VModa Crossfades vs Beats Solo HD (by Dr Dre)

So a colleague walked into the office and said, "what sort of idiot is going to pay £150 for a set of headphones". Excitedly I explored the two options we had. £140-£150 is pretty much the upper limits most reasonable audiophiles would budget. Yes there are plenty of headphones more expensive, but for £150 you should expect pretty decent sound. More than this is starting to become the realms of lottery winners or people who care more about the sound than the music and have more money than sense?

The two sets of headphones here are,
1) Dr Dre Beats Solo HD by Monster and
2) V-Moda Crossfades.
Both headphones are closed back headphones, meaning you should be able to listen to some quality music, without disturbing your wife whilst she's watching X-Factor. From the outset, it's clear that the V-Moda headphones are the more comfortable. They don't so much sit on your head like the Beats headphones, they rest atop your head and feel seriously comfortable. The beats headphones squeeze your ears a little too much and I have noticed after prolonged use, that if I'm wearing my glasses, they do start to hurt. If I remove my glasses, they're fine. If you're planning on watching TV or read whilst listening to your headphones and you need your glasses to do so, I would look elsewhere. The V-Moda units cocoon your ears, where as the Dr Dre headphones sit 'on' your ear. Somewhat awkwardly by comparison.

Both of the units come with carry cases and again the V-Moda case is a nice solid moulded unit to protect your precious 'can's'. By comparison, the Dr Dre headphones are supplied with a soft bag. Both headphones supply an iPhone, meaning if you don't mind walking along the street in big £150 headphones you can control the volume and skip tracks. The Dr Dre headphones come with a normal lead as well.
As far as styling goes, I guess thats down to personal preference. The solid V-Moda units are well built, but the hexagonal shape of the earpiece isn't really my cup of tea. The more elegant Dr Dre headphones are much more pleasing to the eye and they also fold for added portability. I did read that they had a reputation for poor build on the first batch. But these feel plenty sturdy enough.
The Bass offered by both of these sets of headphones is incredible. 10 or 20 years ago you would really have struggled to get anywhere near the lows being achieved here. Both of these sets, with the right music, can really kick out a pumping beat.
The difference is within the midrange, and its a difference that is really quite staggering. The level of detail, the clarity and the all round excellent sound stage of the one set, makes the others sound completely mushy by comparison. This, despite the comfort issues is what makes the Dr Dre headphones the clear winners, which was enough to make this idiot purchase a set. If you have any passion for music, regardless of its genre (forget the Dr Dre link) they sound incredible enough to make you want them so badly. For the sound that they produce, they're comfortable enough.