Don’t Buy the Kim Kardashian Beats Headphones

When Beats first came to market — when it was run by Dr. Dre and hadn’t yet been bought by Apple — the ubiquitous headphones were famous for two things: being stylish and having a ton of bass. You didn’t need to be an audiophile to know those early headphones didn’t sound great, but Bluetooth audio was still nascent, so neither did their competition. At least they provided a fun sound for hip-hop. Most importantly, while their competition produced ugly black plastic cans, Beats was chic and worn by all the most stylish people — because they were paid to wear them, but still, it worked.