Members Anderton Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 You could say it's the celebrity connection, you could say it's the fact there's enough bass to massage your brain cavity if you turn them up far enough. But no one thought anyone would pay $300 for a set of sub-standard headphones...yet they sell like crazy, even though they're not officially endorsed by Mark L. What's your theory? Are we in the Dutch Tulip Mania zone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I think it's name-brand and image related status that have driven sales. For whatever reasons, in some circles (and I suspect among people who oftentimes can't tell the audible difference anyway) they became "the" headphones to have - and to be seen with. While they're arguably stylishly designed visually, it's not that they're good sounding cans, it's the name, and the star association with Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Like a $200 pair of Air Jordans, they became an urban status symbol. The bass emphasis probably didn't hurt either, but personally I don't care for the sound of them. I'd much rather listen to my KNS 8400's - they're honest and accurate. Which reminds me... I need to order new pads for them. I've worn them so much that I've worn the earpads out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 The same reason that Justin Bieber records sell, that the 'Archies' hit the top 40, the GOP candidates can still get elected: You can never go broke underestimating the good taste of the public... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members elsongs Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 If Dr. Dre marketed purple polka-dot suspenders with his name on it, you'd see most of America's youth wear purple poka-dot suspenders out on the street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Don't give him any ideas Elson! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mark L Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 You could say it's the celebrity connection' date=' you could say it's the fact there's enough bass to massage your brain cavity if you turn them up far enough. But no one thought anyone would pay $300 for a set of sub-standard headphones...yet they sell like crazy, [b']even though they're not officially endorsed by Mark L[/b]. What's your theory? Are we in the Dutch Tulip Mania zone? My endorsement was actually sought, but I declined on matters of principle.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted June 3, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted June 3, 2015 no one thought anyone would pay $300 for a set of sub-standard headphones...yet they sell like crazy' date=' even though they're not officially endorsed by Mark L. What's [i']your [/i]theory? Are we in the Dutch Tulip Mania zone? Simple. There's way more of "them" than there are of "us." They know what they like, and we know what we don't like. As for me, I wouldn't pay $300 for any headphones. I only use headphones in emergencies, and emergencies aren't much fun and rarely pay very well. Others would listen on headphones all the time if only they sounded better than speakers, and for some people, and some speakers, they do sound better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 They are street driven, name recognition, consumer quality headphones. The price are driven up the same way kids are willing to kill for a set of Nikie Sneakers and they have a strong loyal following that has nothing to do with quality or reality. I had two recent encounters at work with individuals who proved this to me. One was from a younger guy who works for me and he was talking about how he wished he had the money for a set. I told him for $300 you could buy the finest studio headphones on the market, and he blew that off as unacceptable. I tried to explain to him, pro studio headphones are what the musicians who record the music use and have to be a step above all consumer junk in order to make that junk sound good, but his mind was closed to understanding what I was trying to explain. The second instance was an older lady at work who bought a set for her son. I attempted to explain to her about her buying into the hype and explaining how she could have done better buying pro grade, and she snapped my head off. You see her son is totally convinced they are the best, and she believes her son. She doesn't know jack about technology. She bought them because hew son highly valued them and she was buying them as a status symbol, a badge of quality. She could care less how they actually sounded. No one was going to impugn her decision to buy them because it threatened her belief in her sons good judgment. That's what I call branding loyalty. When you can get ignorant people to believe something's great even though they have never done a comparison with other brands, it goes beyond reality. People aren't buying a useful device because its based on quality. If they were they would have cone all kinds of comparisons to make their decision. Instead its all about buying a status symbol to elevate your status. Add to that, because the price is high enough and because everyone who doesn't have them believes they are worth that money, those who buy them will never admit they were duped into falling for the hype. Its an ego thing that made them buy them and its an ego thing that prevents them from denouncing the hype because they know they will be trounced by all those wanting what he has. Its a vicious cycle many marketers have refined to an art. I think it began in the past with the toy manufacturers through focused targeting of children. The Beany Baby craze and others where parents were getting beat up in stores to get them for their kids who drove their parents nuts begging for them. It was then adopted by companies like Apple to revitalize their company when they were nearly bankrupt. The headphone thing is just the latest version of a mass marketing focused on a specific gullible age group who don't know jack about the technology but are made to believe they know it all and cant be convinced otherwise. It will move again of course. I think this one is already passed its peak and someone will use the same techniques to sell some other piece of worthless junk. Look at how many house wives have bought Shammy towels, Ginsu knives and the like because their daily soap operas were inundated with targeted advertising. Today its just moved to the internet and is targeting facebook and forums. People are just living in an alternate internet reality as a form of escape. The movie the Matrix really isn't that far fetched when you figure out where they got that idea from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davd_indigo Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 I think it's very simple. I don't know how many times I've seen on TV an NBA player walking by the camera (on their way to the locker room before a game I believe) with those iconic "B" logos on their headphones. The sheep, I mean people who see this and end up buying them don't care about the quality or price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 My man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Iamthesky Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 So it's just like Monster cables, then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nat whilk II Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 Yeah, it's just the buzz factor, the name, the cool factor, etc. But ya know, I try not to get too snooty about it. I mean, who has time to be an expert about everything you buy, everything you buy into? My brother-in-law is appalled at what I buy for olives. Ok, I'm not an olive expert. Must he roll his eyes? Must I roll my eyes when he says he thinks Ayn Rand is a great writer? I may be tempted to do so, but I really should refrain. I know good headphones from bad, yeah, but there's a world of things I'm just as clueless about as the next guy. We're all just the next guy on a zillion topics, and maybe a bit of an expert on a very few. I mean it's okay to knowledgeably dislike a product or an artistic attempt or other, and it's great to know what you're talking about. But it's also way cool to just be the next clueless guy. Seeing as how we all are, anyway, about most things. nat whik ii Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 3, 2015 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 What I'm hearing from these responses, and it makes sense, is the simple and obvious answer is Beatz customers aren't buying headphones. They're buying a piece of clothing that is fashionable, makes a fashion statement, and oh yes by the way, it even plays back music. Now, I have a set of Beatz headphones. Don't laugh. I realized a few years ago more people were listening to music on headphones than on speakers, so just as I had multiple speakers to get an "average" back in the day, I have multiple sets of headphones. So I reality test with the Beatz to hear what excessive bass sounds like, Ultrasone to hear what excessive treble sounds like, and KRK 8400 (thanks for turning me on to those, Phil) so I know what something will sound like on a typically decent system. I'm starting to think that just like everyone had Auratones to reality-check a mix, these days we need a pair of Beatz hanging around... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Notes_Norton Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 They sell McDonald's hamburgers don't they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 Integrity! = D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 Technically speaking, the trade name is Beats. How that ever happened, I don't know. Dre must have worn out the z on his keyboard. (Or he couldn't figure out how to 'correct' the voice recognition and just decided to go with the flow.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 I've shot one, too. Existentially speaking, it wasn't a very satisfying experience. Er, wait... would that be 'experientially speaking'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 3, 2015 Members Share Posted June 3, 2015 I think I can dial in a boom-hump pretty easy. That said, I've heard that there is no one 'Beats sound' to their headphones, that like a certain trendy, hard-marketing upscale consumer audio company, there doesn't seem to be a consistent sound design ethos giving an overall consistent sound -- although, of course, most everyone mentions 'bassy'... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted June 4, 2015 Members Share Posted June 4, 2015 I have no idea how many have been sold but you do make a good point. The more people who use them the easier it gets to target a mix to a specific playback system. Its surely allot easier to target one set of headphones then ten thousand different speaker systems all having their own unique humps and valleys in frequency response. I wouldn't doubt the bass bump of the Beatz accommodates the rap music mixes we hear today with its open kick bong happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 They sell McDonald's hamburgers don't they? Yeah. You got people hatin' on others who buy Beatz/Beats and calling them "sheep", but if they then run out and buy stuff at McDonald's or Subway and drive BMWs and use iPads and listen to Ariana Grande and drink Schlitz and think that their political party is all good but the others are not and on and on, is that so different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 So what DO they sound like? How would you describe them? Are they simply bass-heavy but otherwise sound alright? Or is there more to it than that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geoff Grace Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 I'll start with the obvious by stating that all we can do here is speculate since none of us are Beats customers or mind readers. That said, it's my observation that one trend often follows as a reaction to the previous trend. For instance, punk rock was a reaction to progressive rock. In this case, we have a generation weaned on ear buds, which in my experience are pretty tinny unless they're seated just right in the ear canal. Even then, they're not exactly bass heavy. For them, I would think that the bass they hear in Beats headphones is something of a revelation. Best, Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 Never cared for headphones, earphones even less. i use em only when I have too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 Yeah. You got people hatin' on others who buy Beatz/Beats and calling them "sheep", but if they then run out and buy stuff at McDonald's or Subway and drive BMWs and use iPads and listen to Ariana Grande and drink Schlitz and think that their political party is all good but the others are not and on and on, is that so different? Um... when the heck did Schlitz become cool? I mean, I used to drink it because I could get the glass talls relatively cheap at my local market... but no one else did and it all went away. Has someone 'revived' the worn brand name? Have they reinvented it as a 'craft brew'? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted June 5, 2015 Members Share Posted June 5, 2015 I'll start with the obvious by stating that all we can do here is speculate since none of us are Beats customers or mind readers. That said, it's my observation that one trend often follows as a reaction to the previous trend. For instance, punk rock was a reaction to progressive rock. In this case, we have a generation weaned on ear buds, which in my experience are pretty tinny unless they're seated just right in the ear canal. Even then, they're not exactly bass heavy. For them, I would think that the bass they hear in Beats headphones is something of a revelation. How many of us listen extensively to hip-hop? Hip-hop liikely sounds far more flattering than the Beatles with Beats. Anyway, it's largely about fashion, as others have pointed out. Regardless, I'm not too into earbuds or headphones, and I'm not generally fashion-conscious, so I'm the wrong audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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