Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Main disclosure: i consider myself an audiophile, and quite frequently my ears can hear more than some earbuds offer, which ambient noises usually interfere with my enjoyment of my music. Addition as of 5/15/2019: i have accidentally ran these through the rough wash cycle my clothes go through once and the dryer twice because it takes two attempts to dry my clothes completely. Point is, these things survived the wash with minimal damage inflicted, and almost no alteration to sound quality So the beats are normal sounding if they are not warmed up to about body temp. Which is what most people are going to write about in comparison to other brands. I learned rather recently that the beats work better (bass actually gets pretty good) when the temperature is raised by body heat, which is me saying keep it close to your skin. The full science relates to its impedance turning into electromagnetic field strength, where about 25 degrees upwards can nearly double it’s strength, which means it can Bass better. Its performance is normal under cooler conditions in relation to the transducer contained within the earpiece. So my advice, if followed, will result in probably some of the best earbuds available at their price. And the tangle-free feature and remote function with apple devices only makes it really good Edit as of 11/25/2018: there was never a case that came with it, so storing/carrying is a bit of a challenge, especially because it can still tangle if loose in one’s pocket. I just reused another small carying bag for a different set of earbuds. As for durability, and i’ve read a review saying they suck on durability, the main three components are protected with what is either a really hard rubber-coated plastic in places, or just straight plastic. But the stuff is tough. To bend the audio jack takes a considerable amount of force, let alone breaking it, which to me means someone put it in a rather tight spot. The bigger/looser the pocket, the better. Addendum 2/22/2019: i created a clip for the line so it immobilizes most of it so it doesn’t disrupt my music, any earbuds with a “noise isolating” feature tends to do this, so i created a shirt clip that goes on the line pretty much permenantly and clips to anywhere around the collar of whatever you’re wearing. Other than that the line does transmit sound from bumps and friction all too well and sometimes ends up being louder than the music, which is why i created the shirt clip. And for the love of god, pay attention to the science i wrote about. The sound is crappy if Not warmed up. Once raised to body temp (say a close chest pocket) they’re really good. The reason is the purity of the copper in the transducer in the driver of the earbud. Lower impedance (more pure copper) means less bass output. Raising the temp will fix that. Other earbuds like skullcandy can start of lower because of the lesser quality of copper. Edit 2/20/2019: so my ear canals typically require a larger size earbud tip, but i found sound was lacking for the most part. I tried a smaller tip set and shoved the buds deeper, which aounds like a dirty joke, but in all seriosuness, the full power of the urbeats have been revealed. I also learned changing the setting of EQ on apple devices to “small speakers” generates the best sound. Location in relation to the eardrums makes an incredible difference, as more bass power gets lost as distance increases. But my ipod nano 6th gen is the last remaining device that can use the 3.5 mm audio plug type. Either way, superior sound to average run-of-the-mill earbuds. Skullcandy is a different story. Can’t seem to get a good comparison between the smokin buds 2 and these earbuds. Skullcandy specializes in superior bass, but the clarity of sound in general holds better with the beats. Edit 3/20/2019: i used these on a plane in comparison against active noise cancelling headphones. Skullcandy Venue vs. these. These earbuds required less volume and came out with better bass quality on a flight, for two hours, against active noise cancelling over-the-ear headphones. My experience was simple: active noise cancelling presses on my eardrums in the presence of very loud constant noises. The beats have nothing except passive noise isolation, which is like earplugs being bypassed by the buds. Meaning the noise was clearer and blocked out the noise of the engines of the plane. Edit 8/6/2019: side by side comparison between these and the Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds 2 yielded (again) less than desirable results for these. Skullcandy has way more powerful base and seemingly less Static white-noise under really quiet conditions, but the UrBeats3 has the volume control in addition to the remote (i really prefer wired earphones/earbuds because it’s strictly dependent on device power, which for earbuds can go for more hours. So depending on which you wish to sacrifice (either remote volume control or sound quality/bass power) i’d high Recommend these for wired earbuds with decent sound and volume control Edit 8/28/2019: i finally got them on par. Only took over a year and a half. Apparently bringing ringer volume on an iphone/ipod to full actually brings earbud volume up as well. My guess it the volume control goes with the ringer volume for master control followed by music volume control. That means if ringer is up to max, the earbuds get louder. I will also point out they must sit just snug, not pressed in or too loose, to get the best sound quality