经济学人248:名牌耳机

　　Designer headphones
名牌耳机
The sound of music
音乐之声
Dr Dre’s creation of a market for costly¹ cans may herald² the return of true hi-fi
说唱歌手Dr Dre创造的高端耳机市场可能预示着高保真时代的回归
Aug 24th 2013 |From the print edition
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FOR decades the market for expensive headphones was mainly limited to hi-fi buffs. But now that the boxy stereo system in the corner of the bedroom is largely a thing of the past, and young music fans listen mostly on portable devices, headphones have become as much of a fashion statement as the music player itself. Among the first to spot the potential of this market was Dr Dre, an American rapper-cum-tycoon. In 2008 he and Jimmy Iovine, a record producer, launched their Beats range of headphones, to great success. They have all but created a new product category: premium-priced ($100-plus) cans whose sound quality is good enough, but which mainly sell on their brand image.
几十年以来，高端耳机市场都局限在高保真行家圈里。但是现在箱式音响系统已经过时了，年轻的音乐爱好者基本都用便携式设备听音乐，耳机跟音乐播放器一样成了一种时尚。Dr Dre就是最先发现这个市场潜力的人之一，他是一个著名的美国说唱歌手。2008年，其与音乐制作人Jimmy Iovine一起推出了他们的Beats系列耳机，大为成功。他们创造了一种全新种类的耳机品类：高价耳机，（价格在100美元以上），音质足够好，销售主要靠品牌形象。
Beats Electronics and its founders³ have proved adept⁴ at using celebrity⁵ endorsements⁶ and product placement to plug their headphones. In America the company now has almost half the market for premium-priced cans, compared with 21% for Bose, a longer-established maker⁷. Beats headphones are bassy: that’s what hip-hop fans want, but might not suit opera lovers. Overall, though, they are a lot better than the earbuds that come free with most portable devices.
Beats电子和它的成立者擅长利用名人效应和植入式广告宣传其耳机。在美国，该公司现在拥有高端市场接近一半的市场份额，相比之下，老牌耳机生产商Bose只有21%的份额。Beats耳机重低音表现绝佳，这正是嘻哈乐粉丝想要的，但是可能不对歌剧爱好者的味。然而，总的来说，它们比便携设备标配的耳机好多了。
There is in any case a limit to how good music will sound through even the best headphones. Most of the music tracks on portable music players are in the form of mp3 audio files, in which the music has been compressed to make the files smaller and thus fit more of them into a given amount of storage capacity. Jim Anderson, a sound engineer who teaches at New York University, first plays his students an mp3 music file through good speakers, and then an uncompressed master recording⁸ of the same song: they are amazed at how much they have been missing, he says.
无论如何，即使是通过最好的耳机，好音乐也无法完全展现出来。大多数便携音乐播放器上的乐曲都是mp3格式的，这种格式下，歌曲被压缩的更小，以便在有限的容量内放更多首歌。音响师Jim Anderson在纽约大学任教，他说，他先通过优质播放器给他的学生播放了一首mp3格式的歌曲，然后播放了未压缩版本的歌曲，他的学生惊讶于前者丢失细节之多。
Since consumers have been persuaded, largely by Beats, that it is worth paying a fair whack⁹ for some half-decent headphones that look nice, perhaps they could be persuaded—especially since the storage capacity of many portable devices is now huge—to turn their backs on cheap mp3s and seek out recordings¹⁰ in true high fidelity¹¹. Linn Records, an online distributor of high-resolution music files, sold around 60,000 songs between April and June of this year, most of them in the FLAC format¹², which compresses the music lightly, saving a bit of storage space, without any loss of quality. Apple’s iTunes has a similar, though slightly lower-quality offering.
既然Beats说服了消费者放弃那些外观不错但是不够像样耳机，可能消费者也能接受购买高保真的音乐，而不是便宜的mp3格式音频，尤其是现在很多便携式音乐播放器容量变得巨大。在线高保真音乐销售商Linn Records今年二季度卖出了大约6万首歌曲，大部分都是Flac格式的歌曲，Flac格式对乐曲稍稍压缩，节省了一点空间，但是音质却没什么损失。苹果的iTunes也是一样，尽管质量稍差一点。
If sales of these hi-fi recordings take off it may boost the market for really top-notch cans like those of Grado Labs, another American firm. Grado has for decades relied on reviews in specialist magazines, and word-of-mouth recommendations from fans, to spread news of its headphones’ faithful reproduction. In contrast to Beats, it has eschewed¹³ image-making: it has not advertised since 1964. Unlike Dr Dre, then, its fortunes are less tied to the fickle¹⁴ tastes and fast-changing fashions of the young.
如果这些高保真音乐的销量飞涨的话，可能会使得顶级耳机生产商，诸如另一家美国公司Grado Labs生产的耳机市场火爆起来。几十年来Grado都凭借专业杂志的评测和粉丝的口口相传传播其质量过硬的耳机信息。相比Beats，它避免品牌化，自1964年以来从未做过广告。所以不像Dr Dre，其命运也与瞬息万变的年轻人的品味与潮流无关。

1 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

2 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

3 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

5 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

6 endorsements   

n.背书( endorsement的名词复数 )；（驾驶执照上的）违章记录；（公开的）赞同；（通常为名人在广告中对某一产品的）宣传

参考例句：

• He must make much money on those tennis shoe endorsements he does. 他替那些网球鞋珍重广告，就赚了不少钱。 来自互联网
• But celebrity endorsements remain an important promotional tool for marketers. 尽管如此，邀明星助阵仍是营销人员重要的推广手段之一。 来自互联网

7 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 whack   

v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒，在我背上猛拍一下。

10 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

11 fidelity   

n.忠诚，忠实；精确

参考例句：

• There is nothing like a dog's fidelity.没有什么能比得上狗的忠诚。
• His fidelity and industry brought him speedy promotion.他的尽职及勤奋使他很快地得到晋升。

12 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

13 eschewed   

v.（尤指为道德或实际理由而）习惯性避开，回避( eschew的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I eschewed upbraiding, I curtailed remonstrance. 我避免责备，少作规劝。 来自辞典例句
• Moreover, she has a business plan, an accessory eschewed by cavalier counterparts. 此外，她还有商业计划，这是彬彬有礼的男设计师们回避的一点。 来自互联网

14 fickle   

adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的

参考例句：

• Fluctuating prices usually base on a fickle public's demand.物价的波动往往是由于群众需求的不稳定而引起的。
• The weather is so fickle in summer.夏日的天气如此多变。