@eponymoushipster Pretty much any demo product in a store will break easily. Consider how many hands they pass through, and sometimes a playful 4-year-old or a vandal gets hold of them and things go downhill from there. Bus seats are often dirty and tattered for pretty much the same reason.
Personally, I have tried all sorts of headphones and earbuds, and I have yet to find too many that are notably better than Koss Plugs. I am picky about my frequency response, range, and clarity. I have worn more than one pair of $300 phones that sounded like mud and fit like shit. There are few that can hit those bass notes I like to blast (my tastes include a lot of techno/trance/dance/house and a fair bit of metal), but my Plugs go down to 10Hz no problem and still manages a nice, even tone sweep up into the “dog whistle” range (20KHz) without wavering. I find it funny that the Beats site won’t post specs. Maybe they are afraid too?
They also do an excellent job of blocking out external sounds. They don’t just go in your ear, they go in your ear, like a foam earplug. That means you hear nothing but music.
As for durability, I only been through two sets in five years, and considering how they died, let’s just say that it wasn’t due to anything Koss could have foreseen. And unlike full headphones, there is no risk of them breaking if you drop them, nor is there a frame to warp/snap/manhandle. Unless those Beats are made of a titanium alloy, I’m pretty sure my phones can take them in durability.
And the part that I find fucking hilarious is that they only cost $15! I don’t know how that happens, but I can honestly say that they sound better than other things I’ve tried that cost ten times as much. Sure, they don’t look quite as cool (assuming your hair is short enough to leave them visible) and don’t have that “Look how much I can afford to spend!” bling-factor, but they do a damn good job.