The Beats Solo Pro mean business. These are the company's debut noise-cancelling on-ear headphones, but you'd never guess that from their great ANC performance and tasteful design. Let's dig in and see if the on-ear head pain is worth these otherwise great on-ear headphones.
Read the in-depth review at SoundGuys
What are the Beats Solo Pro like?
The ivory headset looks sophisticated and modern.
Beats showcases its mature, tempered side with the Solo Pro. The modest, yet distinct design is well executed: concealed hinges and sliding mechanism make the noise-cancelling on-ears look graceful. Each ear cup rotates to make the fit more comfortable, but this is immediately rendered ineffective due to the extreme pressure placed on one's ears. After listening for just 30 minutes with glasses, or one hour without, it felt more like I was removing a pricey clamp instead of headphones. I did happen to push beyond the pain to the two-hour mark, and the headset's removal made me keenly aware of my sharp headache.
The headband's vice-grip does serve a purpose, as it's a major reason the noise-cancelling performance is so impressive. Suppose the Solo Pro had a loose fit to them. They would be more comfortable but they'd also let in ambient noise. Consequently, your music quality would be at the mercy of auditory masking, which is when loud noises make it difficult to perceive quieter ones.
The Beats Solo Pro effectively quiet the noise around you and look stylish while doing it.
As far as build quality is concerned, these are surprisingly sturdy. I'm typically apprehensive about using Beats headphones sans-case, but not with the Solo Pro. The headphones depart from the budget plastic used in the Solo3 Wireless. Instead, the company went with a matte finish available in six colorways: light blue, dark blue, red, black, gray, and ivory. Regardless of your color selection, you're afforded a zippered carrying case and Lightning cable. Beats omitted a 3.5mm input, so wired listening is a no-go for those of use whose phones retain the vanishing headphone jack.
Is the noise cancelling any good?
Low-end attenuation is fantastic given that these are a pair of on-ear headphones.
Beats smashed it out of the park with these noise-cancelling headphones. Going into the Beats Solo Pro review, I was skeptical of the ANC effectiveness. However, SoundGuys' objective testing yields promising results. The headset uses real-time audio calibration to adjust noise-cancelling intensity, and it works. If you want even more effective noise-cancelling on-ears, look into the AKG N60NC.
In the chart above, the higher up the line, the quieter a given frequency range. For instance, high-pitched sounds at 10kHz are attenuated more than 40dB, while 150Hz frequencies are hushed ~12dB. It may not sound like a lot, but decibels follow a logarithmic scale. This means a 70dB sound is 10-times louder than a 60dB sound. It's really hard to get ANC on-ears to work this well because they don't passively block noise well, by nature of being on-ear, rather than over-ear, headphones. You need the foundation of good passive isolation before you can achieve good active noise-cancellation.
You can cycle through three sound modes: ANC, transparency, and extended power by pressing the button located on the bottom of the left ear cup. Transparency mode is great for when you need to remain aware when crossing the street or listening for a train stop.
Microphone quality could use some improvements
In fact, voice transmission is pretty bad as demonstrated by the sample below. Sure, Beats packed in plenty of sensors and accelerometers to improve voice transmission, but it was all for naught. My friends and family couldn't stand the sound quality and I dare not subject my co-workers to it during conference calls. You should avoid using the on-board microphone system whenever possible.
Beats Solo Pro microphone demo:
Connection quality and battery life
During the initial Beats Solo Pro review process, the SoundGuys team realized Android users need to hold the "b" logo down for a few seconds to access Google Assistant.
Apple-owned Beats included the same H1 chip that's in the AirPods (2019) and Beats Powerbeats Pro. Unfolding the headset automatically pairs the Solo Pro to your iPhone, assuming you have one. Android users will still have to go through the Bluetooth menu systems. Once paired, the headphones automatically reconnect to the most recent device. They use Bluetooth 5.0 firmware and support AAC streaming. Again, this is mainly to the benefit of iOS users as AAC performance on Android devices is unpredictable. If you're an Android user who wants high-quality wireless audio, you'll have to look into some Beats alternatives.
With noise-cancelling turned on, SoundGuys squeezed 21 hours, 53 minutes of playback from the headphones, which is just seven minutes shy of Beats' listed 22-hour battery life. By deactivating noise-cancelling and transparency audio, you can get closer to 40 hours of listening on a single charge. To charge them up just connect the Lightning cable for about two hours. If you're crunched for time, just 10 minutes of charging supplies three hours of listening.
How do they sound?
Sub-bass and upper midrange frequencies are the most emphasized, which is good for most pop and hip-hop.
Sound quality is what we've come to expect from Beats: bass-heavy. Sub-bass notes are reproduced twice as loud as vocal (midrange) frequencies. This can make it seem like some notes are "missing" from your music, again a consequence of auditory masking. That said, the Beats Solo Pro do a good job of reproducing a seemingly realistic representation of 3D space. In order to get the most out of the default sound, listen to genres like hip-hop, pop, and rap. Otherwise, you can always EQ the sound to your liking. If you're using a streaming service, you may be able to choose from a variety of presets. You can also download a third-party application to create a sound profile.
Should you buy the Solo Pro?
The cloth carrying pouch doesn't do much to protect the headphones.
Yes, the Beats Solo Pro are the best of the Beats Solo line yet. If microphone quality isn't a big deal to you and you're willing to sacrifice comfort for noise-cancelling effectiveness, the Beats Solo Pro is a great all-in-one package.
If you're apprehensive about any of the headphones' drawbacks, there are plenty of great alternatives out there like the Sony WH-1000XM3, which are standout ANC over-ear headphones and are markedly more comfortable than the Solo Pro. Another great pick are the Bose QuietComfort II headphones, especially since they've dropped in price with the advent of the Bose Headphones 700.
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