Dr. Dre pro studio headphones for £279. F’ real?

At £279, or £285 if you get them from The Apple Store, Monster Beats Studio Headphone by Dr. Dre are, to say the least, on the pricey side.

The website reads:

Artists and producers spend countless hours fine-tuning and mixing music to get it exactly how they want their fans to hear it. But the vast majority of headphones can’t accurately reproduce the intricacies produced in the studio. Simply put, Studios can. With precision-engineered, advanced speaker design, powered amplification, and powered noise cancellation, you hear music the way today’s top artists and producers want you to hear.

I’ve not tried ‘em, and I’m no headphone expert, but I’m imagining that they compete with established products such as Sennheiser HD 25-13s (£185-ish), M-Audio Studiophile Q40s (around £115) and KRK KNS 8400s (£115 to £130, depending on where you shop). So what makes these Studio Headphones so special that they cost at least £100 more? I mean, he’s not even a real doctor …

Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere on that web page, in the speaker and driver details?:

” … what makes Studios really special is the part you’ll never see: The speakers and drivers. It took three years of thorough research and development to create the most incredible headphone speaker ever built. Constructed of advanced materials, they deliver unprecedented audio accuracy and clarity. Combining extra-large speaker drivers and a high-power digital amplifier, Studios deliver a previously unheard combination of super deep bass, smooth undistorted highs, and crystal clear vocals. It’s a level of audio reproduction that you absolutely have to experience to fully grasp.”

The answer could also lie in the noise-canceling:

Studios feature Monster’s Powered Noise Canceling technology. It actively cuts external noise, so you experience all the rich details that your favorite artists want you to hear, not the music-disturbing drone of the outside world.

or perhaps even in the cables:

Studios come with the best headphone cable available. Advanced Monster™ Cable headphone cable with Quadripole™ 4 twisted pair construction reduces signal loss for balanced sound and extreme clarity. Plus, corrosion resistant 24k gold mini-jacks that maximize signal transfer.