Headphones that should be cheaper

It’s worth remembering that pricing is not just production cost, it needs to consider the cost of research and development, tooling, likely sales numbers, distribution, marketing costs and perhaps most importantly what the market will accept. In some product categories the cost of manufacturing is an almost insignificant part of the final price.

And then there is the fact that designing and building headphones that sound great does not mean you need fancy machining, exotic materials, deluxe packaging etc. There is nothing wrong with those things but if you want them you are paying a lot for style and presentation, not SQ.

Personally I find it hard to justify the prices of expensive headphones. In some cases build doesn’t seem to be that great (for example, the HD650 looks a bit homespun and feels low rent but actual quality seems way better than expensive Audeze models and anything from hifiman). Price is probably the worst indicator of sound quality there is in audio (I much prefer the K712 to the much more expensive K812 for example) and even where they are better gains are marginal and disproportionate to price difference.

Luckily if people want expensive headphones it is usually not that difficult to get them in clearance deals or pre-owned and save loads if you are patient.

Fostex TH610 sounds to me underwhelming for 600$. Along with it’s somewhat flimsy construction/build quality and mediocre fit. Same thing goes for the Fostex TH900 mk2. Another one would be the Audeze LCD2 Classic which should be around 600 dollares, which was it’s intended price had it been a Drop collabartion product.

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Yeah, I can’t argue with any of your points here. It’s just that having listened to and enjoyed the 612s for months now, I was expecting more from the 712s, given the price differential. Sonically they’re just not enough of an upgrade to justify the price.

Oh, yeah no definitely not to justify the price in my opinion either. sonically they are so virtually identical I think the k612 offers the best budget wise.