[BeachSamurai]

Hi All
 
I was looking for a new Earphone and was researching through this thread.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/478568/multi-iem-review-333-iems-compared-ubsound-fighter-added-02-21-15-p-1039
 
I came across these two earphones:
 
HiFiMan RE-400 Waterline
 
Whose sound quality is 9/10 and value is 10/10 and with price 99USD
 
and
 
Sony MDR-EX600
 
whose sound quality is 9/10 and value is 9/10 and with price of 131USD
 
i was wondering why isn't a earphone of higher price giving a better quality and value? I went around the forums and some people were saying price isn't all that and someone told me it did make a difference. well...

 

[cel4145]

i was wondering why isn't a earphone of higher price giving a better quality and value? I went around the forums and some people were saying price isn't all that and someone told me it did make a difference. well...

Don't over think this. It's like any consumer product type. Some products are better values than others.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
i was wondering why isn't a earphone of higher price giving a better quality and value? I went around the forums and some people were saying price isn't all that and someone told me it did make a difference. well...

 

Economics101 - diminishing returns. In some cases higher price doesn't always mean better performance, and even if it does, it might not be in all parameters you want - like it can be better in some ways but not in others - or not by much - meaning in some cases it might be double the price, but in the ways that it's better, it doesn't mean it's better by 100% in each of them, or even collectively. Still, that's really up to you.

 

Think of it in terms of cars since the performance is more easily quantifiable. Let's take two people, one currently owns a Toyota FR-S/Subaru BR-Z, the other owns a Camaro. They can both take a look at the Alfa Romeo 4C and a Mercedes CL6x. To the FR-S owner the 4C is probably a great upgrade option - mid-engine, more agile, more expensive-feeling interior but still very sporty ergonomics, great track toy, but it's not like he's spending double than what he spent on the FR-S on a car that will go around Laguna Seca in half the time; still, when he takes a look at the CL6x, he'd think it's "grown fat in his dotage" (quote from Desolation of Smaug) from the 300SL of the 1950s since it isn't tossable. To the Camaro owner, the CL65 will look like a great upgrade from his base V6 or base V8 machine, since whichever Mercedes V8 or V12 he ends up with, he gets a bigger engine, N/A, supercharged, or twin-turbocharged, with a lot of torque that will make it easy to get up to speed or overtake on the highway even on an automatic, and the manual override is a bonus; he will however look at the 4C and think, "I'm spending more for a car that's worse on the quarter mile?! that's stupid - I'll get the Benz so even if I lose on the quarter mile it won't be by much, while I have this nice Harman sound system running along with heated/cooled seats."