[mdonova33]

Quote:

people hate beats cause it as a 100000:1 ratio in sales to audiophile headphones and its only natural for people to hate on things that are popular i.e apple, Obama, consoles the list goes on.

 
No, it's because Beats are extremely overpriced.
 
Sailorman said it best (see post above this).

 

[Redtoo]

So when they walk into a store with like 50 other headphones that are cheaper, they choose to walk out with them because they are over priced? Many stores have dropped audiophile headphones because it doesn't appeal to the general taste. I personal hate on apple, but i hate to say it they do many things right even though they are very over priced. Many people make many false claims on here about them, many. For example yes they are expensive, but the resale value for them is not like 50% less after the first month of purchasing them, i learnt this the hard way. I'm not saying they sound unbelievable by any means. I'm just saying people just start to hate them just because they think they are audiophiles and some people make some ridiculous claims.

 

[MorbidToaster]

Excellent post.
 
Quote:

Wrong.  This is like that silly argument that people don't like Beats because they can't afford them. That argument is usually put out by people who never imagined there were headphones that existed that cost more than Beats or Bose. These are usually the same people who never heard anything but their apple earbuds or some $20 cans hanging on the rack at WalMart.
 
If you bothered to read the innumerable threads here, you'd know better than to even make such a ridiculous statement. People hate Beats for the same reasons wine connoussiers hate MD 20/20.  Except MD 20/20 doesn't pretend to be fine wine, it doesn't engage in deceptive advertising, it doesn't take advantage of gullible people who don't know any better, it doesn't exploit teenagers' desire to be in the "in" crowd, it doesn't market an illusion of a lifestyle and it's not over-priced.  IOW, it's good, honest crap.  But it's crap nonetheless and you know it going in.  So, on second thought, wine connoussiers don't hate MD 20/20, but they would if it posed as fine wine, cost $100/bottle, appeared in wine connoussier magazines and websites and was marketed as fine wine to budding wine enthusiasts who didn't know any better.
 
It's only natural to hate on things that are deceptive rip-offs and exploit the weaknesses, gullibility, impressionability and ignorance of other people, especially kids and especially when the people doing the hating know what the people being exploited don't know.  That's why people hate on Beats.
 
Oh, and not to get political, but half the people "hating" on Obama are people who initially supported him and now feel deceived because, like Beats, he was advertised as something that he (in their opinion) most definitely is not.  It's got nothing to do with popularity.
 


 

 
 

 

[Ishcabible]

Quote:

So when they walk into a store with like 50 other headphones that are cheaper, they choose to walk out with them because they are over priced? Many stores have dropped audiophile headphones because it doesn't appeal to the general taste. I personal hate on apple, but i hate to say it they do many things right even though they are very over priced. Many people make many false claims on here about them, many. For example yes they are expensive, but the resale value for them is not like 50% less after the first month of purchasing them, i learnt this the hard way. I'm not saying they sound unbelievable by any means. I'm just saying people just start to hate them just because they think they are audiophiles and some people make some ridiculous claims.

 

 
No, it's because they're either advertised as the best, or tried them and think they're the bee's knees compared to stock buds.
 
Many stores have dropped nice headphones (if they had them in the first place) because: 1.) They don't make as much profit as the Monster product. I'm pretty sure they're marked up at least $150-200 for the Studios. 2.) Most consumers don't do research, and nobody knows what the heck a Beyerdynamic is, but Beats are apparently "cool" and 9 times out of 10, they would pick the unibody Beats over the clunky Beyers because common culture is using headphones more as apparel than an instrument due to Dre's ads or to copy DJ's. 3.) Monster pays for ad space. Other expensive manufacturers don't. Why would a store stock a pair of $200 headphones that don't make as much profit as Beats as well as refusing to pay for a demo station?
 
And I truly do not understand the Apple comparisons throughout. They're completely different matters. Apple's products are functional and sleek-looking. They do what they're advertised to do, with maybe a little bit of marketing fluff. Sure, one could get a Hackintoshed (if one so desires) Windows laptop for the a few hundred less than a MBP, but, even as somebody that's not an Apple fan, it's hard to fault the sturdiness of the MBP. Plus, they just do stuff right. Whereas the Beats hyperbolize their sound, have deplorable build quality, and just really don't do much right.
 
 

 

[ac500]

Very good explanation.
 
Quote:

Wrong.  This is like that silly argument that people don't like Beats because they can't afford them. That argument is usually put out by people who never imagined there were headphones that existed that cost more than Beats or Bose. These are usually the same people who never heard anything but their apple earbuds or some $20 cans hanging on the rack at WalMart.
 
If you bothered to read the innumerable threads here, you'd know better than to even make such a ridiculous statement. People hate Beats for the same reasons wine connoussiers hate MD 20/20.  Except MD 20/20 doesn't pretend to be fine wine, it doesn't engage in deceptive advertising, it doesn't take advantage of gullible people who don't know any better, it doesn't exploit teenagers' desire to be in the "in" crowd, it doesn't market an illusion of a lifestyle and it's not over-priced.  IOW, it's good, honest crap.  But it's crap nonetheless and you know it going in.  So, on second thought, wine connoussiers don't hate MD 20/20, but they would if it posed as fine wine, cost $100/bottle, appeared in wine connoussier magazines and websites and was marketed as fine wine to budding wine enthusiasts who didn't know any better.
 
It's only natural to hate on things that are deceptive rip-offs and exploit the weaknesses, gullibility, impressionability and ignorance of other people, especially kids and especially when the people doing the hating know what the people being exploited don't know.  That's why people hate on Beats.
 
Oh, and not to get political, but half the people "hating" on Obama are people who initially supported him and now feel deceived because, like Beats, he was advertised as something that he (in their opinion) most definitely is not.  It's got nothing to do with popularity. 

 
> And I truly do not understand the Apple comparisons throughout. They're completely different matters. Apple's products are functional and sleek-looking. They do what they're advertised to do, with maybe a little bit of marketing fluff. Sure, one could get a Hackintoshed (if one so desires) Windows laptop for the a few hundred less than a MBP, but, even as somebody that's not an Apple fan, it's hard to fault the sturdiness of the MBP.
 
I agree, we need to keep the Apple comparisons out of this thread IMO.
 
Reason: I'm a "laptop-phile" having done literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours of research. Trust me, Apple laptop hardware in many very important ways (battery life, heat, weight) is literally second to none. I can absolutely prove this beyond any shadow of doubt, but let's save that for PMs to not derail this thread. The only similarity of Apple to Monster is they both do a lot of marketing effectively, but beyond that any similarities becomes very foggy if at all.

 

[sailorman]

Quote:

So when they walk into a store with like 50 other headphones that are cheaper, they choose to walk out with them because they are over priced? Many stores have dropped audiophile headphones because it doesn't appeal to the general taste. I personal hate on apple, but i hate to say it they do many things right even though they are very over priced. Many people make many false claims on here about them, many. For example yes they are expensive, but the resale value for them is not like 50% less after the first month of purchasing them, i learnt this the hard way. I'm not saying they sound unbelievable by any means. I'm just saying people just start to hate them just because they think they are audiophiles and some people make some ridiculous claims.

No, when people walk into a store with headphones that are cheaper, they choose to walk out with them because:
 
1) Monster pays untold millions of dollars to make sure that when they walk in, they are looking for Beats.  It's called PR and marketing, and Monster is very good at it.  They aren't so good at designing headphones.  
 
2) The people that walk out with Beats aren't auditioning headphones, they're buying what's popular in their peer group.
 
3) The people who buy beats have no experience in evaluating headphones.  I haven't seen marketing studies, but I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount of dough that the vast majority of Beats buyers have never spent any time with headphone that cost more than $50.
 
4) Like their cable kiosks, Monster provides a demo booth that's designed to flatter their headphones, not to honestly evaluate the offerings of different manufacturers.  
 
Many stores have dropped audiophile headphones because the mfgrs. don't spend the millions on marketing; instead, they spend it on R&D.  Also, the markup on Beats is higher and shelf-space in a retail store is a precious commodity.
 
I recently bought a top of the line digital camera.  I HAD to buy it online simply because it wasn't a fast enough mover, backed up by enough marketing, so the local camera shops couldn't afford to stock it.  Does that mean the cameras they had on their shelves were better?  Quite the contrary. Those cameras were faster movers, with higher markups, backed up by more advertising.
 
Beats are popular for the same reason McDonalds is popular, except McDonalds is a better value for the money so this is not an airtight analogy. But essentially, it comes down to marketing, marketing and more marketing. You can increase sales by value, marketing or some combination of the two.  The combination chosen by Monster is heavy on marketing and low on value.  But popularity is no indicator of quality and if anyone tries to argue that McDonalds makes the best quality hamburger in the world, especially McDonalds, expect more than a few gourmets to disagree.  When they do, it won't be because McDonalds is more popular.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

It's human nature to think your superior to everyone by thinking your educated. Headphones on this site may be good but some people blow them out of proportion *cough M50s cough*. Is it true our headphones we choose are better then beats. Not always. Beats fit a specific demographic of mainstream badly recorded music. Any good pair of headphones playing badly recorded headphones will give you a headache or make you want to rip the headphones off your head (In my experience of course). So for people who listen to badly recorded music beats are fine since not only do they sound good with badly recorded music they still sound better then most headphones under $100. And you cannot deny they look pretty awesome.
 
I wouldn't buy them though. EXCEPT FOR THE PROS. I tried the pros and i was impressed. No matter the recording it sounded good. Gave me the sensation of eating sweet candy. Thats what good headphones should do. Take a recording and make it sound Better. Most good headphones i have tried aren't what i expected from high end audio. They take your music and play it truthfully. any headphone can play your music, but higher end headphones allow you to hear the PROBLEMS IN THE MUSIC. Ever since i started this hobby the music i listen to has shrunk from a huge amount of bands to maybe 10 decently recorded bands. Buying more expensive headphones shouldn't ruin the experience. That is my take on this matter. I will clarify right now that with good headphones a well recorded song will sound amazing but a badly recorded song will sound abysmal.

 

[Parall3l]

Quote:

 
1) Monster pays untold millions of dollars to make sure that when they walk in, they are looking for Beats.  It's called PR and marketing, and Monster is very good at it.  They aren't so good at designing headphones.  
 
 

 
Excellent post sailorman 

 but I have to respectfully disagree with the Monster being not so good at designing headphones. They are capable of designing good headphones, if the Beats Pros were $150, I'd actually go out and by them. They just spend a lot of money on marketing and expects the consumers to pay for it.

 

[ac500]

> And you cannot deny they look pretty awesome.
 
They don't look good to me. So yes, I can, and I do

 

[MorbidToaster]

I loathe gloss finishes...so I agree. I'm also not big into super flashy colors for my headphones either. 
 
Quote:

> And you cannot deny they look pretty awesome.
 
They don't look good to me. So yes, I can, and I do

 
 

 

[sailorman]

 
Quote:

It's human nature to think your superior to everyone by thinking your educated. Headphones on this site may be good but some people blow them out of proportion *cough M50s cough*. Is it true our headphones we choose are better then beats. Not always. Beats fit a specific demographic of mainstream badly recorded music. Any good pair of headphones playing badly recorded headphones will give you a headache or make you want to rip the headphones off your head (In my experience of course). So for people who listen to badly recorded music beats are fine since not only do they sound good with badly recorded music they still sound better then most headphones under $100. And you cannot deny they look pretty awesome.
 
I wouldn't buy them though. EXCEPT FOR THE PROS. I tried the pros and i was impressed. No matter the recording it sounded good. Gave me the sensation of eating sweet candy. Thats what good headphones should do. Take a recording and make it sound Better. Most good headphones i have tried aren't what i expected from high end audio. They take your music and play it truthfully. any headphone can play your music, but higher end headphones allow you to hear the PROBLEMS IN THE MUSIC. Ever since i started this hobby the music i listen to has shrunk from a huge amount of bands to maybe 10 decently recorded bands. Buying more expensive headphones shouldn't ruin the experience. That is my take on this matter. I will clarify right now that with good headphones a well recorded song will sound amazing but a badly recorded song will sound abysmal.

So, you're arguing that instead of paying $50 for bad headphones in order to make badly recorded music sound better, you should spend $200-400 for bad headphones to make badly recorded music sound better?
 
I agree that the best headphones sound bad on badly recorded music, or with a bad source.  But Beats are not the best headphones, they only cost like them.
 
I disagree that $400 beats sound better with badly recorded music.  Plenty of sub-$100 headphones sound better with badly recorded music.
 
I have some bad headphones. None of them cost more than $40. I could spend $100-150 on some better bad headphones that would make bad recordings sound even better.  As it is, every one of my $40 headphones makes badly recorded music sound better than it sounds on my better headphones.  Why would I spend $200-400 to accomplish the same thing?

 

[bcasey25raptor]

Quote:

I loathe gloss finishes...so I agree. I'm also not big into super flashy colors for my headphones either.  
 
 

 
Put yourself in the shoes of the average consumer. What do you think they will buy? Something shiny and colorful, or bland and colorless.

 

[Parall3l]

Hey, has anyone else noticed the Solo HD measurements resembles the ibuds ? 
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsSoloHD.pdf
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/AppleiPodEarBudssampleA.pdf
 

 

[sailorman]

Quote:

 
Excellent post sailorman 

 but I have to respectfully disagree with the Monster being not so good at designing headphones. They are capable of designing good headphones, if the Beats Pros were $150, I'd actually go out and by them. They just spend a lot of money on marketing and expects the consumers to pay for it.

You might be right. Judging by their earphones, they are probably capable, but they have yet to prove it to me.  Do you know of any good Monster headphones, as opposed to IEMs?  
Frankly, I don't think their particularly interested in making good headphones.  If they were, they'd have done it.  It's more profitable to make over-priced crap and spend those R&D dollars where there's less (or no) competition, namely in PR, "buzz" and celebrity endorsements.

 

[Ishcabible]

Quote:

Reason: I'm a "laptop-phile" having done literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours of research. Trust me, Apple laptop hardware in many very important ways (battery life, heat, weight) is literally second to none. I can absolutely prove this beyond any shadow of doubt, but let's save that for PMs to not derail this thread. The only similarity of Apple to Monster is they both do a lot of marketing effectively, but beyond that any similarities becomes very foggy if at all.

 
It's for this reason that I'm seriously considering buying an MBP for college--my current Toshiba laptop is on its last legs; I might be able to eek out a couple more years out of this thing though. There really aren't many alternatives to a 13 inch MBP at the moment--there's the Sony S series, which I like, and I have an affinity to them because I have a Vaio that still works after 7 years (the only issue is a bad battery, but that's no big deal) and the HP Envy, which is cloudy at the moment right? I'm totally in the dark about the HP thing--and I doubt there will be many newcomers in a year or two. Although the Samsung Series 7 looks decent. But I digress. The point is, as much as people love to hate Apple for its "overpricedness" I can't help but think that it's just that people love to hate some of the pompous owners of Apple stuff, much like with Beats.
 
To somewhat get back on topic, I've been seeing more and more people with cordless Beats around their neck, especially at college info sessions. I can kind of understand expensive jeans because they feel really nice (I have a pair of $150 MSRP jeans I got for $20 on sale and they're heavenly to wear) but $150 for a necklace that's rather uncomfortable shows that they really need to learn how to spend money wisely. It's fine and dandy if they actually use them, because I'm not really one to belittle someone's purchase, but if they bought them for the sake of fitting in (let's face it; if they can store a cable somewhere, they can store the headphones somewhere when they don't have the need to use them. I'm fine with people necking them with the cable attached. I do that too with my headphones because I don't carry a backpack with me everywhere.), it sets off my Hulk powers.
 
Oh, and I feel that Monster prices their stuff the way it is simply because they can. I previously mentioned how high the profits with the Beats are. They could easily lower the price of Beats, but with the marketing they've done, people seem to want to buy them no matter what it takes, so why would they want to make less money?
 
And I'm sure they can make headphones that don't sound so bad, but they need to make a bassy headphone (they're Dre endorsed, after all) with the ridiculously vibration-happy plastic enclosures the and for the Studios, a noise cancelling circuit. For the Pros, they need to make a bassy driver that doesn't sound piercingly bright in the aluminum enclosure and no damping (they could damp, but that's extra money down the drain). That's not the easiest thing to refine with little effort, and the people they sell the Beats to probably wouldn't give a rat's hat about it either, so Monster won't do it. They probably won't make a "good" sounding headphone in the Beats range. They could very well make a new line, akin to Skullcandy and the Aviators, with decent headphones.