I definitely disagree. Maybe sometimes, paying twice as much gives you something that lasts ten times longer. Or maybe, you will pay five times as much, and get something that (hopefully) lasts a bit longer.
I use a lot of earphones, and they tend to break quite fast. Once or twice, I decided to move away from the usual 15$ models and pay 60$ for better brands, with good reviews, and everything. Did they last longer ? Of course not. They sounded marginally better, but nothing worth the price..
The thing is, price is an indicator of positioning. It's a marketing tool, and it's generally not correlated to quality. Buying the very cheapest is usually not a good idea, because the manufacturer probably did everything it could to actually beat competitors and propose the lowest price. But other than that, that's pretty much all you can know in advance.
Knowing what items are made of good quality and will last longer (and therefore are worth paying an extra for) is very hard. So, my reasoning on that is that I prefer to spend less money on something, since on average, it will live just as long.
Regarding the headphones, some 7 years ago I've bought Phillips hp805 after reading an article that titled them "king of the budget cans", they've cost something around $30 and are the most comfortable headphones I've ever had on my head and the sound quality is great too.
After all those years they work like new, though I do have a habit of being careful with things. I'm afraid of these breaking because I'd have no idea what to replace them with.
Buy fewer than four pairs of $15 headphones in two years and you're still ahead. At least, you're still ahead financially; value is virtually impossible to quantify when you take into account subjective qualities like sound, appearance and comfort.
The $15 earphones last 3-4 months and I'm tired of spending an hour every few months to pick an ear phone, as well of the "music down time" that entails. That's why I started paying more. Hopefully my $60 ear phones last longer. I would rather not have to rely on the warranty.
I use a lot of earphones, and they tend to break quite fast. Once or twice, I decided to move away from the usual 15$ models and pay 60$ for better brands, with good reviews, and everything. Did they last longer ? Of course not. They sounded marginally better, but nothing worth the price..
The thing is, price is an indicator of positioning. It's a marketing tool, and it's generally not correlated to quality. Buying the very cheapest is usually not a good idea, because the manufacturer probably did everything it could to actually beat competitors and propose the lowest price. But other than that, that's pretty much all you can know in advance.
Knowing what items are made of good quality and will last longer (and therefore are worth paying an extra for) is very hard. So, my reasoning on that is that I prefer to spend less money on something, since on average, it will live just as long.