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Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

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Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#81

Post by cheald »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #80

The comments in this thread are similar to the comments in any Facebook related post on HN. Arrogant. People who likely haven't used the product for more than a few minutes have a concrete opinion on it. You may think Beats suck but they sell $500m of headphones per year. People clearly like the sound they produce even if you think it's shit and overpriced.

Beats was made popular by the Monster Cable marketing machine, who is specifically known for selling well-marketed overpriced crap. Claiming that they're good because they sell is silly.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#83

Post by rhizome »

scep12 wrote: post #25
state wrote: post #9

I cannot figure out any way to reconcile the incredibly poor quality of Beats products with a hopeful future for Apple. Can someone make the argument for why this is a good idea?

Some are speculating that Apple is more interested in the beats music streaming service. I'm not sure I buy that -- doesn't Apple nearly have its own? Even if they don't, surely they've got the foundation set to build one quite effortlessly.

Beats is EXTREMELY WELL positioned to be a major iTunes competitor without the overhead of computer hardware and software divisions. Not only that, but while Apple is cool, Dre is much, much cooler.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#84

Post by thomasf1 »

I could see one way that would make sense: To fix the iPhone 5C debacle. You want to reach lower level customers without tarnishing your main brand...

Beats could fit that profile. Just make the colors a bit brighter and the successor to the 5c cheaper.

Or sicking with the beats brand (style over quality): Why not use 4s internals ;)?

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#85

Post by SwellJoe »

baddox wrote: post #53
bherms wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality when applied to speakers and headphones is typically demonstrated by frequency response, with a perfectly flat response being the pinnacle. Headphones like Beats appeal to people who have only had bargain headphones (think a few bucks), and they do this by having attractive packaging and just basically amping up the bass response because bass has a "wow factor".

A flat response is rarely desirable, or at least rarely intended, except for equipment designed for audio production.

This is simply untrue. The best headphones, speakers, and amplifiers, are designed to faithfully reproduce the recorded signal. Anything that does something other than that is a poorly designed product, or a product that is intentionally misleading the consumer. Most cheap products accidentally fail at this goal. Beats products are intentionally designed to be cheap to manufacture, while being bass-heavy and overly bright on top, to disguise their poor quality.

A flat response is always desirable to the listener (whether they know it, or not). If the listener desires EQ (for a bass-heavy and bright experience), they can apply it before it goes out to the transducer. Old stereos used to have a "loudness" button to slap this kind of curve onto the audio, but all modern playback devices have EQ and such available. But, I'd recommend using good quality headphones and listening as the engineer and artist intended.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#86

Post by k-mcgrady »

cheald wrote: post #81
k-mcgrady wrote: post #80

The comments in this thread are similar to the comments in any Facebook related post on HN. Arrogant. People who likely haven't used the product for more than a few minutes have a concrete opinion on it. You may think Beats suck but they sell $500m of headphones per year. People clearly like the sound they produce even if you think it's shit and overpriced.

Beats was made popular by the Monster Cable marketing machine, who is specifically known for selling well-marketed overpriced crap. Claiming that they're good because they sell is silly.

It depends on how you define 'good'. They may not be good for listening to certain genres and they may not have a very balanced sound which a lot of audiophiles desire, but the sound they produce is clearly a sound people want and that is proven by how well they sell. They are not an impulse purchase, they are ridiculously expensive. If people really hated the sound most of them wouldn't buy Beats even with the marketing and fashion aspect.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#87

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

scottm30 wrote: post #45
state wrote: post #9

I cannot figure out any way to reconcile the incredibly poor quality of Beats products with a hopeful future for Apple. Can someone make the argument for why this is a good idea?

Purely speculating... Modular phones will create opportunities for high quality audio drivers for Android. Apple products are synonymous with quality audio, and Apple's success is partly attributed to it's investment in music technology. A brand like Beats which is popular with young audiophiles could potentially transform Android into a recognizable music platform if they provided a Beats audio driver and quality he…

> Apple products are synonymous with quality audio

Are they?

I like Apple products but the headphones really aren't great, certainly not for what you pay for them (looking at the prices for the headphones alone).

In that sense you might argue there is a certain synergy with Beats...

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#88

Post by akandiah »

balls187 wrote: post #48
Aqwis wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bose is a damn bad example as a premium brand to compare Beats to. Their consumer headphones are widely considered to be way overpriced and gimmicky. The brands Beats should really be compared to are Sennheiser, Shure, A-T, Denon, Beyerdynamic and the like. Any offerings from these brands at a price point from $100 and up offer at least as good sound quality as Beats' cans and for a much lower price, and many of thei…

Except their Noise Canceling line has been getting good reviews from many review sites.

Indeed! Their active noise canceling headphones actually retain the bass while removing the external noise. Other active noise cancelling heaphones tend to blunt the bass.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#89

Post by hessenwolf »

batiudrami wrote: post #56
cschmidt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit of an audiophile myself, so I wouldn't listen to Beats, but I do think "bad" is a value judgement. I want a neutral reproduction of the music, and I get that with my Grado's. The Beats customer wants lots of thumpy bass. We each get what we want.

This is exactly it - they give a 'fun' listening experience that people enjoy, and mistake for sound quality. They're paying a high price for a brand and experience, rather than for the quality of the components, like many other premium brands. I don't wear them, but I don't hate the people who do (though I'm not huge on Beats' "the way it was meant to sound/the way the musician intended" branding)

Quality is in the eye of the beholder, and there were several blokes sporting them on the U-bahn train this morning, all much cooler than me.

Re: Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

#90

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

winslow wrote: post #18

In my eyes, this paints Apple as just another "big company" making acquisitions that don't make sense. Maybe they are going to bundle all ipods with beats...? Not sure where they are going with this unless it's for the music service licensing agreements.

Which would be great if the iPod wasn't a decline market.

They can put them in with iPhones (adapted to include hands free) but I'm not sure how much that would influence people to buy an iPhone over something else.

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