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They are over marketed a bit and over priced, sure, but just as much as Bose, B&O and a lot of other premium sound brands. How do they objectively have "incred

They are over marketed a bit and over priced, sure, but just as much as Bose, B&O and a lot of other premium sound brands. How do they objectively have "incredibly poor quality"? Do you have a link that support they have really poor sound quality or bad build quality or horrible customer satisfaction rate?

nerfhammer 12y ago
“In terms of sound performance, they are among the worst you can buy,” says Tyll Hertsens, editor in chief of InnerFidelity.com, a site for audiophiles. “They are absolutely, extraordinarily bad.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres-business-world.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-...
- cschmidt 12y ago
  I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, so I wouldn't listen to Beats, but I do think "bad" is a value judgement. I want a neutral reproduction of the music, and I get that with my Grado's. The Beats customer wants lots of thumpy bass. We each get what we want.
  - batiudrami 12y ago
    This is exactly it - they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy, and mistake for sound quality. They're paying a high price for a brand and experience, rather than for the quality of the components, like many other premium brands. I don't wear them, but I don't hate the people who do (though I'm not huge on Beats' "the way it was meant to sound/the way the musician intended" branding)
    - hessenwolf 12y ago
      Quality is in the eye of the beholder, and there were several blokes sporting them on the U-bahn train this morning, all much cooler than me.
      - batiudrami 12y ago
        It's not really, when frequency response is a measurable quantity - sound quality can be, and is defined, and Beats do not fare well[1]. But you're right, they do look cool, and they have a fun listening experience. [1] http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-solo http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-so...
    - paulrov 12y ago
      > they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy, and mistake for sound quality. "You're listening to it wrong"
    - mrexroad 12y ago
      "they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy" ding that's the crux of it. people want something that makes them feel good, which often isn't something you can quantify in a lab. so rather than trying to build a better headphone, beats built the equivalent of a booming car stereo strapped to your head, and that evokes a very specific emotional response for most of their customers. fwiw: i have a pair of Bose QC15 cans that i got as a gift from work. i think they're crap for reproduction purposes, but the experience they're designing for is noise cancellation.
  - madeofpalk 12y ago
    They should join the 'Vinyl sounds better' camp in mistaking what they prefer for what is objectively better.
- hamburglar 12y ago
  I have also read a lot of complaints about their streaming app being just plain garbage as well.
  - k-mcgrady 12y ago
    I've been using their streaming app since it was released and it's fantastic. It puts the others to shame IMO. I'd been using Spotify for about 4 years before Beats. The volume and quality of playlists they have created is amazing and the app design is quite nice. I find it great for discovering new music (and you still have the option to search the catalog too).
- nnnnni 12y ago
  I once tried to help someone with a pair of beats headphones that they purchased as a present for a relative. The complaint was that they didn't sound right. I tested them out. It was horrible, it sounded almost like what it sounds like when a stereo headphone jack is only partially inserted -- on three different devices and two different pairs of headphones. They suck and are a major ripoff. Whenever something advertises beats audio, I know that it's not a product for me.
- teknologist 12y ago
  They have come a long way since 2011. I'm listening to my post-Dre-branded Beats right now and they sound good. And I like to think I'm not just one of the gullible sub-human tools the people participating in this thread enjoy thinking they're so far above.
Aqwis 12y ago
Bose is a damn bad example as a premium brand to compare Beats to. Their consumer headphones are widely considered to be way overpriced and gimmicky. The brands Beats should really be compared to are Sennheiser, Shure, A-T, Denon, Beyerdynamic and the like. Any offerings from these brands at a price point from $100 and up offer at least as good sound quality as Beats' cans and for a much lower price, and many of their phones look pretty good as well.
- tomrod 12y ago
  Wait--don't compare to Bose, compare instead to Bose?
  - Aqwis 12y ago
    Oops, didn't think straight.
- balls187 12y ago
  Except their Noise Canceling line has been getting good reviews from many review sites.
  - akandiah 12y ago
    Indeed! Their active noise canceling headphones actually retain the bass while removing the external noise. Other active noise cancelling heaphones tend to blunt the bass.
- rdl 12y ago
  Bose professional and aviation products are actually superior to Apple quality. Their consumer noise canceling is pretty good. I agree about their consumer speakers.
- Intermernet 12y ago
  I would second this statement strongly. The only other brand I'd add to the list is AKG as they also have some wonderful headphones at around this price point. I've done AB comparisons with friends who've bought Beats, Sony, Skull Candy etc. and they're always blown away by the difference between the product they bought, and my AKGs, A-Ts or Sennheisers. I recently tested some Beyerdynamics and would highly recommend them, although I still think A-Ts are the best bang for buck around.
bherms 12y ago
Quality when applied to speakers and headphones is typically demonstrated by frequency response, with a perfectly flat response being the pinnacle. Headphones like Beats appeal to people who have only had bargain headphones (think a few bucks), and they do this by having attractive packaging and just basically amping up the bass response because bass has a "wow factor".
- baddox 12y ago
  A flat response is rarely desirable, or at least rarely intended, except for equipment designed for audio production.
  - bherms 12y ago
    Typically you aim for as much of the audible spectrum as possible with as flat of a response as possible... From there you adjust for personal listening preferences. Some cans tend to accentuate bass a bit, others mids or trebs. Flat headphones are preferred for mixing/mastering of course. That's about as objective a measure as you can find.
  - SwellJoe 12y ago
    This is simply untrue. The best headphones, speakers, and amplifiers, are designed to faithfully reproduce the recorded signal. Anything that does something other than that is a poorly designed product, or a product that is intentionally misleading the consumer. Most cheap products accidentally fail at this goal. Beats products are intentionally designed to be cheap to manufacture, while being bass-heavy and overly bright on top, to disguise their poor quality. A flat response is always desirable to the listener (whether they know it, or not). If the listener desires EQ (for a bass-heavy and bright experience), they can apply it before it goes out to the transducer. Old stereos used to have a "loudness" button to slap this kind of curve onto the audio, but all modern playback devices have EQ and such available. But, I'd recommend using good quality headphones and listening as the engineer and artist intended.
    - stcredzero 12y ago
baddox 12y ago
I would argue they're way worse than Bose. Bose products, at least to me, sound good but are overpriced. Beats products are overpriced but also sound bad.
gcv 12y ago
I don't know anything about build quality or customer satisfaction, but this video gives you an excellent idea how they sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pK7QbLNjno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pK7QbLNjno — try to listen to the demo with relatively neutral headphones. FWIW, I listened to Beats at an Apple store, and the video fits nicely with my impressions.

nerfhammer 12y ago

“In terms of sound performance, they are among the worst you can buy,” says Tyll Hertsens, editor in chief of InnerFidelity.com, a site for audiophiles. “They are absolutely, extraordinarily bad.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres-business-world.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-...

cschmidt 12y ago
I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, so I wouldn't listen to Beats, but I do think "bad" is a value judgement. I want a neutral reproduction of the music, and I get that with my Grado's. The Beats customer wants lots of thumpy bass. We each get what we want.
- batiudrami 12y ago
  This is exactly it - they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy, and mistake for sound quality. They're paying a high price for a brand and experience, rather than for the quality of the components, like many other premium brands. I don't wear them, but I don't hate the people who do (though I'm not huge on Beats' "the way it was meant to sound/the way the musician intended" branding)
  - hessenwolf 12y ago
    Quality is in the eye of the beholder, and there were several blokes sporting them on the U-bahn train this morning, all much cooler than me.
    - batiudrami 12y ago
      It's not really, when frequency response is a measurable quantity - sound quality can be, and is defined, and Beats do not fare well[1]. But you're right, they do look cool, and they have a fun listening experience. [1] http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-solo http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-so...
  - paulrov 12y ago
    > they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy, and mistake for sound quality. "You're listening to it wrong"
  - mrexroad 12y ago
    "they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy" ding that's the crux of it. people want something that makes them feel good, which often isn't something you can quantify in a lab. so rather than trying to build a better headphone, beats built the equivalent of a booming car stereo strapped to your head, and that evokes a very specific emotional response for most of their customers. fwiw: i have a pair of Bose QC15 cans that i got as a gift from work. i think they're crap for reproduction purposes, but the experience they're designing for is noise cancellation.
- madeofpalk 12y ago
  They should join the 'Vinyl sounds better' camp in mistaking what they prefer for what is objectively better.
hamburglar 12y ago
I have also read a lot of complaints about their streaming app being just plain garbage as well.
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  I've been using their streaming app since it was released and it's fantastic. It puts the others to shame IMO. I'd been using Spotify for about 4 years before Beats. The volume and quality of playlists they have created is amazing and the app design is quite nice. I find it great for discovering new music (and you still have the option to search the catalog too).
nnnnni 12y ago
I once tried to help someone with a pair of beats headphones that they purchased as a present for a relative. The complaint was that they didn't sound right. I tested them out. It was horrible, it sounded almost like what it sounds like when a stereo headphone jack is only partially inserted -- on three different devices and two different pairs of headphones. They suck and are a major ripoff. Whenever something advertises beats audio, I know that it's not a product for me.
teknologist 12y ago
They have come a long way since 2011. I'm listening to my post-Dre-branded Beats right now and they sound good. And I like to think I'm not just one of the gullible sub-human tools the people participating in this thread enjoy thinking they're so far above.

Aqwis 12y ago

Bose is a damn bad example as a premium brand to compare Beats to. Their consumer headphones are widely considered to be way overpriced and gimmicky. The brands Beats should really be compared to are Sennheiser, Shure, A-T, Denon, Beyerdynamic and the like. Any offerings from these brands at a price point from $100 and up offer at least as good sound quality as Beats' cans and for a much lower price, and many of their phones look pretty good as well.

tomrod 12y ago
Wait--don't compare to Bose, compare instead to Bose?
- Aqwis 12y ago
  Oops, didn't think straight.
balls187 12y ago
Except their Noise Canceling line has been getting good reviews from many review sites.
- akandiah 12y ago
  Indeed! Their active noise canceling headphones actually retain the bass while removing the external noise. Other active noise cancelling heaphones tend to blunt the bass.
rdl 12y ago
Bose professional and aviation products are actually superior to Apple quality. Their consumer noise canceling is pretty good. I agree about their consumer speakers.
Intermernet 12y ago
I would second this statement strongly. The only other brand I'd add to the list is AKG as they also have some wonderful headphones at around this price point. I've done AB comparisons with friends who've bought Beats, Sony, Skull Candy etc. and they're always blown away by the difference between the product they bought, and my AKGs, A-Ts or Sennheisers. I recently tested some Beyerdynamics and would highly recommend them, although I still think A-Ts are the best bang for buck around.

bherms 12y ago

Quality when applied to speakers and headphones is typically demonstrated by frequency response, with a perfectly flat response being the pinnacle. Headphones like Beats appeal to people who have only had bargain headphones (think a few bucks), and they do this by having attractive packaging and just basically amping up the bass response because bass has a "wow factor".

baddox 12y ago
A flat response is rarely desirable, or at least rarely intended, except for equipment designed for audio production.
- bherms 12y ago
  Typically you aim for as much of the audible spectrum as possible with as flat of a response as possible... From there you adjust for personal listening preferences. Some cans tend to accentuate bass a bit, others mids or trebs. Flat headphones are preferred for mixing/mastering of course. That's about as objective a measure as you can find.
- SwellJoe 12y ago
  This is simply untrue. The best headphones, speakers, and amplifiers, are designed to faithfully reproduce the recorded signal. Anything that does something other than that is a poorly designed product, or a product that is intentionally misleading the consumer. Most cheap products accidentally fail at this goal. Beats products are intentionally designed to be cheap to manufacture, while being bass-heavy and overly bright on top, to disguise their poor quality. A flat response is always desirable to the listener (whether they know it, or not). If the listener desires EQ (for a bass-heavy and bright experience), they can apply it before it goes out to the transducer. Old stereos used to have a "loudness" button to slap this kind of curve onto the audio, but all modern playback devices have EQ and such available. But, I'd recommend using good quality headphones and listening as the engineer and artist intended.
  - stcredzero 12y ago

baddox 12y ago

I would argue they're way worse than Bose. Bose products, at least to me, sound good but are overpriced. Beats products are overpriced but also sound bad.

gcv 12y ago

I don't know anything about build quality or customer satisfaction, but this video gives you an excellent idea how they sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pK7QbLNjno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pK7QbLNjno — try to listen to the demo with relatively neutral headphones. FWIW, I listened to Beats at an Apple store, and the video fits nicely with my impressions.