[Ivabign]

When I was a teenager, I worked in a car stereo shop. Worked my way up to manufacturer's representative for a major Audio manufacturer. I never thought of getting high quality sound from anything other than my home system or my car. My car used to sing - all high quality amplification and component speakers. I don't mean sloppy 15" woofers, trying to make the guy in the other car envious. Loud - but clear and crystal clean. As for the home, again high quality components. It never occurred to me that headphones could be high fidelity. But as the years passed, and children were added to the mix, the money for six 10" woofers and 2,000 watts could be used elsewhere. Plus, higher end autos had better integrated electronics and were not as easy to tweak - and why tweak? When it sounded okay, and the lease was up in a couple of years. But the truth is, I found myself spending less and less time listening to music. Then I bought an iPod touch for my son for Christmas.... and the idea of taking my music with me became attractive. I started with a couple of mid-fi offerings, but then saw this thing called a TF10 - it was a year before I pulled the trigger. WOW.... I have added a pair of Sennheiser IEM's to the mix. Then I found this place and have done some homework. Suffice to say, I am reconnecting with my music collection. And I am not bothering anyone else in the house.   Now as I write (for a living) I have lossless files blasting in my head, elevating my mood and helping me tap into a place inside I fear I let go dormant. I just wish that they had used better equipment when they recorded some of my Punk favorites from the 70's and 80's..... Oh well - There's always Green day....

 

[Soul363]

Used to think that Beats were good from their site and description and whatnot but eventually i got here and learnt many many other brands and information. I used to think Bose was just soso as well and knew there had to be better brands compared to that. 17 this year!

 

[Audiofeel]

Once upon a time but not too long ago, I myself though Beats and Bose were pretty good just purely due to the hype from unknowing individuals e.g. friends and retail staff however as I've come to try various 'better' earphones and headphones and also from just being on Head-Fi, they've now depreciated in my list of worthy earphones and headphones for me to buy i.e. I've become wiser.

 

[randomosity]

I used to think that way too >< Blame their marketing, screw!
I lost my wallet the day i heard the se535s, probably not gonna get it back again >< Im 15 btw...

 

[Overkill Red]

A year ago I was a happy kid with money, dreaming about the day when I'd save enough to upgrade from my horrible stock earbuds to some "real" Bose / Beats. I still think that they're real "real", just really overpriced. Then my good audiophile friend sent me to some headphone forums, and now I'm here, poor but even happier

 

[Tefloon]

Head-fi actually got to me before the other hype machine.
 
Not that that was too much better, 2 pairs of broken RE0s later. I am gradually becoming an informed consumer, though.

 

[Kunlun]

Quote:

Are you implying that your body never went through puberty? Wouldnt that mean you have some defect or something or anything or something. And i once thought bose were the best NEVER BEATS.

I went from kitten directly to cat with no awkward mid-step.
 

 

[mbamg]

For me Bose was probably the gold standard in sound (I didn't really know much about headphones apart from my dollar store earbuds) up until I stumbled upon the abi forums one day. From there I've never looked back. Funny thing was before I got into this headphone thing I didn't even pay attention to what people were wearing. Thus it was only after I read about the Beats that I began seeing them everywhere. I got the chance to try on someone's Beats Solos and Studios and at first I found them to be decent, but then realized a lot of qualities were missing from the music.

 

[UCLA 15]

I thought Bose were good up until I was about 15. Never thought Beats were good, mainly because they started to become big like 1-2 years ago, at which point I had learned enough about products in general to know when to be skeptical (even though I wasn't yet into headphones at all; my interest only started this last Christmas season). So Head Fi only confirmed my bet that Beats actually are crap. General rule of thumb is that nerdy online communities that are addicted to a type of product (for example, I'm also on car forums) know way more than the average consumer. 
 
Being in college, I see probably 50% Beats at school and 50% various other headphones. I've seen some P5s, a couple of XB 500s, AKG 518LEs, some of the cheaper Senns, and even saw Grados once. I felt bad for the guy. One person walking buy commented to her friend that that guys Grados looked like "ugly old person" headphones and I was just like What Grados look sick. 

 

[ArTIkBaNAnA]

Couple of months ago I wanted to buy a pair of Beats headphones since I've heard they are awesome and they looked so sleek.....I didn't understand a thing about headphones, but I always research stuff before I buy them. So, after a couple of minutes searching the web, I found out that Beats are over-priced and figured I should get the Denon AH-D2000's instead =P
 
Now I'm thinking about getting "end-game" headphones + Amplifier + DAC.....We'll see. (Now I get why people always say "Welcome to Head-Fi! Sorry for your wallet." >.< )

 

[pcf]

It seems that people here don't like Beats and Bose but like to talk about them a lot.

 

[Staal]

Need we debate this so often?

 

[firev1]

Quote:

It seems that people here don't like Beats and Bose but like to talk about them a lot.

We love to Beats dead horses around very often. Btw I am 19 and before head-fi I though Audio Technica and Sennheisers were the best ever in whatever they did.

 

[mbamg]

Quote:

We love to Beats dead horses around very often. Btw I am 19 and before head-fi I though Audio Technica and Sennheisers were the best ever in whatever they did.

In Asia it's Audio-Technica (which is true to a certain point) and Denon. Over here in NA it's Beats, Beats, and Beats. Style without substance.
 
In Europe it's Sennheiser and AKG. Damn it why do the Europeans always seem to be more sensible when it comes to goods.
 
 

 

[Staal]

 
Quote:

In Europe it's Sennheiser and AKG. Damn it why do the Europeans always seem to be more sensible when it comes to goods.
 

 
Cause everything is more expensive here, thus more research is done.