[holistio]

Of course, premium headphones existed before. I have a WH-1000XM4 sitting right next to me.

But your aunt Josie didn't have one. Now Apple is selling 80 million units / year and the ~$300 price tag has become normal. Before that, most people had headphones that were 10 times cheaper.

[Hamuko]

$300 isn’t what AirPods cost though. You can get a pair of AirPods 4 for $129 on Apple.com, and I presume that is still the most popular model. If you’re paying ~$300, you are buying premium headphones.

[holistio]

The base model where I live (Central Europe) is $194. The Pro is $357. The Max is $779.

I just averaged it out.