Beats Studio 3: an honest farewell
About two years ago, I bought my first MacBook. Thanks to the Student Partner Program, I could be able to get an interesting discount, as well as having, for free, a pair of Beats Studio 3. I later had to buy a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3 for reasons I’ll explain later.
I always was, indeed, a fan of headphones. My best EDM-lover memories as a teenager were with the Skullcandy Hesh 2, a wonderful device with a spherical design and a deep sound. Unfortunately, stuff happens. And someday, all suddenly, when I plugged out the cable, they stopped working.
Even if the arrival of these new, Beats-branded wireless headphones were welcome at the time, I was very skeptical about them. First of all, I didn’t want to believe that wireless sound was as great as cabled sound. And also, I was reticent about the overuse of radio waves in my daily life. But that’s for another debate.
Let’s just compare these two headphones from an amateur audiophile point of view, shall we ?
Beats Studio : the honest review
When I first put the Beats Studio on, I was astonished by the comfort the ear pads provide. This soft, comfy memory foam literally complimented my ears and my head skull (Skullcandy, I see you). Perfect for a helmet that you put on at work for hours.
As I turned on the music, I did not feel disappointed. I mean, I know Beats has a bad reputation when it comes to audio quality, but, remember that I didn’t pay for these headphones.
Plus, as reviewers say, the bass-ey kind-of sound quality that Beats devices used to embody eventually polished itself over time. And my listening experience confirmed it: the tracks I listened to sounded pretty solid. But that’s all it was. Solid (Or at least I thought). Nothing less, nothing more.
The noise cancellation feature was completely new for me. How great it feels to be able to cancel one’s noisy AirPods in public transportation, just by pressing one button. How satisfying it is to be able to work in an office — or at home — with a complete focus on my C# code.
As an Apple User, it’s great to have the U1 chip present in the headphones, so that they interconnect easily to my Apple ecosystem.
Unfortunately, the Beats Studio comes with more downsides.
First of all, cabled usage. I know. In 2021, and the arrival of the jack-less AirPods Max, using an audio-jack for listening to music feels out-of-time.
But I found out there are still cases where I needed a cable. For example: using headphones with my TV — When I want to watch WandaVision without being disturbed — or my Nintendo Switch — When I want to fully enjoy the funky soundtrack of Sonic Mania.
Also, with the rise of the pandemic, It has become essential for me to have a good quality mic and headphones at work. With the version of Windows on my work laptop, it’s very often impossible to connect with any bluetooth headphones.
In addition, the built-in mic of the Beats headphones isn’t always great to my interlocutors. I had better feedbacks switching to the wired one.
So that’s why I need a cable. The Beats Studio suited this need with ease, because their box includes a cable with a mic. And a good one.
But the cabled experience ended whenever there was no battery left. You just can’t use them at all when there’s no battery. How absurd! I’m not an electrician, but isn’t the cable supposed to give the helmet enough power to play music without charging it ?
Oh, they wanted to keep the noise cancellation feature turned on, and it needs power. Then… why didn’t they just turn it off ? This question has no answer.
The second problem with these headphones is their solidity. Not the one of their sound, as I mentioned earlier, but rather the one of their body.
Yes, unfortunately, one day these Beats headphones broke. By themselves. At some point, during normal usage, the headband disconnected itself from one ear pad. In addition with making the headphones unusable, they were impossible to repair, nor replace, since they were not under warranty anymore.
In fact, one headphone repairer in Paris told me the only way to repair the headphones was to insert 8 screws on a plastic plate on the broken headband, in order to lock the ear pad back in place. Something inconceivable for me, as I didn’t want to affect the aesthetics of my headphones. And also because it would have costed me €90.
At the end of the day, I’m happy I did not spend a buck on these Beats headphones on the first place.
Then, the only way to have headphones again was to buy new ones. After reviewing a lot of tech sites, and listening to my colleagues, I decided to take the Sony WH-1000XM3. And oh boy was I surprised.
Sony WH-1000XM3 : just better.
If there’s one problem to remember about the Sony WH-1000XM3, it’s their name. I never understood Sony’s odd naming habits. First with the MDR-1000X — Which name resembles the French equivalent to LMAO — , then with the Sony Xperia One II.
Same goes with the WH-1000XM3. Even Jabra — the main competitor in this category — manages to use letter and numbers to identify their product line, without making the name sound like a serial number (ex: Elite 85t, Elite 85h).
Jokes aside, let’s talk about the sound. It feels a lot better. Way better. Wider, more precise, and yet very powerful.
I’m an eclectic kind of listener. For that test, I listened to EDM, Dubstep, Chill Hop, but also Rap and Hip Hop, and even Hungarian Metal.
Especially with that last genre (the tune is Viszlát Nyár — AWS for those wondering) each instrument of the tune felt right at its place, and far more detailed than the solid sound of the Beats Studio.
For example, when an acoustic guitar plays a rock ballad (Viszlàt Nyár [Acoustic Version] — AWS for those wondering), you feel the guitar so crispy it’s like the musician plays near your ear.
And that’s thanks to the perfect implementation of the AAC codec by these headphones. But not only.
You see, Sony wanted to give the user a personalized experience. So they incorporated a feature that scans your ear in order to deliver sound waves that correspond to your anatomy.
All of that gave me an incredible impression of sound fidelity, while just streaming encoded music with an online service.
Though, because my ears are sensitive, I couldn’t keep that ear-profiled sound delivery feature turned on all the time. Using it for a long time was giving me ear aches. I decided to disable it permanently.
As you noticed, I’m talking about the wireless audio experience. Thanks to these headphones, I realized that wireless audio listening competes toughly with the cable experience, to a point it’s almost impossible to differentiate them. Something I could not realize with the Beats Studio, and that’s because the sound was not as detailed as it is on the Sony WH-1000XM3.
For a wired experience, the Sony headphones are, again, the winners. Just because they continue to work with a wire when they are turned off. And that’s a game changer.
For the microphone, there is one built in the helmet, of course. That mic, from personal experience, just like the Beats, isn’t great for calls, voice messages or audio recording.
Classic move from Sony, there is no microphone built in the furnished cable. So I just borrowed that one cable from my Beats. And it works fine !
Also, there are touch controls on the Sony WH-1000XM3. Regardless of the device, I was never a fan of this tech. I thought that these controls were hard to master, complicated to learn, and easy to mess with.
So far, these controls are a lot more easy to manipulate. And very convenient. Swipe right and you move to the next guitar riff of Random Access Memories. Tap twice at the center and you paused “Touch” by Daft Punk and Paul Williams.
But they cannot make the difference between a knee and a finger. Just put the right earphone on your knee with leggings and you paused the music. Maybe the AirPods Max’s Digital Crown is a superior experience. Didn’t test that yet.
There are other many smart features on the Sony WH-1000XM3. Things like ambient sound hearing, that one ear-centric sound personalization, on-the-fly MP3 and AAC sound stream enhancement, built-in Alexa and Google Assistant support… Features that are in fact a bit gadget for a normal usage, but that are great additions that can justify its price.
Nothing to say about the noise cancellation. It works fine, and seems to be as efficient as the Beats.
Finally, the comfort. The Sony’s ear pads feel, in fact, a bit less soft than their Beats counterpart, but the ear pads are wider. This results in a comparable, if not better, comfort experience. Less cushion on my ears, but more space for them.
And they also look more reliable. While being rotative, these ear pads don’t look like they can break any second.
So… what’s the best you can get for the money?
That one question you want to hear the answer of. If you compare the prices on Amazon — that are, in fact, the prices in Western Europe, as I did not have the time to compare all countries and shops, sorry not sorry — , you can see that:
● Beats Studio 3 cost €349 at their recommended price. Now, on Amazon, due to a recent discount (1 month prior to the writing of that story), they now cost €249. With Amazon Warehouse, Amazon’s refurbished product service, they can cost €150.
● Sony WH-1000XM3 cost €380 at their recommended price. But it has been a while (more than a year) that this price has been brought down to €269. With the arrival of the Sony WH-1000XM4 (naming…), this price tag is here to stay. Not to mention Amazon Warehouse, with which you can have them for €190.
Personally, I obviously recommend the Sony WH-1000XM3 over the Beats Studio 3. It is the perfect replacement for broken Beats headphones. For an extra 20 bucks, you get a way better sound quality, while not having a microphone on your jack cable (What do you mean you don’t care about jack wires ?).
