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e

Object Culture

Uh-Oh: Beats Teardown Apparently Used Beats Knockoffs

Fakes are becoming impossible to externally tell apart

By Rain Noe - June 26, 2015

Many of you took an interest in the Beats teardown post from earlier this week, and we learned a lot about metal being added to a variety of product designs (thanks commenters!). However, a few sharp-eyed readers contacted us with disturbing allegations: Those weren't actual Beats headphones at all, they claimed.

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I couldn't get anyone to go on the record, which is a shame, as I would've loved for this information to be directly attributable to a Core77 reader. But here's what we were able to find out externally:

The prototype engineer who did the breakdown, Avery Louie, never mentions what model of Beats he tore down. But he refers to the price as $199, which is consistent with Beats' Solo 2 headphones. However, the color scheme in Louie's photos doesn't match the Solo 2 offerings, indicating he used Beats' discontinued Solo HD, which also retailed for $199. And here's where it starts to unravel.

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Louie found just two drivers, one per ear, in his teardown. But the Solo HD contains four drivers, two per ear. So it appears Louie's been given a bogus pair. Audiophile Redditor Vantt1 has gone to the trouble of highlighting some internal differences between real and fake Beats in this Imgur page, which shows a crossover circuit absent in the teardown and other discrepancies.

Image via Imgur

The question you likely have is, how could a prototype engineer be fooled into using knockoffs rather than the real deal? We'll remind you that he's tearing down products precisely because he doesn't know what's inside. One could also argue, however, that he should have been looking for dual drivers if he was familiar with the product description.

Where we can't fault Louie is in supposing these were real Beats products based on the packaging and external appearance. Pirate manufacturers have become so adept at aesthetic duplication that it is shocking. Don't believe us? Take a look at this video, where the TechBreak channel looks at real-vs.-fake Beats Solo 2 headphones side by side:

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Imagine that this arrived via delivery and you're examining the packaging. It is nearly dead-on identical. The only giveaway is the extra languages printed on the box (which the reviewer refers to collectively as "Chinese," but which is in fact Chinese, followed by Japanese, followed by Korean characters, followed by simplified Chinese). The real Beats packaging features only Western languages. However, unless you had both the real and fake boxes right next to each other, this would be unlikely to raise a red flag; it's common these days for lots of products to feature Asian languages on the box.

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Opening the box, there are a couple of additional giveaways—the plastic wrapping on the fakes and the color of the serial numbers—but again, unless you already had a real pair to compare it to and knew precisely what to look for, you wouldn't realize these were indications of fakery. And even with the real and fake side by side and no idea of what to look for, a layperson would be hard-pressed indeed to spot even minor differences.

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The Solo 2 is Beats' lower-priced offering. Their Pro model is billed as their top-of-the-line and comes with a hefty $399.95 price tag. These, too, are being knocked off—and again, you'll be astonished at how far the pirates have taken it:

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This is very troubling, and a much larger issue than whether manufacturers are trying to "fool" consumers with metal or not. It makes me wonder how pervasive the fakes are, and also makes me wonder if consumers will now question the numerous reviews stating Beats' sound quality is inferior; did the reviewer purchase a real pair in the store, or through the mail? Obviously if you buy a new pair of Beats for $10 on eBay, something's up; but if the fakes have infiltrated an Amazon seller and priced them closer to the real thing, it's possible your average reviewer could have unknowingly attained knock-offs. This doubt can muddy the decision-making process of a potential end user, and I think that's bad news.

However, I also sadly realize that none of this may matter. Whether you're wearing a good-sounding authentic pair of beats, a truly bad-sounding authentic pair of Beats or a worse-sounding pair of convincing knock-offs may actually make no difference; it depends on what your goal is in purchasing a particular product. In the video below, tech reviewer Marques Brownlee articulates what some commenters in the original post hinted at, about why some folks will purchase Beats regardless of reviews.

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Rain Noe

Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.

12 Comments

Noodle Time

3 years ago

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Piracy will always be a problem with high margin goods, or things that are very easy to replicate. They could combat this with lower prices, or more complex design.

There is also a good chance that a lot of the components are actually the same. A lot of chinese suppliers will sell of their 'nonconformance' parts, to avoid losing money in scrap. And other stuff, like the bag, may actually be the same source.

on the flip side... even legitimate goods are susceptible to internal counterfeiting. I have seen first hand when counterfeit electrical components sneak their way in, because whoever the CM is buying from, is also buying from someone else, so accountability is low. And even with good quality control, things slip by until they show failure out in the field.

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Bagged Milk

3 years ago

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Before people get to saying: HAHAHA MDR-7506 AREN'T FAKED.... They are actually one of the most commonly faked headphones right after Beats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2t4viJfv0Q

I happen to own a pair of MDR-V6's myself.... And two pairs of AKG K240's (one vintage from the 1970's, one from 2014) a Brainwavz HM5, a Logitech UE6000, Rockit R-Studio, Thinksound On1, Audio Technica ATH-EP700, Audio Technica ATH-WS77, and a few more. Also I have borrowed the ATH-M50 for a period of over a month...
Right now I can tell you the V6 isn't my favorite. They are bright in tonality, have a large hump in the mid through upper bass, and have some harshness in the upper frequencies.

Now, let's have a look at a frequency response graph of the MDR-V6 from Changstar.com to back up my claims. As we can see here, they have an upward tilt, leading to thinness and an overall bright sound signature.... Quite bright, in fact. Its a gradual 12db climb from 200hz to 10khz.

Onto the topic of Beats... Are they trash or no? Well the old Monster Beats yes. The original Beats Solo is a dying breed. They are truly built like wet noodles, and are the bass heavy piece of crap that gave Beats a bad reputation. Going over to Innerfidelity...
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsbyDrDreSoloHD.pdf we can see the SoloHD

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsSolo.pdf
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsSoloSample2.pdf
and two samples of the Solo. Now, take a look at the two Solos. Wonderful driver matching and quality control huh? (sarcasm)
The Monster Beats Studio measures a tad better.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsStudio.pdf

The Pro is by far the best of the original line up...
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/MonsterBeatsPro.pdf
but go and compare that to the (originally) 200$ Logitech UE6000
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/LogitechUE6000passive.pdf
hmmm... As we can see, Monster Beats were bad. REAL bad.
The Studio2 is only a tad better than the Studio.
It gains some things, but then loses others. For example, they have higher distortion than the original Studio by quite a margin. http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeatsStudio22014.pdf
(though the Studio2 did fix build quality issues and made them a ton more sturdy)

.... But then... With the introduction of the Solo2, they broke the trend and finally introduced a headphone worthy of the price tag.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/BeatsSoloII2014.pdf
It measures wonderfully for the price, and can go toe to toe with other 200$ on ears like the V-Moda XS, Sennheiser Urbanite, and Sennheiser Momentum on ear with no problems.
http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SennheiserMomentumOnEar.pdf example. I do prefer the warmer tonality of the Solo2 to the MDR-V6. I also find the Solo2 to be more detailed and less grating in the treble overall. Now, the MDR-V6 is better than any of the original line up, but the solo2 has changed all that. Beats is getting better and I think it's time to commend them on this. Remember, always take a listen as well before buying. Listening to the real thing is better than any review, or any graph of measurements. Don't comment unless you've had the chance to listen to the headphones in a relatively quiet environment for at least a few songs... Sometimes, first impressions aren't reliable, so that's why I said a few songs.

Point: Beats is now ready to play with the big boys.

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Eric Ludlum

3 years ago

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Can't wait for the Sony teardown...

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Anth Seaton

3 years ago

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We're not annoyed that someone got fooled into investigating a knock off product, we're annoyed because it came with the sensationalist headline about poor quality and it make you guys seem like pieces of crap.

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Bot Fake hunter

2 years ago

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Hey, guys. CHeck out checkforfake.org It can help spot fake Beats

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Simon Kwan

3 years ago

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I live in China and have ready access to many brands of fake everything. They fake cars here, so headphones are no big deal. I've seen very convincing fake Sennheisers, Bose, V-Moda, Monster, Beats, etc. Haven't yet seen a fake B&O but expect to soon. The thing is, some of the fakes actually sound pretty good. I recently acquired a new fake Beats Studio Wireless. It's the all matte black version. Build quality is really good. No problems with the Bluetooth. Stayed connected to my MacBook even from another room. As for sound quality, I don't have measuring equipment, but subjective listening tells me they're damn close to the real thing. I've listened to all the newer models of Beats (Solo2, Studio, Mixr, Pro) and even a side x side comparison doesn't reveal a substantial difference in sound quality. The fakes have good clarity, attack, and are very responsive showing no discernible distortion even when cranked up loud. The bass frequencies are more pronounced, as per the Beats sound profile, but not at the expense of clear mid or high frequencies. If I hadn't purchased these from the fakes vendor myself, I could easily have been fooled into thinking they were the real deal. The only major difference: I bought mine for 480 RMB, which is roughly $77 USD. That includes a nice semi-hard case and all the same charging and audio cables as in the real package. At that price, the vendor still makes a profit and so does the factory. This assumes the vendor buys factory direct. There may be a wholesale distributor in the middle as well. Add in transportation fees also, and you can guesstimate the actual material and labor costs total about $35-$40 USD. For a Bluetooth headphone with decent drivers and materials (the ear pads are quite comfortable, all the plastics feel and look good, and the hinges are real metal). Assuming genuine Beats are manufactured in better factories, cost still won't exceed $50. With a $380 MSRP, that's a VERY healthy margin. I don't know how much Beats sells them for at wholesale, but it's gotta be pretty pricey (perhaps upwards of $120), as they also have tons of marketing costs to cover. I'm not getting into whether Beats are good / bad / worth the money, etc. I just wanted to share my insights to other readers.

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Pedro Moscoso

3 years ago

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Hey guys, this is a very interesting article. However, besides all the discussion about if the tear down denigrated the beats products or even if the product is more fashion than quality I think we are missing one more important issue here. I have heard that some of the replicas are made by the same producers of the original ones! This would be a very interesting theme to investigate, because if you think about it, where do they produce this product? (China, Taiwan, Singapore?) And where the replicas come from? Also is easier for the producer to manufacture the replicas using cheaper materials but in the same molds than the originals, with the same prints and in the same fabric! Even more, if they produce their own replicas they have the whole market for themselves. I think this is worth of a research.

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- Nick Troll
  
  Pedro Moscoso
  
  3 years ago
  
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  I've bought multiple knockoff electronics products while in China for factory trips. I work in the shoe industry and know that (at least for shoes) the same factories make everything from top brands down to private label products. On the same production lines, 10 feet from each other. Of the knockoff electronics that I've purchased they are all almost identical to the true branded products. The only identifiable differences on the exterior of the products are usually spelling errors on easily swapped out injected pieces.
  
  I would not be at all surprised if factories were producing extra product with slightly lower quality interior parts while using the same molds and materials for the body. That being said, the knockoffs do perform well. I've never had a problem with them and am happy with the quality, not to mention the prices.
  
  On top of it all there are different quality of knockoff goods as people living in China know where to find the 'good' knockoffs.
  
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Metl Mann

3 years ago

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So are you going to buy a legitimate pair and do a teardown to set the record straight?

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Robert Wilkey

3 years ago

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One of the many reasons to not buy Beats...

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- So Ma
  
  Robert Wilkey
  
  3 years ago
  
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  1Z
  
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  Right. So by that same logic, don't buy Nike shoes, Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton handbags, or pretty much anything else that might get knocked off.
  
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  - Metl Mann
    
    So Ma
    
    3 years ago
    
    Z
    
    Z
    
    Just don't buy brand gear from Ebay. Or even Amazon sometimes. Find a reputable store, be smart.
    
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