Beats are good? NAHHHH!

He has a point about the average Beats consumer purchasing them for the fashion and the upgraded quality compared to the free earbuds that come with your phone. I would have to agree with most of what he said. I had a friend who was was contemplating whether or not to purchase a pair of Beats or Bose QC3s (at that time, we thought that Bose was the true audiophile headphones). Ultimately, fashion over sound.

I personally do not find Beats fashionable (in a classy sense), but some people, mainly the target market for Beats headphones are looking for the swag factor, and Beats has successfully designed and marketed these headphones as that. There's nothing wrong with spending more money for fashion.

I'm pretty sure 90%+ of Beats consumers consider the looks more than the actual quality; as long as they feel as they have upgraded from their old audio gear, they feel as they have purchased something worth while. It's the same feeling I had when I first purchased the Image S4 4 years ago, and my M50s a year back. Now I have my HD 598, the M50 sounds awful for me: boring, sharp at times, closed soundstage, etc, but before then, I felt good upgrading my audio equipment.

While I disagree with him saying that your average consumer may not be able to tell the difference between a better and worse pair of headphones, I cannot disagree too. I have peers who could not tell the difference between my old S4 and their Apple earbuds, and some who criticized them for not having enough bass.

He is mostly correct about your non-audiophile acknowledging good mids or highs; your average consumer would not give a crap about specifics like that, that analysis is acquired from listening to more headphones, all they care about is is it better than what I listen to, and how much is it, and what else does it offer.

He seems badly spoken, ignorant, and lacking in any well-thought ideas. Since his username is uravgconsumer, it looks like a case of the blind leading the blind.

He doesn't understand why people hate on beats "without trying them".  But he doesn't mention what other headphones he's tried, and apparently can immediately tell the beats are the best headphone for him.

I couldn't really give a damn if you have tried other headphones and still like beats for whatever reason.  It's just the average consumer is fed this logic that beats are actually good and worth the several hundred dollar price tag.

He's overall seems like a cool dude, been watching his vids every now and then for the past few months so he comes across as very humble dude in how he handles his channel and his viewpoints representing an average consumer

If people are only buying them as a fashion accessory, then why don't they just buy a fake pair and save themselves a great deal of money?

It's not like they'd be missing out on anything offered by the real thing.

I'm a very fashion conscious person. I spend unhealthy amounts of money on clothes every week, and I have an entire walk-in closet full of clothes. But I will NEVER understand why people would buy headphones, products that were designed in the first place for listening, solely for fashion. I was talking to this girl who wanted a pair of beats headphones and I told her about how the 200$ beats headphones were overpriced and how I could help her pick out a better pair for much less money. She told me that she doesn't "care about what they sound like, they just look cool". Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of making a headphone? 

It's just like saying, " I don't care if that TV is only black and white for 10,000$, it comes in a nice package so I'm going to buy it". 

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuman0101 

... Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of making a headphone?

Well, not if you redefine the broader purpose of a headphone. You spend tons of money on clothes weekly, and clothing was not originally intended for fashion either. Early humans wore things to protect themselves against elements and so on, and religious influence caused people to cover themselves in particular ways arbitrarily. I don't have a pair of Beats, but I wouldn't say that buying them for fashion is wrong. Maybe having a fashionable accessory makes people look more sociable or easier to approach, and in this species I'd say that's ultimately more useful than having a pair of good-sounding headphones. Different people looking to get different things from the same type of item probably isn't something to be too worried about.

Besides, popular music is the same way. It sells because it's fashionable and not because of how good it sounds. But it's not my place to decide that how the music makes the listener feel is less important that how "good" it may or may not sound.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purple Smart 

What's your opinion on this guy?

Nice attempt at defending the product. "I'm not an audiophile" and "These are targeted at the average consumer." really sums it up.  What he might not understand is that a lot of "average consumers" want good headphones to listen to music with and not just a fashion accessory.

Note to OP (especially if you are the guy in the video): Youtube videos must be embedded here, not just linked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaijinMo 

 

Well, not if you redefine the broader purpose of a headphone. You spend tons of money on clothes weekly, and clothing was not originally intended for fashion either. Early humans wore things to protect themselves against elements and so on, and religious influence caused people to cover themselves in particular ways arbitrarily. I don't have a pair of Beats, but I wouldn't say that buying them for fashion is wrong. Maybe having a fashionable accessory makes people look more sociable or easier to approach, and in this species I'd say that's ultimately more useful than having a pair of good-sounding headphones. Different people looking to get different things from the same type of item probably isn't something to be too worried about.

 

Besides, popular music is the same way. It sells because it's fashionable and not because of how good it sounds. But it's not my place to decide that how the music makes the listener feel is less important that how "good" it may or may not sound.

But I think any fashion-conscious person buying clothes would not accept clothing that is expensive and fails in its purpose as clothing, no matter how good it looks. Like a high priced shirt that dissolves in the wash.

Beats doesn't make headphones, they make premium headbands with speakers attached. If you think of them that way, they become a lot better purchases if you are into celebrity endorsed sound enabled headbands. I hear sound enabled headbands are quite popular with people my age actually. 

Excepts Beats don't fail that bad. A better comparison would be a fashionable shirt that is very uncomfortable. 

Did anyone else notice he said absolutly nothing about their comfort at all. I'm not saying beats headphones are the biggest flop out there, I know from personal expierience that the ath-w5000 is a much bigger flop and most decent sized headphone companies do have a flop or two in their lineup. The difference with beats is that price wise compared sound and comfort ALL of their headphone offerings are pretty significant flops. I also don't feel at all like they only just targeted the average consumer. One look at the serato.com will tell you that they targeted dj's really hardcore. He also likes to throw out the word seriously which I do not care for. You seriously believe that all that beats advertising didn't brainwash dj's. Seriously?! I can't tell you how many dj's rave about the sound of the beats on serato's website and from my point of view they are seriously brainwashed bigtime. Also if you wana know why some people are soo crabby over beats it's because as soon as us non beats people try to politely explain to you beats lover's that there are plenty of stylish options out there made by companies that don't spend a ton of money on celebrity endorsments we are instinaneously cast as a hater or basher and we have absolutly no idea what's going on when we've tried out 20 headphones and you tried out 2 and they were both beats. That's what gets me crabby. Seriously?!

Finally had time to watch the OP's video. Since I'm susceptible to trolling like that. 

Things I thought were worth mentioning

• It be nice if everyone thinking about buying Beats tried most of the headphones in the price range. 
• Average consumer doesn't want good sound quality. I don't think that is the case. I'm fine with people who buy Beats to buy sound enabled headbands/necklaces, however, some consumers go out and buy Beats because they think they are getting good sound quality. Personally, I think the situation today (at least with the people I interact with) is a lot improved over lets say 2 years ago, but I bet that there are still a lot of uneducated consumers that are buying Beats to listen to music and getting ripped off. 
• Average consumer doesn't know sound quality. Average consumers might not be able to describe sound with terms like "mids" or "rolloff" or whatever. When I started lurking here for headphone reviews, I had no clue about most of the terminology we use. However, average consumers are not deaf.  Yes, there are people that can't tell the difference between their Apple earbuds and a decent pair of cans, but a lot of people can. I think the average consumer is very much able to tell the difference between the sound of different headphones even if they can't put it into words. They will look at you funny if you ask them "do you know what mids are," but if you let them compare decent basshead headphone like the XB500's against a pair of Beats, I think nearly everyone will be able to tell the difference and most will prefer the more refined bass of the XB500's. 
• The dude hasn't done his research. Like at all. "Beats excel at bass" "Pros say Beats are the best" etc lol.  
• AudioTechnicas. Just had to mention that I'm seeing a ton of M50's nowadays. Like wow, they obviously got something right with sound/style/etc. Do they even advertise (in the States)? 

- "...Beats are for people who didn't care about headphones in the first place..."