[rhcpepper]

Beats are plaguing my school. I have posted about this before, but its just out of control... for Christmas everyone must have asked for Beats, because there is like a bajillion of them floating around now!!!
I got in a discussion on the bus with this kid who was wearing Studios about "good quality headphones" and I told him my Ultrasones were better than his Studios, he said "Maybe, but definitely not better than my Beats Pros!" I argued that they were... but I truthfully don't know, I have never heard the Pros... so what should I do? Bring my Ultrasone DJ1s tomorrow and let him listen? Or are the $400 Pros actually better than them and I should just not bring it up again? 

 

[stainless824]

Quote:

Beats are plaguing my school. I have posted about this before, but its just out of control... for Christmas everyone must have asked for Beats, because there is like a bajillion of them floating around now!!!
I got in a discussion on the bus with this kid who was wearing Studios about "good quality headphones" and I told him my Ultrasones were better than his Studios, he said "Maybe, but definitely not better than my Beats Pros!" I argued that they were... but I truthfully don't know, I have never heard the Pros... so what should I do? Bring my Ultrasone DJ1s tomorrow and let him listen? Or are the $400 Pros actually better than them and I should just not bring it up again? 

 
What kind of bothers me is how some people on this as well as the 'non-audiophile reactions.." thread especially feel the compulsive need to forcibly change other people's views on what 's makes a good headphone. They're just headphones in any case, and although 90% of people on the beats lovers camp are also guilty of this, its not an attractive characteristic to have.
 
This thread seems to have an unnervingly large number of kids in school who post about how they see classmates using beats and how it makes it ok for them to be condescending about what appears to rather trivial to any non headphone enthusiast. If you give them the opportunity to listen to sonically superior or better valued products and they still maintain their opinion that their dr. dre headphones are better, then so be it. It may be because they enjoy fitting into the crowd or like having an expensive necklace as opposed to wearing ugly M50's around, but there is definitely no need to start heated arguments over things like this. Life is just too short.
 
Don't get me wrong, I'm no beats lover. In my opinion they are an example of how good marketing can convince others to buy things that are disturbingly overpriced for the quality that you get. It did get on my nerves during my high school years how kids could pull 400 dollars out of their parent's wallets to participate in the excess that is the 'beats headphone', while I had to save penny by penny to buy my school books , much less new toys and gizmos.
 
This reason is perhaps why I made good choices when it came to buying headphones among other of my personal belongings. I always did research even for more modest purchases, but because of that as well as some hard work, I've been able to enjoy listening to some very nice audio equipment that I've had in my posession; including the HD800, the HD 600, HD650 and the UE triple.fi 10 (not including amps and dacs).
 
Despite having owned and spending memorable evenings listening to the sweet music coming from this calibre of audio reproduction, I've not once felt the need put others down on what they think may or may not be a great headphone; and I do not understand why some people on here feel that it is OK to. Even if for no reason at, a rude beats user approaches you and tells you that your headphones are "inferior" (substitute for a stronger word), why not just smile and tell him that you spent a lot less and can't afford to buy beats? (even if untrue just to avoid confrontation). You won't feel any worse and the rude guy can continue his self validation on his purchase, nobody loses at the end of the day.
 
I now have friends who ask me for my opinion on what they should buy for xxx dollars, and even when they ask if they should buy beats (which sometimes they still do in the end), I just tell them that beats are decent headphones (which they are as opposed to what you get stock standard), but are not worth their asking price and that one can purchase something of higher quality for the same amount of money.

 

[liamstrain]

Great post. 

 

[viralcow]

Quote:

What kind of bothers me is how some people on this as well as the 'non-audiophile reactions.." thread especially feel the compulsive need to forcibly change other people's views on what 's makes a good headphone. They're just headphones in any case, and although 90% of people on the beats lovers camp are also guilty of this, its not an attractive characteristic to have.  
This thread seems to have an unnervingly large number of kids in school who post about how they see classmates using beats and how it makes it ok for them to be condescending about what appears to rather trivial to any non headphone enthusiast.

 
Most of the Beats users I know know that Beats are overpriced. The problem for me, is that the vast majority of people still treat audio no differently than before they got their Beats, i.e. "sound is sound, I'll still hear the same song from a $2 earbud as I will from more expensive headphones." Now that they've gotten Beats, however, it's turned into something like: "good sound is good sound, as long as I spend $200+ on a pair of headphones I'm guaranteed to get good sound, so why not just buy the most popular brand?"
 
So what bothers me is that they treat audio/headphones as one of the few product categories for which they don't have to do any research before buying. Which is why it's so refreshing to see someone walking down the street with a pair of HD555's on, even though they aren't meant for portable use and look pretty ugly to boot.

 

[miceblue]

They're more like daily sightings since they're in my cohort, but one person has a Bose IE2, one has a Power Beats (those things are so ugly, oh mah gawd), one has a Bose AE2, one has a Sony XB500, and one has a Grado SR60i.
 
And today on the bus I saw someone with an AKG K 518 (orange). They stick out pretty far out from the head, but the coloured plastic is a nice touch.

 

[pdiddypdler]

Spotted some DT990 Pro's on the train today.

 

[ender323]

Quote:

Beats are plaguing my school. I have posted about this before, but its just out of control... for Christmas everyone must have asked for Beats, because there is like a bajillion of them floating around now!!!
I got in a discussion on the bus with this kid who was wearing Studios about "good quality headphones" and I told him my Ultrasones were better than his Studios, he said "Maybe, but definitely not better than my Beats Pros!" I argued that they were... but I truthfully don't know, I have never heard the Pros... so what should I do? Bring my Ultrasone DJ1s tomorrow and let him listen? Or are the $400 Pros actually better than them and I should just not bring it up again?

People tend to like what they are used to. If he is used to beats, at a first listen, he will probably dislike the DJ1s. Also, beats have a lot of bass. Not necessarily good bass, but lots of bass. If you like this signature/are used to it, it will be hard to enjoy other headphones, even ones considered to be "better" by the vast majority of Head-Fi. In the end, there is no "best" or even "better" headphone-it is purely a matter of perspective, and is a case by case decision-for example, if you want to listen to low-bitrate/low recording quality pop or rap, the HD800s will just show you how bad the music quality is. I wouldn't bother bringing your DJ1s to show off-what is the best that can happen? Either he likes the Beats better, and you feel like crap all day, then come on here and rant, or he likes the DJ1s better, and feels like crap because he wasted his money on Beats.

 

[mistarobotics]

Guy wearing pink beats solos...

 

[LinkPro]

stainless824 and ender323 made some great points. I used to be like that too, I became aware of good headphones before Beats was around, which was not until I came to the US for college, and when I saw them in stores and then tried them on my BS sensor immediately went off. At the college I go to Beats are like the plague as well, and this is a school in the top 40 so you'd expect the students to be smarter than average. But now I never feel the need to make more enemies than I have to by directly going out and bashing their choices. A good friend of mine talked to me yesterday, saying that he just bought the Skullcandy Hesh, admitting that he got influenced by my headphones collection/obsession. Seeing the happy look on his face, I can't help but feel happy for him as well. At least he's enjoying what he has, so are most Beats users, in the end that's the most important thing. If anyone wants to listen to my rig I'd be glad to oblige, if they find their Beats better, that's their opinion. And that's where a bass heavy headphone in your collection comes in handy

  I feel that my D7000 setup playing Rack City by Tyga can convert any Beats user, will have to try that some time. Once in a while I do it to myself to remind me why I haven't sold the D7000 yet.
 
I do feel worried about the kids in the school of business studying marketing with Beats on their heads though...It's like taking an exam that you know you'll fail.

 

[Mheat122134]

Quote:

Beats are plaguing my school. I have posted about this before, but its just out of control... for Christmas everyone must have asked for Beats, because there is like a bajillion of them floating around now!!!
I got in a discussion on the bus with this kid who was wearing Studios about "good quality headphones" and I told him my Ultrasones were better than his Studios, he said "Maybe, but definitely not better than my Beats Pros!" I argued that they were... but I truthfully don't know, I have never heard the Pros... so what should I do? Bring my Ultrasone DJ1s tomorrow and let him listen? Or are the $400 Pros actually better than them and I should just not bring it up again? 

He'll say the Pros are better. My friend tried a pair of Beyer DT770 and still claims his Beats Solos are better.

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

stainless824 and ender323 made some great points. I used to be like that too, I became aware of good headphones before Beats was around, which was not until I came to the US for college, and when I saw them in stores and then tried them on my BS sensor immediately went off. At the college I go to Beats are like the plague as well, and this is a school in the top 40 so you'd expect the students to be smarter than average. But now I never feel the need to make more enemies than I have to by directly going out and bashing their choices. A good friend of mine talked to me yesterday, saying that he just bought the Skullcandy Hesh, admitting that he got influenced by my headphones collection/obsession. Seeing the happy look on his face, I can't help but feel happy for him as well. At least he's enjoying what he has, so are most Beats users, in the end that's the most important thing. If anyone wants to listen to my rig I'd be glad to oblige, if they find their Beats better, that's their opinion. And that's where a bass heavy headphone in your collection comes in handy

  I feel that my D7000 setup playing Rack City by Tyga can convert any Beats user, will have to try that some time. Once in a while I do it to myself to remind me why I haven't sold the D7000 yet.
 
I do feel worried about the kids in the school of business studying marketing with Beats on their heads though...It's like taking an exam that you know you'll fail.

Don't bet on it. My D5ks haven't converted a beats user yet.

 

[ColinC]

I was in my marketing lecture today and spotted a chap with a pair of HD 439 Senn's. Not any high end headphone by any sort, but my first spot! Other than mass amounts of Dre. Beats of course... 

 

[Hanseatica]

Decided to make a first post after a bunch of sightings recently. I moved from Boston, which was just full of the usual Beats and whatnot, to Montreal where I see a lot of nice stuff in public and on the metro.
 
On the McGill campus, I saw Denon D2000's, AKG K171 MKII's, AKG K44's, and one of the Grado's in just one day. Seems like people here care more about good headphones. (I was rocking the ATH-TAD500, myself...)
 
I think about every couple of days out of the week I see Grado's being worn by someone.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Quote:

And that's where a bass heavy headphone in your collection comes in handy

  I feel that my D7000 setup playing Rack City by Tyga can convert any Beats user, will have to try that some time

+1
 

 

[stainless824]

Quote:

stainless824 and ender323 made some great points. I used to be like that too, I became aware of good headphones before Beats was around, which was not until I came to the US for college, and when I saw them in stores and then tried them on my BS sensor immediately went off. At the college I go to Beats are like the plague as well, and this is a school in the top 40 so you'd expect the students to be smarter than average. But now I never feel the need to make more enemies than I have to by directly going out and bashing their choices. A good friend of mine talked to me yesterday, saying that he just bought the Skullcandy Hesh, admitting that he got influenced by my headphones collection/obsession. Seeing the happy look on his face, I can't help but feel happy for him as well. At least he's enjoying what he has, so are most Beats users, in the end that's the most important thing. If anyone wants to listen to my rig I'd be glad to oblige, if they find their Beats better, that's their opinion. And that's where a bass heavy headphone in your collection comes in handy

  I feel that my D7000 setup playing Rack City by Tyga can convert any Beats user, will have to try that some time. Once in a while I do it to myself to remind me why I haven't sold the D7000 yet.
 
I do feel worried about the kids in the school of business studying marketing with Beats on their heads though...It's like taking an exam that you know you'll fail.

hear hear.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if an adequately amped (say the ALO pan am/continental?) LCD-2 can convert any Beats user as well. The sheer density of the sound coming out of those in conjunction to the rumbling, thumping yet coherent bass... beats users would definitely claim them to be 'beats on steroids'. In addition to that, you also get the smooth treble and sweet midrange, also ingredients to creating the euphonic sound without having to roll off the top end too much.
 
Maybe its just that people are letting beats users audition headphones that have sound signatures so vastly different from beats. I know for a fact that if I were to lend out my HD800's for a 10 minute listening session, a beats user would absolutely abhor the 'lack of bass' and the 'thin-ness' of the sound while I personally would classify the hd800's "lack of bass' as 'quick, fast and transparent bass', and 'thin-ness' as 'airiness/large soundstage'. The 'consumer' sound signature greatly differs from that of the audiophile sound signature, and people who have been led to believe that the former is high quality would more likely than not label the latter as low quality due to the lack of certain qualities (i.e. the strong but not necessarily accurate low end).
 
However if I were to lend out my HD800 for 1 or 2 weeks to a beats user in addition to a decent amp and dac, I'm almost sure that their tastes would change if they listened to the HD800 setup for more than an hour a day. As they grow accustomed to the characteristics of the HD800 (given that they are also listening to high quality material), their opinion of the beats sound would gradually diminish until they can't stand it any longer. After the week, they most likely appreciate the sheer resolution and imaging offered by a quality piece such as the HD800, making the Dr Dre sound slow and sluggish in comparison.
 
This is of course just my prediction, as I have never had the bravery/stupidity to lend out 3000 dollars worth of equipment to anyone but my closest of friends, none of which are beats users. However if I were to lend out a LCD-2, the result of a 10 minute listening session would be very different I foresee.
 
Despite having the dark, hip hop friendly sound signature, I doubt anybody on head-fi would put the LCD-2 in the same category as rapper endorsed headphones, and that's coming from a pair that creates enough bass to give you the impression of air compressing against your brain.