Ascertaining the true cost to manufacture headphones is complicated because there are multiple factors to consider, and this is the type of business intelligence every company keeps very close to its chest.
To break things down in simple terms, essentially there are 4 aspects to the cost of any product [1] R&D [2] materials [3] manufacturing and [4] marketing.
R&D is variable, so calculating the cost of R&D for an individual headphone model is difficult, especially because R&D costs may be capitalized or expensed even before production begins. In general, newer models still haven't seen a return on ROI costs, while older models (for example the Sennheiser HD600) have probably recouped their R&D costs, and then some.
Material costs vary over time, often wildly, and are subject to supply and demand constraints.
Production costs also vary, for example AKG Q701s were made in Austria, but AKG wanted to save costs and moved production to China. But moving production to China does not necessarily make things cheaper, for example some Audio-Gd amps probably cost more to make than equivalent Schiit amps, even though Schiit makes its stuff in the US and Audio-Gd in China.
Material and manufacturing costs may be variable (materials, packaging, etc.) or fixed (labor, storage, personnel salaries, etc.). To make things even more complicated, many companies OEM some or all of production, which again affects costs depending on who they OEM to. And it's not just a case of folks using cheap Chinese OEMs to save money aall around -- some Denon headphones for example were OEMd by Fostex, another Japanese company.
And keep in mind that OEM companies typically conduct their own R&D, have their own design costs, have to retool equipment for specific products, etc, which changes cost calculations.
And finally marketing: some companies spend more on marketing (e.g. Beats) and make huge profits, while others spend very little on traditional marketing and still manage to do very well for themselves (e.g. Schiit).
In sum, good luck finding this info out unless you are an industry insider, and even then you will have issues trying to calculate the true product cost of your competitors.
To break things down in simple terms, essentially there are 4 aspects to the cost of any product [1] R&D [2] materials [3] manufacturing and [4] marketing.
R&D is variable, so calculating the cost of R&D for an individual headphone model is difficult, especially because R&D costs may be capitalized or expensed even before production begins. In general, newer models still haven't seen a return on ROI costs, while older models (for example the Sennheiser HD600) have probably recouped their R&D costs, and then some.
Material costs vary over time, often wildly, and are subject to supply and demand constraints.
Production costs also vary, for example AKG Q701s were made in Austria, but AKG wanted to save costs and moved production to China. But moving production to China does not necessarily make things cheaper, for example some Audio-Gd amps probably cost more to make than equivalent Schiit amps, even though Schiit makes its stuff in the US and Audio-Gd in China.
Material and manufacturing costs may be variable (materials, packaging, etc.) or fixed (labor, storage, personnel salaries, etc.). To make things even more complicated, many companies OEM some or all of production, which again affects costs depending on who they OEM to. And it's not just a case of folks using cheap Chinese OEMs to save money aall around -- some Denon headphones for example were OEMd by Fostex, another Japanese company.
And keep in mind that OEM companies typically conduct their own R&D, have their own design costs, have to retool equipment for specific products, etc, which changes cost calculations.
And finally marketing: some companies spend more on marketing (e.g. Beats) and make huge profits, while others spend very little on traditional marketing and still manage to do very well for themselves (e.g. Schiit).
In sum, good luck finding this info out unless you are an industry insider, and even then you will have issues trying to calculate the true product cost of your competitors.
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