Beats Studio Pro arrives with Spatial Audio, massive battery life

AppleInsider

The long-rumored Beats Studio Pro has become a reality, with the over-ear headphones providing Active Noise Cancellation and bringing the AirPods Personalized Spatial Audio to the Apple subsidiary.

Beats Studio Pro family and color choices

Repeatedly appearing in leaks through early 2023, the Beats Studio Pro are the latest headphones to emerge from the Apple-owned Beats by Dre. Rather than in-ear devices like the Beats Studio Buds+, the Pro instead offers a similar package of features in an over-ear headphone configuration.

Somewhat reminiscent of the Beats Studio3 headphones, the Beats Studio Pro have leather ear cushions and metal sliders. Measuring 7 inches long and 7.1 inches high, the headphones are lightweight in comparison to the AirPods Max, weighing in at 9.17 ounces.





Inside each of the earcups is a custom 40mm driver, which is supposedly capable of near-zero distortion, even when used at high volume, for high audio quality. Using a new integrated digital processor, it will also work to create as balanced a sound profile as possible.

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The onboard processing will also provide many of the features AirPods Pro users will be familiar with, including Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode. These are switchable by a dedicated button on the side of one of the cups.

Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking support and Dolby Atmos is also included. There is also Personalized Spatial Audio, which can create a personal listening profile using an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera.

Beats Studio Pro in Sandstone

All this processing is being performed using Beats' own proprietary chip, allowing it to continue providing support for Android users. Features like Google Fast Pair, Audio Switch, and Find My Device from the Studio Buds+ make an appearance here.

For iOS users specifically, there's one-touch pairing, Find My support, and "Hey Siri."

A big selling point of the Beats Studio Pro is the battery life, which can provide weekend-long entertainment. Up to 40 hours of listening time are available with ANC and Transparency off, or up to 24 hours with them enabled.

Beats Studio Pro case

Fast Fuel charging allows the headphones to get up to four hours of playback from a ten-minute charge.

Offered in a choice of deep brown, sandstone, navy, and black colorways, the Beats Studio Pro retail for $349 and are available to purchase from B&H and Amazon.com.

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jfabula1

Yaiks….pricy 

bakerzdosen

I guess time will tell how this compares to the Sony MX5's.

I'm not really a fan of the Beats brand per se, but at the same time, getting most of the features/advantages of the AirPods Max at a few hundred dollars less is appealing.

But the typical knocks against Beats products in general (durability and sound quality) have yet to be seen.

snookie

MX 5's sound terrible.  Very unbalanced sound profile, bass heavy that even eq can't fix/

harmsway

Anyone know what features are missing when compared to the Apple AirPods Max? How you think the sound will compare? I like the look of these Beats Studio Pro better and definitely like the price better. Thanks

foregoneconclusion

harmsway said:

Anyone know what features are missing when compared to the Apple AirPods Max? How you think the sound will compare? I like the look of these Beats Studio Pro better and definitely like the price better. Thanks

Per the sound, I think it would be safe to say that it will be close to the current AirPods Max. Apple mentions that the distortion performance is around 80% better than Beats Studio3. They claim "near zero distortion even at high volume".

danox

harmsway said:

Anyone know what features are missing when compared to the Apple AirPods Max? How you think the sound will compare? I like the look of these Beats Studio Pro better and definitely like the price better. Thanks

Sounds like a trip to the Apple Store to try both out side-by-side. And it does look better.

Pancake

jfabula1 said:

Yaiks….pricy 

Same price as the last generation

Japhey

That’s the kind of case the AirPods Max should have shipped with. How nice would it look with an Apple logo instead of the Beats logo?

kernelg

I'll give these a shot. B&H is taking pre-orders for $299 right this minute, no sales tax if you have their store card. 

CheeseFreeze

jfabula1 said:

Yaiks….pricy 

If the durability and sound quality is good, I don’t think this is a bad deal at all. These are used for years.

AF_Hitt

jfabula1 said:

Yaiks….pricy 

This is in line, and actually cheaper, than its competition. The Bose QC 700 and Sony 1000XM5’s are both $400.

beowulfschmidt

I take it they are wireless only, and no wired option is available?

tht

beowulfschmidt said:

I take it they are wireless only, and no wired option is available?

From the Beats website:

• Industry-leading Class 1 Wireless Bluetooth® with extended range and fewer dropouts
• 3.5mm analog input for wired audio sources and in-flight entertainment
• High-quality call performance from upgraded voice-targeting microphones
• USB-C for high-fidelity lossless audio2 and three distinct built-in sound profiles to enhance your listening:
  • Beats Signature profile provides balanced tuning for music
  • The Entertainment profile offers an elevated experience for movies and games
  • The Conversation profile optimizes voice for phone calls or podcasts

beowulfschmidt

tht said:

beowulfschmidt said:

I take it they are wireless only, and no wired option is available?

From the Beats website:

• Industry-leading Class 1 Wireless Bluetooth® with extended range and fewer dropouts
• 3.5mm analog input for wired audio sources and in-flight entertainment
• High-quality call performance from upgraded voice-targeting microphones
• USB-C for high-fidelity lossless audio2 and three distinct built-in sound profiles to enhance your listening:
  • Beats Signature profile provides balanced tuning for music
  • The Entertainment profile offers an elevated experience for movies and games
  • The Conversation profile optimizes voice for phone calls or podcasts

Sweet, thanks.  Might have to check it out.

beowulfschmidt

I checked these out at the local Apple Store this past weekend.  Bearing in mind that my hearing has pretty seriously deteriorated over the last decade, I was impressed with the sound, but not with the fit.  I have a relatively small head, and they felt really tight, even tighter than the Apple version.  Seems like it's probably worth the price for someone who's hearing isn't shot.

tht

beowulfschmidt said:

I checked these out at the local Apple Store this past weekend.  Bearing in mind that my hearing has pretty seriously deteriorated over the last decade, I was impressed with the sound, but not with the fit.  I have a relatively small head, and they felt really tight, even tighter than the Apple version.  Seems like it's probably worth the price for someone who's hearing isn't shot.

Comfort is more important than sound. Not sure if this is controversial statement. All the testimony regarding sound quality of this or that pair of headphones is like listening to wine tasters or food reviewers, where you really can't trust what they are saying. The comfort of a pair headphones is an intrinsic part of its sound quality. Everyone has different heads, ears, jaws and fleshy bits and no one pair of headphones will be comfortable for everyone. People should definitely return headphones that don't feel comfortable.

Same thing with the Watch, and even more important with the Vision Pro. It's going to be hugely important to get comfortable light shields.