I am about to see a brand that generates more controversy than Beats. Acquired by Apple for $ 3 billion, the company is always present in discussions involving prices vs. quality of headphones.
This superior quality that many (engaged in) audifilos say is lacking in Beats something very subjective for the lay public (I fit in here), which ends up generating an endless discussion. For now we have another chapter of this story that is worth sharing.
Based on two separate studies by the Lifehacker (technical analysis of sound quality) and by the company Bolt (disassembly of the equipment itself), the Gizmodo Brazil showed that there is indeed something at least questionable in the design of the company's traditional colored headphones.
Speaking of the technical analysis itself, Whitson Gordon (editor of Lifehacker who made an incurso in top-of-the-line headphones) disagrees with some audifilos. For them, Beats headphones are bad because the bass sounds are very heavy. For Gordon, the problem is that in addition to the low sounds being low quality, the medium and high tones are even worse.
According to Gordon, we can find other options on the market with a lot more sound quality (mainly in low sounds) paying a lot less. There are some recommendations for headphones that he believes are better than those of Beats in this post.
At Beats Solo, 30% of the product's weight comes from four pieces of metal; they are only there to give weight to the product.
In the Beats disassembly part promoted by Bolt (Beats Solo model), the conclusion was that the company tries to save in all aspects when making the headphones, uses generic drivers (components of the speakers) that could be used by any pair of headphones on the market and uses metal components to add weight to the product, in order to give a more premium to him.
On the first point, I really disagree with the analysis. Every company wants to save on the manufacture of its products in order to maximize the profit margin and this is not wrong at all. Apple, for example, tries to save as much as possible when making its products and yet, most of the time (with the exception of cases like the new MacBook's 480p FaceTime camera), the end result is an undeniable quality product, with a very positive experience of use.
The big question here is whether this savings reaches the point of compromising product quality. And by the looks of it, it was the one that Beats got involved since the construction of the product itself does not seem to match the superior quality speech. Just out of curiosity, Bolt estimated the cost of manufacturing the Beats Solo at $ 16.89, while the product sold to the public for $ 200. It is undeniable that the company's marketing has managed to build its own style, a brand that is highly desired by many as well as Apple. The difference really seems to be in the delivery of the final product.
Leaving aside all this technical analysis and taking into account our experience in the real world with these products well, unfortunately at least among the members of the MacMagazine the news is also not good.
THE Michel Duarte already had problems with both the Beats Pill XL and the Powerbeats2 Wireless headphones. He recently swapped the wireless headphones for a brand new pair that, days later, also had a problem.
I also have a Powerbeats2 Wireless and I am suffering from a battery problem (it "dies" out of nowhere and "comes back to life" when it wants to). THE Rafael Fischmann he has also had problems with his old Beats Solo (which probably all came off due to sweat); we have to point out, however, that his Powerbeats2 Wireless, bought next to mine, works perfectly and never presented a problem.
Unfortunately, as you can see, we had a headache with several Beats products. To make matters worse, some models like Beats Pill XL and Powerbeats2 Wireless are not supported here in Brazil as they are not marketed here. That is, if you buy one of these out there and it has a problem, there is nothing to do but wait for a next trip or take advantage of a friend to try to solve everything.
In my opinion, the big issue here is not the quality of Beats itself, there is no problem in purchasing a mediocre product (of average, common, average quality). The problem is to pay dearly (in fact, very dearly) for a supposed superior quality combined with style / brand, but that apparently does not exist.
In addition, I would very much like to see this analysis being done also on headphones from brands that are recognized as being of high quality.
