Ok maybe I should have elaborated more.

The headset and the cable are separate, you plug one end of the cable in the headset, and the other on the phone. Now the cable has a built in microphone, volume up/down, and mute button.

When I plug in the cable the right way, i hear very loud hissing and very little music. I plug it in the wrong way and I hear the music fine but ONLY if I keep holding the mute key.

It works fine on my blackberry 9700 and ipod.

Anyway it worked fine if I swapped that cable for any other audio cable, I just need one that is not 3 meters long.

Finally if anyone is interested:

-The beats Tour earphones work fine with N900
-The beats Studio HD work great using the red cable with N900
-The beats Solo apparently not.
-Did not test the Lady Gaga heartBeats.