Those who put them on and prefer them to similarly priced Sennheiser for example, don't know what to listen for and are only impressed by colorations of the sound. Take for example TV's. Put a two identical TV's one next to another. One calibrated so that its picture would be as close to reality as possible, and on the other one you boost up the colors, contrast, sharpness, etc. to make it look flashy. Most people will prefer the second one because it looks more impressive.
Also, I bet that probably about 95% and more of the people who buy beats never heard any instrument live, probably never heard a person singling properly in person. Walk up to an average teenager walking around with Studios around his neck, and ask him if he's ever been to a live concert where real music was played. I'm positive most will say no. So how do you expect a person who never heard a live acoustic guitar for example, to appreciate LCD2's more than Beats? Especially in the case of people who never heard any decent audio, EVER, before trying Beats. Lets face it, most people NEVER get to hear good sounding audio. I know its a hard thing for us audiophiles to grasp, but majority of people are born, and die, without ever heard a quality piece of audio equipment. Some people never went to a concert even. The best they get is their ear buds that came with their smartphones, crappy TV speakers, crappy car speakers or cheap radios or "hi-fi" systems they get at best buy or similar stores for 50 dollars. So, for such people, putting on a pair of Beats Studios must be a revelation. Because they've never heard such great (boomy and overpowering) bass and such sound clarity (sharp and spiky highs).
Anyone here remember their trip trough the audio world? I remember specifically about 12-13 years ago when I was in my early teens and I first got into music seriously enough to want some better audio gear, I was totally clueless, I was one of those who never heard a good audio setup. The best I had was an old Sony Walkman casette player and those headphones that came with it...you know those with thin metal headbands that would grab your hair all the time.
It makes me feel embarrassed now, but back then I ONLY cared about bass. The first audio setup I bought was some kind of ****ty Sony mini-hifi system that had huge bass. Sounded absolutely AWFUL, but it had a lot of bass, and I liked it. I mean I only listened to bass heavy music...and that was all I cared about. Then as I started discovering music other than Eminem, I got bored by the bass and started judging systems by their higher frequencies. I started digging clarity. Then I got a JVC mini-hifi system, and that sounded decent, I still have it today boxed up somewhere in the basement, but it was all highs, it was very bright, but it sounded good with rock to me.
After some time again, I realized that vocals sucked, they were very harsh, and that was the first time I got a decent audio setup. It was a used Technics amplifier and a pair of Celestion bookshelfs. And that's the point where you could have walked up to me and said: "sorry for you wallet". And you would be correct. This was the best setup I've ever heard, but I kept literally for like a month, because I wanted better. I started changing speakers like socks, there was a pretty strong audiophile community in my city, having meetings ever saturday night in a local jazz club, so it was easy to buy or replace my gear with someone else, or simply exchange speakers with someone for a while. And thats my audiophile trip began. 10 years ago I was totally different, my opinions on music and audio gear was totally different. Today I would probably get in a very strong argument with a 10 years younger version of myself.
So the point is, in order to appreciate good sound, a person has to go trough a sort of adaptation or learning process. Its not as simple as putting on a pair of high end headphones on and being done. First and most important is the music. Someone who listens to...you know...top 40 pop songs that are played on the radio, doesn't really need audiophile headphones. Lets face it, with such music, especially in a compressed format played trough mp3 players or phones, audiophile headphones will sound worse. I'd probably take the Beats over some audiophile headphones if my only source was a phone and I only listened to mp3's, because it would most probably be a better sounding setup.
