First off, I'm going to say that I didn't pay for these, they were a gift.
Second of all, I do like them, they work well for me
Ok so long before I had any audiophiliac knowledge, I wanted beats for the boomy sound, good looks, and because I was a bit insecure to be completely honest. In spite of this, I had still heard other headphones which sounded better than the muddy mess that attacked my ears upon receiving my gift and was prepared to return them, when I tried on an off chance to run them through my dad'so amplifier. The difference was the single greatest difference I had ever heard amplification make to a headphone, even to this day. These headphones work nicely, at a 200$ level when you treate them right, but are remarkably demanding. iPods and whatever they use for display in store do no justice for these. Sounds decent, but, the average consumer looking for a nice bassy but good headphone is not in possession of a decent amp, and even if they do, it takes away from the point of these which is to be portable. Big mistake, Beats. My guess, from close listens is that they took whatever driver was in the original studio and jammed it into a smaller frame, which sounds like a good thing, but there was a reason why the beats studio sounded better; the active noise cancelling coupled with the amplification effect added value for your average joe who doesn't have a clue about bitrates, frequency response, or preamplification. Either way, I'm not entirely sold on the value, but it's far from what head fi makes it out to be. In terms of comfort, I have never had a problem, but friends of mine have experience some clamping and fatigue after listening periods longer than an hour or 2. Durability... Well I have had them for 3 years now with no problems, but the cables seem to fall apart constantly, which is a big no no with a headphone of this cost IMO, but not an uncommon one. Maybe I just treat my cables like ****.
Opinion as it pertains to marketing:
You dun goofd Beats. The poor reproduction under normal portable conditions gives the impression to the listener that they are paying an enormous premium for the product. Relying on it being someone's first decent headphone works for a time, but with companies like Sennheiser waiting to snatch up disgruntled beats customers their long term market strategy is doomed unless they rework it to be more easily driven, cool the bass down a bit, and do some serious damage control in terms of overall opinion on the company. No, they will aren't and will never be open headphones with a flat response, they intentionally color the music for bass lovers, and they will never be a Superlux of value, but these headphones are actually decent, and need to be able to show that they are more effectively.
NOTE: Burn in time was about 20 hours, made a pretty big difference, toned the bass and sharpened the treble. Mids still iffy.
Bottom line:
IF you have a decent portable amp, don't mind carrying around said amp, enjoy bassy headphones, and like the looks, go for it.
EDIT: I am lowering the rating of these to 2.5 stars. I was too easy on these cans, better off getting ue 4000s.
Second of all, I do like them, they work well for me
Ok so long before I had any audiophiliac knowledge, I wanted beats for the boomy sound, good looks, and because I was a bit insecure to be completely honest. In spite of this, I had still heard other headphones which sounded better than the muddy mess that attacked my ears upon receiving my gift and was prepared to return them, when I tried on an off chance to run them through my dad'so amplifier. The difference was the single greatest difference I had ever heard amplification make to a headphone, even to this day. These headphones work nicely, at a 200$ level when you treate them right, but are remarkably demanding. iPods and whatever they use for display in store do no justice for these. Sounds decent, but, the average consumer looking for a nice bassy but good headphone is not in possession of a decent amp, and even if they do, it takes away from the point of these which is to be portable. Big mistake, Beats. My guess, from close listens is that they took whatever driver was in the original studio and jammed it into a smaller frame, which sounds like a good thing, but there was a reason why the beats studio sounded better; the active noise cancelling coupled with the amplification effect added value for your average joe who doesn't have a clue about bitrates, frequency response, or preamplification. Either way, I'm not entirely sold on the value, but it's far from what head fi makes it out to be. In terms of comfort, I have never had a problem, but friends of mine have experience some clamping and fatigue after listening periods longer than an hour or 2. Durability... Well I have had them for 3 years now with no problems, but the cables seem to fall apart constantly, which is a big no no with a headphone of this cost IMO, but not an uncommon one. Maybe I just treat my cables like ****.
Opinion as it pertains to marketing:
You dun goofd Beats. The poor reproduction under normal portable conditions gives the impression to the listener that they are paying an enormous premium for the product. Relying on it being someone's first decent headphone works for a time, but with companies like Sennheiser waiting to snatch up disgruntled beats customers their long term market strategy is doomed unless they rework it to be more easily driven, cool the bass down a bit, and do some serious damage control in terms of overall opinion on the company. No, they will aren't and will never be open headphones with a flat response, they intentionally color the music for bass lovers, and they will never be a Superlux of value, but these headphones are actually decent, and need to be able to show that they are more effectively.
NOTE: Burn in time was about 20 hours, made a pretty big difference, toned the bass and sharpened the treble. Mids still iffy.
Bottom line:
IF you have a decent portable amp, don't mind carrying around said amp, enjoy bassy headphones, and like the looks, go for it.
EDIT: I am lowering the rating of these to 2.5 stars. I was too easy on these cans, better off getting ue 4000s.
