[daniel_hokkaido]

Hey All,

I was sitting on the bus last week beside someone piping music out of their phone to a pair of
Monster Beat Solos (I think) ..

I really was tempted to launched a calm, considerate and 'curious' conversation with the person
on how they found the cans, what was their experience in choosing them, and how they knew the
sound was good.

You know, and in a way which is not about being 'better' or 'teaching' them .. maybe not even mentioning I'm an audiophile.

I am massively curious to do something like this the next chance I get...

In the meantime, it would be interesting to see some stories where others here may have done something like this.

 

[squallkiercosa]

Don't waste your time, headphones are accessories among young people (a few years ago what matter was the white color of apple earbuds)
Most of them don't care about sound quality whatsoever, and even if they do, marketing has pushed Bose and Beats as "standards" before well established brands like shure and sennheiser. Nothing better than IEMs in terms of isolation or sound quality for public transportation, sports, workout, and almost every outdoor activity and people continue going out with over/on the ear headphones. 
 
Temporal madness, in a few years headphones won't be that popular once the market is overfloded with new brands and models. 

 

[viralcow]

^This.
 
The problem among my friends and people I know at uni is that they see buying headphones other than beats as a waste of money. It's the biggest hypocrisy... Anyone willing to spend even $200 on decent headphones is one of those "audiophiles" whereas $300 beats are socially acceptable as fashion accessories.
 
I've found having discussions about value or sound quality is pointless.

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

Yeah good points! The fashion accessory angle is pretty relevant .. Personally spending kkks of money on gear is common sense if you can afford and appreciate it. The whole social acceptance thing though is fairly standard in all groups, but in mainstream audio fashion circles it is still quite shocking how unreflexive people are on the real, 'functional' bang for their buck which they are getting. I've always liked to think when im spending kkks of cash on my hobbies function always come before aesthetics. Hell this is why I hate Ugg boots

So yeah the idea that non-beats not being worth the price does show up that the value people place on them is social first. The lastest
glittery in-favor trinket.

But I'm still glad they are popular as maybe 10% then may start enquiring in shops or on headfi. I know I made this transition...first from bose triports to akg k450s ..then a desktop sennheiser setup and now I love my ety er4s. Im totally with you also on the logic of going iems for portable audiophile sound... but i resisted getting them for ages as i had this idea that because cheap buds were bad..how good could expensive iems be..well now i know!

Still my best mate finally had a good with my mobile setup and certainly left impressed, but 300 quid for the glacier still seemed
totally extreme. But I can see his brain turning already..I may try and flog it to him As with all these balanced iem dac amps coming
out Im thinking of switching up. balanced is such a real improvement imo.

Anyway, im psyched to be heading to the London meet this Sat! Gona check out SE846, some audezes and maybe even cardas iems (for curiousity).. no idea on the final gear list for event.

 

[62ohm]

A friend of mine bought beats. I asked him, why did he chose beats? He said, 'I like the look of it'. We're not friends anymore.

 

[lin0003]

  A friend of mine bought beats. I asked him, why did he chose beats? He said, 'I like the look of it'. We're not friends anymore.

A tad bit extreme don't you think? Half my friends have Beats. 

 

[62ohm]

  A tad bit extreme don't you think? Half my friends have Beats. 

 
Nah I exaggerated the "we're not friends anymore" part lol 

 
but he did say that he bought it for the looks

 

[lin0003]

   
Nah I exaggerated the "we're not friends anymore" part lol 

 
but he did say that he bought it for the looks

Lol 

 

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

As a friend have you shown him your own setup yet? if so, how did he react? Face reddening or still happy with his purchase?

 

[62ohm]

Unfortunately at that point of time I haven't got this current setup of mine 

 

[ASillyUsername]

Don't waste your time, headphones are accessories among young people (a few years ago what matter was the white color of apple earbuds)
Most of them don't care about sound quality whatsoever, and even if they do, marketing has pushed Bose and Beats as "standards" before well established brands like shure and sennheiser. Nothing better than IEMs in terms of isolation or sound quality for public transportation, sports, workout, and almost every outdoor activity and people continue going out with over/on the ear headphones. 

Temporal madness, in a few years headphones won't be that popular once the market is overfloded with new brands and models. 

With that philosophy headphones really will die out. As a 'young person', the information is hard to come by when no one is willing to offer the knowledge (aside from the ads promising audio nirvana we have all come to love). I think anyone interested enough to buy beats is worth asking and potentially sparking an audiophile in them. I think we should be encouraging people around us for buying headphones, not shunning them for it, it sends a bad message, almost like "secret club:what's the password". If not (audiophiles in general) then the only people talking to them about their beats are people on their same bandwagon.

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

Yes I would agree. The reason I sparked this topic was that in trying to start up that relaxed and importantly 'equal' conversation (really don't want to be patronizing) ... what would be the best tactic. I'm really curious to venture over the 'lost ground' my own brain went through a few years back in making the gradual entry into head-fi. 
 
In some ways I envy the masses who ignore the distortion and only think about the music itself. I like the term 'recovering audiophile', in the sense that music shouldn't be a way to just test gear, but that the gear should directly connect you to the music (ala Mike Mercer). I am much better now but I have gone through patches of constantly questioning whether the music i'm listening to could sound better, rather than being satisfied with what I have. 
 
So it's a funny set of contradictions I feel  when I sit beside a person wearing a set of beats. I don't feel superior in a true sense. I know i am having a higher fidelity experience, and piping less (theoretically) ear damaging distortion into my ears , but in going so far down the path already of critical listening i'm intrigued to hear how a 'nascent' or potential audiophile could describe how they feel they are benefiting sonically from such a widely disliked headphone in our community. 
 
Any former beats users could chime in here , and share how they moved on from their beats to pastures new? I know myself , i started with Bose Triports which I after read on headfi to be fart cannons. My first realization that there may be something such as too much bass! 

 

[62ohm]

 
Any former beats users could chime in here , and share how they moved on from their beats to pastures new? I know myself , i started with Bose Triports which I after read on headfi to be fart cannons. My first realization that there may be something such as too much bass! 

 
I guess we're in the same boat here mate, I was once a die hard Bose fan. Now I can't even listen to any of their product without getting headaches..

 

[ASillyUsername]

Yes I would agree. The reason I sparked this topic was that in trying to start up that relaxed and importantly 'equal' conversation (really don't want to be patronizing) ... what would be the best tactic. I'm really curious to venture over the 'lost ground' my own brain went through a few years back in making the gradual entry into head-fi. 

I tell them I think their headphones look nice (pretty easy to do since beats are usually just hanging out in a weird spot on the head and not over the ears) and ask if I can try them out. If they let me I do a quick audio critical listening session, since I've heard them in the past I have a few things preplanned to say, so basically I just show them what critical listening looks like. So "Wow these sound pretty good with hip-hop, but I wish the instruments had a more detailed sound to them, I find myself wanting more from the slap of the snare drum in NY State of Mind". The last thing I'd want a stranger telling me is how rediculous I look with the standard 67" grado cable on my 325i's wrapped in my back pocket for portability, so I don't say anything insulting just things that make them think about what they're hearing. (all my friends laugh at me so I'm sure the strangers are thinking it)