As a DJ, headphones are essential, not just in a technical sense for cueing up tracks and mixing, but as a tool for getting to know your all important music collection wherever you might planning your next DJ set. So how do you choose? Either personal recommendations or replicating the DJ you’d seen down the club used to be an easy route to suitable cans but these days in a world where celebrity DJ’s are paid to sport the latest name brand designs and even create their own models, can you really trust what’s going on in the DJ booth?
Big brands cunningly thrust their products into the hands of Sports Players, Celebrity DJ’s and Reality TV Stars in a bid to become the latest fashion trend because people want to be seen sporting the newest, brightest, shiniest set of headphones.
Over it’s 8-year lifespan, Beats by Dre has generated a net worth of over 1 billion dollars and rival Skullcandy makes 300 million annually. These relatively new players in the market are currently outselling the respected electronics manufacturers who have more experience making a quality product.
So what’s going on? It seems we’re accustomed to buy a brand name, rather than a true audio experience.
Luckily, Time Magazine recently setout to see if the big name brands are really worth the big bucks or if you can actually get better sounding headphones without the shinny bits for less money. Their definitive guide gathered the specifications, review scores and features of nearly 3,000 headphones from all ranges along with expert opinions CNET, Wired and Techcrunch. See the chart below.
