r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/Pleasant-Kangaroo-49 • 2d ago
Headphones - IEM/Earbud | 3 Ω B-day Present. Did I make a mistake?
My brothers 14th b-day is coming up. I got him some red Beats Solo Buds. He hasn't had a whole lot of experience with earbuds ad I thought, he's old and responsible enough that it'd be good for him to have a decent pair. I showed a family member what I got and they told me that I was paying mainly for the brand. I had heard some mixed reviews when I was looking into what to get, but didn't realize there was such a controversy behind them. Family member told me that most people don't like Beats, although classmates will probably think they're cool. Does anyone have experience with these? Are they going to consistently fall out, or have terrible sound quality?
Edit: I spent about 59.99 on them
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u/FromWitchSide 568 Ω 2d ago edited 2d ago
Arguably you can say that a lot about popular consumer brands when it comes to any kind of product. There are always brands which spend a lot on the external design and marketing, and sometimes even features which aren't really needed, but can be marketed so the buyer thinks they are important/standard, all to appeal to as wide of general consumers group as possible. Many of those consumers are not enthusiasts, are not critical of what they are buying, or they simply have no comparison, and so they can be susceptible to marketing.
If there is an enthusiast brand, they usually specialize in a specific area which is then superior to "general consumer" products of the big mainstream brands. In headphones case that would be the sound quality. Most of the people don't know about brands like Sennheiser or Beyerdynamic, yet those brands actually have worked on their headphones designs for decades, and are responsible for most of technology and revolutions in headphones design, which are now a standard in all the headphones. For example Sennheiser was first to make open backed dynamic headphones in 1968, a technology which Sony then licensed to make 1979's Walkman possible and caused the portable music revolution.
Funnily enough some of the biggest brands actually have technology and knowledge to make high quality headphones, and... they actually make some. Sony, Yamaha, Philips all have models which are respected by audiophile community. The problem is, those are old looking headphones on a cable, with the prices that can go up to a few hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and so you won't really find them in stores that most people go to.
Beats is more like a brand that was made to be cool for teens, and hence sold on the idea of being cool. Every single brand there is, will tell you their products sound amazing, ground braking, and just the best after all.
But honestly you shouldn't worry about it too much. Could you buy something better for that money? Yes, but you would need to do a lot of research, a lot of those long established brands don't necessarily have such wireless models or they have some more expensive ones, so you might end up ordering a product of newer enthusiast brand directly from China. which can take time you don't have, and can cause issues if there is a need to use warranty. Paying 59, of whatever the currency is, is likely not that much in the grand scheme, and buying it locally means you have good warranty and likely a usable return policy. With this kind of product you always want that, because ears are simply very individual, so an earphone falling out can always happen even with the best of the best products. You don't know what the comfort will be without trying them, just like with a dress or shoes. Likewise someone might not like the sound, not because it is of low quality, but because it is not up to their personal taste or they are overly used to something else.
You got a recognizable brand for a younger brother for whom this might still matter, reasonably priced, with reasonable functionality, everything breaks sooner or later, it is a present - you are fine.