[aleki]

Quote:

calling the hd518 as audiophile grade is also quite a stretch, but oh well still better than calling the beats studios as uhh... studio grade?

FWIW: a head-fi member discovered they use the same drivers as the 558/598's. Supposedly, modding them makes them sound closer to a 598 than a modded 558. If this is true, I wouldnt consider it a strech at all (although I guess what qualifies for "audiophile" can be a subjective)

 

[obobskivich]

Im sorry but you are wrong here.... LOADS of companies do these things for different products such as LED TV's , Hifi cables , HDMI cables, headphones, food, supplements, etc etc. There is a LOT of utter BS which is highly misleading and really should not be legal but due to the "self regulating markets" and lack of government action they get away with it. At the end of the day it is a very "first world problem" and is not THAT bad compared to a lot of things that go on but really I still think it should be regulated because some of the things are bordering on theft although admittedly the consumers should educate themselves better.

+1. Food supplements are a great example - all you need is a "this has not been FDA evaluated" notice and you can literally do anything. Consumer education is a good thing. I also saw the S-Logic comment in your quote and wanted to add: Ultrasone's marketing of S-Logic is so poorly done, if they'd just explain it in normal language (and maybe if I spoke fluent German and could read their German publications it would be explained as such), I think it'd eliminate so much confusion. Then again, maybe they like being mysterious.

 

[ssrock64]

Quote:

And yeah, +1 with the nerd-rage thing. I think it's endemic though - wanting to kick the "evil" marketing types in the face or similar. I think the irony is that Grado and Koss very quickly came under fire, one of them doesn't engage in any direct marketing of their products, and the other does so very minimally and selectively. Of course Saint Sennheiser and HRM Beyerdynamic are never challenged because they're "our friends in science" and "want to help" - that's the interesting phenomenon imho. That some companies can so easily establish that "ex-corporate" image where people relate to them as persons and view them as "friends" (Nintendo is another example). And I think those companies are the "dangerous" ones - and indeed we've seen massive price hikes and documented losses in quality (and shilling, and all of that) from those kinds of companies, historically. But it's okay, they hurt us because they love us, and don't actually mean it - we had it coming, and need to learn to behave ourselves and have things in order the next time they come home.

I actually think the direct opposite. I see Grado and Koss as very personal companies, Grado because it's a family business that caters directly to us and Koss because I visited their headquarters so often. I just thought that larger corporations like Sennheiser would be less likely to overstate than the two I pointed out, and their site is huge and hard-to-navigate anyways to the point that by the time I found something overstated I'd be exhausted.

 

[streetdragon]

Quote:

FWIW: a head-fi member discovered they use the same drivers as the 558/598's. Supposedly, modding them makes them sound closer to a 598 than a modded 558. If this is true, I wouldnt consider it a strech at all (although I guess what qualifies for "audiophile" can be a subjective)

i modded my pair of hd558 too, and i tested it against the shop's hd598 where i bought my headphones from 
verdict: Less cloudy by a significant bit and clearer trebles, other than that exactly the same. but if talking about the unmodded it sounds not as wide and more bassy and has even less clear treble than the modded, so modding brings the hd558 about 60% closer to the hd598 , different cup and grill shapes cause the extra 40% difference left

 

[291079]

haha, made my day, thanks!

 

[obobskivich]

I actually think the direct opposite. I see Grado and Koss as very personal companies, Grado because it's a family business that caters directly to us and Koss because I visited their headquarters so often. I just thought that larger corporations like Sennheiser would be less likely to overstate than the two I pointed out, and their site is huge and hard-to-navigate anyways to the point that by the time I found something overstated I'd be exhausted.

Grado and Koss *are* personal, but my point is that there's this odd phenomenon where people want to personally relate to multi-nations, like Nintendo, or Sony, or Wal-mart even. With a company like Grado (with all of 17 employees) that's plausible, but with something like Wal-mart (with many hundreds of thousands of employees) I just don't get it.

Anyways, the most insane marketing claim I've ever heard from a legitimate audio product was hedged into my reply - the Sony ECR-800.

 

[KimLaroux]

Anyone watching the Olympics? 

 
I always thought the Olympics were a non-commercial event, where product placement was limited to the goods used by the competitors. Of course beats had no remorse placing their headphones on as many competitor's heads as they could afford.
 
I hate them more and more every day... they're evil.

 

[obobskivich]

I always thought the Olympics were a non-commercial event, where product placement was limited to the goods used by the competitors.

You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking.

I hate them more and more every day... they're evil.

Why? I think you might need to find some sort of outlet or other hobby if this causes you so much distress. Really.

 

[streetdragon]

lee chong wei (world champion badminton player from malaysia) was seen wearing a white beats solo in his advertisement for some badminton competition. good lord why lee chong wei
beats is evil, no joking

 

[SONIC BOOM]

I was boycotting the olympics anyway

 

[iluvmusic]

Beat get so much ignorant hype.. but they are fro non audiophiles who just wana look cool and spend big i guess...lolol  
 
I have auditioned all beat extensively and not a single pair impressed me at all... and i was especially annoyed by the "Studio "  and"PRO"  models since their prices and names implied high sound quality for professional use... lol only a professional fool would try to record or ever DJ with these..  ii am not bashing just stating fact .. the $400 is worth $150 at best

 

[nicholars]

Quote:

Beat get so much ignorant hype.. but they are fro non audiophiles who just wana look cool and spend big i guess...lolol  
 
I have auditioned all beat extensively and not a single pair impressed me at all... and i was especially annoyed by the "Studio "  and"PRO"  models since their prices and names implied high sound quality for professional use... lol only a professional fool would try to record or ever DJ with these..  ii am not bashing just stating fact .. the $400 is worth $150 at best

 
I don't even think they look cool I would be embarassed to walk around with beats on my head.

 

[SkitZ0]

Quote:

 
I don't even think they look cool I would be embarassed to walk around with beats on my head.

 
Considering that I'm also a Head-Fi member, I would be, too lol.
 
I remember when I listened to a pair of Studio Beats that a couple of friends have.  One of them listened to my headphones on his iPod Touch (which has no EQ) and told me "I don't like the bass".  Which is funny because on my iPod Classic (Acoustics EQ) my Ultrasone DJ-1 kick harder than the Studios.  When I listened to my other friend's set of cans, I noticed that they were really muddy, and also didn't kick as hard as my headphones on my laptop, to which he could only say "Noooooo!  Nooooooo!  No way".  I guess he doesn't want to believe he spent $300 on mud lol.
 
Even more ironic is the fact my laptop has "Beats Audio".  I don't mind it because EVERYTHING I hear is EQ'd, unlike Macs, but I've started to notice that the audio is also a bit muddy.

 

[nicholars]

Yes that is because people who have not heard proper good quality headphones think that bloated midbass with loads of distortion sounds great....
 
This is why pretty much all integrated consumer audio systems or headphones such as beats etc. have horrible bloated, distorted mid bass... And when you play them some headphones which have flat bass response with no distortion they think it is bad even though it is actually better.
 
Best thing to do is just pat them on the head and agree with them and keep your thoughts to yourself because they are lost causes.

 

[DxBecks]

Quote:

 

What's EMI? Sony, never heard of them. Isn't Warner just associated with movies? Universal runs a theme park, but I'm pretty sure they're not in the music biz. If they are, they definitely use Beats and not an ATH-M50 or something. In fact, I'm almost entirely sure that Sony uses Beats in their studios. Why in the world would they use a Sony headphone?

 
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