Busting Beats

After a long-held belief that Dr. Dre's Beats headphones are all hype and status, I tried out a set of the wireless studio model. First impression: comfortable, good balance, good battery life, cool design, sound cancellation not great, but passable. All told, I decided to keep them and liked them for basic use in listening to music for enjoyment and also for analysis (in a limited way).

After using them heavily, the structural strain of putting them and taking them off continuously while working on my music was too much for the weak structure. First the left side broke at the joint of adjustable band and head cushion. To fix this, I fabricated a simple "exoskeleton" to hold the shape of the headphone while supporting and reinforcing the break point. I tried to return them, but was denied because the damage was not a fault in the manufacturing. I take issue with this since they broke during regular use. I continued to use them daily, and regardless of the funky exoskeleton, they were still comfortable and functioned properly. Then the same thing happened on the right side, again during regular use. So I did the same exoskeleton fix on the right side. I'll spray paint the metal parts red use some red tape as well so it doesn't look so whack.

Anyways, I still love to use them because they sound clear, hold a great charge, have solid Bluetooth connectivity, and are comfy to use for hours at a time. My hope is that they are designed with a stronger structure in the future.

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