Beats EP headphones

Shackled

ON-EAR HEADPHONES are strange. You pay the size penalty and need to make room on the top of your head to accommodate them, but then they make your earlobes sweat and don’t do a great job of sealing off sound. Glorified airplane earphones, the lot of them.

Except when they cost over R2 000 and come with all the baggage of the Beats brand. And these are the entry level pair. And they are chained to the device you’re listening to by a non-removable cable.

Yes, in an age where Apple has removed the headphone jack on the iphone, Apple subsidiary Beats Electronics brought a corded product to market. It isn’t all folly, though. You wouldn’t want your earphones to fail on you at the office, forcing you to endure another personal anecdote from your chatty colleague while waiting for a full charge. The EP is the king of the cubicle.

I passed this review pair to a colleague who still rocks the original Beats By Dr Dre in the launch black and red colourway. She remarked that the sound isolation is so good on the EP that she forgot she is seated next to a very busy kitchen.

Beats has trulyy found its stride with regardg to its uniqueq audio signature. Warm bass that stops just short of muddy, flat mids and crisp highs may not be for the audiophiles, but it’s great for current urban tunes. I like to think of it as made for radio, as if tuned to complement the current dominant airwave playlist.

Build quality is an almost dramatic improvement over the Solos and other cans from years gone by. Actual metal and quality plastics work well with the reassuring weight.

Conclusion While it is disappointing to see a pair of Beats that you can’t remove the cord from – especially when my work desk orientation means that the cord runs across my keyboard – you can see how the company is trying to cater to the mass market of individuals who can’t afford to get locked into the Apple ecosystem. It’s a great pair of earphones that feel premium and fit comfortably. The sound quality is very good and does a lot to upscale streamed music; depending on your DAC, of course. - LS

Price: R2 250, myistore.co.za