How Beats by Dre played you like a fool • Hacker News Board

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#101

Post by bane » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:21 PM UTC

picks_at_nits wrote: post #96

bane wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying I'm not dumb at times. FWIW, I have a $20 pair of Sony unknown model # headphones I picked up at Ross. I bought them because they were over ear and cheap not because they're white, have Sony logos on them, or because I wanted to make a statement about what group I'm in or not in. But yeah, HN is also very group membership oriented and people spend extraordinary amount of time to build things with thing…

I don’t think it’s dumb at all. Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe. Just try doing a startup in Somalia.

> Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe.

That's utter fear driven rubbish. Humans survive and thrive all the time without joining a group.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#102

Post by mironathetin » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:22 PM UTC

72deluxe wrote: post #86

mironathetin wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, but apple computers have a great operating system and they do perform very well. Now read about the comparison of beats with other headphones - or listen yourself - and tell me where the match is? While Apple stuff has become a fashion statement, it also performs. Apple products look good because they are very well designed and made. Beats on the other hand don't perform, at least not sound quality wise. And the…

Oddly though, Beats are nowhere near cheap! For the daft money they throw at headphones with an inline EQ, they could get some great Beyerdynamic headphones that sound brilliant. Fashion over functionality. EDIT: Yep, I missed the point! Functionality = fashion. You can clearly tell I am not fashionable.

"Oddly though, Beats are nowhere near cheap!"

Point taken. True. Select an expensive fashion company instead.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#103

Post by icebraining » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:22 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #97

icebraining wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that personal identity formed, if not by social interaction? I think the dichotomy you refer to is illusory.

social interaction != group membership I think you're confusing the two.

I don't think the two are dissociable.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#104

Post by bane » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:22 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #59

creshal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> certain types of music - music listened to by young people Can I feel old now? Where's my lawn? > People aren't buying the headphones for the sound quality, they're buying it for everything else. I find this worrying, really. Are we so desperate to consume that we're willing to buy shit just for sake of buying?

Why is buying headphones based on their audio quality superior to buying headphones based on their aesthetics?

because headphones are for listening not for looking

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#105

Post by picks_at_nits » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #101

picks_at_nits wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s dumb at all. Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe. Just try doing a startup in Somalia.

> Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe. That's utter fear driven rubbish. Humans survive and thrive all the time without joining a group.

Where? Alaska in an old bus? Even there, humans benefit to a small degree from law enforcement that strongly discourages the next hunter from shooting them and taking their possessions.

There are some survivalists who may or may not be able to operate for a while on this basis, but even if they aren’t “joining” a tribe, they are protected by tribes. get rid of all the tribes, and new ones would spring up and we’d be back to this.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#106

Post by bane » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #76

coldpie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the ultimate in form-over-function: women's footwear.

And ties - what purpose do they serve other than social signals?

You'll notice that ties are (thankfully) finally starting to die out. I've just spent a few weeks in back-to-back meetings with very senior execs, and maybe 1 our of 5 people bothered with a tie.

Industry reports show that the neckwear business is hemorrhaging after peaking in 1995. Good riddance.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#107

Post by mironathetin » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

72deluxe wrote: post #84

picks_at_nits wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whilst I dislike Beats, I admire them a lot. They entered a market where every company was focusing on sound quality first Haven’t people been having this exact same conversation about Bose for decades? Shitty quality, but aesthetics, a few whizzy features, and a lot of marketing that breathlessly claims they “sound better?” Also Bang and Olufsen. Middling sound but beautiful aesthetics, and a price tag to make the…

"No highs or lows? That'll be Bose!" I jest...

no, Bose headphones sound much better … :o)

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#108

Post by teh_klev » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:33 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #59

creshal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> certain types of music - music listened to by young people Can I feel old now? Where's my lawn? > People aren't buying the headphones for the sound quality, they're buying it for everything else. I find this worrying, really. Are we so desperate to consume that we're willing to buy shit just for sake of buying?

Why is buying headphones based on their audio quality superior to buying headphones based on their aesthetics?

Because their main job is to reproduce sound in an acceptably accurate manner? Owning a pair of Beats is like owning a Ferrari or a Porsche powered by a 75BHP 1L engine with suspension made of play-doh. Nice to look but drives like crap.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#109

Post by adyus » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #101

picks_at_nits wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s dumb at all. Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe. Just try doing a startup in Somalia.

> Humans cannot survive without the protection of a tribe. That's utter fear driven rubbish. Humans survive and thrive all the time without joining a group.

Excluding hermits, living anywhere is living within a tribe.

The largest tribe is currently that which accepts a commonly defined currency in exchange for providing value of some sort.

Re: How Beats by Dre played you like a fool

#110

Post by lentil_soup » Thu, Apr 02, 2015, 1:36 PM UTC

mironathetin wrote: post #62

lentil_soup wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, Apple is the perfect fit for something like that. They've always taken "boring" hardware and made it a fashion/status statement. They've done this with PCs, phones, music players and now headphones.

Hey, but apple computers have a great operating system and they do perform very well. Now read about the comparison of beats with other headphones - or listen yourself - and tell me where the match is? While Apple stuff has become a fashion statement, it also performs. Apple products look good because they are very well designed and made. Beats on the other hand don't perform, at least not sound quality wise. And the…

Hehe yeah, was worried my comment would come off like that, not what I meant. Apple products of course perform very well, but they also share that fashion and design edge that these headphones seem to have.