A V-shaped or S-shaped EQ is the first of it's kind?
Why would you need to "tune every song"? Do you think the Beats software is some kind of Dr. Dre artificial intelligence and not an EQ setting?
I won't call it artificial intelligence, but it is close. I think Beat Audio makes use of some adaptive strategies to adjust each song individually. Thus, the adjustments to two different songs are different.
If it is simply an EQ setting, then why would HTC paid almost billions to buy the company and put it a EQ setting on her phones?
If you've ever done any ABX testing, you'll know that level-matching is really important; the louder choice almost always sounds 'better'. The Beats-mode EQ makes everything louder than default. The weakness of human psychology.![]()
The loudness is an important factor, but it is not the entire story. In general, Beat Audio also makes the sound fuller and bass stronger.
The fact the Beats-mode default player doesn't play any lossless formats is also rather telling as to what their goals were, as well.![]()
Haven't tested it.
Feel free to peruse these two threads to find better alternatives to Beats for much less: http://www.head-fi.org/t/433318/sho...phones-reviewed-denon-ah-d1100-added-10-30-11 and http://www.head-fi.org/t/478568/multi-iem-review-205-iems-compared-j-phonic-k2-sp-added-11-13-11 Definitely my favorite/most useful threads on all of Head-Fi.
I am not surprised some extreme audiophiles disagree. For them, a $10,000 hi-fi may not be good enough.
As I said, I didn't claim Beat Audio is the best audio systems in the world. But it is better than average.
The Beats Solo review pretty much says it all:
Audio fidelity that can be matched (even bested) by $15 headphones. It is probably futile to attempt to stave off an argument about fidelity, but just in case:
Audio fidelity is the point of Beat Audio. The point is to play some psychological tricks to make you feel the song sounds better.