I've owned about 75 headphones. Is that broad enough?
Edit: BTW, some of my headphones, experts would say are not hi-fi, but where the experts are hard-headed and refuse to use EQ, I use it. I think that helps people more, more friendly.
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Gonna get the Dr. Dre Beats MIXR headphones to see how..
- Thread starter HiFiGuy528
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I've owned about 75 headphones. Is that broad enough?
Edit: BTW, some of my headphones, experts would say are not hi-fi, but where the experts are hard-headed and refuse to use EQ, I use it. I think that helps people more, more friendly.
It's simple to understand you're a smug, intolerant finger wagger who confuses his opinions for facts.
I see that you prefer attacking people rather than bad designs. Is this forum tolerant of personal attacks?
I see that term "voiced for hip hop" or whatever, but how does a coloration really favor that genre? A neutral headphone will reproduce whatever is on the track, the way the producer mixed it. Coloration- free means unbiased.
Again, how do you know it's a bad design if you haven't heard it? I'm not attacking anything other than the idea of assuming you know each item from a brand simply by that brand's reputation overall. I understand you have tons of experience with headphones and that your preference goes counter to what the Beats line generally professes. But the simple fact is that you still haven't heard these headphones.
As I said, when Apple gets them in I will test them. Nobody asked me to test the 2 models they have now, but I did it anyway because I thought it was the responsible thing to do. What I won't do however is order headphones in the mail when I think the likelihood of keeping them is low. I think that's dishonest. I can't afford to order everything.
BTW, it would be more ideal to have forums split into hi-fi and non-hi-fi, but I can see why people don't want to do that, so in the meantime there you are.
"No attitude" is the motto here and you just ooze of a condescending attitude. You take yourself SO seriously, you remind me of Romy the Cat but without the saving humor.
One other note to clarify confusing opinions with facts. I grew up on the streets. I can't think of a person type I don't like unless they're irresponsible and acting out of what's permissable in their space. I like all religions and political points of view. Really. But at the same time I have a clear picture about what high fidelity means on the final end of the chain, i.e. speakers and headphones. I advocate for high fidelity and oppose deliberate coloration. But you can see from my list below and my reviews that I make a big tent that's inclusive of a wide variety of opinion in headphone manufacturing.
You don't know the first thing about me, but I think you're going to find out who is tolerant and who isn't.
spl225
Super Member
It's not like rap songs are recorded on the Mapleshade, Chesky or VTL labels. The last word in sound quality is not the goal. Don't forget that the typical buyer of Beats headphones isn't someone into high end audio. They don't care about neutrality. They don't know anything about audiophile recordings, fidelity to the original, power conditioning, after-market power cords, tube microphone consoles, high quality interconnect, acoustics, DAC's, etc. All they know is what sounds "good" to them and if Beats are better than anything they've heard up until now, then Beats it is. It's the same as the Bose debate. For some people, it's the cats meow because it's the best they've heard.
I reviewed headphones with just an ipod and the headphone, and got severely beaten up on by senior members of headfi for that. So I posted that the ipod was sufficient to tell the signature differences between headphones, never mind all the fussy details like "prat" or whatever. But to no avail. The elitists there who were close to the top dog continued the berating.
C'est la vie, huh? I argue mostly that there are matters of principle and matters of fact. Hi-fi is a principle and Beats is a fact. I find it more helpful to forum members here, who *BTW* are not the people you note above, to try to correlate the two. I also find it ironic that a person with 'Hifi' as their nym would argue against hifi as a governing principle.
Tube Radio
Super Member
As did I and came to the same conclusion.
Have you tried to plug in your Rezound to your stereo with the beats audio processing on? I did and didn't like the sound at all.
I think the beats headphones were made to how Dr. Dre thinks music should sound.
When I tried the different Beats at the Apple store, I thought to try out the different EQ settings with iphones, since they were simple settings and the headphones were configured for Apple devices anyway. I didn't find any setting that would work well with either the on-ear or over-ear Beats because of where the rather large emphases occur in each headphone. I think one or both of these models has the potential for good clean sound if an EQ setting can be found that matches up with the main frequency response emphasis or de-emphasis. I didn't find it myself though.
Tube Radio
Super Member
Only reason I use the phones that came with the Rezound is because the mic is better than the internal mic of the Rezound.
Speakerbox
Super Member
Lots of talk, good & bad about Beats headphones. I'm gonna buy one to try. I like the good looks of the MIXR headphones. I'm gonna see how good or bad it really is compared to ones in my collection. Anyone here has a Beats headphone?
So, are they worth it??
They ARE some sharp lookin headphones. They look way better than the Studios.
I bought the Beat Tours, hardly listen to them.
I bought the Power Beats. I honestly like them. They sound better than my Klipsch S4's. I wasn't happy with them because I was expecting "bass head" buds, while hitting the gym. But they don't do that. But they sound suprisingly good.
The Ultrasone cans are on my wish list. HiFi 580's, but in no hurry. Just curious.
spl225
Super Member
I don't think it's bad for any audio enthusiast to try any of the Beats headphones line for themselves so he/she can decide if it's the headphones for them. Dre isn't marketing the headphones as "audiophile" or "Hi-Fi" so I'm not gonna flame him for making a product that may not meet those expectations/standards. My short experience with the Beats MIXR headphones so far is not all that bad. If you take into count the features, build quality, industrial design, accessories, sound, and looks, it's not all that bad for the asking price of $249. At least he is not rebranding a headphones like some celebrity is doing with a manufacture. Just trying to have an open mind and deciding for myself.
I think this is all the argument boils down to- give 'em a listen and decide :thumbsdn::thmbsp:. If you don't like them, don't buy them. Yeah, they're more popular than Stax, but high quality headphone manufacturers
don't have to worry because most of their target market aint interested in Beats. Pride of ownership and exclusivity factor into the high quality headphone market.
LazySounds
Active Member
I have been out and about this morning, walking around the neighbourhood, about two hours picking up some essentials (COFFEE), looking through the record bins at the local thrift store etc, stopped for donuts and coffee.
The whole time I have been wearing a set of borrowed Beats Pro's, listening to mostly minimal and progressive house, purchased from BeatPort over the last couple of weeks.
It has been a really good listening experience (NOT HIFI), the Pro's are growing on me, certainly a much better sounding headphone than the studio's.
Still the Pro's retail for close to SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS here in Melbourne Australia, I very much doubt that I could justify spending SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS on these cans.
They do become more comfortable over time, I think it's because they actually force your head in to a new shape that better suits the Beats Pro design
I like to think of myself as moderately immune to marketing etc, but I'm not.
When I returned my Beats Studio's due to the sound enjoyment to dollar spent ratio being all f%^&ed up, I really felt a bit sad that I don't like them more, in fact I wanted to like them more, I felt slightly compelled by a mixture of cool design and clever marketing to try to like them more.
Even now I find it hard to explain the "Beats" allure.
The whole time I have been wearing a set of borrowed Beats Pro's, listening to mostly minimal and progressive house, purchased from BeatPort over the last couple of weeks.
It has been a really good listening experience (NOT HIFI), the Pro's are growing on me, certainly a much better sounding headphone than the studio's.
Still the Pro's retail for close to SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS here in Melbourne Australia, I very much doubt that I could justify spending SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS on these cans.
They do become more comfortable over time, I think it's because they actually force your head in to a new shape that better suits the Beats Pro design
I like to think of myself as moderately immune to marketing etc, but I'm not.
When I returned my Beats Studio's due to the sound enjoyment to dollar spent ratio being all f%^&ed up, I really felt a bit sad that I don't like them more, in fact I wanted to like them more, I felt slightly compelled by a mixture of cool design and clever marketing to try to like them more.
Even now I find it hard to explain the "Beats" allure.
Tube Radio
Super Member
They do look nice.
HiFiGuy528
Super Member
The MIXR is really good at Rap/Hip Hop music and some Metal. The mids for very forward and the mid-bass is tight. Highs are surprisingly smooth, not hash at all. It has an exciting sound. I compared it to my favorite Rap headphones the Sony MDR-XB700. The XB700 sounds dull in comparison, but the bass pounds more. Listening to an old school Dj Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince album right now. It brought me back to the 80's. More to come.
I think this is all the argument boils down to- give 'em a listen and decide :thumbsdn::thmbsp:. If you don't like them, don't buy them. Yeah, they're more popular than Stax, but high quality headphone manufacturers
What it comes down to for most people who listen to a variety of music is, that this type of headphone is a one-note device that doesn't work well with a variety of music. So if you close yourself off from the world and say "I don't want to listen to anything except ...... then it will work for that one thing. But even then (!) I've noticed quite a variety of sound in rap and hiphop for example, some tunes having strong bass and some weak bass for example, and a headphone that's not neutral will tilt the bass one way or another, making the one tune more pleasant and making the other much worse than it was.
So no matter how you play it, colorations in the headphone don't really help. You'd be much better off using EQ, or getting a better equalizer to compensate for whatever deficiencies you hear in certain music tracks. There is no such thing as "This genre sounds a certain way, so I can use the same distortion on all tracks."