[jcampbell1]

The "beats phenomenon" is a fashion thing, not an audio tech thing. People pay $400 for beats because it makes them look cool and shows they are not poor. Much like a Rolex is not about telling time.

I think there is a market for headphone tech, but I would look to the market for Bose noise-canceling headphones as a proxy, not beats.

[dfc]

There are some seriously large markets for headphone tech and they have nothing to do with being able to drown out the noise of a 747 engine or the background noise at a starbucks.

Take a look at the C4OPS headset system by Silynx[1]. The C4OPS and others like it are headset systems for combat communications. There are a lot of sounds in combat; some of the loud ones (gunshots/explosions) you would like to hear at a lower volume / with less fidelity and some quiet noises (teammate whisper/footsteps behind you) you would like to be more aware of.

[1] http://sofrep.com/4246/act-of-valor-radio-comms-2/

[christoph]

Its easy to say Beats is purely a fashion phenomenon, but I think the headphones actually sound very good for the genres I listen to, to my ears. It shouldnt be forgotten that these genres are the most listened to by the target demographic as well. I think What HiFi summed it up perfectly "Brilliant at what they do well; if you like that, you’ll love them".