Do you secretly respect Beats? - Page 3

Drug dealers aren't all bad people.

 

I respect Beats for marginalizing Skullcandy.

If I hadn't been lucky enough to be introduced to AKG / beyerdynamic during a trip to Europe I probably wouldn't have known any better either.  I have always loved music / respected good audio quality but for some reason I'd just keep buying stock apple buds twice a year after they'd break.  I never knew how much I would like sitting down and just listening with headphones.  I think a lot of it is just that people aren't exposed to quality headphones often, especially in America because good brands aren't sold at stores like Best Buy (I've seen a couple cheap Sennheisers but other than that...) as opposed to Saturn in Europe which has plenty of decent brands even though not top of the line sets.  I guess I just never knew that headphones were capable of such magnificent sound.  I'm only 21 and throughout my childhood, I never heard any set of headphones that did anything for me.  Needless to say I'm happy to have sound this hobby, it's a lot cheaper than speakers.  Headphones are to stereos like motorcycles are to cars.  Much better performance for a much cheaper price.  Not a big sport bike fan, but I can respect their purpose. 

I'd say most people who buy/love Beats are only willing to buy more Beats headphones, so I don't think they are doing any good for progressing headphone awareness. (That came out silly )

 

Most people have come to the conclusion that better headphones have more bass and more treble, and I feel this will keep escalating. I really, really doubt Beats headphones will start easing into a more neutral sound signature, at least in their "reasonably" price models.

 

Though I do respect that they inspired other companies to come out with better looking headphones. Not that I care in the slightest about looks, but it's just one of those things that could draw people away from the Beats.

Edited by crinacle - 3/2/12 at 6:22am

I feel it's mainly just bass.... The non-audiophile forum I go on (I mentioned it in my post on the first page) has reviews of headphones and the 2 main factors are:
Bass quantity - Must have very loud bass, no matter how bad it is. You could have 2 subwoofers that only produce frequencies under 1khz and these people would be fine with that.
Looks - Basically how shiny they are and the brand name on them

I don't even think they know what mids or treble are....

What forum is this, if you don't mind my asking?

 

I knew pretty much nothing about not-stock headphones at all until a friend let me listen to his HD650's, so I skipped the basshead phase, myself.  For that reason, I find the sort of bias you're describing strange and interesting.

I was looking for a good example of when they blatantly state that it's only for looks/ridiculously loud bass but you can look through topics as a guest (at least I think you can)
http://www.hackforums.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=121

Once I mentionned the Sony Qualia and they're all like "wtf is that? It's not beats so it must be ****", I posted a picture and then they all went "looks like ****, I would never use those"
>.>

You'll probably see me giving a lot of hate to the beats users on that forum if you go through some threads, but the hate goes both ways. They've made threads just to tell me to shut up.

Ah, I found a much better example of the hate that goes on here (I do contribute to it but some people are actually starting to realize there are better headphones out of all the hate): http://www.hackforums.net/showthread.php?tid=2214237&page=3
Edited by GL1TCH3D - 3/2/12 at 7:15am

Tbh I like bass and the HD650 do have really nice bass.... You can EQ it to a level where it is pretty powerfull bass and also it is extremely good quality bass.... Not quite as much as the Denon D2000 but the quality is better imo...

I think they at least know what treble is, as most people I know that like them describe their treble as "crisp". (I really, really hate that word. Especially since they are describing sibilant treble/upper mids)

 

But mids, yeah, that's something that's totally lost on most folk.

The only good thing about Beats, specifically Beats Pro, would be the build quality.

 

Skip to 1:25 and watch the amazing craftsmanship.

The best thing about Beats is that they clearly identify all the mindless brainwashed brand grubbing souless corporate slaves so they can be avoided by the rest of the human beings who are still in control of their own brains. 

Do I secretly respect Beats?

 

No.

No and hell no.

This. They followed Apple's playbook to a T, and pulled it off in a way that I think even Apple would be hard-pressed to compete with (it's been what? 2 or 3 years since the company itself started offering a product, and they're already #2 in their entire market, and #1 in their target demo, something insane like that; they've also got most of the market competing with them on their terms; Apple is still lightyears behind any of its competitors outside of the portable segment, and any time they gain an inch in that segment, their competitors gain a mile). 

 

As far as what else they've done for the market - they've shifted the overall price of headphones UP quite dramatically ($799 is the new $399), they've set a new (and very low bar) for quality, and re-worked the priorities of new designs (towards bass heavy and "flashy" ("be unique, dress the same!")). That effectively spells "end of the world" for more neutral/treble-heavy open-back designs (take the Sony MDR-F1 or Audio-Technica ATH-AD1000 as examples). That's unfortunate in my opinion; it's not so much that I dislike their business model, or because I dislike their products (which is more of a comfort thing, I'm sure - I've never favorably regarded any headphone which has been uncomfortable in the slightest), it's because their goal is basically to homogenize the entire market and it's offerings. That's just obnoxious in my view.