[Ckaz]

Yea I went to best buy recently, and had a listen to the beats, I hated them. ANyways, I decided to go with the Shure SRH840's, and haven't looked back since!

 

[dL.]

I do find that SRH840 does bring out the details of everything, including the low encoding of mp3 files. If that's your concern, I would suggest trying out the SRH440 instead as that is definitely more lively and fun and imo a bit coloured to listen to than the SRH840. Plus, it's cheaper

I think the 440 is easier to wow casual listeners than 840 since the vocal is very prounounced even if the bass is pumping hard in hip hop genres for example.

(I've been lurking here for awhile and you've earned my first post

)

dL

 

[HD-5000]

I sense a lot of bias going on, probably because of the Monster brand and the association with a hip-hop star. It also seems like everybody formed their opinion of Dr. Dre Beats from the listening stations at Best Buy.

Has anyone actually sat down in a quiet, stress-free environment and given these cans a fair shake?

 

[Guitarplayer876]

The beats ate my beyerdynamic dt770 pro 80 in bass and overall sound quality. Properly amped like a home reciever is an experiance. I am comparing these to beyerdynamic, get the beats for portable. Sennheiser HD650 for home audio amped.

 

[dookiex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HD-5000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I sense a lot of bias going on, probably because of the Monster brand and the association with a hip-hop star. It also seems like everybody formed their opinion of Dr. Dre Beats from the listening stations at Best Buy. Has anyone actually sat down in a quiet, stress-free environment and given these cans a fair shake?

They NEVER give the Beats a fair shake. Heck, Jude gave it a positive impression when he posted about them in the original Beats thread. That of course quickly became buried under the ridiculous amount of biased and completely useless negative posts.

I would love to see how something like the uber popular HD650 tested at a Apple store, straight out of the iPod or iPhone would fair against the Beats with these people that are slamming them. I'll make life easier for you all, being a owner of the HD650, if they were running straight out of the iPod or iPhone AND in a Apple store, forget it, they are completely useless (and this is not even touching on the subject of practicality in size and form for on the go use).

People on Head-Fi are mostly almost all negative on the Beats purely due to them being from Monster, being associated with Dr. Dre, and the fact that they are pretty much in the forefront for headphones at the Apple store. Those same posters would also comment how somebody should get ATs or Beyers, or Senns because phones from those companies are the real deal (and they only really perceive that because of their association with professional gear), yet I'm pretty darn sure many of these people are the types that I see regularly now on the NYC subway train wearing a pair of Grados. Please explain to me the logic of wearing a pair of Grados on the train. Do these people have super hearing? Because I certainly tried that once back a few years ago and unless you want to turn them into mini boomboxes for all that are around you to enjoy, they are pretty much useless. Audiophiles (or more likely, self proclaimed audiophiles) make absolutely no sense most of the times. They come on and attempt to give people advice telling them what's good and what's bad yet they are the same people that will go into very noisy environments wearing open back phones. If you love audio quality so much, why the hell are you throwing out not just the quality, but the actual audio literally out the window by wearing open cans? Also, why are there comparisons made between the relatively practical mobile Beats against studio monitors that are completely impractical to wear outside of ones home and often sound like total blegh without proper amplification?

Let's take this a step further. Hypothetically, if the Beats were tested blindly by people, and then told that they were Sennheisers or ATs or Beyers or Ultrasones, do you think that it will garner such negative reaction from people? LoL. Obviously it won't, people would probably say "these are not bad." As for testing done at Best Buys (which undoubtedly most people have done), how ironic is it that these people that give the Beats a whirl at Best Buy and then come back and tell us that the Beats are horrible and one should go get this or that because they are way better even though they have fully displayed their completely flawed testing method. How can they criticize sound quality as if they knew what that was if they don't have the common sense to realize that the listening stations at Best Buy and the music loaded up on the demo iPods and iPhones are basically horrible source audio to begin with and wouldn't sound good with any headphone. It's pretty hilarious.

 

[tekdemon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dookiex /img/forum/go_quote.gif People on Head-Fi are mostly almost all negative on the Beats purely due to them being from Monster, being associated with Dr. Dre, and the fact that they are pretty much in the forefront for headphones at the Apple store. Those same posters would also comment how somebody should get ATs or Beyers, or Senns because phones from those companies are the real deal (and they only really perceive that because of their association with professional gear), yet I'm pretty darn sure many of these people are the types that I see regularly now on the NYC subway train wearing a pair of Grados. Please explain to me the logic of wearing a pair of Grados on the train. Do these people have super hearing? Because I certainly tried that once back a few years ago and unless you want to turn them into mini boomboxes for all that are around you to enjoy, they are pretty much useless. Audiophiles (or more likely, self proclaimed audiophiles) make absolutely no sense most of the times. They come on and attempt to give people advice telling them what's good and what's bad yet they are the same people that will go into very noisy environments wearing open back phones. If you love audio quality so much, why the hell are you throwing out not just the quality, but the actual audio literally out the window by wearing open cans? Also, why are there comparisons made between the relatively practical mobile Beats against studio monitors that are completely impractical to wear outside of ones home and often sound like total blegh without proper amplification?

LOL

Just too true about the hilarious claims you see people make and the hilarious snobbery with not ever wearing cheaper headphones even when it makes a LOT more sense. I have DT880's but I have no problems using a cheap IEM like the JVC marshmallows when I'm going jogging or whatever, but I've heard hilarious audiophile snobbery about that-as if I have to wear $500 IEMs to go jogging to be an audiophile. How much does audio fidelity matter when the cord is flying every which way and you're huffing and puffing? Or on an airplane where the roar of the engine dominates?

It also bugs the hell out of me when I read people trash any particular genre of music as if their own musical tastes make them the expert on what "real" music is, when people who actually know something about music (including real musicians) would never think like that. I mean these people couldn't tell you the difference between a C and a G note but somehow they're convinced that they can trash entire genres or particular artists just because it's not one of the artists they read that they should be listening to in Pitchfork.

That said, I refuse to buy the beats just because even if they're decent headphones, I simply refuse to buy a Monster product because of the nonsense they pulled with stuff like HDMI cables. Maybe if Dr. Dre had partnered with a company I loathed less I could buy them, but I just won't support a copy that used such deceptive marketing with their cables. I won't trash the headphones baselessly though, but I think I can legitimately trash Monster for their bajillion dollar HDMI cables and justify not buying from them based on principle.
I mean they continue to sell their HDMI cables with ridiculous stuff like this:
HDMI cables
Apparently you better buy their ULTRA HIGH SPEED cable so you get support for "120 Hz frame/refresh rates, x.v.Color™, and lossless compressed Dolby® TrueHD and DTS-HD™ surround" Nevermind that 120hz panels have nothing to do with the signal being carried by the HDMI cable, nor does x.v.Color.
In fact a real videophile would be sending a 24Hz signal through the HDMI cable when playing BluRay discs, but that wouldn't make for as silly marketing lol.

 

[grokit]

Monster's top-tier IEMs (Coppers, MDs) get a lot of love here at Head-fi, so the "negative bias" seems selective at the very least. I tried the Solos and wasn't impressed, but I didn't give them a chance to break in because of connection issues for my intended use. But I refuse to own any headphone that takes batteries (unless they are wireless), so I was never interested in their bigger badder model. I can see why everyone makes fun of the Lady Gagas tho...

 

[Noobiiee]

Beats are not horrible. They're just priced waaayyy over what they should be. Imagine $300, you can get a decent pair of closed headphones like K518 or a pair of IEM for portable use, then another open pair among Beyer, Senn, Grado, Roland depend on ur music taste + an ok amp. Otherwise, the value KSC75 + $280 to spend on home-use phones and amps.

I personally bought a pair of Bose On Ear (which is better than the Beats Solo and in the same price range) before I discovered head-fi. After a tour around the forum, i decided to get the MDR-V6, which made me wanna bring the Bose bk to the store and slap it in the sale guy's face

I listen to a lot of hip-hop and r&b but the over-stressed bass started to get on my nerves after a while and made me wonder if the producer (of my hip-hop and r&b tracks) really did mean to pack their music with this much bass? It must be 10 times more annoying for some1 who want to listen to rock or classical music I supposed.

Quote:

People on Head-Fi are mostly almost all negative on the Beats purely due to them being from Monster, being associated with Dr. Dre, and the fact that they are pretty much in the forefront for headphones at the Apple store.

I'm a fan of hip-hop and respect Dr Dre (not his biggest fan tho.... but it's gna be a disaster if Diddy or Flo Rida is involved lol... but let's not get into the discussion of who is the best rapper alive or best producer lol). There's nothing wrong with Apple store too, they're just one of the retailers, who try to earn some profit from selling headphones. I myself use iphone as one of my main sources and it works damn well! They might be a minority of ppl in this forum who is biased and think they are true audiophiles but I believe these are only the very minority.

 

[joelpearce]

Getting back to topic, the OP may also want to take a look at some Ultrasones or M50s, which people seem pretty happy with for those genres.

 

[Noobiiee]

Never tried Beyerdynamic but I guess hip-hop fan would love a bass heavy and cool-looking headphones so DT880 for closed and 990 for open. Otherwise K518 would do the job with the same price tag as the HD485

Oh btw, Alessandro Ms1i seems to be what you might want since it's a less aggressive pair of Grado with more bass. I just placed the ordered hoping its gna come in 2 weeks :S I hate living in UK now

 

[dookiex]

I do agree about the ridiculousness of Monster's cable business. I also do agree that the price of the Beats are overpriced at the $300 asking price BUT I would have to say that for that entire package, if it was say, $250, I think that would be a fair price. What I don't agree with are those comments that claim that the Beats are less phones than even a pair of Porta Pros because that's just simply untrue and quite ridiculous to tell you the truth

As for joelpearce and his suggestion of Ultrasones or ATH-M50s, I would have to disagree. Those are great sounding cans, don't get me wrong, but for how they will be used, unless one does not intend to use them outside of their home, they are pretty much impractical. Forget the size of the headband or the actual driver housing, the cables alone makes them pretty silly choices for day to day use with a portable audio player. Sound quality-wise, the M50s I don't feel are all that great apart from being decent for phones in their price range, and the Ultrasones, I wouldn't go with anything below the HFI-650s with the Ultrasones or the DJ Pro's (they do sound excellent) but they are not practical phones for day to day use outdoors.

 

[swbf2cheater]

I feel the 485 to be one of the 2 best headphones ever made. They are far nicer than the Beats and then some.

 

[dookiex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swbf2cheater /img/forum/go_quote.gif I feel the 485 to be one of the 2 best headphones ever made. They are far nicer than the Beats and then some.

I remember the 485s to have like a 8 foot cord (may be longer) and open back. Not very suitable for every day use outside of the home. It would be like wearing a pair of Grados around outside. Not very practical.

 

[swbf2cheater]

they have a detachable cord, so you can buy your own for like 5 bucks thats shorter and enjoy

-they are immensely comfy, top 10 in comfyness IMO
-they have good bass response, bloated a little but still powerful and nice
-sexy
-cheap, only 40 bucks now
-play every genre well, are geared for MUSIC and an experience
-very warm sounding

these are things that are incredibly rare to have together, and they get my vote for the best bang for your buck to ever exist in the headphone world along with JVCs has700

 

[m11a1]

I'm not trying to support The Beats in any way by asking this...but how many of those who bashed The Beats have actually heard it? It just seems apparent that most of the time they are done through speculation.