[MadWilly]

Sorry for double post

 

[Murre]

I wouldn't say i get called out, but alot of friends complain that i spend to much on headphones. And I try to explain to them that I like good sound when I listen to music but they don't seem to understand. I don't see how a good electronic song can still be good when there is no bass or only bass when you listen to it. About the beats most friends also ask why I don't buy them when they are so good etc.... I have one friend who bought beats and now I just post links to the justin bieber beats commercial and laugh at them!

 

[Totally Dubbed]

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I know that they are over-priced. But here, i'm not talking about their HDMI cable. 

 

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I know that they are over-priced. But here, i'm not talking about their HDMI cable.

 
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Sorry for double post

That's actually triple
hehe
 

 

[Ishcabible]

Quote:

I was only four when I started playing with Mark Levinsons (that a friend of my dad used to own, some start eh?) 

I want your childhood.
 
So people at my school found out that I review headphones, and I get asked about them somewhat frequently. This guy who I'd probably consider an acquaintance (not my typical type of friend, he's a laxbro and stuff like that, but he's nice) asked me how I got started and I said, "Uhh, Monster chose me to review their newest product out of the blue." "Did they ever send you Beats?" "Well, no. They aren't particularly respected by people that know their stuff" "Well that's cool, yeah Beats aren't really even that good, it's just the magic of marketing."
 

 

[vlenbo]

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I will now tell you my BEATS story:
 
Once upon a time, there was a boy that got infected by this very rare, and incurable disease called Audiophilia. That boy was me. I was only four when I started playing with Mark Levinsons (that a friend of my dad used to own, some start eh?) Back home I loved listening to Eros Ramazzotti and occasionally Dire Straits on the Acoustic Research 98LS speakers and do my kindergarten business.. you know.. hitting on girls.
 
Then came a very quiet period in elementary school when I was suddenly hit by the Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk euphoria which naturally lasted about 3-4 days, and I was finally back better than ever. I found out a whole new and untapped source of music which seemed too good to be true! For the first time ever, I heard the solos of Comfortably Numb and Stairway to Heaven, and I was already into Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, CCR and all that Acid Rock and Rock n' roll madness.
 
I bought a new cartridge for my Thorens turntable and got pretty serious. New JBLs came in, along with 2 McIntosh dudes, which I am still not supposed to touch, but they do sound lovely!! I was already into high school, educating my friends all along the way. It would be seriously selfish to credit this to myself, but I very seriously influenced my best friends, out of which 3 rock bands were formed and they still exist to this day.
 
It was time to go to College in Switzerland. I came here chasing a dream, and it was the best decision ever, but I had to part with my speakers, which was very harsh. From this point on, I was searching for a more portable cure for my Audiophilia, and came up with headphones.
 
The darkest hour in my life was when I made the decision to buy the Beats By Dr Dre Studio. To this day, I still don't know why I bought them. I would always diss them when i see people wearing them, especially after hearing them. I was somehow tricked by a person telling me that "with headphones, you don't get better than that Mike" What I know is that when I heard them at home, I was completely outraged. Fortunately, the right driver broke down after a week, and got my money back.
 
And then... a very unlikely person came to the rescue. A DJ!!! He was telling me that.. "there is this Austrian company called AKG, they make some AUDIOPHILE headphones" OMG!! I immediately bought the K242s after liking them a lot! Of course, I found some other amazing headphone companies, but despite AKG's recent commercialization, they will always remain special to me.
 
The feeling when I sit in the lobby or the library of my College and put my AKG K242 HDs is awesome. It certainly sticks out of the "flock" of beats headphones. But i do get in a lot of trouble in the library, since they are semi-open and leak a lot. 
 
Fortunately, people do ask a lot of questions and test them to see how much better they are. But it went over the top when I delivered a presentation in Business Communication class titled: Beats By Dr Dre: what are they good for? I thrashed them to the max. Right now, I will show them my new K701s when I go back to college after the break, im sure there will be a lot of explaining to be done. But the phones will speak for themselves i guess.
 
I like to say that my K242s introduced me to headphone audiophilia, but it was actually the beats.. with their horrible sound.
 
...and thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Nice story!!! I love it, I had a similar experience too. One of my busmates found out I had ibeats since my rezound came with it (told him) and...he saw my monoprice earphones. He asked why I didn't have the earbuds of beats, I said I don't like too much bass and want some sort of balance. He made fun of the monoprice ones (unintentionally I suppose) by saying it looked like it had a weird design, how you would actually wear it upside down. Looked like it had a seizure - busmate. Now I got the ath-ckm77s today, and DAMN! They will kick ass, and tomorrow if he sees me wearing it, I'll tell him to understand what it means to listen to music if he wears my audio technica ckm77s. This is an earphone battle!

 

[kalbee]

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I know that they are over-priced. But here, i'm not talking about their HDMI cable. 

But it's not just their HDMI cables that are overpriced :O
Maybe one with a higher mark-up but definitely not alone in the lineup.

 

[Posam]

I will say lesson learned... Sarcasm doesn't work on the internet.

 

[MiniWumbo]

To take a break from the hate, anyone know some headphones that are better quality, but have the same convenient functions as the Beats by Dre?  I'm talking about the Detachable Cable, Folding Mechanism (The beats pro are surprisingly compact.. especially when compared to the headphones Sennheiser makes), etc. 
 
Tyll seems to like the Skullcandy Mix Masters..

 

[prayer86]

Sorry if a little off topic, but...
 
I recently had the "luxury" of listening to a pair of Beats Solos at a local store. I've owned a few headphones (see current list in sig) ranging from dirt cheap earphones from the dollar store to the HD558. I have to say, barring the dollar store earphones, the Solos were easily the worst sounding headphone I have ever heard. I can't understand how they can sell something that sounds so awful for $200, yet I see them everywhere.
 
I got my girlfriend to listen to the Solos as well. She has auditioned all of the headphones I currently have through an E9. When she took the Solos off, she said, "they sound like your HD418s".
 
But here's the kicker. Out of all the headphones she's auditioned with me, she likes the HD418s the most if price comes into consideration.
 
I wanted to tear my hair out.
 
I know the HD418s aren't great cans, but I'd easily take them any day over the Solos. There's just lots and lots of bass, but it's not well-defined at all. I once said that my Sony XB-500 sounded like a walrus farting (until a certain member on this board showed me the true potential of those headphones!), but listening to the Solos was like swimming through a sea of walruses that ate beans for breakfast. Everything except the big, bloated bass was behind a curtained soundstage that was almost non-existant.
 
Sorry for the rant. I just don't understand how these headphones are so popular. I am really glad no one has interrogated me on not wearing Beats, as I'd might end up blowing a fuse. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.
 

 

[192405]

Quote:

Sorry if a little off topic, but...
 
I recently had the "luxury" of listening to a pair of Beats Solos at a local store. I've owned a few headphones (see current list in sig) ranging from dirt cheap earphones from the dollar store to the HD558. I have to say, barring the dollar store earphones, the Solos were easily the worst sounding headphone I have ever heard. I can't understand how they can sell something that sounds so awful for $200, yet I see them everywhere.
 
I got my girlfriend to listen to the Solos as well. She has auditioned all of the headphones I currently have through an E9. When she took the Solos off, she said, "they sound like your HD418s".
 
But here's the kicker. Out of all the headphones she's auditioned with me, she likes the HD418s the most if price comes into consideration.
 
I wanted to tear my hair out.
 
I know the HD418s aren't great cans, but I'd easily take them any day over the Solos. There's just lots and lots of bass, but it's not well-defined at all. I once said that my Sony XB-500 sounded like a walrus farting (until a certain member on this board showed me the true potential of those headphones!), but listening to the Solos was like swimming through a sea of walruses that ate beans for breakfast. Everything except the big, bloated bass was behind a curtained soundstage that was almost non-existant.
 
Sorry for the rant. I just don't understand how these headphones are so popular. I am really glad no one has interrogated me on not wearing Beats, as I'd might end up blowing a fuse. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.
 

The Solos have more bass quantity than the XB-500s?
 
...
 
I did'nt hear that in the slightest. XB500 smashes the Solos in the face with a baseball bat in the quantity department. And quality of bass too... That isnt saying much though.
 
For me, the Solos moreso sounded like they took a perfectly flat frequency response, threw the entire bar down to -24dB and just lifted the 50Hz-250Hz range up to about -13dB.
 
They dont seem "hard to drive" to me, but they arent the easiest. Everything sounds muffled. Nothing is interesting throught them. Nothing. At all. I love listening to Coldplay even on crappy 2$ dollar store earbuds, the songs always excite me no matter what; somehow the Solos managed to dull every high and exciting part in their songs to sound boring. The headphones overall just dont excite me in the slightest. It's embarassing really.
 
 

 

[prayer86]

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The Solos have more bass quantity than the XB-500s?
 
...
 
I did'nt hear that in the slightest. XB500 smashes the Solos in the face with a baseball bat in the quantity department. And quality of bass too... That isnt saying much though.
 
For me, the Solos moreso sounded like they took a perfectly flat frequency response, threw the entire bar down to -24dB and just lifted the 50Hz-250Hz range up to about -13dB.
 
They dont seem "hard to drive" to me, but they arent the easiest. Everything sounds muffled. Nothing is interesting throught them. Nothing. At all. I love listening to Coldplay even on crappy 2$ dollar store earbuds, the songs always excite me no matter what; somehow the Solos managed to dull every high and exciting part in their songs to sound boring. The headphones overall just dont excite me in the slightest. It's embarassing really.
 
 

Sorry, my analogy wasn't the greatest. I meant to say that the quality of the bass was better (to me) with the XB-500; more defined whereas the Solos just had bass all over (and not in a good sense).
 

 

[192405]

I personally wouldnt say the XB500 bass is great quality. But when having to compare them to Beats... It's like comparing apples to herpes.

 
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Sorry, my analogy wasn't the greatest. I meant to say that the quality of the bass was better (to me) with the XB-500; more defined whereas the Solos just had bass all over (and not in a good sense).
 

 

 

[Ishcabible]

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To take a break from the hate, anyone know some headphones that are better quality, but have the same convenient functions as the Beats by Dre?  I'm talking about the Detachable Cable, Folding Mechanism (The beats pro are surprisingly compact.. especially when compared to the headphones Sennheiser makes), etc. 
 
Tyll seems to like the Skullcandy Mix Masters..

Pioneer HDJ2000?

 

[prayer86]

 I don't believe I said that the XB500 had great bass, just better. However, you are bang on with your analogy.

 
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I personally wouldnt say the XB500 bass is great quality. But when having to compare them to Beats... It's like comparing apples to herpes.

 


 

 

 

[kmj2587]

Quote:

To take a break from the hate, anyone know some headphones that are better quality, but have the same convenient functions as the Beats by Dre?  I'm talking about the Detachable Cable, Folding Mechanism (The beats pro are surprisingly compact.. especially when compared to the headphones Sennheiser makes), etc. 
 
Tyll seems to like the Skullcandy Mix Masters..

Sennheiser makes a lot of headphones, my friend.  In terms of convenience features, Sennheiser's line of noise cancelling and/or bluetooth headsets have just about everything and come in both on ear and over ear models.  You can get just about any combination of those two ear models with bluetooth, active noise cancelling, and the ability to use them as a headset for your phone.  In addition all of them fold up and have detachable cables.  The bluetooth and noise cancelling models can still be operated by the normal headphone cable even when the battery (internal, rechargable via USB) dies, just without the active noise cancelling (and bluetooth, obviously).  I did a lot of research on these models when I was looking for a new portable set, but I did not buy any of them (Decided to forego the purchase, not because I liked something else better), so I cannot speak to their sonic qualities.  I have serious doubts that they would compare poorly to the beats though.