Why are brands like Beats and skullcandy so popular and widely regarded as the "best" headphones? - Page 8

People are stupid?

You know I think the reason why they're the "best", at least in Canada, is simple.

A) They exist in stores that are ACROSS the country. The ATH-M50 are available at like one store, I'd never heard of Ultrasone before reaching into this community, and so on.

B) They actually appear in marketing. We've all seen the Lady Gaga, Eminem, etc etc wearing the Dr. Dre phones, so that opens an awareness to the public. I have NEVER seen advertising for Shure headphones.

C) We've got the notion that more $$ = more product. In many situations that can be wrong, like the expensive clothes that last only 2 washes, or obviously the Dr Dre series.

Plain and simple - this probably won't change for quite some time. People are more exposed to media now, there's more pressure by peers and people seem to consistently believe that their self-image is formed a good part by the materials they own/support (West 49 = 'cool kids', to mention one from my highschool).

Cause they are numptys or because they can't hear the difference anyway

Hahahahaha!!! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guitarplayer876 

Hahahahaha!!! 

On online forums, the Raise Dead spell is common issue to all users, as exhibited here.

Quite simply put... Most people these days are mindless idiots when it comes to technology. They see Dr. Dre's name on a pair of headphones and they buy, completely oblivious to the quality of what they are actually buying. They get (Compared to other headphone manufacturers selling their products at similar prices) ****ty sound quality and slightly-boosted bass frequencies; that's it! The thing is, at least Skullcandy offers their products for more reasonable prices. Back in the day, when I was young and jobless and in high school, I used Skullcandies because they were all I could afford, and they looked somewhat cool. But after trying Beats, I lost all faith in the human race. They were hardly better than Skullcandy in any way (If at all), and for a RIDICULOUSLY higher price. I know I'm rambling so I'll chill out here...

The point is, it's all in the marketing hype. Dre doesn't care about giving his customers quality products, just about the money. And judging by their popularity, he's doing pretty damn well for himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riku540 

Also take into consideration almost none of the popular brands on Head-Fi are known outside of Head-Fi. Ask just about any music enthusiast and more than likely they will tell you they have not heard of any of our choice brands. On top of that very few are sold in local stores so research must be done and the purchase is more or less made in blind faith until the headphone arrives.

 

Just think about how much you've learned since you came here and how many people care enough to look beyond their local electronics store.

One thing that many of you guys might be missing is exactly what Riku540 said. The fact is that most of the headphones that you guys recommend or consider to be excellent are just not widely available for purchase or to test.

The issue is NOT just Beats/skull candy advertising or consumers being stupid... the fact is that you walk into any electronics store and Beats are often the nicest headphones you can get. The proliferation of their products is crazy. They are placed in the premium section and they have listening stations where you can demo them. Even if there was, for example, the M50 (which is very loved on this site) in the store that sound better than the Beats, but how would the buyer know that? 

For a normal consumer to buy a random "Head-fi" recommended brand based solely on your opinion is as silly as buying Beats because Dr. Dre promotes them. Most Beats reviews outside of Head-fi & other niche audiophile websites are actually pretty positive.

I think it is kind of hypocritical for people in these forum to bash Beats users. Not everyone gets the chance to critically demo multiple headphones. Whether you bought Beats or "better-than-Beats" headphones simply based on what someone else told you, you are still being a "sheep" and being swayed by advertising (just different forms of advertising). Even within the Head-Fi community, there are such discrepancies in opinions, it is hard to know what to trust.

I think the best thing for people to do is to listen to headphones themselves and judge it themselves. The only way that can happen is if the other headphone brands step up their game and start offering demo stations for their products next to Beats so people can hear the sonic improvements. Otherwise, how would people know that the competitors are better?

I think it would be nice if people stopped hating on Beats or whatever other brand, and simply promoted viable alternatives with objective reasons. All the anti-beats whiny is definitely non-productive, makes people not want to get into audiophile products d/t this judgemental audiophile attitude, and honestly, it does often sound like the person hating is just being jealous (no offense). If this community remains so judgemental & hater based on the headphones someone choose, this will only drive people away from the audiophile community rather than towards it.

But the reason that Beats/Skull Candy are so popular is kind of obvious if you just go to the headphone section of any normal electronics store. The premium products from AKG, Denon, Sennheiser, Shure, Audio-technica, Ultrasone, Beyer, etc... are simply not on the shelves. The Beats are usually competing against low-end products offerings from Phillips, Sony, JVC, and other random brands.