I wrote this up for a thread about Bose and thought it worth saving.
I figured out how many headphone manufacturers get away with selling low-end and lower-quality headphones, especially in the case of Bose and Monster, who do so at higher prices: Most cheap or rubbish headphones are seriously rolled off in the treble and 2-10k region that, if it weren't so, would reveal the shortcomings of the design, as that's where a lot of critical vocals are, and where women especially are most sensitive to harshness. Bass and mid-bass are dialled in to make the headphones sound "fun" on first listen and more likely to score a sale. Correspondingly, most pop music is now very bright in the lower treble to compensate for this.
I imagine that a DAP/iPod or store demo player distort less in these regions than a pair of cheap headphones would, so in the store, the treble-laden pop + the bass-laden headphones sounds good at first listen with the demo music (I'm thinking Apple Store here). Play something like some jazz or classical or anything that isn't EQ'ed to sound great to young ears and the headphones sound utterly dead. This was my exact experience in an Apple store with my own iPod and the Beats after trying the demo iPod songs first.
I figured out how many headphone manufacturers get away with selling low-end and lower-quality headphones, especially in the case of Bose and Monster, who do so at higher prices: Most cheap or rubbish headphones are seriously rolled off in the treble and 2-10k region that, if it weren't so, would reveal the shortcomings of the design, as that's where a lot of critical vocals are, and where women especially are most sensitive to harshness. Bass and mid-bass are dialled in to make the headphones sound "fun" on first listen and more likely to score a sale. Correspondingly, most pop music is now very bright in the lower treble to compensate for this.
I imagine that a DAP/iPod or store demo player distort less in these regions than a pair of cheap headphones would, so in the store, the treble-laden pop + the bass-laden headphones sounds good at first listen with the demo music (I'm thinking Apple Store here). Play something like some jazz or classical or anything that isn't EQ'ed to sound great to young ears and the headphones sound utterly dead. This was my exact experience in an Apple store with my own iPod and the Beats after trying the demo iPod songs first.
