gongkia2000
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2010
- Posts
- 8
- Likes
- 10
Recently, I purchased a set of Monster Beats Studio HD from eBay, from a reputable seller with a good track record. It was my carelessness that led to this unfortunate purchase. Being enticed with a very much reduced price of SGD400, compared to its original retail price of SGD700, I made the purchase.
However, I found out that it was a fake after a while, and after reaching an amicable agreement with my seller, who I have given the benefit of the doubt and believe that he was not aware that his supplier had been supplying him with imitation goods. (Possibly gullible on my part, but this is besides the point since I have received my full refund and I do not wish to pursue the matter).
I then went on to purchase a set from HMV. With both the real and fake Monster Beats Studio HD, I decided to do some side by side comparisons.
The product on the left is always the ORIGINAL, while the product on the right is always the IMITATION.
Starting with the front cover, it is clear that the imitation good does not bear the "tm" (trademark) sign beneath the word "studio" on the bottom left hand corner of the box (may be a little small, but you can see that a little dot of text is missing from the picture on the right).
At the back of the box, you can see that the pictures of the headphones are slightly different. They are positioned slightly differently. Then there's also the lack of the "tm" sign beneath the "studio" word at the bottom left corner. "tm" is also missing on the vertical text on the left of the box beneath the word "dre", and is also missing from the last line of the last paragraph of text.
On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adapter are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.
Dr Dre's headshot. Very clearly different. The printing on the fake is generally much darker, and you can't see his neck area very well. His neck is clearer on the original. Also do note the use of a " | " instead of a " / " between "beatsbydre.com" and "monstercable.com" on the original and imitation respectively. Also, there's a whacked up model number on the bottom right hand corner of the fake one, and there isn't any on the real one.
Removing the jacket to reveal the red box, we can see that the black pull-out tab on the real deal is longer than that of the imitation.
Clear differences here. A blind man could tell the difference.
On the back of the quick-start guide, there are subtle differences in font size and the usage of " | " and " / " again. Once again, real deal on left, imitation on right. There is also a spelling error in "mostercable.com" (thanks to warpdriver for pointing this out)
Super big difference between the provided cleaning cloths. Original cloth is huge. Fake one is tiny.
These 2 documents are provided with the real deal and not with the imitation.
The battery cover of the real deal, of course, has the serial number and Dr Dre's signature. The fake doesn't have any (Picture of fake battery cover not included, just imagine an empty space where the signature and serial should be).
COMPARISONS OF THE HEADPHONES TO BE ADDED SOON.
To be honest, the headphones are almost identical. The differences lie in the material of the ear cup and the aforementioned battery covers. The battery indicator light on the real deal also seems to be a tad brighter. To be extremely honest, even the sound quality is quite close. No kidding. The quality of the imitation good is actually, though I hate to mention this, very good. However, the cables do tend to give way quickly and the threading around the carabina of the hard case gives way easily.
The point of this posting is to simply create awareness on how excellent fake goods have grown to become. Please be astute when making purchases. When a deal is too good to be true, it usually is.
However, I found out that it was a fake after a while, and after reaching an amicable agreement with my seller, who I have given the benefit of the doubt and believe that he was not aware that his supplier had been supplying him with imitation goods. (Possibly gullible on my part, but this is besides the point since I have received my full refund and I do not wish to pursue the matter).
I then went on to purchase a set from HMV. With both the real and fake Monster Beats Studio HD, I decided to do some side by side comparisons.
The product on the left is always the ORIGINAL, while the product on the right is always the IMITATION.
Starting with the front cover, it is clear that the imitation good does not bear the "tm" (trademark) sign beneath the word "studio" on the bottom left hand corner of the box (may be a little small, but you can see that a little dot of text is missing from the picture on the right).
At the back of the box, you can see that the pictures of the headphones are slightly different. They are positioned slightly differently. Then there's also the lack of the "tm" sign beneath the "studio" word at the bottom left corner. "tm" is also missing on the vertical text on the left of the box beneath the word "dre", and is also missing from the last line of the last paragraph of text.
On the side of the box, it is obvious that the picture on the original is smaller than that of the imitation product. The original also mentions that batteries and the airline adapter are included, while the imitation doesn't mention that at all.
Dr Dre's headshot. Very clearly different. The printing on the fake is generally much darker, and you can't see his neck area very well. His neck is clearer on the original. Also do note the use of a " | " instead of a " / " between "beatsbydre.com" and "monstercable.com" on the original and imitation respectively. Also, there's a whacked up model number on the bottom right hand corner of the fake one, and there isn't any on the real one.
Removing the jacket to reveal the red box, we can see that the black pull-out tab on the real deal is longer than that of the imitation.
Clear differences here. A blind man could tell the difference.
On the back of the quick-start guide, there are subtle differences in font size and the usage of " | " and " / " again. Once again, real deal on left, imitation on right. There is also a spelling error in "mostercable.com" (thanks to warpdriver for pointing this out)
Super big difference between the provided cleaning cloths. Original cloth is huge. Fake one is tiny.
These 2 documents are provided with the real deal and not with the imitation.
The battery cover of the real deal, of course, has the serial number and Dr Dre's signature. The fake doesn't have any (Picture of fake battery cover not included, just imagine an empty space where the signature and serial should be).
COMPARISONS OF THE HEADPHONES TO BE ADDED SOON.
To be honest, the headphones are almost identical. The differences lie in the material of the ear cup and the aforementioned battery covers. The battery indicator light on the real deal also seems to be a tad brighter. To be extremely honest, even the sound quality is quite close. No kidding. The quality of the imitation good is actually, though I hate to mention this, very good. However, the cables do tend to give way quickly and the threading around the carabina of the hard case gives way easily.
The point of this posting is to simply create awareness on how excellent fake goods have grown to become. Please be astute when making purchases. When a deal is too good to be true, it usually is.
