I’ve had a pair of Studio3 wireless headphones for 4 years now and saw the new Studio Pros that came out this year are already on sale for half off so I thought it’d finally be worth upgrading it when rtings.com showed a similar quality between it and the XM5 (and being almost half the price of an XM5. The change to usb-c and ability to use the usb-c to usb-c cable to listen to lossless music was also a great addition to but the whole thing comes crashing down the moment you put the headphones on.

I don’t know who decided that the Studio3 earcups were too deep because the Studio Pro have almost half the depth in the earcups compared to the Studio3 making the inner foam/plastic feel almost like an on-ear headphone instead of an in-ear headphone.

Somehow in all of this, the headband itself also feels downgraded as well. It now almost feels like a piece of wood just resting on your head and just squeezing down on your head. The Studio3 headband wasn’t anything to right home about but it still felt relatively weightless and nothing egregious on your head. Clamping force is also stronger on the Studio Pro so combined with the smaller earcups it feels much more painful to have on your head in general.

I’d stay the Studio Pros aren’t really worth it compared to the Studio3 and from the minute or two I’ve tried on the XM5s those felt so much better albeit currently being twice as expensive as the Studio Pros (the XM4s are also like $50 more expensive than the Studio Pros too but also more comfortable as well from the small time I’ve tried a pair).