Why so? That's right! Because Beats rank "basements of basements" and should never ever see the light of day, and saying "a least they're better than beats" just means that the 'phones rank "basement", thus meaning they still suck. Haha. I kid! But having own a pair of S4, I think that the cables really, umm, suck... Literally, it's not tangle prone, but it coils alot. So I hope they fixed that coiling problem with the new reference S4 cables.
Then again, look on the bright side, at least klipsch owners (note: most) do not flaunt their klipschs or act like little crybabies when you diss their 'phones. Basically, with klipsch owners, you don't usually get the ignorant, thick headed numbskull that comes with most beats owners. (note: most)
However saying that, I do feel that the S4 may really sound like $30 only. Once, my classmate tried my S4, and said they sucked, compared to his audio technica ath-ckp300 which were around half the price of the S4, and he is that "announces to the whole world" and "rub it in your face" type of guy, so firstly, I wanted to punch his male-appendage looking face, secondly, I tried the ckp300 and realized that it was actually almost on par with the s4 in terms of overall sound quality, except for maybe the mids and highs. But usually, for peole like him, only bass matters, so anything else above 64Hz (PS: what's the frequency range for lows?) like clarity and sparkling treble is insignificant to his mundane ears. Haha.
So basically, yes, I do think the S4 sounds like maybe $40-$50, and they are 2 years past their prime already, so there are many $30 IEMs that really do outshine or are on par with the klipsch image S4.