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We Took Apart Some Beats Headphones
- javajosh 11y agoCool. I'd be curious to see the same treatment of other high-end headphones. And all Bose products, which have always seemed egregiously overpriced to me. Tangentially, it's actually really hard to find good headphone reviews anymore, let alone headphone demo places. Pro music stores (like Guitar Center, Sam Ash, etc) are probably the best bet these days - but they tend not to carry headphones like the high-end Sennheisers that used to be my favorites (HD570 I think?).
- amelius 11y agoI'm also curious about the price of "high-end" amplifiers. Amplification of electrical signals was solved a long time ago, even before the first home computer was available, and we've not seen a corresponding, dramatic price drop.
- mrob 11y agoAudio amplification was "solved" a long time ago only if you didn't care about energy efficiency. Good class-D amplifiers are more recent, and they give real improvements in battery life over older designs.
- _asummers 11y agohttp://www.head-fi.org http://www.head-fi.org has always served me pretty well for audio reviews. I don't often dip into this market, so this might have changed in recent years.
- jseliger 11y agoAnd all Bose products, which have always seemed egregiously overpriced to me. AFAICT, their noise cancelling headphones still have by far the best noise cancelling. If you work in a noisy environment or fly frequently, they're amazing. If your primary concern is audio quality in a normal or quietish environment, buy cheaper headphones (or I suppose more stylish ones, if that's your jones). I actually just got a pair of very expensive Jabra Evolve 80 headphones (http://www.jabra.com/Products/PC_Headsets/Jabra_EVOLVE__Series/Evolve_80 http://www.jabra.com/Products/PC_Headsets/Jabra_EVOLVE__Seri...) primarily for their mic. The noise cancelling is dramatically worse than Bose and the headphones make me look dramatically stupider because of the mic. But clients can hear me better so that's a net win.
- SyneRyder 11y agoLove my QC25s, they're one of my favorite tech purchases ever. I prefer the sound to my Etymotics and AKG K270S. Can't believe I put off buying them for so long, I wear them everywhere, even working at home at midnight. I wonder if Bose is doing something beyond noise-cancellation in the QC25s when you turn them on. It sounds similar to a BBE Sonic Maximizer, as if they've licensed the algorithm and tweaked it to the characteristics of the drivers in the QC25s (which sound lousy when the headphones are turned off).
- rorykoehler 11y agoBose sound quality is shocking. A pair of €300 Bose headphones sounded worse than a pair of €20 Sennheisers to me. This is not an exaggeration.
- slashink 11y agoSennheisers are great but i swear by Beyerdynamic. I have a pair of DT-770's that lasted me for 9 years. You bring up an interesting point that there's no real center in the U.S. that carries audio gear online, Europe has Thomann (thomann.de) that basically carries everything but now in SF it's hard to find something else then B&H Photo Video NY to deliver stuff.
- ksk 11y agoWell, they just evaluated the BOM. That tells us nothing about the sound quality, just the margin. I'd say the audiophile market is a more resilient to style than the general population, but not completely. Flat response headphones, like the AKG-701's are reviewed as not being "fun". The thing is, audio mixing plays a much larger part in your experience than headphones. After owning the 701's, I would much rather choose different cheaper 'colored' headphones for different genres, than use a headphone that is able to reproduce sounds more accurately. YMMV.
- Kenji 11y agoWhy would anyone make headphones, of all things, heavier to make them feel high-quality? Comfort (wearing them for hours) is one of my highest priorities and every gram shaved off the headphones adds to comfort. The fact that they estimate the material cost of a 199$ product to 17$ is the icing on the cake, haha. Now I will look down on people who wear these even more.
- hung 11y agoMaybe because when a product "seems" too light, people actually complain about it. Beats is all about perceived value vs actual quality anyway. Remember when the iPhone 5 was deemed too light? http://gizmodo.com/5945662/the-weirdest-thing-people-hate-about-the-iphone-5 http://gizmodo.com/5945662/the-weirdest-thing-people-hate-ab...
- MCRed 11y agoHow much does the BOM cost for your headphones? May well be yours (in the $100-$200 price range) cost the same to make.
- thoughtsimple 11y agoI was taught that 5.5x was the standard BOM to retail price ratio. If the revised article is correct and the BOM is $20.19 then there is a fairly large markup to $199.
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- thoughtsimple 11y agoThe original article on Medium that this article on huffington post reprints was based on a pair of counterfeit Beats headphones. The followup on Medium does the teardown on a real pair of Beats. Not much difference but some improved quality: https://medium.com/bolt-blog/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-were-counterfeit-but-they-cost-about-the-same-to-make-as-the-364cc6808d18 https://medium.com/bolt-blog/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-be...
- gyc 11y ago>Overall the genuine & counterfeit Beats are nearly identical. But the article did not include any comparison of the audio quality of the counterfeit and genuine Beats headphones, so how could the article come to such a conclusion?
- comrade1 11y agoI wouldn't be surprised if the counterfeit headphones sounded better. That's how bad beats is.
- Jerry2 11y ago>That's how bad beats is. No they're not. About the only bad Beats headset was Solo (1st edition). It just sounded too harsh and V-shaped. Solo2 is one of the best headsets out there and it's also one of the most popular ones. But don't take my word for it, read what Tyll over at Inner Fidelity says [1]. He trashed Solo but loves Solo2. I have around 15 different cans of various manufacture and I do enjoy Beats especially for energetic music. When I listen to classical, I still prefer my AKGs or Sennheiser HD 800. [1] http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/time-rethink-beats-solo2-excellent http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/time-rethink-beats-solo...
- andybak 11y agoSubjective reviews of audio products don't have the highest reputation.
- ripitrust 11y agopeople are buying what they want and obviously those guys buying Beats are not looking for very high quality sound. They are buying for style and recognition. The same stuff that Apple has played on us all these years. Although this article is indeed a high quality analysis, and the author really done a great job. There is no point arguing that a Beats is not a genuine headphone. Whatever product it is, there are always people who are looking for quality and people who are looking for style (In some market they are one).
- _asummers 11y agoI think many people (particularly those who have not done any research, moms, grandparents, etc.) associate the Beats brand recognition with perceived quality. "Oh I see those commercials all the time, and I see people wearing them, they must be good!" sort of thing.
- slantyyz 11y ago>> They are buying for style and recognition. The same stuff that Apple has played on us all these years. I'm not a big fan of Apple these days, but Apple products generally do have better than average build quality -as well as- good design and looks. They are indeed premium priced, but that's a marketing choice. You might be able to nitpick Apple products' value by specs, but I don't think you can really put them in the same bin as Beats (even though Apple now owns Beats) with respect to quality.
- discreteevent 11y agoI remember comparing the iPod to a minidisc with the same headphones and the same audio compression rate. The iPod was really poor in comparison.
- vonklaus 11y agoSony had a minidisk player out in 92' the first iPod came out in 01'. I never personally compared the 2 apples to apples[0] but from memory and having owned both, the ipod held more songs, had a better ui, was easier to use and you could store music with no additional cost(i.e. no need to buy disks). > The iPod was really poor in comparison. Do you mean the audio quality? What specifically was worse about it? [0]pun intended.
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- ExpiredLink 11y agowritten by Einstein
- jeffreyrogers 11y agoThat must have been a lot of pressure growing up :)
- vonklaus 11y ago* Ben Einstein a product designer at BoltVC.
- foopants 11y agoApple is now a hip-hop / image company. They are not about quality or innovation.
- tibbon 11y agoWhat's interesting to me is that Apple products generally don't have margins anywhere near this large. Apple's products aren't generally built the 'easiest' way possible for fast assembly and such. The optimization/cheapness on these is amazing.
- hellbanTHIS 11y agoTim Cook's Apple loves big margins, he's a bean counter not an idea man. And we know companies run by bean counters always do fantastically well over the long haul.
- pkaye 11y agoThe gift box costs more than the speakers?