If you’re looking for some on-ear headphones to retreat from the outside world, now’s a good time to get them. Amazon is selling Beats’ Solo Pro wireless headphones for a more reasonable $230, a hefty $70 below the usual price. You can find them for that price at Best Buy, too. Both are below the usual $250 we’ve seen, so you might not get another discount like this for a while.
These aren’t the stereotypical Beats you might be familiar with. While there’s still ample bass, we found that the Solo Pro also does a good job of representing mids and highs — you might enjoy synthpop as much as you do trance or rap. And while the active noise cancellation isn’t on par with what you’d get from Bose or Sony, it’s still more than capable of tuning out unwanted sounds. And if you’re an iPhone or iPad owner, the easy pairing and hands-free Siri could make life that much easier.
There are caveats. Beats’ particular on-ear design may not be comfortable with larger heads, so you’ll want to be careful if you expect to wear these for several hours at a time. You won’t have the option of wired audio like you do with some headphones in this class, so you’ll need to embrace the wireless lifestyle. And while you can certainly use the Solo Pro with Android and Windows devices, there’s no question that they work best for the Apple crowd. At $230, though, they could easily represent a good bargain if you aren’t picky about the fit or a wired connection.