[HTC Sensation] mrbunch:
The case for beats by dre is that, their fake product are all over the world, you might not able to buy genuine product even you buy them from shop (last time, dealdirect got beats solo for excellet price but was found to be fake item, some other famous bargain site in australia also found in unathorized list), I doubt you can find genuine product of beats in ebay even you paid RRP (except authorized reseller). The reason I say fake sound better than genuine is that, fake aren't having mid affected by bass, while both aren't having detailed sound. (Affected means, vocal sounds like they caught cold, Ne-yo saying he's so sick when using beats)

Build quality, Metal construction doesn't mean they have excellent build quality, The main conern for IEM is the cable, for example, cable thickness, joint protection, material used in plug platting, or even how the soldering quality. Housing material does matter, but never be the main concern. You can find lots of high-end iem (those selling several hundred) having plastic housing, while they have excellent build quality. One more thing, flat cable are more easy to break under stress, even Monster have only one product with flat cable (which is for gaming).

Note: Beats by dre is different from Monster. Monster are selling their product in reasonable price while beats are obviously overpriced, sound signiture also differnt as Monster usually give a cold sound while all beats are pushing up the bass but giving mudded sound,

Noise Cancellation for IEM is useless if the isolation of the product is good. Consider the following calculation:

Engine working with 10m distance: 60dB SPL(assume engine work in 80dB SPL),

*Note: Doubling loudness "feeling" depends on listener, but 10dB gain is normal answer to this. Doubling power requires 3dB gain, doubling sound pressure requires 6dB gain.

**Note2: Isolation measured in dB are assumed to be dB loss.

***Note3: In order to make backgound noise "inaudible", All sound are required to have 30+dB higher than background noise (require less when age increases)

****Note4: The threshold of hearing for background noise is using 1kHz, which is 0dB.

IEM with good isolation (for example those Ety): 35dB(mean value), Note: Etys are having 35-42dB isolation

Backgound noise after isolation: 60-35=25dB

Minimum sound level required to make background noise inaudible: 55dB

Tracks with 10dB dynamic range(song like pop, classical): 55dB to 75dB: 65dB average (no harm to ears)

Tracks with 20dB dynamic range(song like electronics): 55dB to 95dB: 75dB average (no harm to ears)

IEM with normal isolation: 25dB(mean value), Full-size closed back headphones with 25dB isolation are considered to have good isolation

Backgound noise after isolation: 60-25=35dB

Minimum sound level required to make backfound noise inaudible: 65dB

Tracks with 10dB dynamic range(song like pop, classical): 65dB to 85dB: 75dB average (no harm to ears)

Tracks with 20dB dynamic range(song like electronics): 65dB to 105dB: 85dB average (not recommanded to listen for long time)

Noise Cancellation is not useful unless the isolation is worse than normal.

Beats audio, this thing is just an EQ with soundstage mod, You can try rockbox with following setting:

Channel Configuration: Custom

Stereo Width: 130%

Equalizer:

Preamp: -6dB

Peak Filter 1: CF=120, Q=0.6, Gain=6dB

Peak Filter 2: CF=11220, Q=0.8, Gain=4dB

You will get effect very close to "beats audio"

Deep true bass, what do you mean for "true" bass, how can you tell it is true or not? For bass, you should not only consider the quantity, but also quality. How detail is the bass for those beats, have you compare beats with other IEM about the detailed sound?(For example, those IEM I've mentioned before, or Velodyne vPulse, they all give a detailed, textured bass sound with good quality, Velodyne vPulse also giving an excellent quantity for sub-bass). For deep, how deep can it be, used signal generator to test it for sub-bass quantity? How is the overall performance for bass sound, are they mudded or full or clear? How about mid and highs, are they mess with the bass and sub-bass? Again, compare them with other IEM.

I have tried most beats products(even those fake in different price range or those claim that they are "B product") and lots of headphones IEM and earbuds. All of them have burn-in time over 200 hours and tested with and without ODAC and O2. I come to 2 conclusions, one is mentioned before, fake beats could sound better than real ones, depends on the coil material used (as I found some of them are using silver coil), another conclusion is that most beats are not worth the price except the beats pro, while beats studio is so-so, other beats products are worse than products in the same price range in term of sound quality.