Do you secretly respect Beats? - Page 2

Agreed.

It gets people into audio in the worst way possible. It tricks people into buying expensive stuff. It looks horrible.

No, I hate them.

I don't care about the beats enlarging the market by making people want to spend tons of cash on headphones. I'm sure those working in the industry love it but the push to sell mega buck cans is already nuts. Do we really need more companies making incremental improvements and charging a grand more for their product? I don't see the beats bringing in many people who actually love music quality. And head-fi has had to deal with a few too many beats hater threads. \rant

for every 1 person that beats has introduced to audiophiles, there's 1000 people who are completely misinformed about audio and won't admit it, so no, I do not respect beats very much.

 

It's a gucci bag you wear on your head.  if you like that stuff go for it, but I don't like the snobbery that revolves around that sort of stuff in any realm.  I don't like it in the audiophile realm either, and of course anyone here knows it exists between audiophiles just in a different form.

Some hip hop is pretty well mastered. Audiophiles are just inherently snobbish.

What he's trying to say is that the type of people who enjoy beats probably listen to horrible rap music, which I don't blame him for since the image of rap music is absolutely horrendous (a bass beat and lyrics about womanizing and drugs).

There are a lot of well mastered, well recorded hip hop albums though. The Roots, Nujabes, and others come to mind.

Beats..the Edsel..I respect them equally.

Heya,
 

I find that most hip-hop is really poorly recorded and mastered with very little actual range. For example, I don't really find anything special coming from a track on my high-end setup, compared to a middle-tier setup, and compared to just entry level stuff. Sure, I'm sure there's some that are truly done well and have incredible range that could be taken advantage of with nicer equipment, but frankly, the range I've experienced thus far, from the 80's to today, in the world of hip-hop, is pretty slim. I don't in particular see the need for 24bit//96khz hip-hop tracks for playback on a $3,000 hifi system. But I'm of this mind for many genres. For example, even electronic music, most of it, is not something I'd put effort into making a high-end system for listening to (and I'm a huge fan of electronic genres). I also think metal fits into this, for me too. It's not a snob thing either, contrary to what some people may think. I'm being objective about it. When I listen to the range of acoustic, jazz, classical, and even some old rock, I find a high-end system is something makes more sense because I actually hear a difference there compared to some other genres where I really don't feel like I'm hearing an unbelievable range and resolution making a high-end setup seem like a waste of money and over-kill.

 

This is not what I'm trying to say. See above. Please don't assume. It has nothing to do with snobbishness. It has everything to do with objective listening and the majority of a genre in relation to high end equipment and below. I've not listened to every hip-hop or metal album. But the majority of those that I have, I have found sound rather low quality compared to the majority of say classical genres (and note, I've heard many poorly recorded classical albums too). Again, it's about the majority, what you'll experience on average.

 

Very best,

 

Edited by MalVeauX - 3/1/12 at 9:39pm

Beats didn't sell a product to a group of people who were looking for something.  They created a new need and desire in people that didn't exist beofre, they created a market for their product.  That's why none of the other companies can catch on quite like Beats, because the market isn't for headphones, it's for Beats.  They have literally shaped people's minds and perception.  The market is so completely theirs that Beats are a symbol and identifier to people and so they get free advertising all over the place, and all kinds of people propagate the Beats image and lifestyle in the ways Malvauex mentioned. 

 

It's like they created a new word in a universal language that expressed something people weren't expressing before, and suddenly everyone wants to be a part of it, and claim part of this new meaning and identity, and everyone wants to use the new word to express themselves.  Except everytime they do, Beats makes money. 

respect + beats = no

 

Yes they may have been successful at what they have done - so maybe you could "admire" them.

But how they have achieved this, the products, the marketing, the idiotic trendy d-bags who worship the brand, the intrinsic hollowness that is Beats, I absolutely detest.

This kind of corporate manipulation of popular culture to create a brand/lifestyle image is the kind of shallow consumerist mindless stupidity that stands for everything that is wrong with capitalist society.

 

You should not respect something you find abhorrent.

 

With all due respect, you are referring to hip-pop, hip-hop's illegitimate child.

Much of that is treated as disposable for good reason.

 

There are, however, many fantastic recorded/produced hip-hop albums out there.

For example: Illmatic, The Chronic (by Dre, ironically enough), etc.

 

I respect them for making a ton of money.

Do you respect drug dealers, con-artists and corrupt authorities - if they have a ton of money?

 

I would hope it takes more than money to earn respect...

Edited by drez - 3/2/12 at 1:51am

I cannot see the appeal of them at all personally.

 

They don't sound anything special, they look tacky (except the oxygen ones look ok).. It is just a fashion statement which doesn't appeal to me as I am don't fall for marketing endorsements as easily as some people do lol.