Jippypee’s post the other day on the history of Oakley got me thinking, since he has a slightly unhealthy obsession with Oakley, maybe a post every now and then about the history of products/brands we love may be a nice way of us sharing our product fetishes! For me, the series of headphones brought out by Dr. Dre are my unhealthy obsession. Even though Beats have only been around for three years, their combination of unrivalled sound, good usability, and aesthetically gorgeous design means they deserve their place in the design history books!

When Beats were first introduced in 2008, they blew all competition out of the water. The original headphones (Studio, shown above) were circumaural, packed with a high-power digital amplifier and have a powered noise cancellation system. The result was a sound never experienced by many, except those lucky few in the actual recording studios! The high quality sound they produce creates a whole new way of listen to music. It has been said that Beats allow you to listen to music the way the artist intended and it lives up to that statement!

Beats were created by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine and are manufactured by Monster. In the video below Iovine goes through the story of Beats, how they wanted to revolutionize the experience of listening to music and why they are different from other headphones. They didn’t want just any old headphone, they wanted users to experience the full audio spectrum any headphone had to offer. Even the way Dr. Dre speaks about the headphones shows how much he wanted develop an extraordinary product, definitely something different!

“People aren’t hearing all the music. Artists and producers work hard in the studio, perfecting their sound. But people can’t really hear it with normal headphones. Most headphones can’t handle the bass, the detail, the dynamics. Bottom line: the music doesn’t move you. With Beats, people are going to hear what the artists hear and listen to the music the way they should: the way I do.” – Dr. Dre

Even without the exceptional sound quality, Beats would be still be a top seller through their design alone. The slick, all-in-one headpiece surrounds the ear piece. The ear piece itself manoeuvres and pivots to fit your head comfortably. Even the way the headphones collapse for ease of transport is executed well. The hinge for this is not hidden, instead they make it a design feature and blatantly highlight the screws. This design feature almost persuades the user to pick it up and fold the headphones. Even the logo is great, the ‘b’ looks like the side profile of the headphones. Just great design all over from Beats

Since the launch of Beats, many other audio products have been added to the product line from in-ear earphones to an iPod dock speaker. Their latest addition, Beats audio in the new HP range of laptops means even your laptop will be equipped with the latest in audio technology. Hopefully Apple will be adopting this technology into their laptops also! The music from their latest TV advertisement is something to get your head bopping and sounds amazing through these headphones! Check out the song below!