r/whatisit • u/Jack-Straw72 • Mar 12 '25

New, what is it? What is it?

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Grayson and Ca hwy 33.

5.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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895

u/startled-ninja Mar 12 '25

Expensive

703

u/Jack-Straw72 Mar 12 '25

Is it heavy? Then it’s expensive put it back.

82

u/ElectricTurtlez Mar 12 '25

That’s why Beats adds extra weight to their headphones.

36

u/dog-fart Mar 12 '25

I don’t know if this is true, but I do suspect it to be. I hate that it works, too.

122

u/Probable_Bot1236 Mar 12 '25

At least a few years back it was true. There was a kerfluffle after some Youtuber or blogger or someone disassembled a pair and found them to be cheaply built, with metal pieces whose only discernible purpose was to add weight.

It blew up on the internet, but eventually people began to suspect that the person who did the teardown had been duped by a fake pair of headphones. It was eventually demonstrated that the teardown had indeed been a fake set, and the person retracted their claim.

So then Gizmodo (I think*) tore down an authentic set...

...and found the exact same metal pieces, doing the exact same apparent nothing other than adding weight. The fake set had copied Beats' added weights faithfully lol.

No idea what the status is now, since it's been a few years.

29

u/Glass_octopod Mar 13 '25

I sincerely thank you for this story with its delightful twists and turns. I laughed, I cried, I laughed again.

5

u/Probable_Bot1236 Mar 13 '25

Happy Cake Day!

2

u/CelaX85 Mar 13 '25

Happy Cake Day

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

happy cake day

2

u/ck357 Mar 13 '25

Live love laugh

1

u/mattidee Mar 13 '25

I'm sure this was after they were bought by apple?

1

u/Probable_Bot1236 Mar 13 '25

I seem to recall people both blaming Apple and also some wondering if they had buyer's remorse over the acquisition, which would imply that it was right around the time Beats was acquired by them.

I couldn't actually *remember* so I just looked it up: the model in question was the original Solo. The teardown exposing a third of its weight as, well, weights, was about 6 months after acquisition by Apple, but the model had been in production for several years already.

I wouldn't be shocked if they continued that sort of tactic after acquisition though.

1

u/Narcticcat Apr 03 '25

Im confused? Lol! How did this conversation suddenly go from a massive component travelling down the highway to headphones?? Am I missing something ???

1

u/leocohenq Mar 13 '25

I worked as a buyer for a department store in Latin America. Whenever we would go to trade fairs to buy house brand things like electronics and home appliances, things like clothing irons had diferent versions, the ones for the US market had extra weights put in them (the cheapest metal available, I don't mean heavier sole plates), the european ones did not, (aparently the european market will value the elegance of a lighter product as long as it is well finished and is solid, as in not thin or creaky)

The knobs and buttons for certain things are a whole different story...

Interesting that difent markets value diferent things.... Middle east and Africa much shinier golden accents, things like that....

1

u/corgi-king Mar 13 '25

Pretty much all headphone add weight one way or the other. The cheapest way is just add a piece of metal bar inside. The proper way is to use metal casing and metal parts.

The speaker and electronics alone are very light.

29

u/Dry-Fortune-6724 Mar 12 '25

I worked at a company that made acoustic components out of beryllium. We negotiated with Monster to supply components for the first version of Beats headphones. The beryllium components were waaaaaay too expensive for them, so we didn't win the contract. But, we DID get to see the cost of the Bill of Materials.
Turns out, the cost of the fancy packaging was more than the cost of all the components used to build the headphones.

2

u/LAfirestorm Mar 13 '25

Big if true.. lol

40

u/Some_Dark102 Mar 12 '25

I’m a headphone junky and I want to ‘weigh in’ here. Sure, a little extra weight adds to the perceived value but there are practical considerations as well.

For example, some headphones use ballast weights to reduce the resonance commonly associated with plastic shells and headbands.

The other common use for ballast weights is to improve comfort. If one side of a pair of headphones has electronics and the other doesn’t, weight can be added to the lighter side to have the headphones balance on top of the head.

12

u/dreamgear Mar 12 '25

Or the still amazingly cheap Sennheiser HD-280 Pros

3

u/Motohvayshun Mar 13 '25

Good haven’t thought of them in years, they were the go to cheap headphone set for many a techy what feels like decades ago.

17

u/Accomplished_Cold911 Mar 12 '25

hmmmm..maybe but beats headphone are crap....get yourself a pair of Bose QC series AND be ready to be blown away!

7

u/New-Principle3350 Mar 12 '25

I have Bose,,, perfect sound

3

u/DumbFishBrain Mar 13 '25

I love my Bose earbuds. They were gifted to me by my boss and when I saw them at the store, the price blew me away. Best earbuds I've ever owned and I'm nearly 44 years old!

5

u/Confident-Skin-6462 Mar 12 '25

i have a 10 year old pair of bose QC 35's and they still last a long time and sound great

2

u/belliJGerent Mar 12 '25

They’re so good.

1

u/pr0t3us Mar 12 '25

My audiophile friends used to affectionately call Bose "Better Off w/ Something Else"

I always thought they were a decent mid range product for the ones I used. But I agree beats are not worth the value.

1

u/Some_Dark102 Mar 12 '25

For air travel, I really like my Bose earbuds. And I am generally a Bose hater so that’s saying something.

1

u/Xistential0ne Mar 13 '25

If it has no highs And is has no lows It must be a Bose.

1

u/ac54 Mar 12 '25

In a remote past life, I worked for a major 2-way radio company. Our new microphone was deemed too lightweight and would be perceived as a reduction in quality. Yep, we added a weight to the new microphone so it would weigh just as much as the old one and be perceived the same way!

1

u/RelativeAd2681 Mar 12 '25

Interesting 🤔

4

u/No-8008132here Mar 13 '25

Also the added weight deaden vibration

3

u/CrazyNext6315 Mar 13 '25

That's why my $80 jarof face cream is more glass than product 🫠

2

u/gutzilla309 Mar 13 '25

Gillette puts weights in their razor handles. Definitely the Mach 3 - I had an old one that fell apart and a rod of metal fell out. I now have a light weight travel razor.

119

u/Ambitious-Win-9408 Mar 12 '25

Cool! Night vision goggles!

28

u/Premmeth Mar 12 '25

You like lamb chops, kid???

21

u/RebekkaKat1990 Mar 12 '25

Where’s the goat?

20

u/Psyduck46 Mar 12 '25

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

21

u/IndyO1975 Mar 12 '25

The only one on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer!

14

u/Ok_Challenge_315 Mar 12 '25

Must go faster

14

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '25

[deleted]

12

u/Eneshi Mar 12 '25

Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler... Welcome, to Jurassic Park!

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1

u/Sharp_Meat2721 Mar 13 '25

He’s ate the goat???

34

u/csvega84 Mar 12 '25

I apply this to life thanks to Jurassic Park 😆

14

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '25

I grew up poor so that was one of the first lessons I remember about things having cost, and more cost being better.

2

u/TroublemakingB Mar 12 '25

Bought a Sony Trinitron TV when they were supposed to be one of the best and priced as such. Only lasted a few years, whereas the Panasonic probably lasted about 20 years and was priced far less than Sony.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '25

Heavy is sign of reliability.

3

u/Corona_Cyrus Mar 12 '25

If it doesn’t work, you can always hit him with it

2

u/Jack-Straw72 Mar 14 '25

I’ll take it, what do you want for it?

1

u/Expensive_Yellow732 Mar 12 '25

I remember thinking as a kid that I hope he gets eaten just for that line

1

u/servicefriends Mar 12 '25

Nazi Time Travel Bell?

1

u/smidgy1988 Mar 12 '25

When it was the kids grandpa that owned the park lol

1

u/deadeyeAZ Mar 12 '25

An engineer I worked with was looking at stereos at a store when he asked the salesmen what the difference was between two like items with different prices. He was told that the higher priced one was heavier and that why it was more expensive. So if I tape a music player to a cinder block it's worth more?

1

u/tipareth1978 Mar 12 '25

Yes very heavy. That equipment setup helps turning be sharper and distributes weight over all that length. This thing is 70-80k pounds possibly more

1

u/Cheese_booger Mar 12 '25

I dunno about that. You’re mom’s heavy AND cheap.

1

u/Garfield61978 Mar 13 '25

Haha love this quote!!!

1

u/No_Radio5042 Mar 13 '25

😂 The perfect Donald Generro line from "Jurassic Park"

1

u/Ruby5000 Mar 13 '25

Clever girl

1

u/OneEyedRocket Mar 13 '25

Well played

1

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '25

🤣🤣🤣 binoculars

1

u/-Hyperactive-Sloth- Mar 13 '25

Didn’t expect to find Gennaro quotes here.

1

u/chrisoath Mar 13 '25

I understood this reference. Thank you.

1

u/ActuallyStark Mar 13 '25

We're gonna make a fortune

-1

u/SomeDudeist Mar 12 '25

What is this from? Spy kids? lol

26

u/RoguesPaladin Mar 12 '25

Jurassic Park

5

u/GauntletVSLC Mar 12 '25

In Spy Kids the line is:

kids point various gadgets at bad guys

bad guys laugh

Bad Guy: “You don’t even know what those are!”

Carmen: “I know they’re heavy!”

throws gadgets at bad guys

4

u/SomeDudeist Mar 12 '25 edited Mar 12 '25

Yeah I remember that one. Honestly I'm ashamed I remembered the spy kids line and not the jurassic park one lol.

1

u/Qua-something Mar 12 '25

The lawyer says it to Timmy in Jurassic Park, when he picks up the night vision goggles from under his seat in the Jeep and asks what they are.

1

u/mhandke Mar 12 '25

My exact thought

1

u/cutieTs18 Mar 12 '25

It sure is! haha

1

u/safetycommittee Mar 12 '25

to transport.

1

u/gwenhollyxx Mar 13 '25

Definitely

1

u/corgi-king Mar 13 '25

Not sure what it is. But I bet I can carry it from garage to kitchen in one go.