True cost of Dre Beats headphones revealed

Company founders Dr Dre - aka Andre Young - and Jimmy Iovine are now Apple employees.

The good doctor is presently worth $550m. He co-founded Beats and  in 2013, Carlyle Group acquired a minority shareholding for $500m. His present stake is thought to be somewhere between 20 and 25%.

Which means that after the sale – and after tax – Dre worths $800m; ahead of Diddy and Jay Z, but some way shy of his first billion.

He can always play a few concerts if he needs some cash or he could release his long-awaited but yet-to-arrive album Detox. Some say it was shelved to prevent a lukewarm reception damaging the Beats brand.

According to estimates from some headphone experts, it might cost more to get your haircut than it does to make a pair of Dre Beats headphones. 

The company was sold to Apple in May of 2014 during a record-setting deal that included about $2.6billion in cash and approximately $400million in stock.

• Headphone designers estimate cost of making fancy headset could be $14
• Cheapest Beats headphones cost $200 and price goes as high as $700 
• Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre created $3.2billion company in the mid-2000s
• It was sold to Apple in May of 2014 and they are now company employees 
• Deal included $2.6billion in cash and approximately $400million in stock 

Headphone designers estimate 'the cost of making a fancy headset is as low as $14', N.Y Times reported. 

The least expensive pair of Beats headphones that is listed on the company's website costs $199.99 and the most expensive pair retails for $699.99.

Beats grew to become worth $3.2billion after cornering 57 per cent of the market for 'premium' headphones. 

Overall, the company controlled 27 per cent of the $1.8billion headphone market in 2014.  

During an audio test of 18 of the top-selling headphone brands.

Time Magazine ranked Beats as the second-to-worst entry in terms of sound quality