just for the laughs.  It was almost embarrassing.  I can't believe they let those past the R&D phase.  My stock Apple buds have better range, clarity, and soundstage than those $200 jokes.  I wanted them to be better than Beats, but they might actually be worse.  Don't do it.  And don't let anybody else if you can help it.  Friends don't let friends listen to garbage headphones.

 

[crinacle]

Frankly, I thought the SL150 was pretty good for the price.

 

[Audio-Phile]

Really?  I honestly don't know what was wrong with these.  They were muddy, quite the opposite of high definition.  The soundstage...well I don't remember it so it couldn't have been anything out of the ordinary.  I tried every eq setting, it all sounded muddy and lifeless.  The $99 Sennheisers were...infinitely better.  The Souls were built beautifully, but that's really all I can say.  Maybe they were shot from life on the demo stand?  Who knows.  All I can say is that I've heard similar sound from $50 over-the-ears.

 

[Posam]

I've read that they are better than the beats and excel at playing rap because that is what they are expecting users to play. 
I would assume they are not that good overall but they can't possibly be that bad. 

 

[Dyaems]

i heard these before and i can say that they are better than beats, more midrange pressence and less muddy and boomy bass. a change of cables would help as well. i tried denko cables with these and the midrange even improved, with alot tighter and controlled bass.
 
maybe the pair you tried is an not "burned-in" yet. try going back to the store and listen to it again after few months, haha.
 
are they worth it? still no

 

[crinacle]

Which model did you try?

 

[Dyaems]

SL150. i thought thats the topic here. sorry.

 

[JosephKim]

Its funny. I think the people in the general public love the beats/souls because of the cool factor, so it ends up sounding good to them. On the other hand, people on head-fi have been taught to hate them, so I feel like we have an 'ear-bias' towards them as well. The power of the mind eh?

 

[crinacle]

Sorry, didn't make it clear. OP, what model did you try?

 

[Audio-Phile]

Sorry about that, it was the SL150s.  Could be that they were too "new" as well, that's always a possibility.  Unlike some I do believe in burn-in, so that could be a factor.  Not sure how long these units were on display.  I grew up with extremely high-end audio, and have heard all kinds of equipment, so maybe I have been biased slightly, but I can firmly say that there's no way anyone should  buy these as opposed to say, HD558s, which can be had for less still and sound amazing.  That particular song has some bass, it's Kanye over XX instrumentals, and the vocals were extremely cloudy I thought.  I'd say they were even with the Beats Studios I demoed, a few times at that.  Bass response could have been better with a song like Rack City or something, but honestly I didn't stick around to find out.

 

[DxBecks]

I also tried out all the models of the Souls in Best Buy and the were horrible, worse than the Beats that is for sure. The Soul version of the Solo HD were the worst sounding pair of headphones I've had the misfortune of hearing; my HA-RX700's sound miles better.

 

[Audio-Phile]

Quote:

I also tried out all the models of the Souls in Best Buy and the were horrible, worse than the Beats that is for sure. The Soul version of the Solo HD were the worst sounding pair of headphones I've had the misfortune of hearing; my HA-RX700's sound miles better.

Yeah I can imagine...I didn't even bother to try the smaller ones, I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I really don't understand how anyone buys either brand and thinks they sound good.  I think the Beats Tours sound ok...I'd pay $85 for them...that's about it.  I was really hoping the Souls would have something to offer but it doesn't sound like it at all...

 

[Magick Man]

But... but... I'm a crossroads demon, what else am I supposed to buy?


SL150s are crap, but still better than Beats Studios. Now, gotta go, time to foreclose on Lindsay Lohan, her soul is waaaay past due.

 

[XxDobermanxX]

Quote:

Hell, I had to use a pair of HD429s buried in the corner just to clean my palette, so to speak.  Just to remind myself what a REAL pair of $200 headphones sound like, I had to put on a set of HD558s just for the laughs.  It was almost embarrassing.

+1 HAHA 

 

[Audio-Phile]

Quote:

But... but... I'm a crossroads demon, what else am I supposed to buy?

SL150s are crap, but still better than Beats Studios. Now, gotta go, time to foreclose on Lindsay Lohan, her soul is waaaay past due.

 
They might be, I mean on a scale of 1 to 10, they're both pretty close to 3 on either side, so they're so bad already that I really couldn't be bothered to bleed my eardrums more to find the difference.