Word has been getting around, at least among music fans and audiophiles, about a pair of headphones being sold cheaply through discount retailers like T.J.Maxx and Marshalls that supposedly offers a quality of sound far beyond its price point. Specifically, a cheap-as-hell knockoff of the miraculously popular Beats by Dre headphones. This imitation set allegedly sounds every bit as good as the real deal, which cost $300 retail for the standard "Studio" version and a slightly more modest $200 for the "Solo" type.
Beats by Dre's high price point has been controversial, but in certain circles not quite as controversial as their frequency response (basically, the range of bass, mids, and treble produced). Aside from the status conferred by the Beats logo on each ear cup, people are willing to pay so much for them because they emphasize bass over everything, delivering an exceptionally skull-rattling boom, often at the expense of muddy mid- and high-range tones. Audiophiles hate them for that reason, but consumers of bass-driven contemporary music — like, say, two current radio hits, Jason Derulo's "Talk Dirty" and Iggy Azalea's ubiquitous "Fancy" — love it.
But those consumers don't need to be dropping three Benjamins to get the Beats by Dre sound, at least not for the most part. Enter the alternative: The Urban Beatz Tempo headphones deliver stunningly similar performance for a fraction of the price. On Amazon, you can buy a pair for $20, or a tenth of the price of Beats by Dre's cheaper model. Cue up Ty Dolla $ign's "Paranoid," whose minimalist DJ Mustard-produced beat is a virtual ode to deeply detuned 808 kick drums, and you'll get all the bone-shaking low-end frequency that someone listening to it on Beats enjoys.
The Urban Beatz Tempo headphones, $20.
Out of curiosity, I picked up a pair of Tempos and tested the differences to the Beats by Dre Solo product. As with Beats by Dre, higher frequencies on the Tempos tend to come out slightly cloudy and dull. I tried every single EQ preset on my iPhone while listening to Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" on them, and not a single one could make the cans render the album's high end in the shimmering, crystalline way it demands. (For that, you might want to invest in a pair of $100 Grados, which pack more punch in the middle and high ranges.)
You'll find that pretty much anything recorded before, say, ten years ago tends to sound not-so-great on the Tempos, but the same can also be said for the Solos, which, again, cost ten times as much. Most new pop music, especially rap, is mixed to sound good on Beats-style bass monsters, so if your tastes don't run particularly retro, that might not actually be a problem.
It's true that the Tempos don't have the relatively luxurious build quality of the equivalent Beats by Dre offering, and if you're looking for your headphones to deliver social signals to those around you as well as sound, these aren't going to do the job. (Although they're not bad-looking at all.) But then again, you can toss the Tempos in a backpack without a twinge of anxiety over putting a $200 collection of impossible-to-repair plastic bits in the position of being knocked around. Even better is being able to walk by someone wearing Beats by Dre and knowing you're getting the same sonic experience they are for less money than a round of drinks.
