+1
It is members like those that make this place so difficult for newer members. The blind Bose and Beats bashing has been taken way too far and seems to whip those with small minds into a frenzy of ignorance.
In reality all of us should be thanking bose, beats, skullcandy, and apple for raising the profile of headphones in general which in turn proves there is a market for cans which are better than the freebies that come with whatever player they just bought. If even 10% of people who start with any of these so-called evil headphone companies move on to other headphones with better sound/build/price to performance ratio then the overall raise in customers will push manufacturers to improve products or allow smaller companies (hifiman, audeze) to even exist.
Instead what we get is anytime beats etc. are mentioned in a thread is a parade of members jumping on the chance to show how 'audiophile' they are by bashing the user for even daring utter the blacklisted brands. It makes no sense. These are often the same members who take a look at the flavour of the month (I'm looking at you M50) and recommend that headphone for everything.
I am not ashamed to admit I got hooked into head-fi after starting with skullcandy and beats and wanting to see just how much better I could get music to sound. I'm in a position (having finally paid off my student loans etc.) where I was able to save and buy some decent equipment and head-fi was a hugely valuable resource to help me research what I was going to get. While doing this research however I have had to wade through so much negativity and blind ignorance that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.
So while many (myself included now) find the sound quality of Bose, Beats, and Skullcandy, to be subpar to many similarly priced products from smaller, more specialized manufacturers, I honestly believe that without them we would likely not have the smaller new companies (HiFiMan, Audeze) that are pushing headphones to the next level.
If someone likes Beats for using at work then that is fine, they work well for sound isolation, the noise cancellation on some models would be ok in a noisy office environment, and don't require an amp to do the job. If they are requesting recommendations for alternatives those can be provided without being insulting or condescending.