Fancy headphones are the fashion rage nowadays which gives opportunistic counterfeiters something to feast on. One of the highly counterfeited headphones are the Monster Beats. The unsuspecting public looking to save a few bucks don't know what they're in for. Are the fake ones worth the trouble though? With the huge price difference (sometimes as much as 1/20th), are they worth it? Or should I say, are the REAL ones worth it?
At first, I was skeptical about purchasing anything with a Beats logo in it. I thought they were overpriced, powered by marketing hype. They also have a lot of negative reviews and there's outright hate against them. Plus there were a lot of fakes everywhere. But when I broke my nth pair of Apple earbuds, out of frustration, I decided to splurge and finally get my first Studios from an authorized dealer. After trying them out for a few days and burn them in, I was hooked. I can't imagine how much detail I was missing. Listening to music suddenly was like an ear popping experience. So the next logical step was going portable, hence, the Beats Tour earbuds.
I've had these 100% real Monster Beats Tour earphones for awhile and they're quite an amazing pair. I actually prefer them over my Studios because they don't leak sound as much and they have an amazing soundstage. Plus they're portable. But reading reviews online have been mixed. Some say they're horrible. Some say they're the best. Some say they have horrid quality. And most pretentious audiophiles shun and ridicule Beats to the extreme. What could be causing the polarized view of this product which I consider really good sets?
Well, the proliferation of counterfeit Beats might be causing some of the confusion. Some, looking to save some money, probably shop online on sites like Ebay or Craigslist and they're scammed into buying fakes which are advertised as real. Also, there's no such thing as OEM or straight from factory Beats. Real ones always go through Monster. To be safe about it, just buy Beats from authorized dealers, nowhere else. With this point, some Beats bashers probably haven't heard Beats before and are just joining in the audiophile bandwagon or they probably tested the fake ones. This got me curious and I decided to order fake ones straight from Hong Kong to settle once and for all the burning question, "Do the fakes sound as good as the real ones?"
I got my authentic black Tours through Amazon Prime (not through a 3rd Party Amazon Marketplace seller, there's a small chance these sellers could issue fake ones, too.). I ordered my fake white ones online (through a website which will remain unnamed) and it took almost a month for them to get delivered to me (they just came in a few days ago). I paid about 1/8 ($20) of the price I paid for my real Tours (about $150), $180 MSRP). And these are supposedly the higher-end fake Tours because they come with the packaging. Some fake Tours could go as low as $4!)
This album contains photos of the main differences I noticed. But these are all cosmetic differences. Counterfeiting, I would imagine, is like a cat and mouse game where the counterfeiters try and keep up with the changes of the authentic ones. So all these differences will change through time. But counterfeiters are also cheap so quality issues will always appear on fakes. Again, these differences are from what I received compared to the real ones I got, everything could change ultimately.
So, packaging and cosmetic differences don't really matter too much. What matters most is the SOUND. The sound is the main reason why we shell out for overpriced headphones, right?
Well, thankfully, the fakes don't sound nearly as good as the real ones. NOT EVEN CLOSE. I'm not claiming to be an audiophile, but the real Beats, even with the big bass coloring, have this precise, clear balanced sound which cuts through the low-end which make them tight and bassy but airy with an excellent dynamic soundstage. The trebles and mids feel like separate entities cooperating with the low frequencies without them ever muddying each other. It's almost like a 3-dimensional audio space where you could hear individual instruments positionally. I guess this where the money goes to, aside from the marketing costs and R&D... they actually designed real, honest-to-goodness, well-balanced and expressive dynamic drivers in these things! It's an amazing experience when you hear it and gives music some qualities you may haven't noticed before. Everything is so fluid, music expression comes to the forefront and you could actually feel subtle fluctuations in volume. I know there are a lot of good or even better headphones out there for this price, but they don't look as good as the Beats. ( I actually like what Monster did. They're not real audiophile respected gear but they elevated the price point for what the general public is willing to spend on headphones. They broke through and introduced high-end audio to the masses, making them gateways to other audiophile quality brands).
Now the fake ones are not that dynamic. One thing they have though is sheer loudness and terrifying bass. The bass on the fake ones is so overpowering they could easily drown out the mids and the highs which sometime suck out the detail out of the music. The bass on the real ones is expertly and tightly controlled. It's pleasant and it lets the music breathe. It is so tight you could actually locate it on the soundstage. On the fakes, the bass just booms on both earpieces so there's no real accurate positioning. It's just everywhere. Another thing about the fake ones is the narrow soundstage. Since they are not as dynamic as the authentic Tours, the soundstage is just limited to about five zones, hard panned right or left, center and sometimes, diagonal. Real ones have this almost expansive, continuous soundstage where you could uncannily position instruments.
Another thing with the fakes which is a big issue for me is the auditory fatigue they induce. Since the bass is so overpowering and you strain to hear the details, they cause you to tire out and just quit listening. With the real Beats, everything is so balanced, pleasant and exciting, you could listen endlessly, and you would think you can't just get enough of the sonic pleasures they provide.
These differences you probably can't tell if you haven't tested both, although I'm telling you, real Beats are expensive but with the awesome musical reawakening it could induce in you, they're totally worth it.
And would I recommend the fakes? Well, they're decent enough cans for under $25 if you like your sound bassy and loud but would you want to wear fakes and be ridiculed by anyone who knows better? There are a lot of authentic earbuds at the same price range. What I don't understand is why do these counterfeiters insist on going through great lengths making replicas if they could make decent products themselves? Why don't they just stamp them with their own brand? Well, marketing costs probably. And I have a feeling they consider it as great art making replicas. Or probably not. They're just out to deceive everyone for profit.
Add caption |