Monster Cable and Dr. Dre struck gold with the Beats brand, and even thou that collaboration is coming to an end (Wikipedia article) it has really showed the industry that there is more market to be conquered with both style and sound (or according to some, only style), I've read that they actually have a good size of the market share. The Beats brand popularity is so massive that it quickly turned it into a well recognized brand, currently it is being used by computer makers (HP) and mobile devices to leverages consumers with their audio quality (HTC, which BTW, also now owns 51% of Beats' shares).
The Beats by Dre brand has its fan robust base but also a good amount of haters, it is as divided as it could get, you either love it or hate it with all your guts; I believe the hate is fueled towards Beats by the given un popularity of Monster Cable, the later had previously 3 public PR mishaps, one specially nasty that involves them with false advertising when comparing the picture quality of a composite cable input with one of their HDMI cables at Best Buy stores.
Hoever, wether you like it or not, Beats by Dre is is here to stay, given the traction of the brand with public figures that implicitly collaborate with Dr. Dre.
Given their popularity, and the high number of sales some other rappers have also entered the headphone/earphone market with their own endorsed products:
50 Cent's SMS Audio is a company owned and founded by Curtis "50 cent" Jackson, they currently only produce over the ear headphones very similar to the Beats' Studios, with one model being wireless which uses proprietary technology to broadcast the sound from a dongle to the headphones.
I've read a couple of reviews and they are honestly very mixed, given its early age and mainstream nature, Head-Fi.org has not much information about them.
One thing to note is that 50 says that a part of every set of headphones they sell goes to charity.
Signeo's Souls by Ludacris is a line of products endorsed by Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges. Signeo is a Hong Kong based company that is fairly new, their are the makers of the iRiver lines of MP3 players. The products for their Soul brand include both on-ear headphones and earphones. Much like the initial models of the Beats.
It seems that Signeo's true weapon is price, all their products are significantly cheaper than both Beats and SMS, with their top of the line, noise cancellation on-ear cans at $200USD in the american market.
Again, with these, professional reviews are non-existant, although user reviews seem mostly positive.
If you read this article, you can tell that my stance on either of these brands is fairly neutral, the cost of this products is also diverted by the popularity of their endorsers, meaning you are also paying for their face and name on the box.
One cannot deny that there are more and better options that cost less out there but to their credit, they are reaching more mass market that any other brand before with better than average sound, for that, I do believe they deserve their success.
Wether you are an audiophile or not, if you are looking to upgrade or replace your current set of earhpones/headphones I recommend Head-Fi, it is a community of audiophiles that have very good and objective reviews on multiple audio equipment. Thou, some brands are not as popular as the ones I mentioned in the post, it could give you an idea of what you have been missing.
VVoltz out.
The Beats by Dre brand has its fan robust base but also a good amount of haters, it is as divided as it could get, you either love it or hate it with all your guts; I believe the hate is fueled towards Beats by the given un popularity of Monster Cable, the later had previously 3 public PR mishaps, one specially nasty that involves them with false advertising when comparing the picture quality of a composite cable input with one of their HDMI cables at Best Buy stores.
Hoever, wether you like it or not, Beats by Dre is is here to stay, given the traction of the brand with public figures that implicitly collaborate with Dr. Dre.
Given their popularity, and the high number of sales some other rappers have also entered the headphone/earphone market with their own endorsed products:
50 Cent's SMS Audio is a company owned and founded by Curtis "50 cent" Jackson, they currently only produce over the ear headphones very similar to the Beats' Studios, with one model being wireless which uses proprietary technology to broadcast the sound from a dongle to the headphones.
I've read a couple of reviews and they are honestly very mixed, given its early age and mainstream nature, Head-Fi.org has not much information about them.
One thing to note is that 50 says that a part of every set of headphones they sell goes to charity.
Signeo's Souls by Ludacris is a line of products endorsed by Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges. Signeo is a Hong Kong based company that is fairly new, their are the makers of the iRiver lines of MP3 players. The products for their Soul brand include both on-ear headphones and earphones. Much like the initial models of the Beats.
It seems that Signeo's true weapon is price, all their products are significantly cheaper than both Beats and SMS, with their top of the line, noise cancellation on-ear cans at $200USD in the american market.
Again, with these, professional reviews are non-existant, although user reviews seem mostly positive.
If you read this article, you can tell that my stance on either of these brands is fairly neutral, the cost of this products is also diverted by the popularity of their endorsers, meaning you are also paying for their face and name on the box.
One cannot deny that there are more and better options that cost less out there but to their credit, they are reaching more mass market that any other brand before with better than average sound, for that, I do believe they deserve their success.
Wether you are an audiophile or not, if you are looking to upgrade or replace your current set of earhpones/headphones I recommend Head-Fi, it is a community of audiophiles that have very good and objective reviews on multiple audio equipment. Thou, some brands are not as popular as the ones I mentioned in the post, it could give you an idea of what you have been missing.
VVoltz out.
