The comparison with Mac seems really spurious. Apple, at its best, redesigns hardware and software to find whole new ways of interacting intuitively with really very complicated computing devices. That is not comparable to making some headphones which are bass heavy.
Beats is like Apple, but with its objective value stripped out. i.e. just the fashion and marketing without any of the engineering excellence and innovation.
While not the best comparison, there is a bit of truth in it. I consider myself a discerning 'consumer' and I've switched to an Android phone, away from the iPhone, a few years ago. I switched back to iPhone last year. And while the main reasons were functional (better camera, an OS that I prefer), aesthetics and the 'feel' of the iPhone (5S, in my case) definitely played a role. I don't think it's a stretch to say that these factors are even more important to the non-tech crowd. Fashion is important enough to many people that it can be considered part of 'objective value'.
Beats is like Apple, but with its objective value stripped out. i.e. just the fashion and marketing without any of the engineering excellence and innovation.