Right, but that's the thing, because these products these days are often fashion statements there's less and less correlation between price and quality, especially as you go towards very expensive devices. A $50 pair of headphones is almost certainly better than a $20 one. $500 vs. $200? Maybe. $5000 vs $2000? Who the hell knows.

The point is that at $50 the AKG 240 are already the maximum audio quality you can get (in the sense reproduction). They are literally made for studio professionals to monitor recordings. Do you think non professional people need better gear to listen than what was used to record? What you are really buying above that price is build quality, comfort, or misc features.