Good times, fun times: New & Used Beats by Dre Headphones

Since I'm a LA Lakers fan, I've been watching a lot of NBA basketball lately, including other teams that are playoff bound. The images that I think are cool are shots of players relaxing before a game. Since the majority of these players are young men in their twenties, most of them relax by, what else, listening to music.

You can tell that many of them are listening to their iPod or some other MP3 player. But what I began noticing a few months back was their headphone. Ear buds are popular, but the ones that caught my eyes are headphones. They are called Beats by Dr. Dre Headphones. Specially-made so that you can hear how recording artists want you to hear their music.

The other day, a co-worker brought one to work. And these headphones are sick! He brought the red Beats Solo. That's not the top of the line. But it sounds fantastic. Easily the best headphones I've tried in years. He let me use it for awhile, around 20 minutes. And the best way I can describe the experience is that you cannot hear any outside or ambient noise while listening to the music. You only hear the music. That's probably the noise cancelling technology at work. I imagine that it would be very relaxing indeed if you're trying to get away from everything else and just be alone with your favorite music.

I don't know if they're getting paid for it, but I've seen Kobe Bryant and LeBron James sporting their Beats by Dre headphones during interviews and other photo opps. Nevertheless, I think they're still cool.

As far as different models go, according to the Beats by Dr. Dre official website, there are the headphones -- Studio (top of the line) then the Solo. And there are the in-ear -- Heartbeats and Tour.

"Excellent all around frequency definition and particularly impressive bass response." -- Wired.com

"The Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones offer a stylish and comfortable design as well as exceptionally crisp audio response." -- CNET

"What I found in tests at home and six hours of use on a plane were a pair of comfortable headphones with nice fidelity and good noise cancellation." -- CrunchGear