Why should I buy Valco instead of Beats?
Good question. Well, obvious question really, but let's go through it anyway.
Short answer
Beats are a fashion accessory that happens to reproduce sound. Valco is a headphone that happens to look good. The difference is the same as a restaurant where the food is great vs. a restaurant where the interior is great and the food tastes like microwave lasagne.
Longer answer
Beats by Dre was born when a rapper and a headphone engineer – well, a rapper and Apple's marketing department – decided that bass is the only frequency that matters. The result is a headphone that makes pretty much all music sound like you're in a nightclub toilet. This is stylish for about 15 minutes.
Valco headphones are tuned by Jasse, who has spent more time with frequency response curves than you've spent browsing Netflix. And that's a lot. In practice, this means you'll hear details in music you didn't know existed. The drummer breathing. The guitarist's fingers sliding on the strings. The singer's regret about signing that record deal.
But what about the brand?
Beats cost what they cost because you're paying about 40% for the logo. With Valco, you pay about 0% for the logo, because we spent about half an hour and one beer designing it. The money goes into sound quality development and the Death Star construction fund.
Repairability
Here's the real technical fact: the Beats battery is glued in and replacing it basically requires destroying the device. Valco headphone parts – pads, cable, speaker drivers – can be swapped by hand or with a screwdriver. When your Beats break, you buy new ones. When your Valco breaks, Jasse and the lads fix it in Kajaani and send it back.
Summary
| | Valco | Beats |
|---|---|---|
| Sound quality | Yes | Bass go brrrr |
| Repairability | Yes | No |
| Celebrity endorsements | Can't afford them | LeBron James |
| Funds the Death Star | Yes | No |
If you want headphones for actually listening to music, buy Valco. If you want headphones for posing in Instagram photos, buy Beats. We don't judge. But we judge a little.
