Slashdot Mirror
Apple Reportedly Buying Beats Electronics For $3.2 Billion
An anonymous reader writes "Multiple publications report that Apple is undertaking its biggest acquisition ever, buying Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. The deal would give Apple control over the popular 'Beats by Dre' headphones as well as a new music streaming service. Analysts suggest the headphones will open up a new series of product lines for Apple, while the streaming service will jumpstart its efforts to compete with Pandora and Spotify, as iTunes' growth slows. 'If Apple wanted to, it could certainly have built a streaming subscription service itself; the company had been floating the notion of one with label executives in recent months. But it's possible that Apple's most recent attempts to extend its music business beyond the iTunes store helped convince Cook that he was better off getting outside help.' The deal hasn't been completed yet, but a candid video of Dr. Dre was posted to Facebook in which he appeared to confirm it."
Artificially-inflated bass crap. Do yourself a favor a get yourself a pair of real studio reference headphones like the venerable Sony MDR-7509s (for a lot less money too) if you want to hear what your music really sounds like. There's a reason that studios around the globe use these and not fuckin' Beats. Beats are a fashion accessory, not a critical listening device.
Amen! I finally had a chance to listen to music using Beats. To be fair I gave it a minute or two of listening and came to the conclusion the Sennheiser headphones I bought from Best Buy were much better and 75% cheaper.
Anonymous Cowards generally receive no replies because you're a coward and I'm a bitch
Bit rate != compression ratio. You can use 256kbps to carry well-engineered sound or over-compressed pop crap. The bits don't care.
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
-H.L. Mencken (paraphrased)
There are a lot of well-trained veteran engineers with good ears who have stated that they feel forced to jack the levels up, because that is what the record label demands, and if you go with your audiophile instincts instead of what the label demands, you find yourself out of work.
loudness war ftw!
Right. I continue to be baffled by people that will buy crappy headphones with some random musicians name on them and think they'll in any way sound good.
In speakers, size matters. Yes, you can get big crappy sounding speakers. But the one thing you'll never get small good sounding speakers. Laws of physics and all. This is also why Bose sucks and have been conning guys that watch infomercials for decades.
If you want affordable, good sounding speakers, you have to build them yourself. Get one of versions of these:
https://sites.google.com/site/...
They don't have a huge amount of bass, but I'm betting they will be the best speaker most slashdotters have ever heard. And you can put them together with wood glue, scotch tape and a soldering iron.
Don't know why you got scored funny, it's actually true:
He's a billionaire straight outta Compton -- or so Dr. Dre says, anyway.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.