Why do some people hate Beats Audio?

[adamjamess]

I've read on many forums that people prefer to turn off Beats audio or install 3rd party equalizer software. Some others dismiss it as useless technology. I like Beats audio on my HTC phones and have a set of Beats earbuds and they sound awesome! Can anyone enlighten me as to why I would want to turn off Beats audio? or why I should dismiss it as a pro to buying a device?

 

[tofu.]

I've read on many forums that people prefer to turn off Beats audio or install 3rd party equalizer software. Some others dismiss it as useless technology. I like Beats audio on my HTC phones and have a set of Beats earbuds and they sound awesome! Can anyone enlighten me as to why I would want to turn off Beats audio? or why I should dismiss it as a pro to buying a device?

unfortunately, it has a built in equalizer that you cannot disable. these 8x phones supposedly have a second amp. i'm not sure how powerful said amp is, and whether or not it is active all the time, or only when beats is enabled. personally, i see no reason why they'd have two amps, so i'm assuming the special "amp" htc is promoting is always active, and enabling beats just turns on the equalizer.

seems to me that "beats" was just tuned for low quality pop/hip hop mp3s or streams. it's a rough V shaped equalizer and sounds like crap IMO


edit: if you want to test this for yourself, use your headphone jack as a line out and enable beats while connected to your car or stereo aux input; it will sound atrocious. normally double amping doesn't sound HORRIBLE, but in this case (due to the beats EQ), it's embarrassingly bad.

 

[jaethos]

I was surprised by how much I liked having the Beats mode active, I usually don't use any sort of equalizer on my music players. Also, it sounds great hooked up to the aux port in my car. In the end, use what you like, music and sound preference is very subjective.

 

[Brandon619]

I like the Mode for my Movies, IE: Tron Legacy in 720p with Enchanced audio on HTC 8X's sexy screen my god!!! and music here and there.

 

[Willyman]

The Beats Audio mode does nothing but linearly boost the gain by a few dB's plus add a bass and high mid boost EQ. The WOW effect when you turn it on mostly comes from the gain.

Edit: just to say there's nothing clever going on.

 

[busngabb]

The criticisms about the sound produced above are a bit silly to be honest. It sounds a lot better through headphones and is genuinely impressive. It also sounds fine out of a car stereo through the aux input, certainly sounding better than with it turned off.

My only criticism is how unstable the software is. It is the Beats software that causes the cracking noise on the 8X. Any incoming calls or notification sounds make the software produce the horrible cracking sound so many moan about on here. Turning it off and back on fixes it.

If MS or HTC fix that, great, if not it is a shame as Beats audio is a definite plus on a phone for me, ot improves the headphone performance dramatically. An update to make it possible to change the settings would be good though.

 

[ImAdrian23]

Probably becase they think expensive = not the best, but that only applies to Dell's Alienwares and Apple's products.

I love my 8X's Beats Audio .

 

[igoramadas]

Although I don't hate the Beats Audio brand (and whatever they have put inside the 8X), I do hate the Beats headphones sh*t loads because these have a terrible sound signature yet are "marketed" as being hifi cans. It's just a big and bassy boooooooooom with nothing else left to be experienced.

 

[SaucePolicy]

I'm no audiophile, but I think my music sounds much better with Beats on my 8X compared to listening for years to an iPod Touch. I'm hearing things I've never heard or noticed in songs. And this is with a crappy $15 pair of jlabs jbuds and mostly 192-320 bitrate mp3s. I could see why people don't like the Beats headphones though since they seem wildly overpriced, like you're just paying for the name.

 

[Nophix]

As an audio nerd, it just sounds too overdriven. Extra gain and eq shifts in weird places make the sound unrealistic.

That being said, its more of an issue in their overpriced headphones than on my 8x. I use my Etmyotics or Sennheisers and it doesn't sound bad. Much better than my Galaxy S2.
Sent from my PM23300 using Board Express

 

[Villain]

simple answer: It's popular to hate popular.

 

[xenomorph1030]

For me, it distorts the music to the point where it sounds like it is a low quality stream. I don't see it as a plus, but I'm glad it can be disabled.

 

[juanitoriv]

I LOVE the Beats. I've been a sound man, DJ, musician, emcee since I was 8, so for 27+ years. I've done everything from Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, P-Funk, hip-hop, punk to jungle/D&B. Everything. Now when I first tried it. There was midrange kind of muffled. But the more I used it, on average 10-12 hours of music a day with at least one bud in. May just be my imagination, or just my new Skull Candy 2.0's, but the sound seemed to fill out with use, then a whole LOT just bumping the quality a few points (30+/-) when I next synced. But that's my experience. I hardly even hold the phone to my ear on a call. I love any phones/buds work for calls too!!

Tofu. Its a 2.55v amp.

http://www.windows-phone-news.com/2012/09/htc-8x-with-audio-amplifier-demo.html

Villain, you're right. Haters are gonna hate when you're doing good. Otherwise, they'd have nothing to be jealous and complain about. I say "Don't hate, congratulate.. And if you can, participate!!". But if they're gonna, let them. It's only their fault anyway..

 

[tofu.]

simple answer: It's popular to hate popular.

oh come on. That's just nonsense. Not everyone wants to hear boom boom boom in every single song.

if HTC wanted to do it right, they should have added an is integrated fully customizable eq and an option to turn your headphone jack from amplified to line level.

I admit most consumers will "wow!" when they hear a lot of bass and dynamics compression (tricking people into thinking the recording is suddenly louder and more instruments are audible), bit that's all a gimmick. It is especially bad when you take into consideration that most popular consumer headphones are already extremely bass heavy and colored. You don't need your software doing that for you too.

 

[JerseySal]

Some people think it's gimmicky and believe Dr Dre is not not gay. I think Beats sounds good.

 

[juanitoriv]

Well, that's the nicest thing about choice I guess. Nobody said you HAVE to have it..

 

[americasteam]

Because it sounds horrible.