[Chinadoll10]

Whats up guys, and gals, straight to the point here, i want to bet a friend of mine that the koss portapro ill be getting can take on his beats by dre solos, the regular ones. what do you think, a friend of ours is going to be the judge, should i go for it, or are the pros no match for the muddy solos?
thanks, im in college and trying to find anyway to make a buck haha. dont worry i have a job.

 

[MaxwellDemon]

I don't have Beats Solo, I only have the Koss Portapro. But I think people with untrained ears probably won't be able to tell the difference between the Koss Portapro and the Beats Solo.
 
The Koss Portapro is slightly overrated too.

 

[ProjectDenz]

Definitely not. Monster solos are overpriced but it's not as if they sound like $2 shop headphones or something.

And those who like moar bass over quality bass, you know, those iBud wearing types will see the Solos moar favourably. (It's funny because even though they seem to measure the quality of a headphone by the amount of bass the iBuds have very little of it).

/end generalisation.

 

[mootookang]

If your friend is an audiophile, you might have a chance. If your friend is into popular music and loose and uncontrollable bass, you're probably going to lose the bet.

 

[Icy56]

I would not go for the bet, most average consumers/people think that solos sound much better than my m50s and some even make such bold statements that skullcrushers are better than my m50. People now don't really take sound quality into account, as long as the phones have the words monster, skullcandy or bose on them, they are immediately better than anything else that is out there.

 

[MaxwellDemon]

Quote:

I would not go for the bet, most average consumers/people think that solos sound much better than my m50s and some even make such bold statements that skullcrushers are better than my m50. People now don't really take sound quality into account, as long as the phones have the words monster, skullcandy or bose on them, they are immediately better than anything else that is out there.

What you hear is very psychologically influenced anyway. With a hefty price tag, most people will probably much rather be ignorant than admit they had just spent a few hundred dollars more on a headphone they could have gotten with a much lower price tag.
 
This is exactly the case with the bet, I think. The Beats Solo might cost more, but its quality is slightly below the range of the Koss Portapro, which cost like half or 1/3 of Solo's MRP.

 

[Eric_C]

Don't do it man. A friend of mine borrowed my Senn HD 25-1 for 2 weeks for an overseas business trip; he came back after spending all that time with the HD 25-1 and still said the Dr Dre Studio were good.

 

[MaxwellDemon]

Quote:

Don't do it man. A friend of mine borrowed my Senn HD 25-1 for 2 weeks for an overseas business trip; he came back after spending all that time with the HD 25-1 and still said the Dr Dre Studio were good.

The Beats Studios is a completely different beast compared to the Senn HD 25-1?
 
You probably should have tried the HD650 instead...

 

[Eric_C]

MaxwellDemon: I said my friend thought the Studio 'phones were good--I don't. In his own words, "you pay for the sound quality" when it comes to the Studio.

 

[MaxwellDemon]

Quote:

MaxwellDemon: I said my friend thought the Studio 'phones were good--I don't. In his own words, "you pay for the sound quality" when it comes to the Studio.

The thing is that it comes to hearing preferences. In order to blow the Studio out of the competition -- out of a lover's mind -- you have to present something that is in a totally different level. Anything even close would allow them to argue that Studio is better... and Studio is better than some headphones at the lower price ranges.
 
Whether you like it or not, the Senn HD-25-1 might be the headphone that could blow Beats Solo out of the water... but when it comes to Beats Studio, you might just have to move a notch upward.
 
Again, as an above poster has noted, Monster headphones aren't $2 headphones. They do have some substantial quality to them. They are just not worth the price tag that is given. The fact that headphones from 1/3 or 1/2 of the price could compete with it spells that. But the word is "compete", I didn't say they will completely change them to high-end-tasting audiophiles.

 

[pjs42]

In my opinion the bet is pointless because sound is too subjective.

 

[Eric_C]

MaxwellDemon:
Ah, I misread OP's post--it's Porta Pro vs Monster Solo, not Studio. 
 
FWIW, this was my line of thinking when I made my first post in this thread:
1. OP proposed Porta Pro vs Monster Beats Studio (erroneous, but since I thought this was true...)
2. I have a friend who compared HD 25-1 vs Studio, seems to still think well of the Studio (for sound quality)
3. I believe that HD 25-1 > Porta Pro (for sound quality)
4. Therefore, it may be a bad idea for OP to take up the bet on Porta Pro vs Studio
 

 

[Nupie]

Portas are quite muddy themselves. Also, as several people here stated, I don't think Beats are that bad - just terribly overpriced. That being sad it's just a matter of personal opinion. Get ten unbiased people to test em out and you'll probably get the best result out of it.

 

[Chinadoll10]

thanks for the insight guys, and youre all probably right sound is too subjective. i truly believe some people need to be taught how to listen, my girlfriend says she cant tell the difference between some of my sony ex85s and hey skullcandy( the lowest end version possible). anyway today i got into a discussion with another friend and he told me he thought the beats tour sounded better than my s4 s, i scoffed at his comment, but i am an audiophile, lets say in his infancy, new to the art of listening, am i being subjective or do my ears hear things his cant. are my s4 s better than his tours in your guys opinion?

 

[Eric_C]

Actually, saying that people need to be taught to hear the differences between headphones is leaning towards a belief that sound is objective, not subjective. But anyway...
 
Beats Tour vs Image S4: haven't heard the Tour, but from what I recall the S4 didn't impress me. I don't think it was particularly bad, but I auditioned it once and thought to myself, "Why all the hype and praise for these?" It's also quite microphonic (i.e.: cable noise issues) too, right?