Before I purchased the Beats Pro, I was interested to get the AKG K701 because i've read reviews that they are the best for techno music but unfortunately i can't find then at any retail store, nor at bestbuy, not even the mini headphone stores on the big city of Tokyo. So I went with the Beats Pro because I see allot of peoples wearing the white Beats Studios in public.
Why is it so hard to find those kinds of headphones at a local bestbuy or apple store? All i see here are Sony's, Panasonic's, Beats, and some Pioneers.
If Sennheiser, Grado, AKG are so good then why they don't sell them at the big stores ?
Where's that "Can't tell if serious or trolling" picture at?
In all seriousness, theres a couple of reasons you won't find high end headphones at big stores.
The most important reason is that big stores don't focus on high end products. They focus on profitability and moving as much product as possible. Best Buy is a perfect example of this. They always focus on brand names and pushing those brands and trends more than anything else. Ever see their commercials? "We have the latest products from the brands you know!" or "We have the latest brands". Its never "we have the best products". It's always "we have the best brands".
Bose and Monster/Beats are mass market products. How else would you be able to sell a $300 headphone to a regular person if not for saying "it's made by Dr. Dre!"? No average person is going to spend that much on headphones unless its a stylish status symbol of some sorts. And Bose spends more money on marketing than anything else. Well, that and suing people who give them negative reviews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Reports#Bose And setting up Bose demo units in stores far away from competing products so they can't be compared side by side. Again:
http://intellexual.net/bose.html
Grado products are specifically made for high end consumers. They're not made for someone who wants to look cool. They're made to bring out the best sound signature in certain types of music. Same for Sennheiser's non-Best Buy products. Their high end products are made for a niche market. They're not made for looks. They're made for sound. Same can be said for Audio Technica. Most of their high end headphones are ugly as sin. But the sound quality is fantastic.
Just the other day I was in Best Buy. That particular one is one of the few I've seen with those $300 Beats with the cord hanging loose so you can test on your own equipment. I plugged in my iPhone 4 and listened to one of my favorite songs, Fear Factory's "Fear Campaign". Theres a few spots in that song where you have a double bass drum roll and heavy and fast guitar riffs. My nearly 7 year old Audio Technica ATH-A500s handle those parts beautifully. No distortion. The double bass drum rolls are deep, full of impact.. in fact, those double bass drum rolls remind me of a fast subwoofer firing. And you can hear ALL of the detail in the guitars. However, on those $300 Beats, the song turned into muddy distortion. Those crap Beats couldn't handle it at all and failed big time. Even my many years old original Grado SR60s handle the song better than those Beats did.
Long story short: Best Buy won't sell truly high end headphones because they don't have brand recognition or style, and as a result, they won't be able to push as many and make as much money. No average person is going to buy a pair of Grados that look like they're out of the 60s or a big ugly pair of Audio Technicas when theres a "Beats by Dr. Dre" that puts form before function right next to it, or Bose which spends more money on advertising than anything else.
