[SwellJoe]

"Have you seen the actual frequency response curves of headphones? They are by no means flat!"

Yes. And, as I said: Most cheap products accidentally fail at this goal.

It costs a bit of money to produce a quality transducer that is stable, reliably mass-produced, and lasts a long time. Not as much for headphones as for larger transducers, however. For $100 you can buy any of several models that are extremely accurate (compared to what $100 would buy you in speakers). Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, and Audio Technica all offer several models in the $50-$100 range that will destroy Beats offerings at even much higher price points.

Nonetheless, just because most people's cheap headphones suck doesn't mean that a company producing expensive headphones that suck should be given a pass. In a world with good products in a field I care about, why wouldn't I encourage people to choose them over a clearly inferior product? Beats is a demonstrably inferior product with good marketing.

[curun1r]

You don't even need to go to the $100 level to get better than Beats. I've convinced a bunch of Beats owners at my work by loaning out my $30 Sonys. Not only does everyone agree that they sounds better, but there's near universal agreement that they're more comfortable to wear as well.

I'm not saying a $25 pair of headphones is particularly good, but it gets past the "obviously bad" test that Beats headphones fail and allows me to leave them at work without worrying about losing or breaking them.