As someone who has never seen these or paid attention to them I was thinking "how heavy could they possibly be?" Then I saw 13.6 oz and I was blown away. That's actually really heavy for headphones!
It's self-evidently extremely disingenuous to claim that Apple bought Beats for their "exquisite metal weight technology", so I thought I'd double check your claim that there are "metal weights" inside Beats headphones.
All of this appears to stem from two blog posts, written by the same VC.[^1] The first time they accidentally tore down counterfeit Beats, and when they managed to repeat the process, they "stuck by [their] claim" that:
> "…these metal parts are there to add a bit of weight and increase perceived quality with a nice look."
The BOM estimate they provide lists the following metal parts:
* Inner cast metal separator
* Springs
* Torx screw
* Self tapping screw
* Cast metal supports
* Stamped metal ear cup
None of these are extraneous weights not serving a purpose. The claim of the author might be better presented as:
"Beats headphones use heavier metal components instead of plastic ones, and I think it's because they add weight."
There are a lot of very good reasons to use materials that dampen unwanted interference like parasitic vibrations. Stiffer materials such as metal parts typically flex less, and have fewer (but usually more pronounced) resonances than plastic parts, which have intrinsic damping but might distort.
A good example of this is that the driver in your headphones is moving. Therefore the housing it is placed in must consider sprung/unsprung mass. Adding metal components increases the mechanical impedance.
So:
1. It is entirely possible that your claim about the weights is correct, and Beats chose to use metal components rather than plastic purely to add weight to the product.
2. There are a great many other possible explanations for using metal rather than plastic, and I don't think that you're likely to be party to them. For example: maybe they had the parts in-chain already and didn't want to have to tie up hardware engineering or supplier quality engineering for a new plastic part.
[1]: https://beneinstein.com/how-it-s-made-series-yup-our-beats-w... (the one where they tear down real Beats)
Cultural cachet of Beats - note how Apple kept the brand.
Jimmy Iovine & Dr Dre showed them how to tap into a new demographic.
It helped Apple get up and running with streaming faster, they needed to compete with Spotify.
Beats brand basically disappeared after that or at the least has become "uncool".
Apple had iTunes already, they very well could've acqui-hired and improved their service themselves.
Apple music slowly died and is only becoming resurgent now, many years later.
Meanwhile I had Sennheisers and they could take an absolute beating and still work fine. While also being plastic and cheap looking in comparison to other brands in the same price packet.
I gave them to a friend who "quick-fixed" them with a screw at the pivot point, but they lost all their flexibility after that. He didn't mind because he was using them solely for drumming, but I couldn't use them anymore.
That being said, I have had some nasty experiences with Sennheiser's IEMs as well. Had to send 2 of them in warranty within a year, products that were in the 300-600 euro range back around 2010!
Seems excessive. They should do something like forged carbon to cut weight and have removable gravity enhancement.
But my favourite hack was a Sennheiser model which had foam inserts to dampen the sound. 555 - foam = 595
-Boris the bullet dodger
People compliment my Jabra’s voice quality otherwise I would’ve switched already.
However I tried to wear them one on a train commute and it was horrid. Walking around with them really isn’t fun precisely because of their weight.
Every head movement feels like hard work and the headphones don’t even feel stable on your head during any movement due to the weight.
So I end up owned two headphones (well, technically 3):
1. AirPod Max for focus time
2. Sennheiser earphones (in ear) for commuting / exercise workouts.
3. Sennheiser DJ cans for DJing, video streaming and other times when I need wired, zero latency, audio.
Much prefer lighter Sony or Bose top of line
Still though, I think this is just a case of Apple making them heavier purely for a premium feel.
I know my way around premium wireless headphones and I'd wager most of them within that price range are somewhere between 250 and 320 grams (like 8.8 oz to 11 oz).