The Overpriced Headphones Dilemma: A Closer Look at Beats by Dre and Bose

Ha!! Oh dear, I hope you don't own any of these... They're practically everywhere, they're insanely expensive, and they're a complete and utter ripoff.

Allow me to introduce myself. I've been a music fiend for as long as I can remember. Starting in 2011, I started to get serious with electronic music, and have since built out a massive music collection with which I can DJ niche genres. For me, and really anyone who aspires to play in the types of clubs and other venues I have in mind, sound quality and design are absolutely paramount. That means I take my sound quality very seriously, especially when it comes to discovering new music and producing.

Investment in Sound Quality

In order to select the best tracks with the best sound design and engineering, you need at least a respectable pair of headphones. With a junk pair of headphones, you may not have the required capacity to hear subtle track elements, and your balance of high, mid, and low frequencies may be entirely out of whack. Bose headphones, while extremely pricey at several hundred dollars a pop for some of their best models, are the gold standard in this respect.

The Detriment of Cheap Headphones

Easily without question, the worst bang for your buck is Beats by Dre headphones. To start with, Beats by Dre have only slightly better bass pickup than your run-of-the-mill knockoff brands. I've sampled Beats headphones numerous times with different genres, and I know when a subtle shift in sound profile is due to the track, audio device, file type, or the sound delivery system. Every time I've tried Beats, I've been able to isolate the slight lack of low pickup to the headphones.

Cost Analysis and Manufacturing

Next, understand that it costs no more than $20 to make that pair of headphones, which retails for $200-300 on average. This was a scathing investigative piece which garnered wide attention back in the summer of 2015. Someone actually took apart a pair of Beats headphones and did a cost analysis of everything included using cost estimates for each respective piece. In addition to their findings of poor quality components, they also discovered the presence of four metal pieces in the headphones whose sole job is apparently to do nothing more than make the headphones feel heavier. Seriously, you can't make this up.

The teardown by Avery Louie provides a detailed analysis of the cost and design elements of Beats by Dre headphones.

The Business Side of Beats

Dr. Dre made an absolute killing off of Beats headphones and related products, all because his name was thrown onto the brand, not necessarily because he had contributed to the actual design or product quality. He was effectively the omnipresent spokesperson for the brand, appearing practically everywhere the brand and its products went.

It's tough to get an exact figure on how much money Dre made per every pair of headphones sold because of the sale of the brand to Apple and also because counterfeit Beats were rampant not too long ago. However, you can gain insight into the business side of Beats and the money involved through this story from Zach O'Malley Greenburg: Dr. Dre's 3 Billion Monster: The Secret History of Beats.

Where the Rest of the Money Went

Finally, one last little piece of my mind: given that this product line both was and still is marketed to people who often come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, to me, this is a perfect example of the rich trying to keep poor people poor. If you're a casual music listener, listening to music on the subway or while walking or what have you, do you really need a $200 pair of headphones with which to listen to your music? No way!! It really blows my mind that people would spend so much for something that accomplishes the same thing as a product that costs five times less. I get it, it's a type of status symbol obviously, but like aren't we supposed to see through total BS like this?

Anyways, thanks for reading. If you have Beats headphones, go out and do some research into other brands of headphones that accomplish the same thing for small fractions of the price. And if you need status symbols to feel cool, important, or whatever, I offer you Ice Cube's 'Check Yourself.'

Goodnight. Mic drop.