[SET Man]

Hey!

  Came across this on Yahoo a few days back...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/beats-dr-dre-headphones-worth-150000675.html
 
   I didn't know that Monster lost the deal with Dr. Dre's Beats. Interesting read. I see Beats headphones everyday on the street here in NYC. I've heard Beats headphones at the store among others there on the listening station.
   
    Amazing that people are spending lots of money for a pair of headphones from Dr. Dre, and he is not even a real doctor!

Take care,
Buddy

[Noseyears]

That's a lie, Beats by dre have swag and they sound even better after 2000 hours of burn in   

[ltr317]

That's a lie, Beats by dre have swag and they sound even better after 2000 hours of burn in   

My beats didn't come alive until 10,000 hours, and then they took over my head and made me insane!   

[Bob in St. Louis]

Anytime the family is in a BestBuy, or anywhere these are sold, my 14 year old son can't stop talking about them and how cool they are.
Personally I've never heard them, but I've told him that if he was REALLY interested in dropping that kind of dough on some cans, for the money, he could do much better.

I've very curious to hear what you guys think of these.

Bob

[thunderbrick]

Bob, in order for you to learn what we think of Dr. Dre(ck)'s headphones, we'd have to go out and buy them.

And I don't see that happening around here anytime soon.. 

[ajzepp]

One of the guys from head-fi that I respect and stay in touch with bought some to play around with recently and he said that they do have their merits in terms of sound quality...they just are overpriced. Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed if they've been able to get 50% of the market...wow. They aren't for me, but you could probably do worse.

[ltr317]

The Beats Executive has a v-shaped signature, not ideal, hard to correct on ipods etc., but close to hi-fi. The Mixr is somewhat muffled and boomy, not nearly as good as the executive, but could be workable for hi-fi if EQ'd some. The remainder are muffled and boomy beyond fixing, so not recommended. There is also a great hidden danger to kids from those headphones, but it's not what you might think. Here's a short text I created that explains:

http://dalethorn.com/Headphone_Volume_Hearing_Damage.txt

My audition findings with these headphones mirror yours.

[bregez]

A couple comments:

It is interesting that HTC owns 51% of "beats" now, that explains why my phone has "beats" audio.  When the "beats" audio is activated it seems to boost anything under 400 Hz.  That is just my observation.

I work at a university and it seems a majority of students are on the "beats" bandwagon.  I asked one of my students if I could listen, my first observation was that these things have a built in amplifier.  I had no idea, it makes sense however since most people will be driving them with iPods and cellphones.  I hooked up a CMOY amp and disabled the onboard "beats" amp and the headphones sounded much better.  Then we did a side by side comparison with some Sony MDR-V6 headphones with the CMOY amp.  It was unanimous that the Sony headphones sounded better but the "beats" where more heavy in the bass department if that is what you like.  I do have one student that has some Grado 80i that we tried to bring into the study but he had no interest, in fact, I think the only time I see him without the cans on his head is during lecture.

[PMAT]

My son lent me his Beats for a couple of weeks. He paid $250. VERY colored sound and no sweetness. My Senns do deep bass better. Even my $30 JVC cans sound better. 2 cents

[jackman]

I forgot my headphones on a business trip and tried out a bunch of Beats phones at an airport with a large display.  They had several brands but were really pushing the Beats brand.  I tried several and wound up getting something else.  The Beats were overpriced and unnatural sounding.

I read the story and can't believe Monster was that stupid. They gave Beats access to their engineering and helped get them in distribution only to lose everything.  How could they have done this without an ironclad deal?

[mix4fix]

Seriously?

We are audiophiles and we don't even know that "Beats" are crap? I knew they were from day one.

They are the Bose of headphones.

[ajzepp]

Seriously?

We are audiophiles and we don't even know that "Beats" are crap? I knew they were from day one.

They are the Bose of headphones.

Yeah, but we're not their target market. The younger hip-hop crowd seem to love them, and since business is all about the bottom line, they sure seem to be doing a good job with marketing their product.

Now why Dan Patrick wears them, I have no idea lol

[dB Cooper]

The Bose of headphones? At least Bose headphones have quasi-decent build quality even if their sound is so-so.

They sell Beats where I work. Except for the "MIXR" model, build quality is atrocious. The display models have to be changed frequently. We had to replace the last floor demo "Executives" we put out after less than a week.

They are voiced, if you can call it that, to appeal to the boom car crowd. The article linked by the OP tippy-toes around their SQ, merely acknowledging that they are "bass-heavy".

And they have 2/3 of the over-$100 headphone market... 

[Bob in St. Louis]

And they have 2/3 of the over-$100 headphone market... 

Yea....and McDonalds advertises "xxxx billion sold".
Unfortunately, the unwashed masses only know what they're exposed to. Until Senn, or Grado advertises better, then this is the way it'll be.
Sadly.

[jqp]

Wow beats are pretty large to be convenient - I am using Audio Technica M-50s on my trip. I got them for $85 on EBay and I will bet they sound better.

[Noseyears]

I rather use the V-moda cans if i want something with a nice style, with no so-bad SQ for the price.

[SET Man]

Seriously?

We are audiophiles and we don't even know that "Beats" are crap? I knew they were from day one.

They are the Bose of headphones.

Hey!

    Of course everybody here know how overpriced those Beats headphones are. I posted  this because it is interesting to see how mainstream media like Consumer Reports and Yahoo viewed those Beats headphone.

    But one good effect out of this Beats phenomenon is that other realheadphone companies like Grado, Senn, AKG and etc are selling more too. I'm sure some were those ex Beat user who look for an upgrade to a better sound headphones. As dalethron said let's hope those real headphones companies won't lower they standard and starting to sell bling bling "me-too" headphone.

   But there are also "me too" headphones out there full of blings and nothing else in sound quality. 

Take care,
Buddy

[Noseyears]

Not bling-bling but lets hope Grado doesn't go far.

Dolce & Gabanna Grado

[FullRangeMan]

Hey!

  Came across this on Yahoo a few days back...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/beats-dr-dre-headphones-worth-150000675.html
 
   I didn't know that Monster lost the deal with Dr. Dre's Beats. Interesting read. I see Beats headphones everyday on the street here in NYC. I've heard Beats headphones at the store among others there on the listening station.
   
    Amazing that people are spending lots of money for a pair of headphones from Dr. Dre, and he is not even a real doctor!

Take care,
Buddy

Had lost this link but found again, a image worth a thousand words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipZY0qGrA9Y

[cujobob]

There's a chinese headphone with a similar look that sounds much better and is far cheaper than the Beats. What I've read is that when compared to the price category leaders, the Beats headphones sound awful. The top version is supposedly okay compared to ~$150 headphones but at it's price is still poor.

I don't think headphone manufacturers are hurting financially..their overall profits could be better, but their margins have to be good. The build quality on most headphones stinks and the drivers look very cheaply constructed most of the time. Grados sound pretty nice for their price-range, they were my introduction to 'good' headphones, but even as my first decent pair I was really unimpressed by their build quality.

Anyways, most people buy Beats for the same reason they buy flashy shoes. You don't care about their performance, you just need people to know that you have what's popular.