Fake "Beats by Dr. Dre"...or are they real???

j chauvin

Well-Known Member
Was at my favorite neighborhood garage sales today.

Found a pair of "Tour" earbuds by "Beats by Dr. Dre"/Monstercable.

With full knowledge that fakes abound on CL and the bay, I bought them anyway. $1 was a good price for even fakes.

Well, before I gave them a listen, I checked out the websites that detail the differences between the fakes and the genuine Monster earbuds.

Well, according to the website, mine are half fake, half real. They appear to have a serial # on the plug -though I'm not sure it's actually a serial # -at least it's writing.

Also, my ink appears to be fine and not faded as these websites claim. I can't tell if the little silver part by the earbuds is actually chrome (real) or plastic (fake) since I don't have real ones to compare them to.

The plug on mine appears to be gold plated (fake), but it's a light shade if anything. I have to get in the right light and look closely to make sure it's gold. Then again, I am color blind -though I have no problems noticing gold plating on many other items -and don't recall actually having to look close in the right light to make sure which only means that I didn't notice before....

The original box also was not included, so I can't make a judgment that way.

How do they sound? Well, if they are fakes, they sound a heck of a lot better than the Sony MDR-EX55LP's I picked up a few months ago.

However, it isn't what I would call "audiophile" detail. Still, more pleasant and better sounding than the Sony's I've been using exclusively for the past several months.

Bass is, as expected, quite heavy. But the mids and highs are far more pleasant than the Sony's I find I have no need to set the custom EQ on my Creative Microphoto MP3 player.

Listening to what little Hip-Hop I have (actually what came on an identical Creative Microphoto I purchased for $20 off CL a couple months ago) seems to be a little more what I would expect or 'want' Hip-Hop to listen to -that is if I really wanted to listen to Hip-Hop -clean, dynamic and bass heavy. Not at all unpleasant. Fergie's "London Bridges" sounds heavenly! ;)

I don't have a heck of a lot of listening experience with earbuds in general, so I can't really comment as to how they compare to other quality models. I also wished I had a genuine pair of "Tour" earbuds to make a direct comparison.

They also seem to play quite a bit louder. Full volume on my Creative presents for volume that is just a tad bit too loud for normal listening, but I do like the fact that it's there when I want it -plus I can save a little on battery use as well as, probably, a bit better fidelity from the Creative as I'm not driving it at full throttle.

Overall, I'm happy with my fakes and will probably be using them instead of the Sony's at this point. And, if they're not fakes, I'm overjoyed.

So, while not fully certain that I have a pair of fakes or that I have a pair of genuine ear buds (I am leaning towards the fakes at this point...), I have to say that I think they are a heck of a deal at $1. Heck, I'd pay $5 for these things at a garage sale.

:D

j

(P.S. Any comments helping me identify how genuine these are will be appreciated by me as well as by anyone else evaluating these earbuds at a garage sale.)
 
I listened to some of my brothers full sized ones on my computer with some .flac files. Those things sounded GREAT!
You cant really go wrong for $1 i suppose
 
Most likely they are fake. I frequent China and I used to live there and I see MANY different versions of fakes around. The best thing I can tell you that if you are happy with them then that is all that matters. No one else will know your little secret :)

Aaron
thinksound
 
Most likely they are fake. I frequent China and I used to live there and I see MANY different versions of fakes around. The best thing I can tell you that if you are happy with them then that is all that matters. No one else will know your little secret :)

Aaron
thinksound

lol...china is the land of fakes! I got a pair of sennheisers at $2 but they only worked for 2 weeks and the sound was terrible!
 
Uhh-uh-Uhhhhh....I'm gonna TELL on you fer havin' FAKES !! (grin) But so what...If you like 'em, & they last longer than 6 months, I'd say you got yr money's worth...Several pairs that I've had end up getting pulled apart when I turn over 'em in bed...I snort, go to Wally-World the next day & buy another pair.
 
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