Remember the days of walking around with the big radio headsets? Headphones with a little radio antenna poking out of them, and, if you were lucky, you’d actually catch a frequency and tune into some static-laden jams.
These days the headphone biz is booming. A pair of Beats will run you more than a hundred dollars. But really is a pair of headphones really that important? Helping us out is Omar Gallaga, Digital Savant at the Austin American-Statesman.
For awhile there the idea was smaller, lighter, cheaper. Now people are ditching the buds in favor of these bigger, bulkier headphones. Gallaga has Sony MDRs, which cost around $80.
“If you look at reviews from audiophile websites, places like Wire Cutter, they will tell you, you are not really getting what you pay for with Beats,” he says. “You are paying for the brand and the style. You can get much better-sounding headphones for the same price, or less.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– Why reviews can be useless and why they are so nit-picky
– What consumer-focused websites post reviews that may be more useful for regular folks looking for headphones
– How over-the-ear headphones have become more popular and why earbuds are phasing out
