Product1 publisher2 min readPublished
The Beats 360 puts the part that wears out on a twist-off mount
Ear cups twist off and the headband pad clips in, so the pieces that soak up sweat are pieces an owner can change. MobileSyrup's reviewer found the swap so easy that a bystander pulled a cup off by hand.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- A twist pops the ear cups off the Beats 360 and a second twist locks new ones on, with the headband cushion clipping into small holes on the underside of the band.
- Pieces come in Black, Cloud, Sky and Pink with matching sets, plus a neon yellow called Spark and a Navy, so cups and cushions can be worn in deliberately unmatched combinations.
- The headphones are rated IPX4 and ship with Performance Knit cups that MobileSyrup's reviewer says took his sweat without damage over a couple of weeks of gym use and commuting.
- With noise cancelling on, airplane and subway sound disappeared completely for the reviewer, though a baby crying an aisle over on a two-aisle plane still came through.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- capability The pads that soak up sweat are the pads that come away from the headset, so an owner with a ruined cup can buy a cup instead of writing off the headphones.
- constraint Beats has not published a parts price, so nobody can cost the wear item before buying, and the swap has to be judged as a colour option until the store page shows otherwise.
- exposure A cup that releases with a twist releases when you did not mean it to, and the owner picks up a small-parts loss risk in exchange for the easy repair.
- decision A buyer weighing the 360 against the AirPods Max is now trading comfort, which the reviewer gave to Apple, against a contact surface that can be replaced.
Another tech creator reached over and pulled an ear cup off the Beats 360 while MobileSyrup's reviewer was wearing them around his neck [8]. The parts come off in a bystander's hand.
He went in expecting the usual. "In the past, when companies say that something is easy to swap out, I've found it usually isn't quite so easy," he wrote [6]. His verdict on these was that they are "kind of idiot proof" [7].
Three pads touch skin, two cups and one headband cushion, and all three come away from the headset [17]. They are also the parts designed to get wet: the 360 is rated IPX4, and the review says the Performance Knit cups can be sweated into without damage [5]. A gym user who ruins a cushion is looking at a parts order, if Beats stocks the part on its own.
The customising is built around colour. There are leather cups in Black and Cloud alongside the knit ones [4], which puts eight cup options against six cushion colours, or 48 pairings if every colour is offered in both parts [16]. The review does not include prices [15], so a buyer cannot find out what one cup costs.
On the Apple comparison, the review stays with fit and sound. The reviewer found the AirPods Max more comfortable than the 360, whose top band felt tight until about 20 minutes in, after which the memory foam settled [10][9]. He thought the 360 played louder than the AirPods Max 2 [13], and he wore them through a seven-hour flight and fell asleep in them [14]. Whether an owner can replace a worn cushion on Apple's own headphones is outside what this review tested.
Before I treat a swappable part as durability, I go to the vendor's store page and look for a single ear cup, sold alone, with a price on it, and then I do the same for the headband cushion. If both are listed and cost a small fraction of the headset, the wear item is handled and the colour range is a bonus. If the parts only come in bundles with a new set of headphones, or they are not listed at all, then what shipped is a styling feature and the foam still decides how long the headphones last.
What to watch
- Whether Beats lists a single ear cup and a single headband cushion for sale on their own, and at what price.
- Whether Spark and Navy pieces stay available once the launch colours sell through, or only ship in matched sets.
- Whether Apple brings owner-replaceable cushions to the AirPods Max line.