How Beats beat Monster in the rear end

[Fritzo]

for $400 I could get 3-4 headphones that are better vs 1 pair of Beats.

As to the second, yes past like $30 cans you aren't doing yourself any favors if you have a bad source.

$400 is their top of the line. Most people get the Solos and Studios, which are in the $100-$300 range. The performance in this line is as good if not better than similarly priced products.

 

[preslove]

Why would anyone agree to this?

Young Lee faced financial and familial self-destruction if he couldn't seal the deal. So he sealed whatever he could—what he says was "the most complicated contract [Interscope] had ever seen." And he faced it by himself, with his BA, against a phalanx of corporate lawyers who wake each day to do nothing but negotiate contracts that favor Interscope.

There can't be two winners. Monster solidified an agreement that got Beats Electronics alive and shipping headphones, but not without gigantic forfeit: Jimmy and Dre's side of Beats would retain permanent ownership of everything that Monster developed. Every headphone, every headband, every cup, every driver, every remote control—if there was a piece of metal or plastic associated with Beats By Dre, Noel and Kevin Lee surrendered it to Jimmy and Dre. Monster would also be entirely responsible for manufacturing the products—a hugely expensive corner of the deal—as well as distributing them. The heavy lifting. "I was a little intimidated by Dr. Dre," Kevin Lee admits over a child-sized portion of chicken noodle soup. Noel sits beside him without a word.

Why would they spend tons of money on engineering and nothing on legal fees? Idiots.

 

[momeNt]

Monster cables/monoprice is not relevant to the discussion on how beats fucked them in the ass, esp with regards to intellectual property.

Yea i see that now. Was just commenting on the two companies in general.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

$400 is their top of the line. Most people get the Solos and Studios, which are in the $100-$300 range. The performance in this line is as good if not better than similarly priced products.

The science says otherwise

http://www.digitalversus.com/headphones/beats-by-dr-dre-studio-p3981/test.html

At first listen, it's obvious that the bass has really been emphasised. Now, you may be into that, but at this magnitude it contorts the sound so much that we can't help but have our doubts. Either way, with a spectrum that jumps to 7 dB all the way from 100 Hz to 600 Hz, you have to fear the worst. And that's exactly what you get: the mids are entirely submerged under a sea of bass and low-mids, and the highs are far above any level of decency, with a 10 dB(!) peak at around 8 kHz.

There's not much you can do with a curve like this, even with an equaliser. But more important than the peak in the high end is that the excess bass sounds dull and dragging, and only increases your impression that certain sounds have been drowned out. And the exaggerated high-end creates a good deal of sibilance. One thing is for sure: there's zero audio precision here. And that's a real shame for a pair of headphones that's advertised as being a reference in sound quality (see inset).

The beats have terrible frequency respose that ephasize bass over everything else. I mean look at that graph. Its supposed to be a nice smooth slope, but its response is going EVERYWHERE.

They have the sound quality of headphones 3x cheaper.

Hell look at a Koss PortaPros which cost me about 30 bucks versus a monster beats at 200 dollars.

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID[]=1613&graphID[]=1383

Looks at those massive spikes on the frequency response.

 

[momeNt]

Why would anyone agree to this?



Why would they spend tons of money on engineering and nothing on legal fees? Idiots.

Because he put himself figuratively over the barrel.

Back to the kitchen. Monster went through "40 or 50 prototypes," and saddled itself with some extraordinary risk. Kevin admits his father "wasn't as gung-ho as [he] was" about the partnership. So he went behind his back and spent millions of dollars of Monster's money without anyone's permission. "We announced the [CES 2008] press conference, and I had already spent a million and a half dollars on engineering and marketing before we even had a signed contract."

Kevin was completely over his head, forging the future of his father's company without oversight, and really, without a sturdy clue: "At the time, we didn't really know what we were going to make, at what price points, [and] at what cost." Kevin Lee was building an entire electronics product line in secret before he had the business partnership to actually do anything with it. He was making Beats By Dre before Dre said he was allowed. And he was panicking. "It was beyond insubordination," says Kevin. "[I was going to] lose the trust of my father. I already had millions of dollars of inventory. He would have killed me."

He did so much at his own risk, anybody on the other side of the table would clearly take advantage of that, and it makes it worse that they were in a weak financial position so they were urgent to make a deal.

 

[Fritzo]

The beats have terrible frequency respose that ephasize bass over everything else. I mean look at that graph. Its supposed to be a nice smooth slope, but its response is going EVERYWHERE.

They have the sound quality of headphones 3x cheaper.

That's by design---bass is what young people crave in music today.

 

[Ns1]

That's by design---bass is what young people crave in music today.

Which does not equate to good performance.

 

[Juddog]

Monster's problem is monoprice and word of mouth saying you can spend $.10 a foot for HDMI cables not $25. Beats also targets parent's credit card with kids being a proxy. Adults are generally the ones buying cables. So there is differing levels of reasonableness between the two consumer bases.

Monoprice actually makes some pretty decent low cost headphones and speakers now too. There is a lot of buzz about them, in terms of bang for your buck.

 

[preslove]

Because he put himself figuratively over the barrel.



He did so much at his own risk, anybody on the other side of the table would clearly take advantage of that, and it makes it worse that they were in a weak financial position so they were urgent to make a deal.

Yup, an idiot.

 

[momeNt]

Monoprice actually makes some pretty decent low cost headphones and speakers now too. There is a lot of buzz about them, in terms of bang for your buck.

Yea I've started to notice that. I believe they offer a nice 8" woofer and some smaller bookshelves that sound very nice for their price. I heard their 12" woofer is a little muddled and not really worth buying though.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

haters got to hate if you can't keep up with the market gtfo

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That's by design---bass is what young people crave in music today.

The beats only EMPHASIZE the bass. They don't even necessarily produce an accurate base.

I don't understand how you can think they have good performance when they fail at almost every single frequency thats not the bass, and even then are iffy there.

 

[Juddog]

The beats only EMPHASIZE the bass. They don't even necessarily produce an accurate base.

I don't understand how you can think they have good performance when they fail at almost every single frequency thats not the bass, and even then are iffy there.

Because it's people listening to rap for half of their customer demographic (note that I'm pulling that figure out of my ass based upon personal observations only).

 

[Ns1]

Because it's people listening to rap for half of their customer demographic (note that I'm pulling that figure out of my ass based upon personal observations only).

seems accurate.

 

[momeNt]

Because it's people listening to rap for half of their customer demographic (note that I'm pulling that figure out of my ass based upon personal observations only).

They've maybe tried to emulate the rickety noise that the car doors, trunks, and joints make when extremely loud bass is played out of the trunk woofer.

Excellently designed cans if that's the case.

 

[andylawcc]

The beats only EMPHASIZE the bass. They don't even necessarily produce an accurate base.

I don't understand how you can think they have good performance when they fail at almost every single frequency thats not the bass, and even then are iffy there.

but the kids can't tell.

"Accurate bass? wtf is that, i just want to listen till my ears bleed" -says all the cool kids


and i am starting to feel sorry for Monster, yes, i said it.
and also HTC too, what have they done to the brand? one or two phones feature the "b" logo?
looks like Interscope is good at screwing asians on both ends of the deal. ;p

 

[Baked]

Audio-Technica for life! Mother@#$%!

 

[zerocool84]

I'd never buy Beats headphones but they marketed themselves really well. Good for them. That's what business is about.

 

[uhohs]

$400 is their top of the line. Most people get the Solos and Studios, which are in the $100-$300 range. The performance in this line is as good if not better than similarly priced products.

hah, no.

 

[zinfamous]

It really speaks to the incompetency of the guy running Monster. "Oh, we're debating a contract written up by a team of lawyers for a record company? Better send my son with his zero business training to hammer this one out." I'm shocked that didn't work out for them.

Remember the response letter from the BlueJeans cables CEO when Monster tried to sue them, claiming they owned the patent for the USB cable, or some shit like that?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I will stick with my custom IEM's.

 

[Koing]

I've had Monter Turbines for £150, Beats Tours for £140 and now I'm with my A jays for about £40? Love my A Jays. I can't stand non flat cables.

Koing

 

[Fritzo]

The beats only EMPHASIZE the bass. They don't even necessarily produce an accurate base.

I don't understand how you can think they have good performance when they fail at almost every single frequency thats not the bass, and even then are iffy there.

I think you have the impression that you put these things on and they sound like a pair of 1987 Koss miniphones from Radio Shack.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I think you have the impression that you put these things on and they sound like a pair of 1987 Koss miniphones from Radio Shack.

And I think you have the impression these are actually worth the money when all the science says that they're similar in audio quality to headphones that are a a 1/3 of the price.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

And I think you have the impression these are actually worth the money when all the science says that they're similar in audio quality to headphones that are a a 1/3 of the price.

Bose, Monster Cable, Beats, all 3 can be beat for both quality and price.