[ssrock64]

Quote:

The two seem extra crazy-
 
"Headphones used to mix in every major studio."
 
Isn't that a flat out lie?
 
"Never interfere with the track"
 
Then wouldn't you want a flat frequency response?
 
Also, I think I detected a Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat reference in the original post. 

WINNER. I love you.

 

[ssrock64]

Quote:

There's also the question of customer service - a lot of these die-hard brick-and-mortar shops are snob factories and have all sorts of screwed up unspoken policies about turning away "tawdry" customers and similar because they only want to sell high mark-up equipment and make those big whale sales. That's not how you turn a profit these days. There's a reason Wal-mart has burned down every CE retailer except Best Buy, and why they have Best Buy jumping and fetching like their heads are on fire and their...well, you know the rest.

I have not had anywhere near the same experience with hi-fi shops as you have. Though they were aware that I owned and often bought flagships, I was never pressured to purchase one from them. I actually never bought anything totaling over $300 from that shop at a time, but they were perfectly courteous about it and were helpful whenever anything broke and the warranty information advised to check in with the retailer. The shop didn't mind me coming in to test their top-end speaker rigs or TOTL headphone either, even when I made it clear to them I wasn't buying. That shop is among the most helpful specialized shops I've ever had the service of going to (there's a small-town bike shop that I was once at that still holds the first-place crown, though), and I am happy to pay a premium to keep them open. I think that if MAP wasn't as insanely enforced on brick-and-mortar retailers, or perhaps some leeway was given to make up for the costs of establishment, then we could see a proliferation of customer base and prosperity for these shops.

 

[Kosmik Panda]

I dont have any hi fi shops near me that arent big chains like best buy, guitar center ect. ( excluding ALO)

 

[nicholars]

The way they word it they are technically not actually saying anything which is incorrect...
 
However what they say is HIGHLY misleading and I think this should be dealt with because it is very dishonest and this same misleading crap is used on millions of products, mainly hi-fi and consumer electronics.

 

[ImperialX]

Quote:

The way they word it they are technically not actually saying anything which is incorrect...

 
I think it's actually incorrect. You don't get studio-level reproduction quality on these headphones. Or any headphones if you use MP3s.

 

[KimLaroux]

Quote:

The way they word it they are technically not actually saying anything which is incorrect...
 
However what they say is HIGHLY misleading and I think this should be dealt with because it is very dishonest and this same misleading crap is used on millions of products, mainly hi-fi and consumer electronics.

 
Well, not really. Many hi-fi advertising try to glorify their own technologies with complicated graphics and acronyms that don't mean anything, intertwined with absolute words like "first", "revolutionary", "patented", "unique", "no other", etc. These are often more entertaining than anything, and people can see them for what they are, even if they are impressed by them. Ever watched Ultrasone' S-logic showcase video? Bose commercials? That's your usual hi-fi marketing.
 
beats don't even pretend to bring anything new to the table. All their marketing comes down to "We're the s**t, we're the best, everybody uses beats, so just **** and give us your money."

 

[harryyeo]

As some people used to say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS too good to be true.
Might not be applicable to all cases, but certainly applies to Beats.

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

 
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.

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

You're describing every mass-marketing campaign and political campaign of the last 5 years (and Sennheiser also does this

), 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?
 

 
I really enjoy the insightfulness of your posts.  That said, I don't think the Occupy movement is ethically equal to the Tea Party.
 
The Beats guys are doing something wrong to everyone by pretending to be 'hi-fi' when they aren't and thereby robbing a lot of people of the actual hi-fi experience.  But you're right, the nerd-rage is a bit extreme, IMHO.  They aren't drowning puppies and they're just cynical - they're not innovating new ways to be evil like, say, Walmart.

 

[BrownBear]

Quote:

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.

 
+1
 
I like the part about the generation being cheated out of something. I agree with that, and it's kind of how I felt for awhile but wasn't quite sure how to put it down in words. That's a problem with those companies, in my opinion, is that people could be getting so much more, but they simply aren't.
 
EDIT - At least, I think that's kind of along the lines of what you're saying. Lol.

 

[wilzc]

This is going to 9gag.com
 
http://9gag.com/gag/4853146

 

[ssrock64]

Quote:

This is going to 9gag.com
 
http://9gag.com/gag/4853146

Hopefully it blows up and become a revolution.
 
Back on topic (again)...can anyone else find such blatant lies on other headphone manufacturers' sites, or at least tech-sounding gibberish that amounts to no real information?

 

[BrownBear]

Quote:

Back on topic (again)...can anyone else find such blatant lies on other headphone manufacturers' sites, or at least tech-sounding gibberish that amounts to no real information?

 
Challenge accepted.
 
EDIT - Well I've breezed through a few of the major brands sites and nothing has really popped out at me quite like those mentioned on the Beats site yet. This is fun though. If I find something, I'll post it.

 

[ssrock64]

The closest I've found so far (otherwise known as "I've now searched for a minute and a half...") is the listing for the Klipsch Reference One on the company site. While it doesn't make any lies as outright and calculating as those on the Beats site, it references famous concert venues and says the Reference One, a bassy headphone with no real good points to it, is on-par with their highest-end speakers. Now I've heard the higher-end Klipsch speaker ranges, and the Reference One is like a plastic Kawasaki free-with-DVD-player subwoofer compared to them.
 
 

​

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Also, the whole "Reference" designation is almost as truthful as the "Studio" designation.

 

[GL1TCH3D]

http://soulelectronics.com/en/our-story/

Sounds like a load of horse **** to me but I could be wrong, maybe they did pay "several of the audio industry's most prestigious engineers" to do absolutely nothing.