D.A. Wallach of Chester French checked in with his Twitter followers (@DAChesterFrench) a few hours ago, ripping Beats by Dr. Dre headphones (Monster Cable), and how Interscope Records asked artists on their label to wear the headphones in their music videos. Wallach’s Tweets seemed to indicate the group had been dropped by Interscope. He writes:
I generally use “wearing BEATS headphones” as a litmus test for whether someone is an idiot.
No disrespect to any of you who have been conned into purchasing them, but those Beats sound like sh**.
Way too loud, awful stereo imaging, insanely overpriced. REALLY nice box though. It probably costs $10 to make the box.
I fu**ing LOVE Dr. Dre. He is the greatest. But the headphones are not dope. They’re a marketing scam in my opinion.
Like lots of sh***y music, I respect the business behind it but not the integrity of the product. I see both sides.
And yes, it’s pretty uncreative that everyone is now copying and putting out headphones. Aren’t there other verticals to disrupt?
I use a bunch of diff headphones….The dude who runs Beats used to rep the Sony headphones, which I think are a classic fo bass / comfort.
The thing about audio is that there’s not “good” or “bad” really. There is “accuracy” but that doesn’t necessarily mean pleasure.
Sometimes I like headphones that give me a very honest picture of the sound field and when just listening I want whatever is most pleasant.
When we were on Interscope they asked every single artist to wear Beats in the music videos.
Some of the staff and I used to regard it as a ridiculous scavenger hunt to find them in absurdly out-of-context moments.
Look. There are tons of sh***y products out there. Most products are sh***y in the world. And lots are good businesses.
You just gotta decide whether you want to profit off bullsh** or greatness.
All this being said, I actually believe that hi-fi will come back. Sonos is a very interesting company to me for this reason.
