Quote:
Originally Posted by
KimLaroux 
The problem here is not that beats makes over priced headphones, it's the marketing practices used by beats. They use unbelievable lies in every ads. They use (read: pay) celebrities to advertise their headphones while making it look like those people actually chose to use them. They dumped dizzying amount of money into spamming agencies that created spam accounts on the internet to publish blog post, blog comments and forum replies that look like legitimate users recommending beats to other users. Just like for their cables, the resellers make up to 500% profit for every beat headphone they sell, and beats will send them more cash if they sell a lot. So not only is beats hyping their headphones, but all the resellers down the chain also do it, even if they know beats are over priced. All this makes the beats hype look like a grass root movement, which the blind consumer, mostly teens, embrace without questions. Do you really want Sennheiser to go that route?
Yes...yes I do - and here's why: Sennheiser makes a quality, well-thought-out, uncynical product. There's a certain pride of craftsmanship that is evident in a Senn can - and also in a Beyer, or a Denon, or a .... (insert favorite can-maker here). It's not quite the same feeling of 'we're really trying to be awesome' vibe that the boutique guys project, but it's the more mature version of that.
Beats are just a cynical money-grab that debases the overall quality reputation of hi-fi headphones in general. One could easily either get suckered into Beats and think they are the end-all-be-all of sound - or you could get Beats, think they're awful and just think that the overall quality of hi-fi headphones was laughably bad. Neither outcome is good for the hobby in general.
So many of us are here because the music is transformed into something exponentially deeper and more satisfying by the quality of the equipment used to create, record, master, and finally, reproduce music. Music becomes a deeper experience than we'd ever imagined.
I don't like the idea of a whole generation of people being cheated from experiencing that simply because of a cynical cash-grab by a disreputable pretender.
Edited by disastermouse - 7/24/12 at 6:55pm
), including the 2008 Obama campaign, and both current "political revival" movements in the US (the Tea Party and the 99%). It's all engineered and constructed on some level, because it all has a profit-motive in sight. Why should we just stop with the Beats productline as this big bogey man? Because we're 14 and dislike the "cool kids" and need to show them up? Or did they actually do something to wrong you, on some level?
