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I don't have much to add, but this weekend I was buying headphones at Microcenter. My wife wanted a pair of noise cancelling headphones for flying and I want b

I don't have much to add, but this weekend I was buying headphones at Microcenter. My wife wanted a pair of noise cancelling headphones for flying and I want bluetooth headphones for easier dog walking (leash + headphone cables = ouch). The Beats headphones were all locked up and, holy hell, the pricetags on them were ridiculous. $299 and up? I ended up getting a pair of $35 BT headphones and a pair $99 Creative noise-cancelling headphones. I can certainly see how Apple is drawn to that brand. What's it cost to make even a premium set of headphones? Maybe a tiny fraction of $299? Apple probably got sick of seeing Beats eat up the high-end for what, I imagine, is used mostly on iOS devices. Beats Music might just be an free extra and ultimately a casualty here. Cheap earbuds that come with your iOS device or Beats at the Apple store make sense for the conspicuous consumer. The profit margins must be impressive.

tr23 12y ago
http://allhiphop.com/2014/05/13/dr-dres-beats-by-dre-cost-an-estimated-14-to-make/ http://allhiphop.com/2014/05/13/dr-dres-beats-by-dre-cost-an... You are paying mostly for marketing.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
Beats are not premium headphones, they just sell at those prices. At best they are comparable to maybe a sub $100 studio monitor set, and that $100 is also a retail price, not a cost. An actually good set of headphones in the $300 range (like Grado SR325e, Sennheiser HD600, AKG K601) will blow away the Beats, it would be like comparing a Ferrari to a Kia. The amount of profit Beats makes on headphones is ridiculous, which is why Apple bought them.