Beats 360 Puts Swappable Cushions and a New Acoustic System on a $350 Over-Ear Pair

Beats finally put a price and a ship date on the over-ear headphone it has been teasing for months. Beats 360 costs $349.99, with preorders open today from Apple, Amazon, and other retailers in more than 100 countries, and units arriving in stores Thursday, September 24. Four core colors ship first: Black, Cloud, Pink, and Sky. Each pair arrives with matching Performance Knit ear and headband cushions, plus a woven ripstop case that lets the cups twist flat for travel even though the headband itself does not fold.

Cushion kits are essentially the entire purpose of the name. The ear pads twist off in about 2 seconds, and the headband pad snaps off, allowing you to simply change colors and materials on the same pair without purchasing a new one. The Performance Knit kits are available in all four initial colors, as well as Navy and Volt. They’re comprised of breathable memory foam covered in diamond weave, which has 36 micro threads per strand. In contrast, UltraPlush kits employ engineered leather over the same foam in Black and Cloud, giving them a feel similar to Studio Pro. The sensors can detect the type of pad you’re using and adjust the sound and noise cancelation to keep the seal intact. Extra kits are generally $49.99, but there is a launch special in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, China, and South Korea that reduces the price to just $9.99 for a limited time, allowing you to mix and match to create well over 200 distinct color combinations.

Each ear cup has its own battery, antenna, and CPU, and there is a single power line that runs through the headband, but it charges both sides simultaneously via a single USB-C port on the left cup. Because of this configuration, engineers were able to place more mass in the pads and less in the band, allowing a 294.5 gram pair to sit closer to Studio Pro in terms of comfort, but being slightly heavier. Telescoping stainless steel arms and rotating cups make it easier to get a good fit. Beat has incorporated additional IPX4 sweat and rain resistance to these, which is aided by an acoustic firewall behind the drivers and a sealed rear chamber. They’ve also managed to incorporate a significant amount of recycled materials into the design, with 80 percent of the interior and cup pieces made of recycled plastic, while the magnets are made of recycled rare earth metal.

The sound originates from new 40mm speakers with two neodymium ring magnets and a three-layer diaphragm arrangement. Beats claims that the output has increased by 12 dB compared to Studio Pro while maintaining low distortion levels throughout the frequency spectrum. After you’ve turned off ANC and Transparency, Adaptive EQ will constantly modify the sound to fit your head. There are nine MEMS microphones in the frame, eight of which input into Beats’ noise cancelation system, which they claim is at least 1.75 times more effective than Studio Pro. Three microphones are dedicated to speech pickup, two of which are shared, with beamforming designed to improve call quality.

On Apple devices, you can also enjoy tailored Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking via the motion sensors in the left cup for Dolby Atmos. A listening mode button on the left cup cycles through ANC, Transparency, and Adaptive EQ, while volume and play/pause controls are located on the right cup. You can also have hands-free Siri on an iPhone, which is pretty standard fare. Unfortunately, wear detection and auto pause did not make the cut, and there is no 3.5mm connector or USB-C analog audio.

Even with Active Noise Cancelation and Spatial Audio switched on, or if you set Adaptive EQ on and turn those modes off, battery life is a decent 32 hours, and 5 minutes on the plug will get you an hour of audio. It’s all powered by a custom 4th generation Beats chip and sophisticated Class 1 Bluetooth 5.3, which quickly couples your headphones with an iPhone or an Android device. You also receive a slew of Apple-specific features, such as one-tap setup, seamless device switching, Audio Sharing, which works with other AirPods or Beats, and Find My, which allows you to keep track of where you last had them if you can’t remember.

Android users get Fast Pair, which allows you to quickly connect with a new device, Audio Switch, which allows you to switch between them, and Find Hub, which is useful for keeping track of your audio gear. Oh, and Beats Studio Pro is still available at a new price of $299.99, putting Beats 360 ahead of it as your best chance for a completely customized flagship sound that is sweat rated for high-intensity workouts rather than a replacement. The new Beats 360 has a flashy debut, with Kendall Jenner appearing in the promotional video, shifting headphones between outfits like she’d change shoes for an evening workout. If you’re already a member of that scene, the $10 kit accessory is definitely a good place to start.