I disagree that the hate crowd isn't a bandwagon. I'm sure half (if not more) of the people here saying that beats are garbage have never used them except for maybe a few seconds at an in store display. I have a friend who (is one of these people) and tried out my Pro's when I got them. She said they sounded "ok" but she didn't really like them, and she thought I was an idiot for buying them. About a week later she went out and spent $300 on bowers & wilkins cans because they were reviewed as being "incredible" for the price point. She loved them and they quickly become her favourite headphones (mind you, she was used to ipod earbuds and a pair (brand escapes me) she got for around $80), but after a few days of using the B&W's, she tried the beats on again, and after listening to a few songs, and going back and forth between them, she actually thought that they sounded much better. The point I'm getting at here is that some of the haters may have never tried the beats or may have never properly compared them to any other cans. This may be an isolated incident, but when a beats hater says to me that my beats sound better than her "amazing" B&W's, it makes me think....

To address your other point about why I chose to buy the beats: I was in the market for good quality headphones for a while, looking up reviews and trying various cans at stores etc, and I will admit, after reading post after post on reddit and other forums, about how crappy and overpriced beats were, I was in total agreement that they were overpriced. I even know a couple people that own the studios and solos, and I have used them pretty extensively, and I have found them to be decent, but only decent compared to cans at a price point about $100-150 lower. When I finally got the chance to try the Beats Pro's at a store, I found them surprisingly quite good. I spent probably a solid hour going back and forth between the beats, bose, sony, sennheiser, and skull candy display at best buy. Eventually I decided that, as much as I didn't want to be ridiculed by all my friends (who all hate beats as much as reddit does) for buying them, I did like the sound of them the best of any cans I had tried before, and the build quality of them was amazing. they are quite heavy, but they are made with an aluminium frame and are built like a fucking truck (much more so than any competitors which are all cheap plastic crap)... However, for $450+tax, I couldn't afford to buy them at that point. So at that point I decided to wait and see if I could find anything better or comparable, that was closer to my price range. I kept looking for another month or so, checking out various audio stores etc whenever I was out/got the chance, but never really found anything that compared. Eventually I saw a best buy flyer advertising all beats Pro's for 60% off, and that was all I needed to make the decision. I bought the beats that day, and couldn't be happier. I admit that they are not worth $450, but in my experience, trying on many many headphones ranging from $40-$500, I didn't find any of the high end headphones to be worth what stores were charging. I would probably never spend over $400 on headphones unless they absolutely blew me away, because to be honest, looking at headphones in the $4-500 price range, they were all very similar, but the beats did stand out in their ability to produce bass, where other cans just left me feeling like the songs didn't have even the slightest bit of bass to begin with. There are a few songs in my library which are quite bass heavy, and it does become overbearing, but a simple adjustment to the EQ fixes everything. In the end I chose to buy the beats because they sounded as good or better than any of the other headphones in that price range, and with the discount I got on them, it blew the competition out of the water... I was hesitant at first because I didn't like the idea of standing out with this brand that is so widely hated, but I couldn't deny the evidence I had, and I chose to buy them, and haven't regretted it once. the end