[ssrock64]

Wow, this marketing has to be a new low for headphones.

 

[WhiteCrow]

Quote:

Wow, this marketing has to be a new low for headphones.

Where have you been for the past few years. At least they are made by a real headphone company.

 

[talisman42]

Ah - what a thread! I'm a bit impartial when it comes to endorsements. I even have the Q701 because they sound great, had great feedback, and had a nice Q logo on the side. Quincy Jones - well, I'm sort of familiar with his work - but I'm look looking to play "we are the world' on these. Despite this, I do find this product to be good in many genres I threw at it. Good dose of EQing when watcing movie on the lap top, but with HIGH Quality enabled on the Galaxy Nexus+ Sound boost, there's some serious quality coming out of that combo without the need an external dac/amp.
 
Any way, the point i was trying to make, are options. Some models have detachable cables, replaceable ear pads, and even nice box accessories. Perhaps the time is ripe for for the optional Endorsor remover switch   This way, we can satisfy 1/2 of the likes and 1/2 of the haters - we all win (if it does indeed have good sound).

 

[DigitalFreak]

 

[WhiteCrow]

Quote:

Ah - what a thread! I'm a bit impartial when it comes to endorsements. I even have the Q701 because they sound great, had great feedback, and had a nice Q logo on the side. Quincy Jones - well, I'm sort of familiar with his work - but I'm look looking to play "we are the world' on these. Despite this, I do find this product to be good in many genres I threw at it. Good dose of EQing when watcing movie on the lap top, but with HIGH Quality enabled on the Galaxy Nexus+ Sound boost, there's some serious quality coming out of that combo without the need an external dac/amp.
 
Any way, the point i was trying to make, are options. Some models have detachable cables, replaceable ear pads, and even nice box accessories. Perhaps the time is ripe for for the optional Endorsor remover switch   This way, we can satisfy 1/2 of the likes and 1/2 of the haters - we all win (if it does indeed have good sound).

Yeah, you cant please head-fi. They seem to expect company to pander to them despite shaming them constantly. You can't pander to the 2% and expect to stay above water with out tacking on a ridiculous price tag or having very very little over head.

 

[Kent0]

why do people sounded so negative when AKG collaborated with Dj Tiesto? Honestly Tiesto is a GREAT DJ (no, im not a big fan of his. but i just like his music) not when Justin Bieber collaborated with *cough* cough* beats cough* which is Obviously just an overpriced necklace (i mean headphones.. but 12 yr old kids use them like that) i pretty sure they won't AND NEVER end up sounding like beats ( and btw AKG choose who they collaborate with.. Quincy Jones and now DJ Tiesto) i just hope they will not end up being criminally overpriced

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I think most people are just facepalming at the pictures on AKG's facebook on previous page.

 

[KimLaroux]

Indeed, it doesn't matter who they collaborate with, and what comes out of it. What is most controversial is HOW they collaborate. If they're gonna use the same marketing techniques as beats, their image will get tainted. And what they've done with the facebook pictures is what beats would do. It's astroturfing, the new way to advertise headphones to the sleeping masses.
 
But hey, if these sound any better than rapper endorsed "headphones" (read: fashion accessories), then there's at least that.

 

[shigzeo]

Thank you. This entire thread is a face-palm proving how trite HF members can be, pandering to the teeming headphone geek crowd by bashing anything that may be remotely popular. It will happen again. It's happened before. It proves only this: that we are either too young, too high on testicle juice, completely unaware that we make decisions that would be ridiculed in the vary same manner by geeks of another trade.
 
This thread has some good peeps in it, pointing out that a popular producer/DJ can bring headphones to the masses. AKG are doing what they need to in order to compete. What else is there to do when Japanese companies produce 100's of headphones with the same spec at low-ball prices flood the market from top to bottom?
 
These are headphones folks, from a celebrated company, not dirty socks shed by Dr. Evil. 
 
To Headfi: FACEPALM.
Quote:

Yeah, you cant please head-fi. They seem to expect company to pander to them despite shaming them constantly. You can't pander to the 2% and expect to stay above water with out tacking on a ridiculous price tag or having very very little over head.

 

[lubczyk]

Quote:

Thank you. This entire thread is a face-palm proving how trite HF members can be, pandering to the teeming headphone geek crowd by bashing anything that may be remotely popular. It will happen again. It's happened before. It proves only this: that we are either too young, too high on testicle juice, completely unaware that we make decisions that would be ridiculed in the vary same manner by geeks of another trade.
 
This thread has some good peeps in it, pointing out that a popular producer/DJ can bring headphones to the masses. AKG are doing what they need to in order to compete. What else is there to do when Japanese companies produce 100's of headphones with the same spec at low-ball prices flood the market from top to bottom?
 
These are headphones folks, from a celebrated company, not dirty socks shed by Dr. Evil. 
 
To Headfi: FACEPALM.

And why is that a bad thing? I love my Audio-Technica's. Why is it that i can get a stunning HDTV for less than $300 and for sound I'm expected to shell out $1200 for the Denon D7100 and over $2000 for the Fostex TH900 while my $200 Klipsch full-sized bookshelf speakers sound better than them both?
 
I remember when the Beyerdynamic DT and Sennheiser 500 series were considered high-end and now they're suddenly considered middling, because some companies have the gaul to try to charge a grand for a set of headphones?
 
I think that due to the Beats phenomena, headphone pricing has gone off the deep end with the exception of brands like Audo-Technica, Philips, AKG, Koss and Grado.
 
I welcome downward pressure on headphone prices.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Quote:

Thank you. This entire thread is a face-palm proving how trite HF members can be, pandering to the teeming headphone geek crowd by bashing anything that may be remotely popular. It will happen again. It's happened before. It proves only this: that we are either too young, too high on testicle juice, completely unaware that we make decisions that would be ridiculed in the vary same manner by geeks of another trade.
 
This thread has some good peeps in it, pointing out that a popular producer/DJ can bring headphones to the masses. AKG are doing what they need to in order to compete. What else is there to do when Japanese companies produce 100's of headphones with the same spec at low-ball prices flood the market from top to bottom?
 
These are headphones folks, from a celebrated company, not dirty socks shed by Dr. Evil. 
 
To Headfi: FACEPALM.

 
They could make some good headphones instead of focusing on all the aspects of a headphone that have nothing to do with SQ.  You don't seem to understand how marketing works.  They're not just putting more effort into a new kind of marketing.  They're putting money into marketing because it's more lucrative than engineering.  In other words, instead of making a headphone that actually sounds good, which takes an incredible amount of engineering and time and money spent on all kinds of things, they just tell people it's good with marketing.  Creating an image of quality is cheaper and more effective than actually creating quality.  Thinking of this as "a good company just investing in new marketing techniques" is really naive.  This is following the same pattern as companies have followed for decades.  Create a good image through years of actual quality products (70's-90's AKG).  Use that image to sell more products.  Slack on quality to save costs.  Invest in marketing to maintain company image.  Realize you don't really need the quality if you've got the image.  Invest more in marketing, invest less in quality.  Pretty soon it's not a purposeful item, it's a fashion piece.  This is how Abercrombie went from a quality oriented outfitter to 100% style.  It's how countless companies go. 
 
This is head-fi, where people are supposed to care about quality.  We should be mad about this kind of thing.  Not just giving them the benefit of some naive doubt and assuming they are good headphones even though AKG hasn't made a good headphone for a long time.   the K550 is complete rubbish.  And these will be too.  Not because I'm "pessimistic" but because I am aware of how these things work. 

 

[MomijiTMO]

Sadly, the marketing focused approach delivers in spades.

 

[ssrock64]

I cannot comment yet on sound (and won't), but there is nothing wrong with being disappointed in a marketing campaign that is so obviously a stereotype of the customer base they're looking for here. Yes, they're not attempting to appeal to Head-Fi members. That is obvious. But is there any reason that Head-Fi'ers cannot comment on the stupidity of a marketing campaign not targeted towards them? I have a nice laugh at ads in the DuPont registry all the time, and I don't have to be an ultra-rich hedge fund manager to criticize them.

 

[rasatouche]

Funny thread.  People facepalming over morons who buy beats, then people facepalming over marketing that is, essentially, going after that market and trying to sell them something that is better, and still facepalming.  As far as celeb endorsements go, I'd much rather tiesto get paid than Will.I.Am (I mean have you seen the best buy beats video? hilarious, Will.I.Am gesturing like a politician on cocaine, about kids 'geeking out over the connectors').  I mean at least tiesto knows how to use frequencys other than LOUD LOUD BASS BASS.  I mean he's at times integrated an electric violin into his shows and mixing to great effect, albeit that was a long time ago, before he went all house-y.
 
Seems to me the problem is, most headphone companies that make products that objectively, rape beats, by every measure, and yet they still don't move the quantity of stock like beats.  The thing is marketing is what helps move product, and makes money, and AKG have at least done a lot more than monster in terms of R & D (I mean AKG could use a 20 year old blueprint they've probably got lying around and still have it thump the beats in terms of sq, wheras monster do what, sell cables that sound the same as coathangers?).  And really, the more people who get into sound, who appreciate quality, once people make that jump out of 'consumer grade' quality, and if they notice a difference, that's it, job done.  They'll have the itch for a long time.  They might even show up here looking for advice.  Problem is all the high end headphone manufacturers are only interested in the headphone side, not the marketing side.  Monster rock at the marketing side, and suck at the engineering side.  You would think if you engineered something awesome, then marketed it well, you could do better than both, and best of luck to AKG imo.  While this is a passion industry, it's still an industry, and without balance between all the parts (Engineering, production, customer service, marketing, retail presence), you end up with less than stellar results.  I'd much prefer AKG take some of beats market away, and then have some of the other heavyweights follow with products they can actually sell to consumers, which would of course, make downward pressure on pricing for all, economies of scale, etc, etc.  
 
You can maintain quality and scale up your production if you do it properly, in fact companies that maintain a high end presence whilst selling at the low end are usually dominant in their areas because they benefit from the 'halo' effect, while being able to trickle down technology as the economics dictate.  Samsung & Sony make some of the best lcd panels for televisions to phones, most coming from one or two plants, and lots of them go into other companies tv's, but because they can do it on a huge scale, they can sell an awesome, better color, high end panel, that they shoved all their R&D $$$ while at the same time selling panels to get shoved into $300 pieces of crap.  Apple sell millions of phones which are of high quality, made in asia for cheap, IPS screen, decent-ish dac (for a consumer product they could have cheaped way out), they keep putting in more tech every time while keeping the price the same or lower while making their margins the same or higher.  These companies spend more on R & D now than in the past, and I can't see why AKG couldn't potentially follow this route.  It comes down to the company in question really.
 
Then you have intel, nvidia, ati, all the tech companies, who are always pushing innovation, making better products, short cycles, vastly more complicated than headphones (Compare 2 speakers and a headband (basically), to a GPU with 3.5 Billion Transistors packed into the space of a coin, which puts out heat, which also needs to interact with software, which also has to compete with a competitor who is trying to constantly 1 up you all the time, and then in 12 months you release a new one that has to be an order of magnitute better than the last one), and you know how they do this?  Trickle down.  The high end is meant to be where you blow R & D, spend tonnes, then over time you trickle down your tech, and eventually the 'consumer grade' catches up to two years ago 'leading edge'.  The GPU in your average phone now is essentially high end desktop tech from 3 or 4 years ago.  Beats shouldn't be popular, but they are because the headphone companies suck at marketing to the consumer end of the spectrum, and maybe if they did some more like AKG are trying to, there wouldn't be kids growing up thinking Beats by Dre sound 'good', which is a tragedy unto itself.   

 

[Parall3l]

Quote:

 
Then you have intel, nvidia, ati, all the tech companies, who are always pushing innovation, making better products, short cycles, vastly more complicated than headphones (Compare 2 speakers and a headband (basically), to a GPU with 3.5 Billion Transistors packed into the space of a coin, which puts out heat, which also needs to interact with software, which also has to compete with a competitor who is trying to constantly 1 up you all the time, and then in 12 months you release a new one that has to be an order of magnitute better than the last one), and you know how they do this?  Trickle down.  The high end is meant to be where you blow R & D, spend tonnes, then over time you trickle down your tech, and eventually the 'consumer grade' catches up to two years ago 'leading edge'.  The GPU in your average phone now is essentially high end desktop tech from 3 or 4 years ago.  Beats shouldn't be popular, but they are because the headphone companies suck at marketing to the consumer end of the spectrum, and maybe if they did some more like AKG are trying to, there wouldn't be kids growing up thinking Beats by Dre sound 'good', which is a tragedy unto itself.   

No AMD? I see what you did there