Soul by Ludacris SL300WB High Definition Noise Canceling Headphones (Black/White)

I started my search for noise cancellation headphones because I couldn't enjoy my music at home with all the neighbors dogs barking. I first went to Best Buy and tried out the Bose QuietComfort 15 and various Dre Beats. Unfortunately, Soul's are only available online but I'm glad I trusted the reviews and ordered them w/o completely knowing what I was getting into. The Soul's noise cancellation is amazing if not better than what I remember at the store from the Bose QuiteComforts. These are very comfortable to wear too. After 4 hours, my ears were a little warm but nothing that required me to lift them up periodically to breathe as I had read about the QuiteComforts.

In regards to sound quality, at first I was a little disappointed because I was looking for a little more base and that was one place Dre Beats shined. Then I realized that the Soul's don't try to drown you out with base but actually PLAYS your music in a way I've never heard. If you really want to listen to your music, and I mean every note, chord, string, cough... these headphones are for you. I'm absolutely mesmerized by all the music I was missing in my music.

Celebrity endorsed fads or not, the underlying company that produced these headphones took advantage of the marketing opportunity and made in my opinion a great product. Worth $300? For me, yes.

***UPDATE (2/16/2012)***

Was replying to a comment below about the noise cancellation and thought I'd provide a short update. After several months of use, I'm still really happy with these headphones and use them just about every week. I was a little unsure if was loosing quality due to the batteries getting low (didn't remember reading about a low battery indicator in the instructions) but sure enough the power LED began blinking a couple days later.

Overall, I was pleased with these headphones. I've never owned a pair of noise cancelling headphones, so I'm a little handicapped with regard to having something to compare against, but here are my reactions.

I don't know if there's anything to the break-in argument or not. I've had these for about three months, I use them daily to listen to music of all kinds as well as the spoken word. I guess a total of about 80 to 120 hours of use all told.

The noise cancelling works pretty well. I tried wearing the headphones with no music source playing through them and then seeing what happens to various types of outside noise. With a steady low-frequency sound, they work quite well. The humming air-conditioner or a lawn-mower in the neighbor's yard have their volume cut by about 50%. Interestingly, these sources have their frequency shifted to a higher pitch, as well. I could see the SL300WB's being quite useful on an airplane flight to cut engine noise.

Variable noise, like a TV in an adjacent room playing a sporting event is not quite as well-filtered. There is some attenuation, but it's not nearly as effective as with steady tones.

What I didn't care for was the way these are obviously "contouring" the sound they reproduce. Both bass and treble are amplified significantly. I'd prefer a flatter response, and then let me play with the adjustments myself. I deducted a half-star for that.

I also didn't find these to be all that comfortable. After a few songs, I wanted to remove them to let my ears breathe a bit. I see others commending the SL300WB's for their comfort, so maybe I just have hot ears, but I deducted another half-star for that.

These seem well-made. Removing a side panel to replace batteries or set the hi-lo switch is tricky, but becomes simple once you get the hang of it.

It is rather ironic that I am able to review the SOUL High Definition Noise Canceling Headphones by Ludacris at this time. The reason being is that I recently purchased another very high quality noise canceling headset, the Bose® QuietComfort® 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® Headphones NEWEST MODEL a couple of weeks ago and have been using that every day. As a result, I've now had a chance to compare two different headphones, side-by-side. Overall, I have found the Ludacris to be well made and it looks rather cool, it's larger than the Bose but it's also very comfortable to wear. The ear cups fit comfortably over my ears and feel good.

As expected, it's necessary to first install two AAA batteries prior to use. The battery compartment is located in the right ear cup (the left and right sides are clearly marked on the inside of the headset). In order to install the batteries, I had to read the instructions; otherwise, it would difficult to determine where they go as well as how to open the well-hidden compartment. Even then, it took a little bit of effort to get the compartment open. After installing the batteries, it's important to also set a switch inside the compartment to adjust for the sound levels of your output device. The default is set to "hi" and the manufacturer suggests that if you use very high output devices, you should set it to "lo" in order to "lower the overall output of [the] headphones". As I never play anything with very high output, I left it at the default setting. Replace the battery cover when finished and the SOUL is ready to go.

In order to operate, there's a switch located on the left ear cup that needs to be turned on - it doesn't slide as easily as one might expect and this is disappointing. Once the headphones are turned on, a blue LED indicates it's ready for use. There is also a second button located on the inside of the headphone - the instructions indicated that this is the "headphone badge light button" - at first, I couldn't figure out what it does but after taking the headphones into a darker location, I noticed that the Soul Logo on each side of each of the ear cups lights up. I'm sure that the only reason for this is to make the headphones "look cool" during use. There is no indication as to how much this may tax battery life so I really don't use this "feature".

While the headphones can be used alone for noise cancelling without listening to music, two "flat tangle free cables" are provided, along with a couple of adapters that may be used to connect to different devices, including use on an airplane. As a stand-alone noise cancelling headphone, the SOUL does a fairly good job. I can still hear a slight sound - similar to the "ocean" sound one might hear when placing a placing an ear to a seashell or the sound of air moving through the trees in a forest. Although it's very quiet, when compared to my Bose, it's certainly evident.

I generally listen to music on my iPod so that's what I'll use to discuss my experience. Let me state upfront that I'm a classically trained musician so I usually listen to classical music. As these are new headphones, I tried to listen to really high quality recordings to write this review. One of those is a recording of the Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3; Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" played by Itzhak Perlman. I'm afraid I was disappointed - the recording sounds rather muffled through the SOUL, it's almost as if the headphones are cutting out a lot of the higher overtones which takes away the brilliance in the music. Just to compare, I listened to exactly the same pieces with my Bose and the difference is very significant- the Bose simply sounds much better. I also tried different EQ settings on my iPod (just to make sure) and every time the Bose sounds better. Listening to different music also produces the same results.

Overall, this is a good headphone but as it is the same price as the Bose, I would consider that first. Had I not been able to compare the two side-by-side, my response might not have been as critical but there really is a significant difference between the two.

Update: After I wrote this review, I had a couple of interesting questions and I wanted to respond to them in the review itself. The first question concerned whether or not these headphones were "properly burned-in". "Burning-in" is a process that appears to be nothing more than an urban myth and there is no research, none at all, on whether or not it makes a difference. It includes playing music or many other sounds (white noise, pink noise, "frequency sweeps", etc.) for an extended period of time in order to "break-in" the headphone by "loosening the diaphragm of a newly crafted headphone". Again, this is an urban myth and there has been no research to substantiate its effectiveness. Just the same, to appease those who suggest that this is important, I have "burned-in" the Soul headphones by playing many types of sounds (especially those that are freely available on the Internet that have been created specifically for this purpose) for many days. As I noted that the sound quality of my new Bose headphones are superior to the Soul (and I've only had those for a few weeks), I did not "burn-in" those - just to see if the Soul could "catch up" in sound quality. Considering this information, the Bose remains superior, in fact vastly superior, to the sound quality of the Soul. I've spent a considerable amount of time going back and forth between the two headsets and, in my opinion, the Bose is far better. Specifically, the Soul lacks clarity and is "muddy" when compared to the Bose. I've listened to many pieces of music - again, I'm a classically trained musician and have played professionally for many years. The Bose allows each nuance to be heard while the Soul covers up many of the subtleties in the music. I'm not saying that because I have any reason to like one over the other - in fact, I wished that the Soul was better as I received a review set and I paid full price for the Bose. If the Soul was better, I wouldn't think twice about returning the Bose. Unfortunately, I can't do that because the Bose is superior - and I'm now convinced of that.

Another question concerned how the Soul compares to the Bose when noise canceling is shut off. Shutting off the Soul decreases the volume and the overall sound quality is less. The Bose must be used with noise canceling on - it's not possible to listen to music if it's not. This brings up another issue - batteries. The Soul requires two and the Bose only needs one. I've really grown to dislike the battery compartment on the Soul as it is frustratingly difficult to get off - I think this is a significant design flaw - especially for a $300 headphone. It is much easier to replace the single battery in the Bose.

Overall, the Soul remains a good, comfortable headphone but when compared side-by-side with the Bose QuietComfort, the Bose is superior. I wish that weren't true as I could have saved $300.

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