REVIEW: Beats by Dr Dre Beats Tour 2012

Christmas now fast approaching, many people are buying music players and phones for loved ones or going to bag one in the sale so here a review on one particular pair of in-ear headphones – Beats by Dr Dre Beats Tour.

I have now purchased Beats by Dr Dre Beats Tour and here is the REAL truth about this product so here are my views in a review!

This product is over two years old but now that Dr Dre has taken over the business himself and split the partnership with Monster you can notice a few changes. My question is why have the Tour’s not been revamped or improved. They have kept the same price for almost two years until it recently dropped by £20 from £139 to £119.  Does this mean this is an amazing product? The Beats Tour  has had many mixed reviews on the Internet but I did, before getting the Beats Tour, think about ‘Monster Jamz with Controltalk’ but when taking it out the box the control talk fell apart and I saw the cheap construction of this in-ear headphone for an inflated price of £99. Plus the Jamz sound quality was nowhere near the Beats by Dr Dre. Prior to this I had the iBeats and they seem to sound better than Monster Jamz. Back to the Beats Tour now;

The Look
Like I mentioned I had the Beat by Dr Dre iBeats which I shall compare it to a lot because my decision was whether to get the iBeats again or pay almost double and get the Tours. The first thing you notice on the tours is the large earphones – they seem to stick out more than other earphones. This does serve a small purpose where you can add ear hooks to make them fit more securely during activities. But something to note is that the new UK models don’t come with the ear hooks but the instructions inside mention how to fit on the ear hooks included! Scandalous!

Now about this patented new tangled free cord, people don’t get fooled by it but it does and can tangle but it super easy to untangle. I’m finding this design of the cord to be bulky and a reason why the earphones stick out quite a bit. I do like this control talk in-line remote control design that many people have not liked – compared to the two main designed I really don’t have a preference but the tours in-line remote control does seem tougher and less likely to fall apart on you.

Many people moaned the earphones should have been completely metal as the part with the Beats logo is made of plastic and can make it look a little cheap but I found that the plastic keeps the weight down so your ears don’t feel heavy. But this extra plastic must have been placed in to place the flat cord otherwise this feature may not work.

A great feature is the gold plated L-Jack. Some people may not understand the benefit between the L-Jack and the Straight Jack but this first allows the jack not to stick out and stop the cord bending because on many previous earphones I found that the cord bends so much and then tears off slowly. The Tours does come with a new compact case with a moulded logo of the Beats by Dr Dre and this was an impressive new touch. It’s different from the iBeats snap lock case and offer more protection on your earphones.

Sound
Don’t under estimate the sound of these earphones. They are truly amazing sounds that achieves what Dr. Dre set out to achieve which is to hear music the way artists want you to hear. With these and any Beats products you accurately hear all the sounds that cannot be heard with cheaper earphones/headphones to give you a truly magical music experience. Because of the metal casing you don’t hear the vibrations in your music whatever volume you turn the music up to which allows for an enriching and clear quality in the listening of your music and enhances your ability to identify every beat in the music. I have compared this to the Beats Solo HD headphones but I found that I actually prefer the sound from the Tours in-ear headphones as it seems bassier, richer and louder than the Solo’s. Now about the bass, what can you say it powerful, loud and clear just the way Dr. Dre wanted it. I have no faults to mention with the sound quality of the Tours.

Comfort
Now Comfort, this is where I feel hugely let down by the Beats and where it splits for me whether I really like this product. As usual with Beats products you get the large about of ear buds to find a suitable and comfortable size for your listening music pleasure. I started with using the same ear bud size I used on the iBeats but I found the earphones wouldn’t stay in my ears and kept falling out which became extremely annoying. This is hugely down to the earphone shape of not being angled to fit snugly in your ear but sticking out a lot and shape and weight making it not stay in place. This was affecting my pleasure in listening to the music so I started using a smaller ear bud and now it stays a little better than then the previous ear buds but still not sitting comfortably and fitted in my ear. I do find them uncomfortable at the moment as they are not staying in place but hopefully soon when I get some ear hooks this should fix the problem.

Conclusion
Now to conclude what I really think of these earphones is that honestly I am torn between the sound quality and the comfort of these ear these earphones have now become a mid-priced pair of earphones as many people are spending about or more than the cost of their music player and for that they are sort of worth it but just to remember not may other companies can duplicate the bass of the Tours. I’m thinking if I had a chance to try them before purchasing them I probably would not get them only because of the discomfort – but just remember for the in-ear headphones around this price this is probably the best. I did contemplate on getting the Bose® MIE2 in-ear headphones price £119 but they did not completely block out sound and as the sound may have been clear it did not offer the bass I was looking for.

WhatsOnBodzMind