6 ms·

What is your source for the $18 worth of parts? How are you basing the sound quality? Keep in mind there is much more investment that goes into a consumer produ

by b3b0p 8y ago

What is your source for the $18 worth of parts? How are you basing the sound quality? Keep in mind there is much more investment that goes into a consumer product, especially one like any of the Beats. There is design, engineering, marketing, testing, lawyers, copyrights, logistics/shipping... Many expensive headphones use plastic because of weight. Even the Sony MDR-Z1R have plastic. One of the only headphones I know that don't was the Sony MDR-R10, but from my understanding of the history of those, Sony was actually losing money on every pair sold ($2,500/pair). I'm not saying Beats are great, but they get picked on for reasons. It seems almost like a meme and they aren't a terrible product. They work well for what they are meant. People like the way they look. They are supported by one of the most iconic companies in the world and sold in every Apple Store (and many others) with a large variety of different models and colors. Bring them into any Apple Store when something goes wrong and even out of warranty you can sometimes get help from a Apple or a Genius and/or a replacement.

seattle_spring 8y ago
> I'm not saying Beats are great, but they get picked on for reasons The reasons are that anytime they're [rightfully] critisized in any way, a horde of obvious Beats purchasers comes and defends why it was reasonable for them to spend $350 on a pair of headphones with similar sound quality to a $50 pair from a different brand. They'll never admit they bought them for the name or the fashion appeal, they'll always claim that they "sound amazing," and pull up some irreverent review from Vice or similar saying that Beats are passable. If people just admitted that they don't give a shit about sound quality and want to look cool to their friends then I don't think it would have become such a meme.
- iamdave 8y ago
  Those are some shallow and some honestly awful reasons to pick on one's choice of headphones and the people who buy them considering it's not your money being spent buying a pair of Beats headphones. It's theirs. They worked for it and earned it. I don't feel inclined to explain my financial decisions to random joes on the internet either. And maybe they do sound great to that wearer. You don't know. What sounds good enough for them might not be great sound to you. That's perfectly fine. Maybe they did buy them for how they look. Why make that your business? Why do you even care that that's why someone bought the headphones? I go back to my earlier position: it's not your money being spent. It's theirs. Taking people to task for subjective things like this seems like a very strange thing to lord over people for IMO.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- ggg9990 8y ago
  You sound like my friend who gives me hell because I bought an Audi instead of the BMW he recommended. He says “the BMW has much better cornering!” and I say “my car has great cornering!” and he sends me some data as if I care. I simply liked the car I bought better than the one he recommended.
  - b3b0p 8y ago
    I'd take an Audi over a BMW every day. That's just me though. (My last car was an Audi TTS Roadster.)
    - freehunter 8y ago
      Technical people like to ignore branding to the point that it becomes ridiculous. I'm not calling you out, BTW, just using you as an example. Audi vs BMW... does it really matter? There are minor differences here and there, but really it's another place where you're paying for the brand. When it comes to performance/build quality/technology, a Toyota Camry is by and large the same as any luxury car you can buy. The difference is the brand name and the "feel" (which is hard to quantify, so much so that it kinda comes back to the value of the brand). When I bought my first luxury car, I had friends recommending an Audi. Seemed like marginally better value for the money, a little better MPG, some marginally nicer interior features, etc. But in the end I went with the BMW because every time I look at the A4, all I see is a Jetta for twice the price. The fact that Audi is owned by VW and the cars are based off the same platform is a turn-off for me. It has nothing to do with the features or the performance or the "feel" of the car... it's just a brand image in my mind. A Lexus is an expensive Toyota. An Audi is an expensive VW. But a BMW is a BMW, they don't make anything else. My 3-Series isn't anything but a 3-Series. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when it comes to premium products, it's not always easy to quantify why you like one over the other. A lot of the time it comes down to irrational things like adjacent brands or the way it makes you "feel". Everyone can discount that as much as they want and say JVC has better sound for half the price of Beats, but it doesn't change the fact that the people buying Beats don't care about the sound, they care about the intangible benefits that the brand gives them.
- askafriend 8y ago
  The Beats meme is outdated and tired. Their newest models with the Apple wireless chips in them are actually quite good - they balance a lot of qualities consumers care about well. The sound is great (just check the reviews), and the wireless connectivity is the best in the market. They also integrate really well with the Apple ecosystem due to the A1 chip. They also look better than 99% of headphones out there and that matters to people. If aesthetics, wireless performance, portability or integration aren’t import to you and the only thing you care about is raw sound quality, that’s fine. Beats probably won’t fit your requirements. But the vast majority of people want something that balances a lot of different qualities well and Beats does that today (maybe not so well in the past). As for the price, what good active noise canceling headphone on the market isn’t at least $350? FYI: I have the Sony WH1000XM2. I paid $400 for them. I tested all ANC headphones on the entire market before settling on the Sonys. Beats were not the worst by any means. They gripped my big head too tight and hurt so I couldn’t consider them. Other than that, the A1 chip was amazing for connectivity and the sound curve was great for hip hop. They were also much more pleasing aesthetically and more portable than the competition. Ultimately comfort was the #1 thing I was looking for and they didn’t check that box.
  - b3b0p 8y ago
    Similar to you, I'm shopping a pair of wireless headphones right now. I am considering Beats because of the reasons you stated, but also most sites have the latest Studio model at only $230. While the Sony model you mention (which is my number one choice right now tied with the H9i), are most places $350 ($450 for the H9i). Given I'm buying these mostly for convenience first and portability, and given they are wireless sound quality is not the most important attribute. I'm going to take the best, maybe even considered bad choice, for me and my uses.
    - fphhotchips 8y ago
      Out of curiosity, is there a reason the Bose QC35 isn't in consideration? When I bought my Sonys that was the most obvious comparison.
      - 8y ago
- aslkdjaslkdj1 8y ago
  I see way more people criticize Beats on the internet than any "horde of obvious Beats purchasers" defending them. I think the criticism is just a meme at this point.
- skinnymuch 8y ago
  Pretty sure the opposite is usually true around places like Hacker News or Reddit. It’s easy to pick on Beats. Too easy.
rgbrenner 8y ago
What is your source for the $18 worth of parts? The same person who wrote this article about Sonos, also did a tear down of Beats headphones: https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-were-counterfeit-but-they-cost-about-the-same-to-make-as-the-364cc6808d18 https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-were... I was wrong. It's actually closer to $20.

by b3b0p 8y ago

seattle_spring 8y ago

> I'm not saying Beats are great, but they get picked on for reasons The reasons are that anytime they're [rightfully] critisized in any way, a horde of obvious Beats purchasers comes and defends why it was reasonable for them to spend $350 on a pair of headphones with similar sound quality to a $50 pair from a different brand. They'll never admit they bought them for the name or the fashion appeal, they'll always claim that they "sound amazing," and pull up some irreverent review from Vice or similar saying that Beats are passable. If people just admitted that they don't give a shit about sound quality and want to look cool to their friends then I don't think it would have become such a meme.

iamdave 8y ago
Those are some shallow and some honestly awful reasons to pick on one's choice of headphones and the people who buy them considering it's not your money being spent buying a pair of Beats headphones. It's theirs. They worked for it and earned it. I don't feel inclined to explain my financial decisions to random joes on the internet either. And maybe they do sound great to that wearer. You don't know. What sounds good enough for them might not be great sound to you. That's perfectly fine. Maybe they did buy them for how they look. Why make that your business? Why do you even care that that's why someone bought the headphones? I go back to my earlier position: it's not your money being spent. It's theirs. Taking people to task for subjective things like this seems like a very strange thing to lord over people for IMO.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
ggg9990 8y ago
You sound like my friend who gives me hell because I bought an Audi instead of the BMW he recommended. He says “the BMW has much better cornering!” and I say “my car has great cornering!” and he sends me some data as if I care. I simply liked the car I bought better than the one he recommended.
- b3b0p 8y ago
  I'd take an Audi over a BMW every day. That's just me though. (My last car was an Audi TTS Roadster.)
  - freehunter 8y ago
    Technical people like to ignore branding to the point that it becomes ridiculous. I'm not calling you out, BTW, just using you as an example. Audi vs BMW... does it really matter? There are minor differences here and there, but really it's another place where you're paying for the brand. When it comes to performance/build quality/technology, a Toyota Camry is by and large the same as any luxury car you can buy. The difference is the brand name and the "feel" (which is hard to quantify, so much so that it kinda comes back to the value of the brand). When I bought my first luxury car, I had friends recommending an Audi. Seemed like marginally better value for the money, a little better MPG, some marginally nicer interior features, etc. But in the end I went with the BMW because every time I look at the A4, all I see is a Jetta for twice the price. The fact that Audi is owned by VW and the cars are based off the same platform is a turn-off for me. It has nothing to do with the features or the performance or the "feel" of the car... it's just a brand image in my mind. A Lexus is an expensive Toyota. An Audi is an expensive VW. But a BMW is a BMW, they don't make anything else. My 3-Series isn't anything but a 3-Series. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when it comes to premium products, it's not always easy to quantify why you like one over the other. A lot of the time it comes down to irrational things like adjacent brands or the way it makes you "feel". Everyone can discount that as much as they want and say JVC has better sound for half the price of Beats, but it doesn't change the fact that the people buying Beats don't care about the sound, they care about the intangible benefits that the brand gives them.
askafriend 8y ago
The Beats meme is outdated and tired. Their newest models with the Apple wireless chips in them are actually quite good - they balance a lot of qualities consumers care about well. The sound is great (just check the reviews), and the wireless connectivity is the best in the market. They also integrate really well with the Apple ecosystem due to the A1 chip. They also look better than 99% of headphones out there and that matters to people. If aesthetics, wireless performance, portability or integration aren’t import to you and the only thing you care about is raw sound quality, that’s fine. Beats probably won’t fit your requirements. But the vast majority of people want something that balances a lot of different qualities well and Beats does that today (maybe not so well in the past). As for the price, what good active noise canceling headphone on the market isn’t at least $350? FYI: I have the Sony WH1000XM2. I paid $400 for them. I tested all ANC headphones on the entire market before settling on the Sonys. Beats were not the worst by any means. They gripped my big head too tight and hurt so I couldn’t consider them. Other than that, the A1 chip was amazing for connectivity and the sound curve was great for hip hop. They were also much more pleasing aesthetically and more portable than the competition. Ultimately comfort was the #1 thing I was looking for and they didn’t check that box.
- b3b0p 8y ago
  Similar to you, I'm shopping a pair of wireless headphones right now. I am considering Beats because of the reasons you stated, but also most sites have the latest Studio model at only $230. While the Sony model you mention (which is my number one choice right now tied with the H9i), are most places $350 ($450 for the H9i). Given I'm buying these mostly for convenience first and portability, and given they are wireless sound quality is not the most important attribute. I'm going to take the best, maybe even considered bad choice, for me and my uses.
  - fphhotchips 8y ago
    Out of curiosity, is there a reason the Bose QC35 isn't in consideration? When I bought my Sonys that was the most obvious comparison.
    - 8y ago
aslkdjaslkdj1 8y ago
I see way more people criticize Beats on the internet than any "horde of obvious Beats purchasers" defending them. I think the criticism is just a meme at this point.
skinnymuch 8y ago
Pretty sure the opposite is usually true around places like Hacker News or Reddit. It’s easy to pick on Beats. Too easy.

rgbrenner 8y ago

What is your source for the $18 worth of parts? The same person who wrote this article about Sonos, also did a tear down of Beats headphones: https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-were-counterfeit-but-they-cost-about-the-same-to-make-as-the-364cc6808d18 https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-were... I was wrong. It's actually closer to $20.