The world of consumer audio makes very little sense. The beats headphone mentioned is often poo poo'd by anyone interested in sound reproduction, they are very over priced, but most people don't pay for the technical reproduction its the brand they want, and the belief that because its expensive its better.
It used to be that more expensive was better, but that has decoupled now with many products, now it's a lot of marketing you're paying for.
Sound is one of those things that used to be you'd pay more and get better stuff - in the days of record players and onkyo amps. Now you can get a class D amp for peanuts that's as good as anything else on the market, all sound is digital so there is no real need to spend more. The only thing where you can spend more on is speakers, there's still some engineering there. The world of audiophiles and golden ears is a crazy place, where you can spend as much money as you want on things that don't make a difference.
It used to be that more expensive was better, but that has decoupled now with many products, now it's a lot of marketing you're paying for.
Sound is one of those things that used to be you'd pay more and get better stuff - in the days of record players and onkyo amps. Now you can get a class D amp for peanuts that's as good as anything else on the market, all sound is digital so there is no real need to spend more. The only thing where you can spend more on is speakers, there's still some engineering there. The world of audiophiles and golden ears is a crazy place, where you can spend as much money as you want on things that don't make a difference.