iPod Beats

[njgeek]

Beats are crap, and most people that love them do because they have never experienced real headphones. Same with Bose. Are they good? Sure, a bit. But only good because you don't know better.

Klipsch, Sennheiser, Shure, Grado, all great companies with good over ear and in ear cans. Etymotic makes great IEMs too but not bassy. Westone has amazing IEMs but they're pricey.

But at the cost of Beats, the crown jewel in my opinion is the Bowers and Wilkins P5 for over ear. Amazing sound, quality, comfort, style, and iPod compatibility from the controls to the impedance.

For in ear at that price, look at the Bowers and Wilkins C5, Triple Fi 10, Shure SEs, Sennheiser IE8 (reduced recently), or at the least the Bang and Olufsen A8 or Earset 3i. Klipsch S4i is good but a bit cheap and less punchy.

 

[njgeek]

Also forgot, Monster Turbine Pro coppers are also awesome, if a little ostentatious.

 

[Epic Xbox Revie]

Thoughts on getting them for $200?? Real- from Amazon (250 with 50 credit to Amazon)

 

[SDAVE]

Are studio beats worth it ? Everyone at my school has them and they are quite stylish

McDonalds is popular as well. Is it the best choice?

Also no one at your school knows what a good set of headphones are.

Head on to headfi.org if you want to talk to people who understand what a good sound system could do.

 

[boss.king]

McDonalds is popular as well. Is it the best choice?

Also no one at your school knows what a good set of headphones are.

Head on to headfi.org if you want to talk to people who understand what a good sound system could do.

I've tried my friend audiophile, head-fi approved setup and couldn't tell that much of a difference. I'm sure half the stuff audiophiles say is made up

Honestly, for 90 percent of the population, Beats Studio performance is just fine and anything extra is a waste of money as they are probably listening to crappy quality mp3s in the first place. Also, please note that I said Beats performance, not Beats themselves, as they are a ripoff.

 

[SDAVE]

I've tried my friend audiophile, head-fi approved setup and couldn't tell that much of a difference. I'm sure half the stuff audiophiles say is made up

Honestly, for 90 percent of the population, Beats Studio performance is just fine and anything extra is a waste of money as they are probably listening to crappy quality mp3s in the first place. Also, please note that I said Beats performance, not Beats themselves, as they are a ripoff.

This is complete bollocks, mate.

Imagine if musicians and sound engineers did not use reference audio monitors during the creation of their albums. Do you want to hear your music the way it was intended or the way 90 percent of the population listens to it?

Why waste money on Beats when for the SAME amount of money you can get Grado, Ultrasone, Sennheiser, etc.?

Also your statistics are ridiculous. Where do you get the 90 percent from? I think you meant the general public who cannot distinguish between a 128kbps MP3 and an uncompressed wav file? It is because they do not have trained ears.

If you cannot tell the difference between audio gear then that means you do not care about it that much in the first place.

My point is that you should not support inferior corporations such as Monster who feed on people like you. You make them rich. They do not care about audio performance. Support other companies who actually care about sound and have a long history (ie. Sennheiser) of being in the industry and innovation.

Same goes to supporting rubbish films such as Transformers. The more you pay these studios that create these films, the more they will treat you like an idiot consumer.

 

[jaw04005]

I debated the Beats too, but ended up with Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 earbuds. They're amazing and look good too.

I got them for $99 at Amazon.com on Black Friday.

 

[Policar]

This is complete bollocks, mate.

Imagine if musicians and sound engineers did not use reference audio monitors during the creation of their albums. Do you want to hear your music the way it was intended or the way 90 percent of the population listens to it?

Why waste money on Beats when for the SAME amount of money you can get Grado, Ultrasone, Sennheiser, etc.?

Also your statistics are ridiculous. Where do you get the 90 percent from? I think you meant the general public who cannot distinguish between a 128kbps MP3 and an uncompressed wav file? It is because they do not have trained ears.

If you cannot tell the difference between audio gear then that means you do not care about it that much in the first place.

My point is that you should not support inferior corporations such as Monster who feed on people like you. You make them rich. They do not care about audio performance. Support other companies who actually care about sound and have a long history (ie. Sennheiser) of being in the industry and innovation.

Same goes to supporting rubbish films such as Transformers. The more you pay these studios that create these films, the more they will treat you like an idiot consumer.

I disagree pretty strongly with this post, though I am a fan of Sennheiser; their 5XX series headphones and MKH 416 mic are excellent for the money.

Music isn't recorded to be listened to on reference quality systems. Maybe some SACDs are, but look at how most pop music is mastered--it's lowest common denominator stuff with tremendous amounts of compression applied globally (which sounds great on laptop speakers or over the radio, awful on better equipment). Beyond that it's a matter of taste; Grado headphones sound good in my opinion, but they have awfully slow drivers, no sub bass, a weird blip in the treble, and a frequency curve in general that's neither flat nor accurate to diffuse field equalization. They have a "warm" sound, but that's not an accurate sound at all. Most accurate headphones (Sennheiser HD280, etc.) sound pretty boring.

I haven't had much experience with the Beats (I tried them in an Apple store, but they seemed to be broken), but people seem really happy with them despite their apparently awful frequency response curve--and unlike Grado, their manufacturer acknowledges its inaccuracy as an intentional design choice.

They might not perform well for the money, but if you like them, you like them. Absolutely buy them if you like them, just try them out first to make sure the sound is one you want, since it is pretty far from what most other headphones produce. And to be fair, "high performance" can be bad. I recently got myself a very nice "accurate" set up, but while it makes 96khz/24bit audio sound incredible, a lot of popular music (90s alternative rock, anything mastered by Vlado Meller) sounds yucky and I prefer a less detailed model. There's no bass slam and music is presented with an analytical quality.

Then again, I liked Transformers (which was almost indisputably technically brilliant and the blu ray of which is reference quality--lending further credence to the idea that enjoyment is subjective)...

I debated the Beats too, but ended up with Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 earbuds. They're amazing and look good too.

I got them for $99 at Amazon.com on Black Friday.

Good choice. With a proper fit, these sound awesome! Really clear and detailed with a nice mid-bass boost, good for all genres, though maybe not enough bass for real "bass heads" and from what I understand a lot of people prefer the Bose IEMs at that price point (though they should offer way less sound attenuation). Price/performance-wise, they are the best I've tried, personally.

 

[SDAVE]

I disagree pretty strongly with this post, though I am a fan of Sennheiser; their 5XX series headphones and MKH 416 mic are excellent for the money.

Music isn't recorded to be listened to on reference quality systems. Maybe some SACDs are, but look at how most pop music is mastered--it's lowest common denominator stuff with tremendous amounts of compression applied globally (which sounds great on laptop speakers or over the radio, awful on better equipment). Beyond that it's a matter of taste; Grado headphones sound good in my opinion, but they have awfully slow drivers, no sub bass, a weird blip in the treble, and a frequency curve in general that's neither flat nor accurate to diffuse field equalization. They have a "warm" sound, but that's not an accurate sound at all. Most accurate headphones (Sennheiser HD280, etc.) sound pretty boring.

I haven't had much experience with the Beats (I tried them in an Apple store, but they seemed to be broken), but people seem really happy with them despite their apparently awful frequency response curve--and unlike Grado, their manufacturer acknowledges its inaccuracy as an intentional design choice.

They might not perform well for the money, but if you like them, you like them. Absolutely buy them if you like them, just try them out first to make sure the sound is one you want, since it is pretty far from what most other headphones produce. And to be fair, "high performance" can be bad. I recently got myself a very nice "accurate" set up, but while it makes 96khz/24bit audio sound incredible, a lot of popular music (90s alternative rock, anything mastered by Vlado Meller) sounds yucky and I prefer a less detailed model. There's no bass slam and music is presented with an analytical quality.

Then again, I liked Transformers (which was almost indisputably technically brilliant and the blu ray of which is reference quality--lending further credence to the idea that enjoyment is subjective)...

I will not judge you based on your taste in terrible films, but I will agree on the fact that many pop recordings, especially recently, are being mastered to cater to the lowest common denominator.

Also taste is not necessarily subjective. The higher your intelligence, the more likely you will have a trained ears/eyes/brain.

I do not listen to pop music or recordings which I think are terrible (ie. Metallica's last album) so I usually enjoy good sound through my Ultrasones.

Monster makes its money based on endorsements by pop stars. They can hike up the price and provide rubbish drivers because the product on the outside looks much more appealing. This creates an illusion in the consumer world that anything which looks good on the outside must look good on the inside as well. The interior becomes secondary.

I am casually confused by the above because you are all Apple consumers. Apple cares about the inside just as much as the outside, so it baffles me that you wouldn't spend the extra time to do some research and find a good balance between the design and it's technical abilities.

The consumer is misinformed. That is not a secret. But if you are visiting this forum, you might as well google around and read reviews by many people and form your own opinion before plopping down hundreds of dollars on an audio device.

It's time for the collective consumer to stop being impulsive buyers and use their thinking skills more often. Stop being fed as to what's good by advertisements or what "everyone" in your school is using.

 

[Policar]

I will not judge you based on your taste in terrible films...

Also taste is not necessarily subjective.The higher your intelligence, the more likely you will have a trained ears/eyes/brain.

I'll try my best not to read that as an ill subliminal.

I'm not defending the Beats; I haven't tried them (unless the model I tried wasn't actually broken in which case, yes, they are quite bad). I'm just saying that everyone's looking for something different in a pair of headphones. And contrary to your claims, some very smart people like very bad music; see Robert Christgau's near-infatuation with The Black Eyed Peas (and, more defensibly, Shakira, who also apparently has a genius IQ). And let's be real: some audiophiles think USB cables have distinct sound signatures, so people can go nuts and follow the ill-informed pack irrespective of how they approach their purchases.

To a really significant extent Bose and Monster market more Apple-like products than the rest of the headphone industry (and just look what brands dominate the interiors of Apple stores); they don't focus on specs, but rather on aesthetics and the user experience. It is kind of backward that a premium product would be designed to sound good with music mastered to play well on the worst speakers, though.

I'm frustrated by the state of music, too. The internet did a lot as a platform for esoteric bands, helping them to gain notice; digital production and distribution techniques certainlly democratized the medium substantially. And the growing popularity of sample-based music has been spurred by an increase in music criticism readership and by iTunes playlists positing the listener as his or her own DJ: when the musician is also an avid listener we get cool albums about music. I'd say Daft Punk, Kanye West, and Girl Talk are all pretty awesome artists who've helped usher us into a potentially fruitful era of post-modern pop.

And yet attention spans have significantly decreased and so has sound quality. I spent way too much money on a high end pair of headphones, and I can't fully enjoy two of my favorite albums from last year (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and King Night), because they're poorly mastered. Never mind that Kanye's opus undersold since its tracks are too long (and too interesting) to make effective singles, it sounds so bad technically that it's grating to listen to any of it. It's a great and wonderful mess of highbrow and lowbrow concepts, but it's also a not-so-great mess of highbrow masturbatory prog rock arrangements and low brow ****** sound quality...

The contemporary audience lacks an attention span. Bad earbuds necessitate poorly mastered music. The few interesting genres that have recently emerged are growing cliquey, insular, and sonically monotonous. There's a lot to be frustrated by in the state of popular music.

Still, great music persists even as new preferences in sound signature have developed. Go listen to Kanye West on your Beats by Dre. I'll listen to Joanna Newsom on my electrostats.

Maybe we can trade afterward?

 

[SDAVE]

Was not trying to insult your intelligence, but if you are using BD discs such as Transformers (whatever version) as reference for your sound/visual system, I am ok with that. Such movies have some of the worlds best people working on them in the industry.

To reiterate my point: if consumers were more educated (this is not an insult), they would make wiser purchases. This would eventually push back the engineers and force them to step back from serving the lowest of the lows.

However, in my opinion, it is far too late. People enjoy their music on laptop speakers, so engineers have to use dynamic compression to completely destroy music, that otherwise would have sounded great.

Don't get me started on West and the other people you were talking about. They are terrible examples of "music." Pop musicians have nothing to lose by not focusing on audio quality. I listen to obscure artists who are more intimate about their music and the sound quality is usually amazing. (This probably sounds elitist...had no intentions of it being that way.)

Best,

 

[Thetonyk123]

got some $20 sony headphones and they sound amazing

 

[179202]

Was not trying to insult your intelligence, but if you are using BD discs such as Transformers (whatever version) as reference for your sound/visual system, I am ok with that. Such movies have some of the worlds best people working on them in the industry.

To reiterate my point: if consumers were more educated (this is not an insult), they would make wiser purchases. This would eventually push back the engineers and force them to step back from serving the lowest of the lows.

However, in my opinion, it is far too late. People enjoy their music on laptop speakers, so engineers have to use dynamic compression to completely destroy music, that otherwise would have sounded great.

Don't get me started on West and the other people you were talking about. They are terrible examples of "music." Pop musicians have nothing to lose by not focusing on audio quality. I listen to obscure artists who are more intimate about their music and the sound quality is usually amazing. (This probably sounds elitist...had no intentions of it being that way.)

Best,

To be fair, I think you're mixing up opinion/taste with technical understanding. After studying directing and scriptwriting, I understand what makes technically great films yet I still enjoy technically subpar films. What you enjoy is nothing to do with your intelligence, it's to do with taste, which varies from person to person. The only difference is that, having studied it, I can deconstruct it. That said, even if you haven't studied music or film, you can deconstruct them. Film/music is a universal language we all grow up with after all.

I'm certain that there's a lot of music that you listen to that, whilst I could appreciate it as technically great music, I wouldn't enjoy listening to (and vice versa). Taste≠intelligence.

Keep up your conversations though! They're interesting and informative. Cheers

 

[SDAVE]

To be fair, I think you're mixing up opinion/taste with technical understanding.)

No, mate.

I'm talking about mass consumption.

 

[Alvesang]

I bought the Beats Solo HD a couple of months ago and I really love the sound. Let's face it: I'm listening to music on my iPods so I am not an audiophile anyway. I wanted a fat bass but did not want an active system. The Solo HD headphones really deliver in that department. They are lightweight, stylish, durable (so far so good) and produce quite a deep bass and some nice trebles. Middles? Not so much, but I don't care. They do exactly what I want them to do.

 

[weckart]

. Plus the beats studios leak sound like crazy (which defeat the purpose of having headphones). If you want good sound quality, spend your money on a brand like Sennheiser or maybe Grado.

Not sure if you know what the point of having headphones are, either. Sennheiser and Grado make plenty of headphones that leak sound like crazy, too. That comes with having open back headphones.

I debated the Beats too, but ended up with Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 earbuds. They're amazing and look good too.

I got them for $99 at Amazon.com on Black Friday.

I have a pair of those as well. Great sound but boy are they the most uncomfortable and awkward IEs I have ever tried. Modding them would cost more than they are worth, though, so I am after a pair of Sennheiser HD650s. Those leak sound. Deliberately, so.

 

[njgeek]

I'm getting rid of my Bowers and Wilkins P5 and C5s at the first opportunity now that I've found some more comfortable and isolating cans. While those are both incredible sounding headphones (over ear and IEM combo) my new Westone UM3X is incredible for sound realism (three balanced armature drivers) and the Shure SE215i will be great for just putzing around to a dynamic driver. And both are horribly comfy.

 

[Hallivand]

Thought I'd jump in, as I spent a month comparing many many headphones in a bid to find the perfect one for my price point (AU$100 to $150).

Beats is most certainly overrated, for it appeals to the fashion conscious and such (in my personal opinion). They are bass heavy, which reiterates the point made by rowley, for which they are just geared towards the lower end of the audio frequencies. With the prominence of club/bass heavy music, Monster is just targeting what's "in" at the moment. So far it seems to be working.

However, when compared to Audio Technica's or Sennheiser's, you realise what you've been missing. Many I know use Beats by Dr. Dre, and honestly they sound pretty average, with the bass tacked on.

In the end, I purchased the Pioneer HDJ-500K. Compared to the Beats, they sound amazing. Much nicer, well balanced. Theres some gearing towards the lower end (to be expected from DJ-ing headphones), but its no where as substantial as with the Beats. My friends tried them and now their keen to check out the Pioneers. So I whole heartily recommend looking at the Pioneer HDJ 500K's, you won't be disappointed Plus I spent AU$130 on them, so it was a rather good deal in store.

 

[omgitscro]

I'm getting rid of my Bowers and Wilkins P5 and C5s at the first opportunity now that I've found some more comfortable and isolating cans. While those are both incredible sounding headphones (over ear and IEM combo) my new Westone UM3X is incredible for sound realism (three balanced armature drivers) and the Shure SE215i will be great for just putzing around to a dynamic driver. And both are horribly comfy.

Love my B&W P5's, great set for when I'm at the dorm using the computer. Westone UM2 are my choice for when I'm out and about. Glad to see someone else with comparable taste! Cheers

 

[Shadyriley]

do not get beats. they break very easily. wait for SMS audio by 50 cent headphones, they are wireless and very very hard to break. google sms audio headphones, all the kids who have beats in your school will be jelly

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Thoughts on getting them for $200?? Real- from Amazon (250 with 50 credit to Amazon)

do not buy any Beats products other than the official website, too many fakes, too many people buying at official resellers and taking them back after swapping out the real one for fake ones. seriously.

 

[boss.king]

This is complete bollocks, mate.

Imagine if musicians and sound engineers did not use reference audio monitors during the creation of their albums. Do you want to hear your music the way it was intended or the way 90 percent of the population listens to it?

Why waste money on Beats when for the SAME amount of money you can get Grado, Ultrasone, Sennheiser, etc.?

Also your statistics are ridiculous. Where do you get the 90 percent from? I think you meant the general public who cannot distinguish between a 128kbps MP3 and an uncompressed wav file? It is because they do not have trained ears.

If you cannot tell the difference between audio gear then that means you do not care about it that much in the first place.

My point is that you should not support inferior corporations such as Monster who feed on people like you. You make them rich. They do not care about audio performance. Support other companies who actually care about sound and have a long history (ie. Sennheiser) of being in the industry and innovation.

Same goes to supporting rubbish films such as Transformers. The more you pay these studios that create these films, the more they will treat you like an idiot consumer.

I want to hear my music the way I like to hear it, I don't care what others think. I enjoy the music itself. And where did I say you should spend money on Beats? Nowhere.

And yes, I did mean the majority of the population, I thought that would be implied since I didn't list any source for the stat.

I'm also curious how Monster feeds on people like me, when I've never supported their products, nor advised people to buy them, nor bought them myself? They must be getting pretty hungry if that's how they feed.

The Transformers bit is where you come off as a bit of a snob. Why can't people go watch a big budget action movie simply for the action? You didn't like it, and that's fine, but don't try pass your opinion off as a fact. We're all free to spend our money how we choose, and my girlfriend loves Transformers so I took her to see it. Believe it or not, when we came out of the cinema, the world hadn't ended, and decent movies we're still available to watch.

 

[njgeek]

Monster has proven they can make good cans with the turbine pro coppers. They've proven they can make overpriced hype products like the Beats. They've proven they can make good ear tips with the SuperTips collection. And they've proven they can make cheap cabling into an overly expensive experience.

I need to buy stock in Monster.

 

[iEvolution]

Monster has proven they can make good cans with the turbine pro coppers. They've proven they can make overpriced hype products like the Beats. They've proven they can make good ear tips with the SuperTips collection. And they've proven they can make cheap cabling into an overly expensive experience.

I need to buy stock in Monster.

ROFL isn't that the truth.

I just recently sampled the line at Best Buy and there is no way these head phones could even be considered good by anyone that has done a little homework and looked around.

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I'm also curious how Monster feeds on people like me, when I've never supported their products, nor advised people to buy them, nor bought them myself? They must be getting pretty hungry if that's how they feed.

By advertising products as superior but put together with inferior parts. The company that makes them is not a good company.

When people knew little about video/audio cabling they went ahead and sold $1 HDMI cables for $50 and claimed them as superior. 3rd parties tested them and found they provided no superior video/audio quality than the $1 you can pick up from various online retailers.

Scum companies that try to take advantage of consumers lack of knowledge is not a company that should get purchases from ANYONE.

 

[SDAVE]

We're all free to spend our money how we choose

This is why we're in a mess of an economy because of people who think like you.

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ROFL isn't that the truth.

I just recently sampled the line at Best Buy and there is no way these head phones could even be considered good by anyone that has done a little homework and looked around.

----------



By advertising products as superior but put together with inferior parts. The company that makes them is not a good company.

When people knew little about video/audio cabling they went ahead and sold $1 HDMI cables for $50 and claimed them as superior. 3rd parties tested them and found they provided no superior video/audio quality than the $1 you can pick up from various online retailers.

Scum companies that try to take advantage of consumers lack of knowledge is not a company that should get purchases from ANYONE.

Exactly! These guys are only in it for the money. I despise companies like that. They are no better than dealership salesmen. They just keep pushing dozens of sub-par products and raking in the cash as much as possible without thinking about contributing something to society rather than products which act like a commodity.

 

[boss.king]

By advertising products as superior but put together with inferior parts. The company that makes them is not a good company.

When people knew little about video/audio cabling they went ahead and sold $1 HDMI cables for $50 and claimed them as superior. 3rd parties tested them and found they provided no superior video/audio quality than the $1 you can pick up from various online retailers.

Scum companies that try to take advantage of consumers lack of knowledge is not a company that should get purchases from ANYONE.

Look back at the first page and you'll see I already brought up that incident to show what a ripoff they are. I still fail to see how actions by people like me are feeding Monster.

This is why we're in a mess of an economy because of people who think like you.

No, you (I'm assuming you mean America) are in that situation because people spend beyond what they can afford. People who think like me buy within their needs (read: cheap) because we don't need every feature under the sun. Maybe next time try basing your guesses on a bit of factual evidence first. (For the record my headphones cost 40 bucks, cos that's all I need. When I earn more, maybe I'll upgrade.)