Get Them Here:
Sony ULT Wear: https://amzn.to/4cCIbQb
So the Sony ULT Wear are Sony’s new Mid Tier ANC headphones for Summer 2024. And overall these are a solid pair of mid tier ANC headphones that sound great, they block out a decent amount of noise, they’re very comfortable to wear and they come with a hard shell case. But today we’re going to see how they stack up to the Beats Studio Pro and the Beats Solo 4… headphones that I feel that I see too often at the gym cause people don't know better, and hopefully we can change that.
So first theres price… the beats studio pros retail for $350, which I feel is theft but you can easily find them on sale for $250 and on shopping holidays they can go for $200. Then there are the Beats Solo 4 and these retail for $200 but they can be found on sale for $150. And then there are the Sony ULT Wear and these retail for $200 but they like to go on sale for $180. Overall, I highly recommend the Sony ULT wear over these other two headphones so if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first there’s the case, now all of these headphones come included with a carrying case. However, the Sony ULT wear’s have a premium feeling hard shell carrying case where as the beats come included with carrying pouches. So with Sony’s case you dont have to worry about your headphones getting crushed if you pack them in a cramped back pack. Where as with the beats you do. And personally I think its very insulting that the Beats Studio Pro’s dont come with a hard shell case given that these are priced as a pair of premium ANC Headphones. So case wise, the ULT Wear are easily the winners here.
But with case out of the way lets talk about the headphones themselves. Design wise the Sony ULT wear have a fully collapsible design to them and their ear cups have a lot more range of motion cause they pivot and swivel a lot. Where as the Beats, first off these headphones don't have a fully collapsable design and their ear cups have very limited range of motion. So the design of these headphones result in two key differences. First off, since the Sony ULT wear are fully collapsable, they have a smaller and thinner caring case, where as the Beats cases are a noticeably thicker. But when it comes to overall comfort, since the ULT wears have a lot more range of motion, their ear cups are able to site more naturally on your head, where as with the beats studio pro’s, these ear cups feel like they are applying more pressure to the anterior portion of your ears making them feel less natural. But also, there are the ear pads on these headphones. The ear pads on the Sony ULT wear are very spacious and they are very deep, so these are going to have more problem fitting most ear types and even if you have very large ears or ears that stick out a lot, these will have you covered. Where as with the Studio Pro’s these earpads are very shallow, so even if you have normal sized ears these will press down on your cartilage and that gets uncomfortable after awhile. And then there are the beats solo 4’s which are on ear headphones, meaning that these are just less comfortable than these other two headphones. Also, the headband on the Sony ULT wear has a lot more padding so hot spots aren’t an issue for these headphones, where as with both of these headphones, since these headbands are so minimally padded, hot spots are an issue after like 30 minutes. And finally theres just the clamping force on these headphones, Both the beats studio and pro and beats solo 4’s have a lot of clamping force to them, making them not big head approved. Where as the Sony ULT wears have a loser fit to them and they are big head approved, and even if you like to wear hats, these will have you covered. So overall, the Sony ULT wears are just a lot more comfortable than either of these beats headphones cause they ear pads rest more naturally on your head, their ear pads are lot more spacious, their headband has a lot more padding and they have a looser fit.
Now when it comes to tech specs, the beats studio pros have an advertised battery life of 24 hours with their ANC turned on and with their ANC turned off they have an advertised battery life of 40 hours. And the beats Solo 4 have an advertised battery life of 50 hours, but these do not have active noise cancelation.
But then there are the Sony ULT wear and these have an advertised battery life of 30 hours with their ANC turned on and with their ANC turned off they can go for as long as 50 hours. And when it comes to charging these headphones, they all charge via a USB C port as they should. However, with both beats headphones, you can use their USB C port as a wired connection, where as with the Sony ULT wear, this USB C port is strictly used for charging.
However, all of these headphones have an audio jack and they all come with an audio cable, looks like Apple has learned their lesson… so with all of these headphones you can use them with a wired connection. However, with both of these beats headphones, even if you want to use them with a wired connection, they have to be powered on, where as with the ULT wear, they can be used passively. A very key detail that I feel travelers or content creators are going to want to know.
But when it comes to overall connectivity, the Sony ULT wear can be simultainlusy connected to any two bluetooth devices regardless of EQ system, so you can easily hot swap from a windows PC to an iPhone.
Where as with both of these beats headphones, they’re both great for power users, but hot swapping between different devices isn’t as seamless as with Sony’s headphones.
But when it comes to overall performance, all of these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device but when it comes to audio codecs, both of beats headphones have support for SBC and AAC which is fine, but the Sony ULT wear have support for SBC, AAC and LDAC which is Sony’s own in house high res audio codec. Just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC, also if you use LDAC then the ULT wear can only be connected to 1 device at a time, and LDAC does take an additional toll on the battery life.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. Now with both the Beats Studio pro and Beats Solo 4, you cant directly adjust their EQ to your liking, but when you use these headphones with a USB C connection, you can choose from a few different pre made EQ’s its weird. But these headphones have a stock bass heavy eq, and personally I like how these headphones sound. Their bass resonates deep and clean and theres even a decent amount of kick to them. But more importantly, even though these headphones have a bass heavy EQ, they still have good instrument separation, the vocals are well defined and they never sound hollow or muddy cause of all of their bass. These headphones sound good and they are fun to listen to. And both of these headphones have support for spatial audio, so they’ll track your head and they can make it sound like you’re in the middle of all of your music if you move your head around. But personally I think the whole head tracking thing is a gimmick so I just use them with their spatial audio set to fixed.
But then there are the Sony ULT wear, now these dont do the whole head tracking thing, and I dont care. But more importantly, the Sony ULT wear have better instrument separation than both of these beats headphones. So they sound more open. But also, you can go in and adjust their EQ to your liking. If you like a neutral EQ or brighter EQ you can do that, or if you like a bass heavy EQ you can also do that. But also these are able to put out more bass than the beats. Now the bass on the ULT wear is mostly on the audible side, however, if you crank their bass up to ten and if you have them set to ULT 2 than these are going to rattle your head a little more and than the Beats Studio Pro. So overall, I enjoy how the beats studio pro and solo 4 sound. However, the Sony ULT wear are a lot more versatile cause you can adjust their EQ to your liking, they sound more open and they can have more physicality in their bass than the Beats Studio pro.
But when it comes to the media controls on these headphones… the beats are using physical buttons. And some people just prefer physical buttons on their headphones. That’s fine. But personally I don’t like the lay out of the buttons on the beats cause I hate that you have to press these ear cups into your head and plus they’re on the left side. Where as with the Sony’s, these are using a touchpad. Now these touchpads are very easy to use, and they’re very accurate. But sometimes there can be mistakes. But at least these touch pads are on the right ear cup and you don’t have to jam them into your head.
But also, the Sony ULT wear have wear sensors, so they’ll automatically pause your music when you take them off and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. Now I dont care for wear sensors on my headphones so I just turn them off, but therye there if you want them. Where as with these two beats headphones, they dont have wear sensors.
But something that the Beats do have is hey Siri support, which can defeintly be super useful cause this way you can simply tell Siri to control you music with your voice… or you can ask her to do other things.
But then theres the active noise cancellation on these headphones. First off I was surprised when I released that the Beats Solo 4 don’t have active noise cancelation given their price. And even though the Beats Studio Pro’s are priced as a pair of Premium ANC headphones, these block out as much noise as a pair of entry level ANC headphones. But so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test.
ANC Test
So like you may just seen, the Sony ULT wear block out noticeably more noise than the Beats Studio pro and the Solo 4’s dont even have active noise cancelation. Now the ANC on the Beats Studio Pro is useful for like your bus ride commute… but if you plan on going to the gym with your headphones or if you plan on getting some work done while in the cafeteria, then you’ll want to go with the Sony ULT wear. And also, I just feel so bad for people on airplanes using Beats cause they clearly don't know what they’re missing. Now the ANC on the Sony ULT wear can be usefully while in an airplane… however if you plan on flying a lot with your headphones then you’ll still want to go with either the XM5 or XM4’s cause they have built in atmospheric pressure sensors which is going to help their ANC perform a lot better while at crusing altitude. But nonetheless, if ANC is very important to you, then you defentily want to go with the Sony ULT wear over the Beats Studio pro.
But then theres the ambient mode on these headphones. Again the Solo 4’s don't have an ambient mode but the Studio pro’s and ULT wear do. However, the Ambient mode on the ULT wear sounds more natural than the ambient mode on the Beats, plus you can adjust it to your liking. But also, the ULT wear have speak to chat where if you fully cover the touch pad on these headphones they are going to lower the volume of your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can quickly talk to someone without having to remove your headphones.
And when you let go the headphones will go back to normal again. Now I love when headphones have this type of feature cause it great if you’re traveling or flying with your headphones. However, I would like for sony to change it so that when you have the touch pad covered for over 5 seconds, the headphones will lock themselves into quick attention mode cause having the touch pad covered the whole time does get awkward and uncomfortable after awhile. But none the less, even though I think quick attention can be improved on on these headphones, I still really like this feature and its super usefully especially when you’re flying with these headphones and this is a feature that the Beats just dont have have.
Mic ULT Quite
But finally heres the microphone test. Now the microphone on the ULT wear sounds decent while in a quite room… but this is an area where the ULT Wear can’t compete with either of Beats headphones here.
Mic Solo 4 Quite
First off, the microphone on the Beats Solo 4 do a better job of focusing on my voice
Mic Studio pro Quite
And the microphone on the Beats Studio pro do an even better job of focusing on my voice.
Mic Studio pro Road Noise
But where the Beats Studio pro really out calls the Sony ULT wear here is when it comes to dealing with noise pollution. Cause right now these are doing a great job of blocking out all of this road noise cause for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clealery hear all of this road noise, but if we switch back over to the Beats Studio pro, it is severely reduced.
Mic Solo 4 Road Noise
Now the beats solo 4 are also doing a decent job of blocking out this road noise but they are letting in more noise pollution.
Mic Sony ULT wear Road Noise
And then there are the Sony ULT wear which are trying to block out this road noise but there is a considerable amount of interference going on with my voice.
Mic Sony ULT Chatter
And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter, they’re trying to reduce this noise pollution but there is a considerable amount of interference going on with my voice.
Mic Solo 4 Chatter
Where as with the Beats Solo 4’s these are doing a better job of reducing this chatter.
Mic Beats Studio pro Chatter
And then there are the Beats Studio pro and these are doing an even better job of reducing all of this chatter. But again for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you can clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the beats studio pro these are reducing a lot of this chatter. So overall, even though im not the biggest fan of the Beats Studio pro, they clearly have a much better sounding and preforming microphone than the Sony ULT wear.
But with all of that being said, even though the Sony ULT wear clearly has a lot of improvement when it comes to its microphone… if feel that everything else about the Sony ULT wear is superior to the Beats Studio pro and Beats Solo 4. Fit wise the Sony ULT wear are a lot more comfortable cause they sit more naturally on your head, their earpads are a lot more spacious and their headband has a lot more padding. The sound of these headphones is a lot more versatile than both beats, they also sound more open and they can have more bass than the Beats Studio pro. The Sony ULT wear also block out noticeably more noise than the Beats Studio Pro, and they come with a hard shell case and they’re more affordable than the beats studio pro.