(NEW - Open Box) Beats Studio3 Wireless ANC Headphones (Open Box)

My rating falls close to a 1.5 for multiple reasons: For starters, this headphone is marketed and sold as an ANC (Active Noise Cancelling), Over-Ear headphone. Typically, headphones like these are targeting people who buy them for travel (i.e. a plane ride) but also are helpful in any public space. Please keep this in mind for the rest of my comment. From the inside out, these headphones cannot hold their own with any other pair in the price range. I purchased my pair when they were 57% off, bringing the total from $350 to $160 (including tax), but I cannot in good conscious recommend them for either price bracket. Comparing them to the most common headphone in the $350 bracket, the Sony XM4 (and newly the XM5) are a essentially the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to all qualities. They clearly lose the battle for acceptable headphones to buy for $350, but some could make a case for the discounted price. Everything I found wrong with the Beats (most to least important): - Sound quality is mediocre. I attribute this to the old design (nearing 3 years) and old parts (Apples W1 chip is long outclassed by the newest chips) With that said, I am also no audiophile (someone who has a keen skill/desire for high quality sound) but I can make general observations about the sound quality from the Studio3's. I can't give an super detailed review of the sound quality because I only listened to ~3 songs and maybe 2 videos. But I can say is the trope that "Beats just overbass their headphones" isn't true. I can't say what you find as a proper balance of bass, but to me it seemed fined and not too far one way or the other. But you can tell that the timbre wasn't all that it could be. For the MSRP listed, this should not be case, even for an old design that was adopted and revamped by Apple. - ANC, one of the primary marketing points, is horrible. This is comes from a variety of reasons other than just poor build quality, after reading into the making of the Studio 3's, Beats tried making an early "adaptive" ANC by changing the way sound is measured, processed, and then cancelled. However, it fails completely and everything from your fingertips rubbing together at arms length, to a pencil dropping behind a closed door is essentially the same with/without ANC on. The only different is bass is slightly toned down, you don't feel like constantly pressure that other ANC headphones give (kinda like you're in an airplane at max altitude), but you hear a slight "woosh" constantly. - As mentioned before, build quality as a whole is terrible. Straight out the box, the right earcup is crumpled a towards the bottom because of a poorly designed folding mechanism that squishes the earcup against the headband as it's packed into the case. The earcups themselves have this cheap, fake leather look and feel, the stitching is far apart and looks poorly made, the earcup foam is obviously cheap, it easily compresses (therefore there's a lot of air) but then refills as if the foam itself isn't compact but just large pockets of air (meaning the foam itself is low quality), and the size of the earcups is very small for over-the-ear headphones. So if you happen to be ok with everything I mention, having medium-big ears will already make the experience impossible to begin with. The top headband, a common weakpoint that's overlooked in headphone design, has literally no cushioning. They didn't even use the foam from the earcups, it's rubber on the outside (when slightly damp or if it just came off someone's head) feels comparable to a pencil eraser. There is a little give to the headband but the material underneath is too thin for me to discern from just pushing down. After wearing the headphones, straight from the box, you could start "feeling" the headband begin pressing into your head after ~1 hour, then feel that annoying soreness after ~1.5 hours of total listening. Once again, considering travel or just extended use would be expected of a $350 headphone, there were too many bad choice they let slide. With the buttons provided on the headphone, there is one good but a few bad things. Firstly, Beats Studio3 happen to be one of the few headphones in this bracket that have a distinct power button. But the action button and touch pad are the main concern I found. A lot of online reviews will say the action button (the beats logo) feels cheap and totally disrupts the hearing experience, but I can't say I completely agree. I do like a tactile button, but the button provided has a distinct and somewhat loud click. It doesn't inherently sound cheap nor satisfying to me, but that's partly subjective. However, you can hear the click very clearly when you are wearing them so if that's something you dislike, and you'd prefer a touchpad then be aware of that. One of my most concerning observations for the build was the Micro USB charger in the headphones. A lot of online reviewers bash on the cable that's provided to charge the Studio3 pair, but I don't mind that they were able to pack some ginormous cable because I can plug in the USB A into a nearby port for close charging. However, the choice for Micro USB charging as a whole is a bad idea to me. Micro USB is getting very old now, being outshined by Lighting and USB C when it comes to things like charging speed, data transfer speed, etc. But my main concern is durability. Again, a $350 pair of headphones should essentially guarantee you multiple years of use. I didn't fully test the battery life of the pair, but over my years of use with Micro USB I know that the cable itself can corrode but most importantly if the input port (like the one that built into the headphones) doesn't have good glue to hold it to the plastic inside of the earcup, then the port can pop out can render the charging useless. In the first example of the cable breaking with time, I'm sure a lot of people have old Micro USB cables laying around, but if the input port falls out, then you will be forced to use the provided AUX cord for the headphones (can't listen to portless devices like modern iPhones). - All the other complaints were at least somewhat merited regarding an expensive headphone. But this one is mostly based on aesthetic. Of these entirely subjective points, the most relatable would be the bulky carrying case the headphones come in. It's very wide and rounded, so it definitely won't sit in a backpack or carry-on without taking up unnecessary space. But if the case was designed to be wider/longer but slimmer (like the Sony XM4's) it could slide into thinner pockets without stretching out the bag. Also, forcing the headphones into a smaller but thicker case is what causes that earcup compression problem I mentioned earlier. The scale of the headphones looks off. From product pictures to models wearing them, the headphones look really nice and stylish. I bought the matte black pair, and I was excited to see how they looked. But they pair overall seems smaller than what you expected (like how I briefly mentioned the small earcups). The overall look seems like it could only give that proper "Beats" look on certain people with specific head sizes/shapes. If you happen to find this pair on sale, don't really care too much about noise cancelling, want a listening experience that is good but you don't mind if it isn't groundbreaking, but want a pair of headphones for more of the luxury aspect, then it wouldn't seem like a bad deal to buy these.