4 ms·

I understand people defending the practice, but this nonetheless offends me. For me, it isn't about the 555 owners getting a crippled product, but that the 595

by latch 16y ago

I understand people defending the practice, but this nonetheless offends me. For me, it isn't about the 555 owners getting a crippled product, but that the 595 owners are paying a huge markup. People are talking about market behavior and what not, but I don't feel like Sennheiser is behaving in good faith here. They are intentionally relying on opaque information (this is obviously news to almost everyone), and making price the only way consumers have to reliably differentiate between the products (you can't even test drive the products to tell). Also, with respect to the "luxury" part of the discussion, they are competing against themselves, the branding and "Sennheiser" name you get with the 595 or 555 is the same. I've been considering getting 800's, I'm a huge Sennheiser fan. I think this has put me off though (even knowing that everyone else probably does the same thing).

sofuture 16y ago
>I understand people defending the practice, but this nonetheless offends me. For me, it isn't about the 555 owners getting a crippled product, but that the 595 owners are paying a huge markup. The baseline in this discussion is $200 headphones. Do you really want to talk huge markup?
jamesaguilar 16y ago
If they didn't know about this, you could probably argue that they actually enjoyed paying a huge markup for little benefit. Considering most of them would probably not be able to tell the difference in a blind test between the two states of the cheaper headphone, the only possible difference is price and perceived value. They are paying more simply to pay more, not because they're actually getting better sound quality.
- latch 16y ago
  I totally hear what you are saying, but I honestly believe that most people are paying more, at least partially, to get a better product. Even if they can't tell that the product is better (say, because they can't hear the difference), I think the difference is night and day.
jarek 16y ago
> you can't even test drive the products to tell Sure you can, the same way you'd test drive a car: walk into a brick & mortar store.
rmc 16y ago
* (you can't even test drive the products to tell)* Sure you can. Under EU Distance Selling Directive (97/7/EC), you can return any product you buy online within 7 days, even if you've just changed your mind.

by latch 16y ago

sofuture 16y ago

>I understand people defending the practice, but this nonetheless offends me. For me, it isn't about the 555 owners getting a crippled product, but that the 595 owners are paying a huge markup. The baseline in this discussion is $200 headphones. Do you really want to talk huge markup?

jamesaguilar 16y ago

If they didn't know about this, you could probably argue that they actually enjoyed paying a huge markup for little benefit. Considering most of them would probably not be able to tell the difference in a blind test between the two states of the cheaper headphone, the only possible difference is price and perceived value. They are paying more simply to pay more, not because they're actually getting better sound quality.

latch 16y ago
I totally hear what you are saying, but I honestly believe that most people are paying more, at least partially, to get a better product. Even if they can't tell that the product is better (say, because they can't hear the difference), I think the difference is night and day.

jarek 16y ago

> you can't even test drive the products to tell Sure you can, the same way you'd test drive a car: walk into a brick & mortar store.

rmc 16y ago

* (you can't even test drive the products to tell)* Sure you can. Under EU Distance Selling Directive (97/7/EC), you can return any product you buy online within 7 days, even if you've just changed your mind.