Beats Audio

I don't know how many of you are familiar with this concept/"technology" called Beats Audio, but I had my first encounter with it two nights ago, and I'm calling it what it is: an awful infuriating HOAX!

Let me explain.

I've had this HP laptop for about a year now. I did see it had a Beats Audio sticker on it, never really gave it much thought, since I don't play music on it. Random youtube videos etc maybe sometimes, but never really music. I have a dedicated stereo system for music, and even if I want to stream music I generally do it via the desktop computer (which is in the work-/guestroom).

But anyway, my mother-in-law was visiting and occupied that work-/guestroom two nights ago. I wanted to listen to some music, some CDs I had chosen, but my wife was watching a movie or something in the living room and I didn't want to go and plug in my headphones there (I don't have wireless headphones, nor do I trust their sound quality). Normally I'd use the portable CD player, but I remember it had skipped the last time I used it, so I figured I'll grab the laptop and use that. It has that BEATS AUDIO sticker on it - "it must have superior quality sound or something? At least compared to regular laptops. Right?"

So I popped in a CD, Blind Guardian's Beyond the Red Mirror (Disc 1), and I instantly noticed ewwww that bass was horrid. Blurring the sound and drowning the melody. But that's okay I'll just adjust the bass. Alright... there's a control panel. Now that can be fixed, but why does the music sound so compressed? And then the quiet part ends, and the volume starts fluxuating. Levels go up and down, making it unlistenable. I first thought the headphones are broken. Nope. Almost new Sennheisers. Was the mix on that album really this awful? No, it can't be.

I'm starting to think this Beats Audio thing is like something in my car stereo that boosts low parts in songs to make it audible. I don't need that, there's no background noise and I have good headphones. In the control panel, there's an option to turn off Beats Audio. I do that. Doesn't help. Bass completely disappears and volume goes down a little, but still fluxuates like crazy.

I go online and see the numerous complaints people have about Beats Audio. And blogs and videos exposing this scam.

Beats Audio completely ruins your music, and it cannot be turned off! You try to do that and it sabotages your sound - it sets your bass to the lowest possible level (without showing you it's doing it in the sliders, so you can't adjust your EQ to a flat line), and lowers the volume in an effort to make it seem like Beats Audio actually sounds better than the 'off' setting. And naturally turning it off doesn't make the volume swings go away either. Making the whole thing an absolute unmitigated disaster.

I cannot understand why HP is allowing this to happen.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/778996/the-absolute-proof-beats-audio-is-a-giant-scam

If you are planning to buy a laptop, and might at some point want to listen to music with it via decent headphones, all I can say is AVOID AVOID AVOID! My 10 year old Compaq has better sound, despite it having a weak sound card, just because it doesn't sabotage and alter the music I'm trying to play.

It's an overpriced crock of shit. Invest the money in a reputable manufacturer instead. For less money than Beats you can buy professional studio-quality monitor headphones.

S.D. wrote:

It's an overpriced crock of shit.  Invest the money in a reputable manufacturer instead.  For less money than Beats you can buy professional studio-quality monitor headphones.  

Isn't Lari taking about the HP application Beats Audio rather than Beats headphones?

I agree that Beats headphones are total hype. I got a free pair about a month ago when we bought a new Apple laptop. I tried them out and they sound no different than a $10 pair of Panasonic earbuds. Lame.

Sorry, not fully awake yet. What he's describing sounds like the application has a built in compressor/limiter. Which is pretty f'n stupid considering how compressed most actual CDs are these days. Let's take crap brickwalled CDs...and compress them more so they sound even shittier than they already do! Yay!

S.D. wrote:

Sorry, not fully awake yet.  What he's describing sounds like the application has a built in compressor/limiter.  Which is pretty f'n stupid considering how compressed most actual CDs are these days.  Let's take crap brickwalled CDs...and compress them more so they sound even shittier than they already do!  Yay!

Exactly. Actively sabotaging your music is idiotic.

And it is indeed the same company that makes those Beats headphones. I know to steer clear of those because generally headphones that advertise "better bass sound" are not good for actual good sound quality.

Now, theoretically I could understand having a Bass Boost / Enhanced Bass -function on a laptop. And even volume level correction and compression, since laptop speakers are pretty bad. And this is supposed to have some actual hardware improvements on those. And having a full EQ at your disposal is great. But it is inexcusable NOT TO HAVE AN OPTION TO TURN IT OFF!!! For those times when I don't want a shit sound. Slap it on as an additional feature, but don't make me have to use it.

Like I said, my car has a 'Loud' function that I admit I sometimes use. Especially when the music has low and soft sections together with loud ones. They can be inaudible especially when driving with (steel studded) winter tires. But that's only an option to have. You can turn it off. This Beats Audio thing seems like it is designed by the devil himself just to annoy us. Every other line Hansi sung came out at a different volume level, and it even automatically boosts volume when the song fades out  

HP-forums are full of complaints:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-PC-Sound-and-Audio/Beats-Audio-compression-and-volume-fluctuation-HP-ENVY-m6/td-p/2578895

Apparently Dr.Dre is behind the Beats/Beats Audio products, and maybe for hiphop clear sound is not that relevant? It's just all bass, and when you need to hear the vocals, the system recognises that and boosts the volume for those parts?

And even if you like hiphop, it's inexcusable the program is basically lying to you by pretending you can turn the whole thing off when you can't. It takes off all bass but keeps the treble boost without telling you by way of EQ sliders. It deceives you to think Beats Audio is actually BETTER than regular sound. Regular flat sound is just not available with this set up.

Not to mention how the volume level fluctuates no matter what you try.

A "loudness" button is really just a clickable EQ curve that is preset by the manufacturer to boost the high end and low end. I never used them because I prefer to manually choose any EQ settings.

Lari wrote:

Apparently Dr.Dre is behind the Beats/Beats Audio products,

Co-Founder with Jimmy Iovine actually. Iovine was a producer/engineer on a lot of classic rock albums, Dire Straits, Stevie Nicks, Kansas, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, not exactly a scrub but beats got bought by Apple in 2014, so neither Dr. Dre nor Iovine have anything to do with the current products that suck, a friend of mine who by no means is an audiophile bought some mobild headphones saying "i only need them for my transfer to work" and he was repulsed by the crappy sound. I told him to get some AKG and he was lot happier later on.

The primary reason Apple bought the company is because they wanted the streaming music catalog. That acquisition allowed them to quickly launch Apple Music.

I have an HP laptop with Beats and listen to music all the time on it. I listen to Spotify, mainly, usually while working out or doing a computer project. I've noticed the volume fluctuating sometimes. I thought it was Spotify doing it. I don't have that good of a music listening pallet to hear the details of sound, but it doesn't sound that great of quality to me.

I've never heard anything positive about the Beats name except from the kinds of people who salivate over brand names. They only give a crap to be SEEN wearing Beats, not about the sound they're getting from them.

I half wonder if you could salvage your laptop sound with a small USB DAC which would bypass all of the internal crap which is probably DESIGNED to be run only by the Beats software in your computer.

Runicen wrote:

I've never heard anything positive about the Beats name except from the kinds of people who salivate over brand names.  They only give a crap to be SEEN wearing Beats, not about the sound they're getting from them.

Seems about right. The sound absolutely does suck.

And don't worry about salvaging my laptop. I don't intend on listening to music with it ever again. This was a special occasion. I'll use some other player in the future when a need arises.

I was just so appalled by the whole scam that I just had to warn you guys about it.

I got one of those Toshiba Chrome books with the Skullcandy speakers. They aren't too shabby, but nothing great either.