Hi, my name's Brett and I'm 16. I don't consider myself an audiophile or anything, but I'm kind of interested in getting some audiophile headphones. I've had a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15 headphones for around the past year, and they sound about ten times as good as they used to now that I've taken advantage of this neat little equalizer/sound effect thingy on my Samsung Galaxy SIII. However, I've done a bit of lurking on this forum and I guess some of the big names, i.e. Bose, Beats, etc., are frowned upon by a lot of this community? I'm not finding fault with people's opinions, but can someone explain why that is? I've also wanted to get a pair of new headphones for my brother, who has a Beats Audio-enabled phone. When you're listening to music and you turn the Beats Audio on, it can even make a crappy pair of headphones sound better. I guess Beats Audio-enabled phones have this thing where it recognizes that a pair of Beats is plugged in and then it tweaks some things and some stuff to make it sound REALLY good. As such, I was considering a pair of Beats for him but then I did some lurking and, again, found out that Beats are frowned upon by the audiophile community. Also, I guess I'm confused over the discrepancy between most reviews of the big brands and then the reception they get on communities such as this. As you can probably tell by my rambling post, I'm new to this stuff and i have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. Any help I can get would be GREAT.
Re: Bose, the simple answer is that they're popular, and it's not "cool" to buy something that's popular. A bit more complex is that they've spurned the "high end" industry for decades and in turn have been dragged through the mud by the "trade press" (which goes back to the first point indirectly). Personally I'd say that Bose headphones aren't that bad - I actually like the QC15 better than a lot of other closed headphones, but they aren't for everyone (and when the unrealistic burdens placed on them by most bashers are brought into the equation, they have no chance (but nothing could live up to those burdens)). Like any other headphone - they have a particular sound signature, and it either jives with you, or it doesn't.
Beats are a bit of a different story, they are primarily marketed as a fashion toy, and having tried most of them, I'd agree with that. The sound is fairly lackluster for the price (however, the whole "no you can spend $100 and blow them away" jag is something that annoys me (and usually you can't get a solid list after such claims are made) - most people will acknowledge preference and recognize that there is no absolute "1 to 10" kind of ranking for headphones, until Bose or Beats are mentioned, and then all logic goes right out the window and people get foamy and start biting); the Beats Solo especially (they sound like you're listening through a woofer run full-range - it's not good). The Beats Pro aren't *terrible* sounding, but for $400 they have a lot of competition, and they're very uncomfortable. The ANC model is ho-hum (and the build quality is ho-hum).
I'm aware of no such "detect Beats Audio" on the device nonsense - the headphones themselves have no way to relay that information. Beats Audio is just an EQ curve that they license out to a variety of makers (HTC and HP primarily) - it's very much in the realm of "gimmick."
My advice would be that if your brother likes whatever Beats have to offer, they are probably the match for him, but don't explicitly narrow your view to only Beats - there are other options that may be a better fit for him. And that's probably the biggest axe people have to grind with more mainstream companies - that they sell a one-size-fits-all approach to audio; which usually doesn't work for "all."
There are plenty of other brands of headphones that you could consider depending on your budget and tastes - I'm assuming you need a closed headphone given what you've mentioned in the introductory post, so there's one constraint, and I'm guessing your budget is probably topping out around $400, so there's another constraint, so now all you gotta do is consider what kind of sound and features you want (basically "if you could change anything about the QC15...").
Some more unsolicited advice:
Once you get to the ~$300-$600 mark, you're really hitting the wall of diminishing returns, and spending more is not going to get you massive improvements in quality. It basically comes down to preference at that point. The $150-$300 range is where you'll see the most variation in sound, build, etc quality - some products in that area are fantastic, and others are fantastically bad. Especially now that headphones are being marketed as fashion accessories (and those products are competing right along-side products designed for high fidelity audio, with no real demarcation). So when it comes down to it, the biggest thing you'll be able to do against the QC15 is find a better match for yourself (or your brother); not find a "dramatically better headphone that kills it completely" - and remember that you will not likely find a better pair of ANC headphones (Bose is still the field-leader there).
I'd also establish your own personal line of "value" - what I mean here is, you can take a relatively inexpensive headphone (the Koss KTX-Pro is a fine example) that sounds fantastic, and hold it up against basically anything else on the market, and say "it destroys them - those [xyz cans] suck really bad!" And sure, the KTX-Pro *are* a stellar pair of cans, and they don't cost a whole lot, but I highly doubt that everyone will fall in love with them. It really becomes a personal value proposition - sure, comparatively speaking, owning the KTX-Pro (or any of a handful of inexpensive performers) should negate anything more expensive, more or less across the board, but it doesn't. Remember that you aren't a reviewer, sales buyer, etc - you're an end-user, and all that matters is if the setup pleases you. Sure, there are ways to get a specific goal for less money, and I'd advise you to seek those out, but "value" doesn't need to be the last word.
