Good question—or actually, the wrong question. The right question is: why are the others so expensive?
We are a 14-person company. We don’t have a 40-story headquarters in Manhattan, a sponsorship deal with a Formula 1 team, or a celebrity ambassador who gets paid a million euros to wear headphones around their neck at the airport. We have Jasse, whose ears are insured, and Henri, whose Alfa Romeo breaks down once a month.
That explains the price.
Where big brands’ money really goes
When you buy €400 headphones from a big brand, roughly half of the price goes to marketing, the distribution chain, and retailer margins. Then there’s the brand premium on top—you’re paying for the logo printed on the side.
We don’t pay retailer chains a margin because we sell directly to you. We don’t pay an ad agency six figures per quarter because we write our own copy. And it reads like this. Instead of ad campaigns, we rely on satisfied customers telling their friends—and it works, because we actually have a good product.
This isn’t charity. We want your money too. Every order funds 0.000001% of our Death Star and Henri’s dream of swapping that Alfa Romeo for a Ferrari. But in return we give you headphones that compete on sound quality with gear costing 2–3 times as much.
Cheap doesn’t mean bad
At this point someone usually says: "But cheap can’t be good." It can.
Jasse tunes the soundstage of every headphone model himself. He’s the same guy who does sound design for a living and whose ears are literally insured. VMK25.2’s drivers, noise cancelling, and sound profile are on the same level—or better—than the flagship models of big brands. In ANC, Sony might win by a hair, but on sound quality we’re ahead.
And then the thing nobody else talks about: repairability. When big-brand headphones break after 18 months, they end up in the trash. Ours are repaired in Kajaani. The pads twist off and replacements are available to order. It’s not just ecological—it’s sensible.
What we don’t do
We don’t do everything. We don’t have 14 different headphone models every year. We don’t release a new version for Christmas just because the marketing calendar says so. We don’t pay anyone to say our products are good.
Instead, we make a few models—over-ears, earbuds, speakers—and we do them properly. Then we fix them when they break. Raimo would say it’s like a Mercedes-Benz W124: no unnecessary frills, but it lasts forever.
In short
Valco is affordable because we don’t waste money on nonsense. We sell direct, do our own marketing, and focus on what matters: sound quality and durability. The money we save goes into product development—and a small slice to the Death Star, but you didn’t need to know that.
If you want to pay €400 for a logo, you won’t get that from us. If you want to pay a fair price for great sound quality, welcome. You’ll find us at https://valco.fi.
