Noise-cancelling headphones cost anywhere from twenty euros to half a thousand. The price range is huge, but the differences in sound quality are nowhere near as large. So where does the money go?
This article tells you. Honestly. Also the parts where the competitor beats us.
What makes up the price of noise-cancelling headphones?
There are roughly four pieces in the price of every pair of headphones:
- Components and manufacturing – drivers, ANC chips, battery, plastics, cushions. This is a surprisingly small part of the final price. The Qualcomm chips used by Sony and Valco come from the same factory.
- Product development and tuning – this is where the differences are made. Some company ships the factory default settings straight to market. We put Jasse in a dim studio to hand-tune the frequency response until it sounds right. This is where cheap and expensive headphones differ the most.
- Brand and marketing – Sony’s Super Bowl ad costs more than Valco’s entire revenue. Guess who pays for that ad. You, the headphone buyer.
- Distribution and middlemen – when headphones travel from the factory to the importer, from the importer to the wholesaler and from the wholesaler to the store, everyone takes a cut. Valco sells directly to you. There are no middlemen.
When the Sony WH-1000XM5 costs €350–400, perhaps a third of that is the headphones themselves. The rest is the logo, distribution and that Super Bowl ad.
How does Valco keep the price low?
We are not a charity. We want your money just as much as Sony does. We just admit it out loud.
The difference is what we cut:
- No middlemen. Valco.fi is our store. No importer, no wholesaler, no Elisa’s shelf-space fee. The savings go straight into the price.
- No billion-level advertising. Our marketing budget is roughly Henri’s Alfa Romeo maintenance budget. In other words, small but surprisingly effective — both keep generating talk-worthy material.
- Same tech, smaller margin. VMK25.2 has a Qualcomm chip, 45-millimetre composite drivers and a DSP hand-tuned by Jasse. The same component suppliers as the big guys. But our margin goes to the Death Star’s corruption budget, not to shareholders in Tokyo.
VMK20 costs well under 200 euros. VMK25.2 comes in under 250 euros. Sony’s flagship is 400 euros. Bose’s too. Sennheiser Momentum 4 is around the same numbers.
An honest comparison: where does Valco win and where does it lose?
Valco wins:
- Value for money. This is not an opinion. At half the price, the sound quality is in the same league or better. Jasse’s tuning is genuinely exceptionally good.
- Repairability. The VMK25.2’s cushions can be swapped by hand. The battery, drivers and PCBs are replaced in service in Kajaani. Sony’s headphones go to the trash after two years. Ours get repaired.
- Battery life. VMK25.2: 55 hours with ANC on. Sony XM5: about 30 hours. This isn’t even close.
- Honesty. You know who made these, where they are repaired and where your money goes. Do you know who Sony’s CEO is? Nobody does.
The competitor wins:
- Top-tier ANC. Sony’s and Bose’s best noise cancellation is a touch more effective than ours. The difference is small, but it’s there. If airplane hum is your number-one criterion, the Sony WH-1000XM5 is the best on the market.
- App and ecosystem. Sony’s and Bose’s apps are more polished. We don’t have our own app, because a 14-person company can’t do everything. We spend our energy making the headphones themselves good.
- Brand recognition. If you want headphones your neighbor recognizes from the other side of the metro, buy Bose or Sony. No one recognizes Valco. Our customers are the ones who know what they’re buying — and don’t care whether the neighbor knows.
Who should choose the other?
Buy Sony or Bose if:
- You need the absolute best noise cancellation and the price doesn’t matter
- You want a polished app that lets you tweak everything
- The brand logo on your chest is important to you
Buy Valco if:
- You want the best sound quality without the unnecessary price premium
- You don’t want to throw your headphones away after two years
- You want to fund the Death Star. Every purchase brings us 0.000001% closer to the goal.
Summary
With expensive headphones you pay for brand, distribution and marketing. With the cheapest ones you pay for bad sound. Valco is that spot in the middle where the money goes into the headphones themselves.
VMK20 is a great starting point under 200 euros — fabric-covered, light and a 45-hour battery. VMK25.2 is our flagship: 55-hour battery, Jasse’s tuning and a repairable design under 250 euros.
Sony’s flagship model costs almost double. The difference in sound quality is a matter of taste. The difference in repairability is not.
If you end up with a competitor, no worries. Just don’t buy those 20-euro airport headphones. They’re a crime against humanity.
Bye, and thanks for all the money.
