Hi!
Welcome to 'Lachlan Likes a Thing', a show where I take a thing and see whether or not
I like it.
Now, the thing that we're looking at in this video is the Beats By Dr. Dre Mixr portable
on-ear headphones.
Now, for those of you who have been watching my videos for some time, you might be a bit
surprised to see me reviewing a Beats product, considering that the company is not exactly
fantastically well-known for sound-quality.
I think it's important to be aware that Beats, as a company has a 64% market share of the
premium headphone category, and, you know, the company was able to single-handedly demonstrate
that the average consumer was willing to put down quite a lot of money for portable headphones.
So I think if you're going to have an informed and - and open opinion on, you know the state
of the headphone market as it is today, you can't really just ignore, or, you know kind
of mindlessly bash a brand that, you know, over half of consumers are buying when they
go out to buy a pair of fancy headphones.
And you can't really judge it from a one-minute store demo either.
So, with that in mind, I bought a pair of these, the Beats Mixr's, these are my first
Beats headphones, and I got these because, you know for one thing, they're relatively
subtle, in terms of design, and the other thing is that, the reviews that have been
floating around that I've read on the internet have been relatively positive in terms of
sound quality for these headphones.
So, I've had these for about a month now and actually I've been a little bit surprised.
First of all, build quality for the Beats Mixr's has been pretty impressive.
These are meant to be a DJ headphone, and for the money you get a mixture of metals
and plastics that feels really solid, feels really durable.
It actually feels better than the virtually all plastic Sony MDR-1R, though it's not quite
as nice in terms of fit and finish as something like the Sennheiser Momentum.
As I said, I think these are relatively subtle, in terms of their design, they come in a number
of different colors now, and they have a number of design features which I think are worth
a closer look.
So with the Mixr's the cables are detachable, and you get two headphone cables.
You get a coiled DJ-style cable and you get a normal straight cable with an iPhone remote.
Now what's cool about this cable is that you can actually attach it to either side, either
ear-cup, because there's jacks on both, and what's cool about the jack is that it's not
recessed in any way, it's a standard 3.5mm jack, so if you break the cable, you can pretty
much replace it with any off-the-shelf 3.5mm cable.
So that's really cool.
The other nice thing about the MixRs is that the ear-cups swivel up, so you can fold it
all up into this nice little compact shape.
Because the ear-cups swivel up individually, you can actually do neat little things like
wear the headphone on one side of your head, which again I suppose is useful if you're
a DJ.
Now this actually brings me to my biggest complaint about the Beats Mixr's, which is
that they're just not very comfortable at all.
The clamping force on the Mixr's is very very high, and the ear-pads, even thought they're
quite soft and supple, they're not very thick.
So you can actually feel parts of the headphone frame just pressing right on top of your ear,
with quite a lot of force.
Again, I suppose if you're a DJ, this is a good thing, because the headphones are secure
on your head and theres a lot of external noise isolation, but personally for me, especially
because I wear glasses, I just find them really uncomfortable.
I can wear them for about an hour before I have to take them off because my ears start
getting sore.
Now, supposedly the Mixr's were designed in collaboration with David Guetta, and I don't
know if Guetta's head is especially tiny or something, but I just found these uncomfortable,
and i you are interested in them, I do recommend that you just try them on first and just make
sure that you're not going to find them too uncomfortable.
This is actually really surprising to me that these are so uncomfortable because I would
have thought that Beats would have nailed it as far as comfort was concerned for the
average consumer, and I really don't think that this headphone, which given the design
and the retail availability, they really intend it only to be sold to DJs.
So if my biggest complaint is about the comfort of the MixRs, then, does that mean I don't
have any complaints about the sound?
Well, actually, kind of.
I actually think that the Mixr's sound decent for the price.
They definitely do have a bassy and warm tone, but not in a way that just sounds so bassy
that they sound bloated or overblown.
They actually have quite a lot of energy in the mids and the vocals, and actually, my
one issues with the Mixr's is that at times this energy is just too aggressive.
They can sound at higher volumes quite indistinct and splashy, the vocals get too aggressive.
Now, to me I think thats actually preferable to a headphone that actually sounds too bassy
but theres not much treble so it ends up sounding dull, something like the Skullcandy Navigator
or the Logitech UE4000 sound like that.
In comparison I think the Mixr's with their aggressive tone actually work quite well with
a lot of music.
Funnily enough, I enjoyed them more with slower, acoustic tracks than I did with the electronic
or dance tracks that supposedly these headphones were designed for.
Now, of course, the Mixr's are a relatively expensive headphone, and while I think that
the build quality and the sound quality are about right for the price, I really find comfort
to be a huge issue with these headphones.
Now if I was looking for a bassy pair of headphones, I would personally prefer the Sennheiser Momentums,
or the Audio Technica ES10.
Now, I think that both of these headphones are awesome looking headphones, they have
a bit of a smoother sound than the MixRs, they have a bit of a defined sound, while
they still have quite a lot of bass.
So I would prefer these if you were looking for a bassy headphone, and I actually have
reviews up of both of these headphones, so check them out on my channel if these look
good to you.
Now if you're after a nice looking pair of headphones with bait more of a flatter or
a bit more of a neutral sound, then these are the Audio Technica ES700s which Audio
Technica Australia has very kindly loaned me for review.
I'll have a review of these up soon, but I can tell you they're very nice headphones
so if you haven't already, subscribe to my channel and you'll be updated when that review
is uploaded.
Back to the MixRs though, if you love the look of these headphones, or, you have to
get headphones for someone who just has to have Beats, I actually think these aren't
too bad in terms of sound quality.
Just make sure you try them on first, so you know how comfort is going to work for you.
Anyway, I have a Facebook page now, where I've started posting music links and early
impressions of the gear that I'me reviewing, so if you want to have a chat with me, just
head on over to facebook.com/laclanlikesathing.
You can also tweet at me at twitter @lachlikesathing, and thanks to everyone who's liked my videos
and subscribed to my channel, and happy listening!