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> AirPods Max are aimed squarely at Apple devotees – of which there are millions – who simply could not bear to be seen with a pair of Beats headphones, even th
by armadsen 6y ago
> AirPods Max are aimed squarely at Apple devotees – of which there are millions – who simply could not bear to be seen with a pair of Beats headphones, even though Beats are superb.
You see this all the time in critical reviews of Apple products. The implication is that people who buy Apple products do so because they're irrational cult members, not because they rationally consider the device worth the price for various reasons.
I suppose I would be considered an "Apple devotee", in that I make my living doing Mac and iOS development, and own plenty of their hardware. I also have AirPods Max, and I think they're great.
"Superb" is not how I would personally describe Beats' stuff. I recently worked on repairing some Beats Solo 3 Wireless headphones for a friend. They're made like every other cheap, flimsy, plastic consumer electronics device, with lots of glue, plastic clips, and fragile mechanical parts. (One of the headband hinges breaking necessitated the repair.) If you're OK with the tradeoff between quality and price, by all means, buy Beats. (I think you're better off with a much cheaper competitor, considering the relative difference in quality is low to non-existent.)
By contrast, the AirPods Max are clearly a well-made, premium device, using metal, premium materials, and clever engineering. Add it all up with the good sound quality and usual integration with Apple's other hardware and software, and it's a device that's worth the price to me. If you don't value those things -- which is perfectly fine! -- it may not be worth it to you, but it doesn't mean that anyone who would buy them does so because they're a brainwashed Apple fanatic.
- cma 6y agoBeats also add weighty components to feel more premium. I think that is as bad of a trend as making vacuum cleaners louder to seem like they are working better.
- woutr_be 6y ago> The glib answer would be people with more money than sense. But it’s more complicated than that. AirPods Max are aimed squarely at Apple devotees – of which there are millions – who simply could not bear to be seen with a pair of Beats headphones, even though Beats are superb. It kind of makes the whole review irrelevant to me, and I would say the review is mostly aimed at people who would never want to buy Apple products in the first place.
- tingol 6y agoBut you are brainwashed, thinking you need metal on your head instead of plastic which is far superior and lighter. You literally convinced yourself that an inferior product is great. Not that beats are the top of the line, they never were, but using AirPods Max vs Sony 1000MX4 is night and day.
- jakeva 6y ago> But you are brainwashed, thinking you need metal on your head instead of plastic which is far superior and lighter. What a strange sentence. Most reasonable people would probably agree nobody "needs" neither plastic nor metal on their head, but rather when enjoying music or other sonic entertainment pick one or the other for any number of reasons, probably not including that they've been brainwashed into thinking they need this or that material to do it.
- growse 6y agoTheir point (I think) is that plastic is a better material choice in this context. The original assertion that one product in better because they use "premium materials" like "metal" falls into the same trap of "Things made of metal are better than things made of plastic", which is a nonsense schtick that Apple's been selling people for years.
- jakeva 6y agoWell regardless, the ease with which people take up arms against anyone who like something different from them is strange. There are no objective truths about metal or plastic as a material for headphones, just what people prefer. I love the metal. But apparently, enjoying my headphones means to some that I've been brainwashed. I find the assertion ludicrous on its face.
- davidivadavid 6y agoThat's true in theory but often wrong in practice. You could conceivably make products with such as thing as "premium plastic" (some companies/products do), but the overwhelming experience people have with plastic is that it's often cheap injection molding, breaks easily, doesn't look good, etc. You could also build crap with metal, so of course there's nothing inherent to those materials. But the perception isn't entirely wrong.
- apple_innocent 6y agoDoesn't Apple now own Beats.
- armadsen 6y agoYes, and that's part of my point. A brainwashed, irrational Apple fanatic should be convinced that Beats are magically amazing and worth whatever price Apple decides to charge.