A Dirty Little Beats Headphones Secret

Beats headphones–which I think sound like crap–do have some nice heft to them. There’s no question that when you pick up a pair they feel heavy and solid, conveying a sense of craftsmanship and quality. But is that quality real?

According to a story in the Daily Mail, an engineer at a Boston-based venture capitalist firm called Bolt decided to take apart a pair of Beats Solo headphones that he bought for about $200 USD. Inside, he says he found some metal weights that do nothing more than make the headphone slightly more heavy and thus contributing to the ‘phones feeling of solidity. In fact, 30 per cent of the headphones overall weight came from these four useless pieces of metal.

There’s nothing really wrong with this, per se–but you might get the sense that you’re being fooled into paying more for what’s supposed to be a genuine premium product.

Neither Beats or their masters at Apple have commented.

For pictures of the teardown, go here.