How Beats by Dr. Dre played the world ......

VERY smart marketing from day one on all the Beats products , this article claims those $300 headphones cost $14 to make ....
I never liked them from day one , they sound bloated & like total crap , but all the kids want them ....

Anyways interesting article


http://pulseradio.net/articles/2015/03/how-beats-by-dre-played-you-like-a-fool

 

Very humorous, nice "cans" he is wearing!

 

I feel dumber after having read that. They don't know what they are writing about. Just spewing words from other sources.
I clicked through to an article on "The Best 5 Headphones for Under $100" linked in the Beats article and got this:
http://pulseradio.net/articles/2015/03/the-best-5-headphones-for-under-100
Utter garbage reporting.

Who the heck are Pulse Radio?

 

Here's a more reliable source... the NY Times, from 10 months ago:

Beats began to sell its sleek, bass-heavy headphones in 2008 as an alternative to the lightweight earbuds that Apple included free with its iPod players. And even at prices of up to $450 apiece, they quickly became fashion statements. The company’s headphones have fat profit margins. Headphone designers estimate the cost of making a fancy headset is as low as $14.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/05...=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=3&

 

Anyone who buys these is a mug.

 

Seeing Zach Snyder using these during filmmaking makes me cringe. Somebody get him some proper Headphones to use jeez!

 

I own a pair of the Studio Wireless that I use at the gym. I like them. The wireless feature is great especially at the gym. They were my reward to myself for losing 30 lbs

 

In other news, not a single person is forced to buy Beats.

 

I picked up a pair of the Studios for cheap. Are they tweaked EQ-wise? Hell yes. Do I like a little extra bass? Hell yes.

Of course they're not for everyone. That's why there are different brands and styles.

 

Beats came in 2nd to last here.

 

I think that the only thing I ever bought that was an endorsement was my old Wilson A-2000 (1963) that the late, great Ron Santo used. Luckily it was one of the best baseball gloves ever made and still is. $49.50 then and nearly $300 now.

Use what great baseball players use would equate to what great recording or mastering engineers use.

 

He didn't play me for a fool!

 

Cheap shot / nasty link-bait packaging of a weirdly schizoid little story that mostly praises Beats for a brilliant business strategy.

Beating up on Beats has become such a lazy gesture. And guess what, they're a moving target, so blanket sneering at these headphones has become sort of clueless. Witness this August 2014 report from the best headphone reviewer at work these days:

Time to Rethink Beats, the Solo2 is Excellent

 

1) I hope I never find out what it cost to make any of my gear.

2) Beats are the Hanpin turntables of headphones. Folks get almost emotional with anger that they even exist, but admit no first hand experience.

 

A friend of mine asked me if he should buy the Beats he was leaning towards. He knows of my audio inclinations as I suckered him into helping me lug a 110lb McIntosh amp up two flights of stairs. I went over the pros and cons, let him listen to some Audio-Technicas I had, and we agreed he was basically the target customer for Beats headphones and he should buy them.

 

For low-volume products (not saying Beats are, but many audiophile brands ARE), per-unit costs are essentially meaningless since the major costs are things like R&D and real estate.

 

2012 :

" C'mon. The Sony MDR-V150's are $20 headphones."
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...great-bass-drums-sq-here.274254/#post-7502883

2015 :

Damned if you do...
.

 

But those are $20 headphones that sell for $20. What I object to are $14 headphones sold for $300.

 

If they only cost $14.00 to manufacture, what could possibly be wrong with a cost of $20.00 ? Why ridicule them ? That has nothing to do with quality, and everything to do with profit.
.

 

That article was linked in the Pulse Radio article. I read it last night. It made me dumber for having read it. That is the most moronic and most wrong way to evaluate and rank headphones. It's how you evaluate and rank headphones if you know how to get and evaluate marketing data but have no idea how to judge them by sound qualities.

 

its all about peer status, kids...

just like when you *had* to have that members only jacket back in '82.

 

Oh yea they are.

Peer pressure is a mighty force. Marketing pressure is a mighty force.

Dr. Dre is a mighty force.

Force is about aggression. You wanna tell me that none of these forces are aggressive ?

 

I know nothing about Beats, but I suppose that it isn't the dollar amount of the component materials so much as it is the crafters that know what to do with them that's where the value lies. They definitely seem to be overpriced though. I certainly wouldn't pay that much for headphones.

 

I just think it's a VERY brilliant marketing they have done with them , I could see why if you were Ipod-ing it out & about on bust streets why you might love these headphones .
My headphone listening is based to at home use & i use Sennheisers / AKG's /Koss ...... I never liked the EQ points of beats .
Amazing how much in sales they have done on most of their products .....

 

The problem with Beats isn't all related to the bass heavy EQ. It's that they have no detail. No ability to resolve the finer details and micro-details in the music. It's the listening equivalent of oatmeal. Sonic mush.

A little bit of bass enhancement along with a driver and design that is able to resolve the finer details in the music will go a long way to being a better headphone than Beats. I'm not against a little bit of extra bass. Headphone listening kinda needs it sometimes. But don't clog my ears with oatmeal. Do a headphone like that and you can justify $200-$500 and even higher prices based on audio quality.

Dr. Dre played the world by getting them to accept the musical equivalent of oatmeal as the standard for good sound quality at higher than normal prices.