So Apple Has Bought Beats

[Agent_47]

Big deal. People that know anything about good audio reproduction already avoid Beats and iPods anyway.

Dre is not laughing to the bank, Monster is.

Beats processing sucks. Takes all the dynamic range out of the music. Their earbuds and headphones are truly awful. The bass response is like an elephant queefing into a mud puddle. Sounds like you're listening through a paper bag.

I've never heard of Beats reducing dynamic range. Most music being produced today is already dynamically crushed anyway - what they call 'brickwall mastering.'

Studio monitor headphones are supposed to be as neutral as they can - hence why audiophiles spend big bucks on Sennheiser, Grado, AKG, Denon, Stax, Beyerdynamic, etc. And typically you'll see them get outboard DAC's to go with it.

The idea of Beats being anything close to a studio monitor is like saying a Toyota Prius is a Ferrari. It's not even in the same league.

I have Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones which are not really all that neutral, but which sound outstanding for their price point.

As for bad mastering, one way to avoid it is to buy vinyl. If you don't want to spend the time or money getting into vinyl, go to websites like HDTracks or AcousticSounds and track down the 'audiophile' high resolution masterings.

Spend some time over at head-fi.org or Hydrogenaudio's forums.

 

[Robin]

I've got SHURE monitor headphones and they re totally neutral and also sound epic for the price point. The general pop has gotten used to massively overdone bass and they associate that with premium audio quality

They invented 'that' iconic American microphone, that's audio pedigree... not some 90's rapper!