How good is actually Beats headphones?

Noxia said:
I'm not talking about the sum of it's components. In that respect you could argue most things are over priced. I'm talking purely about those who jump on the bandwagon without ever testing them the same way they would other headphones.
I just jumped on head-fi and lo and behold there are people raving about various models who also own 'audiophile' headphones. As one review title said, "It's simply popular to hate Beats".

I don't take much heed of review, less so for audio equipment, too many factors.

Disclaimer: Never listened to a pair.
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Maybe some of newer Beats aren't bad, but it's rather unlikely that you can't find better headphones for clearly cheaper.
You have to remember such "makers" are just after maximal profits by using fashion and branding.
(just like Razer/Roccat/SteelSeries and Co)

While traditional audio makers have had to justify their pricing by sound and built quality...
And every single new product of them will be compared to earlier established products.
If AKG/Beyerdynamic/Sennheiser etc took some dozen bucks worth bass boom garbage and added 900% of profit to price sticker people would "rip them a new one".
 
Beats were overpriced and crap. Now they're overpriced and not bad. Still difficult to recommend them unless the priority is form over function.

I wouldn't look too much in to BOM costs , its not like the bom cost of a pair of high end phones from sennheiser or AGK is going to be much more than a pair of beats pro, for example. Certainly nothing against the purchase price any way
 
^
I'd love to know how HiFiMan can justify the $6,000 price on the Susvara, now that really is price gouging :D
 
james.miller said:
I wouldn't look too much in to BOM costs , its not like the bom cost of a pair of high end phones from sennheiser or AGK is going to be much more than a pair of beats pro, for example. Certainly nothing against the purchase price any way
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In theory Sennheiser have a far more advanced manufacturing process for their higher end products than the likes of other mainstream names that just slap them together on a largely automated production line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5es8zggYM7A
 
Rroff said:
In theory Sennheiser have a far more advanced manufacturing process for their higher end products than the likes of other mainstream names that just slap them together on a largely automated production line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5es8zggYM7A
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In theory, but it's still a bunch of people on an assembly line screwing plastic and metal parts together. Fair enough, Senn do crazy things like pair their drivers for the high end 'phones (and i've always wondered why you can buy the drivers singularly from Senn when they are supposed to be paired ? :confused:) but that doesnt add much to the BOM cost. Neither does having people hand assembling them rather than have them built on an automated assembly line - that's additional labour and burden.

Beats are own by people without a style and hearing capabilities.
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Come on now, if they were quality sounding headphones i doubt you'd be saying that. The black beats pros look great.
 
I heard so much bad opinion on beats, when i finally tried a pair they weren't half as bad as i was expecting (I dont remember which model though). I guess it comes down to music choice. Like I saw earlier in the thread, they are fun bassy headphones. I personally wouldn't have them as my all rounder headphone, but i could see them being a nice compliment to a balanced pair for people who like hip hop and bass music. Yes, they are probably overpriced. But they aren't the only headphone company guilty of this. And dare i say, i actually think they look quite good. Especially the black ones.
However, for my bass head fix. I went with sz2000's, which when paired with a powerful amp will shrink my brain. All in, probably about the same price as a higher end Beats. But i wouldn't wear them out and about. They are HUGE and really need to be plugged into a portable amp and not phone for the bass to shine above all else = bulky pockets for a hobbit like me :)
 
james.miller said:
In theory, but it's still a bunch of people on an assembly line screwing plastic and metal parts together. Fair enough, Senn do crazy things like pair their drivers for the high end 'phones (and i've always wondered why you can buy the drivers singularly from Senn when they are supposed to be paired ? :confused:) but that doesnt add much to the BOM cost. Neither does having people hand assembling them rather than have them built on an automated assembly line - that's additional labour and burden.
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The cost will normally factor components, assembly, after sales care etc. A high end audio EU based company that hand builds and tests every unit and offers in house repairs and service will generally pull a much larger cost.

Beats however with their cheap far east labour and mass assembly.. That's just brand name and profit margin. If they put a tiny amount back into R&D they could knock out a half decent set of headphones.
 
We're talking about the bill of materials here, not including Labour, burden or any other indirect costs which obviously are going to be higher when you choose to hand build something in Ireland and not china.
 
It's fairly irrelevant though. Almost any item deconstructed to its raw components is going to be worth a tiny amount of its rrp.
 
neil_g said:
It's fairly irrelevant though. Almost any item deconstructed to its raw components is going to be worth a tiny amount of its rrp.
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Especially if tighter component quality checking/testing isn't included in part price.

james.miller said:
(and i've always wondered why you can buy the drivers singularly from Senn when they are supposed to be paired ? :confused:)
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Are drivers sold per headphone model or just as general driver for multiple headphones?
They might do "binning" for drivers so that all drivers for higher end headphones are inside tighter tolerances.
 
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