Digital Trends

Monster Beats by Dr. Dre August 20th, 2008 | by Mike Kobrin

Features and Design

The gloss-black headband is trimmed in red and silver, and the relatively compact earcups are outfitted with soft leather and mesh pads. The well-padded headband has two hinges, and the earcups fold up so the headphones can fit in the large, rigid carrying case.

The left earcup's outer cover comes off to reveal the battery compartment, which holds two AAA batteries (included), while the right earcup houses the power switch and mute button. A tiny red indicator light on the power switch shows you when the headphones are active, turning amber when the batteries are low.

To listen to music, you attach one of the two included cables to the jack on the bottom of the left earcup. Both cables will fit any headphone jack, but one has an inline microphone with a call answer/end button that can also pause music and skip tracks on some phones, including the iPhone.

Each cable runs about 4 feet, which turned out to be the perfect length for our 6-foot frame; if you're exceptionally tall (above 6'4" or so), you may have a tough time listening with your music player in your pants pocket. The package also includes a dual-mono airplane adapter, a quarter-inch adapter, and a cleaning cloth for the headband, which picks up tons of fingerprints.

Comfort

The earcup pads is very comfortable, though the faux leather will definitely start to cook your ears on a hot day or after long listening sessions. The headband is comfy enough, but it could use a little extra padding. Although we didn't need to extend the headband much to fit our head, large-headed folks may want to try these on before plunking down $350.

With the headphones and accessories packed up in the case, you'll need a good chunk of room in a small backpack. If you're traveling extremely light, you might want to check out active noise-canceling earbuds from Sony or Audio-Technica instead.

Image Courtesy of Monster