Monster Cable is out to make money with the Beats by Dr. Dre with another special edition. These cans are equipped the same innards of the standard black edition, but sport a custom LeBron James #23 paint job. Only 20 of these ‘phones have been made with 15 of ‘em going to King James’ Cavalier teammates so chances are you will never, ever be able to rock these. Sorry. There is always the white, $699 Ron Herman edition if you want something a bit more exclusive than the $349 black models.

Monster Cable’s second foray into the in-ear monitor area is much, much better than their first go-around with the Turbines. Knowing that Monster Cable loves to gouge folks on overpriced cables, one has wonder if their headphones are overpriced as well? Perhaps, but it depends on who you’re asking.
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No images of the white Beats exist at the moment

Three hundred fifty dollars for a set of over-the-ear headphones is a lot whether or not we’re in a recession. But the Beats by Dr. Dre are a great set of cans that don’t need a headphone amp to rattle your noggin. They look great in black, but how much would you pay for a pair of white ones? Monster and some fellow named Ron Herman believe the resident douchebags of Los Angeles will throw down $699 for a pair. I understand these are limited edition, but come on! The Beats are great, but they’re not worth $700. Sadly, these LE Beats will more than likely sell out.

No one denies that Monster Cable makes quality products, it’s just the unnecessarily high price and shady business practices that kills their street rep. From time to time Circuit City pops a few outdated Monster Cable products into their outlet store and makes them a bargain. 6-foot Monster Cable Component cables for $13.96; nice. 6-Foot Monster Cable Component cables and Optical cable for $21.99 – really nice. 20-foot Monster Ultra Series THX speaker cable for $8.96 – if you can find it at a local store; awesome.

I’m not really sure how I feel about these in-ear Beats by Dr. Dre from Monster Cable. The Turbines that were announced last month were so-so compared to other in-ears at the same price point and for $150 I’d probably recommend a pair of Shures, Etymotics or Ultimate Ears over these ones. But the over-the-ear Beats are actually pretty good headphones, so I’ll have to wait and see what the Tours are made of when they start shipping in one to two weeks.

The best part of the Beats Tour seems to be the tangle-free cable that took 10 years to develop.

Monster could really cut down on the packaging of their headphones as well. The Turbines came in the biggest box of all time and it appears the Tours do as well.

Product Page

For more info on Beats By Dre Headphones go to www.beatsbydre.com

This video from Pud (the guy who started F_ckedCompany and AdBrite) shows us the difference between expensive Monster guitar cable versus $10 cable he bought at check-out. The difference, needless to say, is pretty striking, and not in the way you think.

Remember a few weeks back when my Monster Central remote suddenly stopped working? If you didn’t, its no biggie, I still love ya. Anyway, here is a nice story about how Logitech handled a similar out of warranty issue with a Harmony remote. Instead of sending the guy packing and with the advice to buy a new remote – like Monster Cable did with me – they shipped him a brand spanking new remote. Yeah, I’m still a little burned that Monster didn’t do anything for me so it’s nice to see a company actually care about their customers. Oh, and by the way, the Monster Remote is made by Logitech just supported by a Monster Cable. Food for thought.

Now that I’ve had a couple days with the Turbines, I think it’s time for a full review.

I’m sad to say that my initial praise may have been premature having listened to a few CDs (I had to open up moving boxes in my apt to find one) and comparing these against my Shure SCL3s and Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pros. I also brought in my secret weapon Dave R. to consult. He’s a professional sound engineer who specializes in monitors and has toured with The Cure, The Used, Linda Ronstadt, Interpol, Yellowcard and Fall Out Boy, so he knows this stuff inside and out.

With any in-ear monitor the biggest challenge is to find a tip that actually isolates and blocks everything out. I’ve found that foam tips work best, but the Turbines come with two types (trees and mushrooms) each having three sizes. You might as well skip the mushrooms because they don’t block anything out. Read More

It’s become apparent that Monster is getting into the high-end audiophile game with the launch of the Beats earlier in the year and now the in-ear Turbine ‘speakers’. I’ve only had an hour or two to check them out, but I can honestly say that I’m pleasantly surprised at the performance of the Turbines thus far.

I’ve always been a proponent that you shouldn’t be doing something you’re not passionate about and Kevin Lee, Noel Lee’s son, is obviously passionate about what he does and I have the utmost respect for that.

“My father and I have always wanted to make a headphone that didn’t sound like a “headphone”. We have the up most respect for all the headphone companies that are in business, because we now know it is not easy. That said, we are humbly proud of what we’ve achieve in Monster Turbines. We only hope everyone else agrees”

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My second Monster Central Control System AVL 300 universal remote just died shortly after one year of use. The first one did the same but sucked it up then and purchased a second one; not anymore. To be honest, the remote seemed nice at first (my original review), but shortly after a month or two of use, it began to show it’s true evil Monster Cable side. The charging system sucks, the remote is fragile and frail, the PC software is pathetic joke, and worst of all now, it won’t do anything.

I just called Monster Cable for advice, but because I was 2 months out of warranty, they simply told me to buy a new one. Sorry, Noel Lee, I did that last time and I won’t do it again. I’m growing up and will purchase a real remote from a company that doesn’t own a NFL stadium and sue the little guys.

Monster Cable setup a mobile test lab at CEDIA this year, challenging any cable manufacturer to a head-to-head battle. Only one attempted to enter, but didn’t see disclaimer that Monster wanted 4m cables or longer in the match up, and that particular maker didn’t have HDMI cables that long.

I know what’s yelled whenever a Monster Cable HDMI story comes up: Monoprice-4-evah playa! I hear ya, but take a look at what the test equipment that Monster Cable employs to prove their cables are the best. It impressed me.

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ROFL. More Monster Screen cleaner and is there really a need for an iPhone cleaner, along with a separate cell phone cleaner. Really? Come on. LOL. And dedicated GPS screen cleaner? ROFL. On a personal note, my shirt cleans my Blackberry just fine and I didn’t have to spend the $10 bucks for these monster oils. Moving on….

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