[CashNotCredit]

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yea, being honest... i am used to getting music off of 360-720p videos from Youtube via Converters.
but right now im trying to fill those awful gaps by buying my music again.
because YT convert music sounds particularily bad.
im now seeking to find my music in high bitrate, VBR or not.
because i ripped a Daft Punk- Discovery CD from Fye on iTunes burner on 320kb mp3 VBR
and it SOUNDS great on my Portapros.
 
 

 
You ripped Discovery in 320-ish VBR? I recently acquired all three of their major albums, ripped them in FLAC, and have been going to town on some of the best music of the past 15 years! Daft Punk are without a doubt some of the best producers alive, and judging by your picture, sig, and post content, I think you'd agree. 
 
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but yea, because some of the general public. With the lack of knowledge or appreciation of Audio Quality or headphones. they dont know what good a Headphone amp can be. so Monster decided "lets add a internal amp" so the public wont complain about our headphones not having enough drowning bass or volume not high enough.
indeed, the integral amp is interesting... but the misleading adverts/ marketing strategy and ignorance. including the inflated price for non-audiophile quality headphones when economy isnt so hot right now.   thats just taking the consumer's wallets out in the middle of a busy commute.

Yeah. I mean, regardless of what the advertisements say, Beats by Dre is not a line that was made for awesome sound quality. It was made for convenience, aesthetic appearance, and portability. The advertising is really misleading though. If they were marketed as what they are, bass-heavy headphones designed to work with Hip-Hop/Electronic music, things would be a lot easier. However, I find it peculiar that some companies that Head-Fi likes are just as misleading, yet this seems to get swept under the rug.

 

[goropeza]

I usually try to stay out of these "Beats" arguments for the simple fact that nobodies mind ever gets changed in my experience. When asked why I spent so much on headphones and didn't get Beats because "they are as good as you can get" I just say "They're not for me" and move on. Being in the Army has really taught me a valuable life lesson, that some things are just more trouble than they are worth. However, I will say this much about Beats....they are NOT as bad as people here make them out to be and Bose kind of falls into the same category. A feel as though there are people in this community who fall victim  to the same mindless trend following as the people who wear Beats get criticized for. Popular opinion on this site is that the Beats are not a very great value, and that's putting it very nicely. However, you have people who see nothing but negative critique for these headphones and instead of giving an honest and fair opinion, just restate the popular opinion in ever increasing exaggerations. Yeah, a lot of people fall victim to the excellent marketing of Beats and yeah, a lot of those people will think they just got the best headphone in the world. But why does that matter SO much to us? I see far too many posts of people hating on Beats of Bose because they either don't like the people who wear them, or they don't like the company that makes them. I say lets just calm down over this hating trend and give our fair and unbiased opinions so that anybody who comes across this site can see for themselves. My personal opinion is that they have some good mid bass and maybe even some treble but it's hard for me to really get much more detailed than that with the short time I had with them in the Best Buy. I certainly did not come away with the impression that they were absolute garbage like some people say. Anyhow, that's just my 2 cents...GN all!

 

[autoteleology]

Beats advertise themselves as, quite literally, THE best headphones in the world.
 

[size=small]Three years of thorough research and development resulted in the most incredible headphone speaker ever built.[/size]

 

[size=small]Combining extra-large speaker drivers and a high-power digital amplifier, Beats delivers an unprecedented combination of super deep bass, smooth undistorted highs, and crystal clear vocals never heard before from headphones. [/size]

 
They put so much time and effort into beautiful, creative product design and advertisement, and then slap the consumer in the face by putting in mediocre drivers and calling it a day at premium price. And, people will buy it, because compared to 99% of popular consumer audio, Beats appear to live up to the promise, at least to the uninformed. It sickens me, how much Monster could accomplish with just a little extra effort, but instead they are content with ripping off the uninformed. Of course, what do you expect from a company that sells hundred-dollar 2-meter HDMI cords?

It just frustrates me so much. Beats are a double edged sword to the audio biz; they introduce huge amounts of people to high-end audio, except they give them a terribly distorted picture of it that may stop them from ever fully appreciating what music has to offer, all for a higher profit margin.

 

[CashNotCredit]

Wow. I was looking at the stuff on their website, and that's bad, but I didn't know it was this bad. Hopefully, when they break free from Monster, this kind of awful marketing will end. 

 

[Oderi]

I'm actually quite proud of Finns right now; walking around in Helsinki I see at least 5-10 pairs of PortaPros daily, but in the last couple years I've only seen <10 pairs of Beats. The pros of living in a place where these kinds of fads take 30 years to reach you.

 

[streetdragon]

Quote:

Beats advertise themselves as, quite literally, THE best headphones in the world.
 
 
 
They put so much time and effort into beautiful, creative product design and advertisement, and then slap the consumer in the face by putting in mediocre drivers and calling it a day at premium price. And, people will buy it, because compared to 99% of popular consumer audio, Beats appear to live up to the promise, at least to the uninformed. It sickens me, how much Monster could accomplish with just a little extra effort, but instead they are content with ripping off the uninformed. Of course, what do you expect from a company that sells hundred-dollar 2-meter HDMI cords?

It just frustrates me so much. Beats are a double edged sword to the audio biz; they introduce huge amounts of people to high-end audio, except they give them a terribly distorted picture of it that may stop them from ever fully appreciating what music has to offer, all for a higher profit margin.

i agree, the absurd lies just sicken me to the core, but then again, they introduce more people into the industry, their marketing reminds me of how apple does their speach some how, A5 core, up to 5X faster than before! but faster than what? and when doing what? games, internet, multi tasking? also notice that the beats website has NO technical specifications. only the shiny paint with the hefty premium price tag, along with their promotional videos(their promotional videos are good i would say, they really get you excited about the beats, only if you're not an audiphile of course) Even apple doesn't actually lie about the iphone, they just cut out the parts that are not nice about it and twist words, beats however tell definite unmistakable lies that cannot be doubted (revolutionary never seen before driver technology, smashes all other headphones of similar price range <- that's what my newspaper said, natural, clear and crisp sound, super durable build, audiophile and producer's first choice, etc etc)  that's what i hate about beats the most.

 

[CashNotCredit]

Well, Beats just twists words too, let me show you how.
 
"Never before seen driver technology."- Well, no other headphone manufacturer has the lack of common decency to make these drivers, so of course it's never before seen.
 
"Smashes all headphones in their price range."- Duh! The bass on these is so loud that it damages all other headphones in a 3 mile radius.
 
"The most incredible headphone speaker ever."- Compared to everything else on Head-Fi, credibility is not their strong suit.
 
"First choice for audiophiles."- They are definitely my go-to headphone...for making me feel good about myself when I start getting can-envy. (ex. "I wish I had a pair of Sennheisser HD800s, better than these bloated ATH-M50s. Oh well, at least mine are better than Beats.")
 
In all seriousness, Beats aren't bad. Considering their feature set and target demographic, they're not even bad at their asking price. But that marketing is unethical.

 

[ktm]

Beats is like fast food. Saying you have the best fast food doesn't make it gourmet.
For the price of some fast food meals, somewhere else they serve a great lunch special.
It's just the nature of the world.

 

[musiclover666]

Who cares! 

 

[estreeter]

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Yeah. My Jaycar's are coming in the mail in 2-4 weeks; so I'm definitely biased towards them, but in reality, you still got a headphone for $140 that sounds like it's worth $300. All three (four actually, there's a fourth brand and the name's on the tip of my tongue.) are regarded to be varying degrees of a very good deal.

 

 
No argument about the 'buy OEM and markup to suit yourself' strategy, but that happens right through the audio world. What Jaycar and Digitech (same crap, different stickers) are NOT paying for is marketing and brand recognition, not to mention quality control. Spend some time on a few of the Aussie forums and you'll get a better idea of the durability of anything branded 'Digitech' - its synonymous with crap. True, that can be the case with expensive IEMs from certain manufacturers, but in general most of the name brands honour their warranties - that also feeds into the upfront cost of your product.
 
I have no axe to grind with Jaycar - worked 100m from one of their franchises for 2 years and spent a lot of time buying various bits and pieces. Their sales staff are very helpful, but would I buy audio from them (or DSE/Tandy) ? Er, no.  Whatever your new phones sound like, I would treat them with kid gloves - you can expect one of the drivers to fail in the first 6 months, problems with the jack - little things that 'name brands' get right. Having worked in a retail environment where Digitech was one of the brands on the shelves, I know exactly what the salespeople really think of their gear. You MIGHT get lucky, but that's a risk I'm personally not willing to take - ditto current Sherwood receivers and anything else that seems 'too good to be true'. 
 
Just my two cents worth. 

 

[crinacle]

Quote:

Well, Beats just twists words too, let me show you how.
 
"Never before seen driver technology."- Well, no other headphone manufacturer has the lack of common decency to make these drivers, so of course it's never before seen.
 
"Smashes all headphones in their price range."- Duh! The bass on these is so loud that it damages all other headphones in a 3 mile radius.
 
"The most incredible headphone speaker ever."- Compared to everything else on Head-Fi, credibility is not their strong suit.
 
"First choice for audiophiles."- They are definitely my go-to headphone...for making me feel good about myself when I start getting can-envy. (ex. "I wish I had a pair of Sennheisser HD800s, better than these bloated ATH-M50s. Oh well, at least mine are better than Beats.")
 
In all seriousness, Beats aren't bad. Considering their feature set and target demographic, they're not even bad at their asking price. But that marketing is unethical.

 
Still, the big picture is that the way that they market their products... are probably the most exaggerated. blown-out-of-proportions stuff I've ever heard. Granted, all companies do this, but they have the gall to call their products "the best there is", which I've hardly seen other companies do. That's wacked.

 

[Malevolent]

Quote:

 
Still, the big picture is that the way that they market their products... are probably the most exaggerated. blown-out-of-proportions stuff I've ever heard. Granted, all companies do this, but they have the gall to call their products "the best there is", which I've hardly seen other companies do. That's wacked.

 
Yeah, and living in Singapore, you see at least 1 Beats user every few minutes on the train/bus/mall.
 
I saw an Orange Beats Studio yesterday. Can't tell if they were original, but, that color..

 

[theledman]

Quote:

 
Still, the big picture is that the way that they market their products... are probably the most exaggerated. blown-out-of-proportions stuff I've ever heard. Granted, all companies do this, but they have the gall to call their products "the best there is", which I've hardly seen other companies do. That's wacked.

Working in corporate america has shown me that there are very few companies out there that won't market their products like monster does. No one is going to admit their product isn't the best..I just think there's enough flexibility in the minds of the majority of consumers in the audio industry (i.e. non-audiophiles) that most audio marketing can be stretched a little more and people can still get away with it.

 

[doublea71]

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If they are so horrible, why are people queuing up to buy them. Human beings aren't complete idiots like some imply.
 
BTW, the M50 is a different signature. Go listen to them side by side.

People are very easy to influence and very insecure, especially teenagers who are trying to slap together some sort of cohesive identity. It's always easier to go with the flock.

 

[estreeter]

Agree 100%, particularly when failure to conform can be the trigger for bullying and ostracism. That has been the case for as long as I can remember, but much worse now that it follows kids home. The corporations know it, and they are more than happy to milk it. Monster by name, monster by nature.