It’s been a while since I’ve posted, as always. This time it's about the Limited Edition Colored Beats by Dre Complex. But today, I’ll try something a little different because I think some people should get a heads up on this. Being the spendy boy that Khang is, he decided he wanted the Beats Tour Dr. Dre headphones. However, the prices on them were ridiculous, so he looked for a decent deal. At Best Buy, you can find them for $150, and with tax and everything, it ran up to $163...for headphones! They have a nice sound, but for sure, the price is inflated because of their red untangled style and the "Dr. Dre" label. If you order them on eBay for a super good deal, and it’s being shipped from Hong Kong or China…guess what? You got SCAMMED! Let me show you some of the differences and compare them to the real Beats Tour Dr. Dre Headphones. I’m not sure if they’re all this way, but here we go.
This is the outside of the boxes. The one on the left is the real one. Without comparing them side by side, I doubt anyone could really tell the difference. The knock-off box is smaller in every way, and if you notice on the back of the box, the font is actually a lighter color and not as bold. I apologize for the poor photo quality; I only had my camera phone on hand at the time!
This is the box once you pull the cover off. Again, the right one is the fake one. The color is not as vivid, but as I said before... unless you have them side by side, you probably wouldn’t have a clue. The bottom is the real one, and the top is fake. As you can see, once you open the box, the flap is completely different. The real one has an extra binding flap, the fake does not.
The top/left is the real one…If you look closely, you’ll notice that on the real ones, the silver part is actual metal (or whatever kind of material they use), and the gradient moves North to South. Whereas on the fake ones, in the second photo, you can see that the gradient moves South to West. Also, there seems to be a clear sticker that covers the fake ones (on the right), making it appear shiny. I don’t have an amazing photo of it, but on the fake headphone, you could see air pockets from the sticker (right headphone).
The last major thing to point out is the serial number near the audio jack. The top one is the real one. The serial number is clean-cut and clear on a harder type of plastic, while the fake ones on the bottom have it almost faded off and on a more rubbery material. There are obviously more differences such as the color...but it would be impossible to tell unless you had them side by side...also, some of the wording/numbers are different on the barcodes, but definitely not noticeable.
I hope this helps some people! Don’t get scammed!
***UPDATE*** July 26, 2010
I just locked the comments. I wrote this blog for my own benefit, friends, and trying to help people out, but I’ve encountered way too many rude people (sorry for those that are nice…but it just gets too much eventually). PLUS, this was never intended to be some mainstream-professional reference for finding real vs fake beat headphones. I have an SLR, but I took the pics with my phone camera for Christ's sake. I had no intention of being a top-choice for comparing headphones. The REAL beat headphones are crappy anyways, so I wouldn’t recommend you buy them. It’s plastic and breaks easily, and the sound quality on them compared to Bose or any other big name isn’t impressive. You’re just paying a premium to look cool. (I never bought beat headphones btw... someone I knew did, and I just tagged along for photos).