Headphones With Swagger (and Lots of Bass

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This is the new reality. This is the new normal in being an audiophile.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres-business-world.html?_r=1&ref=technology

[Audio Empire]

On Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:29:36 -0800, wrote
(in article >):

> This is the new reality. This is the new normal in being an audiophile.
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres-
bus
> iness-world.html?_r=1&ref=technology
>
>

Nah, this really has nothing whatsoever to do with "being an audiophile".
This is the same mentality that gives us the small Japanese coupe that you
can "feel" coming down the street from blocks away; the incessant, gut
wrenching, sickening, 80 Hz, one-note, thump that causes the auto from which
this disgusting sound emanates to literally blur with each beat while some
mindless ghetto troubadour tries to see how long of a laundry list of words
that rhyme with "ho" that he can string together before taking a breath. Just
as rap and hip-hop don't meet the minimum standards for the definition of
music for most of us, these brain and ear-numbing "thumper" systems
(including these new headphones) don't meet the minimum requirements for
being called audiophile systems either. They may give their
quickly-becoming-deaf owners a great deal of pleasure with their 120 dB+
sound levels inside the car, but they can hardly be called high-fidelity.

[bob]

On Nov 19, 7:29pm, wrote:
> This is the new reality. This is the new normal in being an audiophile.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr...

My nephew listens to something called Skull Candy. I don't think he
chose it for its sound quality.

bob

[dave a]

On 11/19/2011 4:29 PM, wrote:
> This is the new reality. This is the new normal in being an audiophile.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-d=
res-business-world.html?_r=3D1&ref=3Dtechnology
>
>

from the article:

"Beats by Dr. Dre =93set off a free-for-all among companies entering the=20
category, many of which relied on celebrity endorsements or style, as=20
opposed to focusing on audio quality per se,=94 said Ross Rubin, the=20
executive director of industry analysis at NPD.

=93What Beats did,=94 Mr. Rubin added, =93was dramatically expand the mar=
ket=20
and make the price premium acceptable, as much as for the design and the=20
brand as for the audio quality.=94
"

Hasn't that been the status quo in the high end market for decades?=20
Style and high price over quality and value? Hats off to Dr. Dre for=20
recognizing the trend and making the most of it.