Beats 360 Lands 24 September at $349.99 With Swappable Cushions and IPX4

Beats has unveiled the Beats 360, an over-ear wireless model that the brand announced on Tuesday 22 September 2026. Pre-orders opened the same day, with retail availability from Thursday 24 September at US$349.99. The headline feature is not a spec-sheet number but a structural one: both the ear cushions and the headband cushion can be pulled off and swapped by the owner, in two different materials and a spread of colours.

Alongside that, the Beats 360 arrives with an IPX4 water and sweat rating — per Bloomberg and Beats' own positioning, the first over-ear model in the brand's line to carry a water or sweat rating at all. StereoNET frames the result as a gym-focused design, which is a fair reading of where the IPX4 rating and the breathable knit cushion option point.

Price, dates and colours

The Beats 360 is US$349.99. Only US pricing has been published in the sources we've read. Launch colours are Black, Cloud, Pink and Sky.

Replacement cushion kits are US$49.99 each. Beats is running an introductory price of US$9.99 in select markets through 31 October 2026; the sources do not specify which markets, so we're not going to guess. The Performance Knit cushions come in additional colours beyond the headphone finishes — Navy and Volt — while the UltraPlush cushions are offered in Black and Cloud.

MacRumors reports that the existing Beats Studio Pro drops to US$299.99 at the same time, down from $349.99. Beats has not said the Studio Pro is going away — only the price cut is on the record — and the Studio Pro retains its folding design, which the Beats 360 does not have.

The swappable cushions

This is the part of the launch doing the most work. Rather than treating earpads as a consumable you replace when they flake, Beats is treating them as a choice you make, and extending it to the headband pad as well.

• Performance Knit: memory foam wrapped in a breathable knit. Beats describes the material as using a "diamond-knit strand" built from 36 micro-threads.
• UltraPlush: a seamless engineered leather finish; MacRumors adds that these are also memory-foam filled.

Both types fit the same headphone, so an owner can in principle run knit for workouts and leather for sitting still, or simply replace a worn set years down the line without a service visit. At $49.99 per kit that flexibility carries a cost, though the introductory pricing through the end of October knocks that down substantially in the markets where it applies.

What Beats claims for the sound

Everything in this section is a manufacturer claim. Nobody has published measurements or listening results, and we haven't heard a pair.

Beats says the Beats 360 uses custom-designed drivers with three-layer diaphragms and dual neodymium magnets. No driver diameter has been published. Processing runs on what Beats calls a custom Beats chip — the company is not describing it as an Apple H-series part, and neither will we.

On noise cancelling, Beats quotes up to 1.75x more total noise cancellation than the Studio Pro. That is the brand's own comparison against its own older model rather than an independent measurement, and it carries no information about how the Beats 360 stacks up against anything from another manufacturer. MacRumors, citing its briefing, adds an eight-microphone ANC array and a 12dB increase in output relative to the Studio Pro.

Feature support includes Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, Dolby Atmos, Adaptive EQ and a Transparency mode. What Hi-Fi? notes the headphones are being pitched as the brand's best-sounding effort to date — again, that is Beats' framing of its own product, and it awaits testing.

Battery, build and connectivity

Beats quotes up to 32 hours of playback. There is a small discrepancy worth flagging: the press release attaches that figure to Adaptive EQ and states it applies with ANC on or off, while MacRumors words it as 32 hours with ANC on. We're going with the press release's "up to 32 hours". Fast Fuel charging returns up to an hour of playback from five minutes on the cable.

MacRumors puts the weight at a little under 300 grams; no exact figure has been published. The earcups twist flat for storage but the headband does not fold, and the headphones ship in a woven ripstop fabric case. Connectivity is Class 1 Bluetooth 5.3, and the headphones work with both Android and Apple devices. Apple-specific extras include hands-free "Hey Siri", iCloud pairing, Audio Sharing and Find My.

On materials, Beats claims 80 percent recycled plastic across components and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets.

The shape of the trade-off

Compared with the Studio Pro now sitting at $299.99, the Beats 360 asks $50 more for the IPX4 rating, the swappable cushion system, the claimed ANC and output gains, and a Bluetooth 5.3 radio — while giving up the folding headband. That's the decision as the specifications describe it. How the two actually sound against each other is a question for testing, not a press release, and we'd treat every acoustic figure above as a claim until somebody measures it.

Frequently asked questions

When do the Beats 360 go on sale and how much do they cost?

Beats announced the Beats 360 on Tuesday 22 September 2026, opening pre-orders the same day, with retail availability from Thursday 24 September 2026. The price is US$349.99. Only US pricing has been published so far. Launch colours are Black, Cloud, Pink and Sky.

How much do the Beats 360 replacement cushions cost?

Beats sells Beats 360 cushion kits at US$349.99 for the headphones and US$49.99 per cushion kit, with an introductory price of US$9.99 in select markets running through 31 October 2026. Performance Knit cushions add Navy and Volt colours; UltraPlush cushions come in Black and Cloud.

How much more noise cancelling does Beats claim for the Beats 360?

Beats states the Beats 360 delivers up to 1.75 times more total noise cancellation than the Beats Studio Pro. That is the company's own comparison against its earlier model rather than an independent measurement. MacRumors, citing its briefing, reports an eight-microphone ANC system and a 12dB output increase over the Studio Pro.

What battery life does Beats quote for the Beats 360?

Beats quotes up to 32 hours of playback for the Beats 360. The press release ties that figure to Adaptive EQ and states it applies with noise cancelling on or off. Fast Fuel charging provides up to one hour of playback from a five-minute charge.

What happened to the Beats Studio Pro price when the Beats 360 launched?

MacRumors reports the Beats Studio Pro dropped to US$299.99 from US$349.99 alongside the Beats 360 launch on 22 September 2026. Beats has not announced that the Studio Pro is discontinued. The Studio Pro keeps its folding design, whereas the Beats 360 earcups twist flat without the headband folding.

This article was written by an AI system from Into The HiFi AI Desk, generated from the following sources, with no human editing pass before publication: Beats press release — Introducing Beats 360, MacRumors — Beats 360 headphone launch (22 Sep 2026), What Hi-Fi? — Beats' new flagship wireless headphones are here, Bloomberg — Beats announces Beats 360 headphones, StereoNET — Beats' latest headphones are built for workouts.