Yeah I do.
Actually I think MP3 sounds pretty good at 320kbps. But that's a bit besides the point, I understand what you're saying.
I think marketing can do a lot. I also think that Beats in particular were targeted at a very specific demographic. Certainly I am often bemused by the fact that vinyl never really went away, not to mention tubes. But in a real way it's an interesting comparison there.
Would they have been as successful if they targeted an older audience with elegant design and excellent sound quality? I don't think so. The population is growing most everywhere and the youngins like their stuff and there's more of them. I have talked to a lot of people that own Beats and Skull Candy stuff and I have thought it sounded terrible. I tried to convince them to listen to my stuff, and you know what they would say? It looks stupid.
My Nephew is a good case in point here, he actually has some Beats. He loves them. He's 16 years old. He's not a dunce and I got him to listen to my gear and he admitted to me that he thought mine sounded amazing and so much better but he wouldn't be caught dead wearing my stuff, and he preferred his headphones for how they looked. I passed it off then, but really I should have thought about it more at the time.
I think they have a very specific look and feel, everything from the packaging to the materials used in construction to the cable and colours. They also have a very specific sound that to be honest I had never really thought of till now and us talking about this, and I started reading that article over at Innerfidelity and the reason for the article to begin with.
Perhaps that's what tubes and vinyl are really all about the look and feel of the gear as opposed to the sound coming out of them. It's certainly true that if someone likes the look of a piece of audio gear the chances are they will like how it sounds. Especially to newbies.
I suppose the idea in this thread is whether Audiophiles love gear more than music, and in a round about way certainly my mind is made up. We love music more than anything. If we didn't we would be satisfied with rubbish gear
Not confused any more!