Surface Headphone Thoughts
I don't own these. Do your own research if you're interested. But, I still have something to say on the topic.
I don't get it. To be fair, I don't really understand why ANYONE wants to get into the head phones business. I can pick ANY set of headphones, at ANY price point and I can have two different people make polar opposite claims about the sound quality.
I've literally looked through reviews of headphones where one user will say "best bass range ever" and the next review says "absolutely no bass" and yet another review will say "the bass is OK, but the sound reproduction at low frequencies isn't that great".
In short. If you make headphones. No matter how good they are. Someone. Will. Tell. You. That. You. Failed. Even if there is something you've have to quantifiable perfection. It will piss someone off.
Then, people will bitch about how they sit. Weight. Size. While another vocal group will praise all of these things.
The bottom line is, buying the right headphones is impossible. And so, people are either going to buy a less expensive pair, or pick a brand they already know and trust for audio.
Buying headphones for many is like getting married. It is this weirdly personal thing. Perfect sound reproduction means NOTHING to a person who expects a certain song to sound a certain way or prefers a certain non-true to life audio profile. Believe me, I know. I feel this way too.
IN FACT. I'll wager that probably 99% of audiophiles could find (with enough trial and error) a sub $100 set of headphones that they like more than every single premium set in existence. And, if they ever find that head set they will suddenly turn on every expensive pair with a vengeance.
Breaking into the premium headphone market as a new contender puts you in some murky waters in a VERY opinionated landscape. Almost anyone who is seriously considering headphones in that price point already have an allegiance. Already have expectations.
The best conclusions I can draw on the Surface Headphones is that they are actually half decent. People compare them to the likes of Bose and Beats. Most prefer one of those other brands. But, for the above reasons that isn't surprising. The fact that they are being treated as comparable at all tells me that these, quite likely are, decent premium headphones. There are, like every other pair of headphones reviews that would lead you to believe they are total garbage. But, the positive reviews outweigh them.
The real problem is this, I can't honestly say that if you bought them that you wouldn't feel like that person who calls them garbage. If they were Beats or Bose people wouldn't voice the arguments even if they felt that way. Sure they can get nasty. But, when you're up against a juggernaut in the market the reviews have a tendency to lean towards "not my thing" than " unusable piece of rubbish".
I feel like the Pixel Buds had the same problem. If you didn't like them, it was easy to call them shit. But, if you don't like Air Pods, you peer pressured into cutting them some slack.
And don't even bother entering the non-premium headphone market. There are simply too many competitors out there. And they experience the exact same criticism as the bigger products.
I don't get it. To be fair, I don't really understand why ANYONE wants to get into the head phones business. I can pick ANY set of headphones, at ANY price point and I can have two different people make polar opposite claims about the sound quality.
I've literally looked through reviews of headphones where one user will say "best bass range ever" and the next review says "absolutely no bass" and yet another review will say "the bass is OK, but the sound reproduction at low frequencies isn't that great".
In short. If you make headphones. No matter how good they are. Someone. Will. Tell. You. That. You. Failed. Even if there is something you've have to quantifiable perfection. It will piss someone off.
Then, people will bitch about how they sit. Weight. Size. While another vocal group will praise all of these things.
The bottom line is, buying the right headphones is impossible. And so, people are either going to buy a less expensive pair, or pick a brand they already know and trust for audio.
Buying headphones for many is like getting married. It is this weirdly personal thing. Perfect sound reproduction means NOTHING to a person who expects a certain song to sound a certain way or prefers a certain non-true to life audio profile. Believe me, I know. I feel this way too.
IN FACT. I'll wager that probably 99% of audiophiles could find (with enough trial and error) a sub $100 set of headphones that they like more than every single premium set in existence. And, if they ever find that head set they will suddenly turn on every expensive pair with a vengeance.
Breaking into the premium headphone market as a new contender puts you in some murky waters in a VERY opinionated landscape. Almost anyone who is seriously considering headphones in that price point already have an allegiance. Already have expectations.
The best conclusions I can draw on the Surface Headphones is that they are actually half decent. People compare them to the likes of Bose and Beats. Most prefer one of those other brands. But, for the above reasons that isn't surprising. The fact that they are being treated as comparable at all tells me that these, quite likely are, decent premium headphones. There are, like every other pair of headphones reviews that would lead you to believe they are total garbage. But, the positive reviews outweigh them.
The real problem is this, I can't honestly say that if you bought them that you wouldn't feel like that person who calls them garbage. If they were Beats or Bose people wouldn't voice the arguments even if they felt that way. Sure they can get nasty. But, when you're up against a juggernaut in the market the reviews have a tendency to lean towards "not my thing" than " unusable piece of rubbish".
I feel like the Pixel Buds had the same problem. If you didn't like them, it was easy to call them shit. But, if you don't like Air Pods, you peer pressured into cutting them some slack.
And don't even bother entering the non-premium headphone market. There are simply too many competitors out there. And they experience the exact same criticism as the bigger products.
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