“What is really pushing premium headphones is not just the growth in mobile smartphones and tablets, but video and music services like Netflix and Spotify, that make people want a better listening device,” said Benjamin Arnold, a consumer electronics industry analyst for NPD. “It’s serious consumption rather than 30-second YouTube clips.”

The rush into premium headphones was set off in 2008 by the Beats by Dr. Dre brand, which marketed headphones like Air Jordan basketball shoes. (HTC, the Taiwanese cellphone maker, was once the majority shareholder of the Beats venture and still owns a 25 percent interest.) Headphones had traditionally been sold on technical specs like frequency response, but Beats created appealing designs in an array of colors. It also tweaked the headphones with brain-rattling bass.

Monster lost the rights to make the Beats, but has introduced 12 of its own headphones, none with a celebrity name on the brand, although some have celebrity endorsers. NPD found that celebrity endorsement was extremely or very important to 30 percent of consumers, and was the top factor driving purchases of headphones costing more than $100. Consumers say they want sound quality, but brand counts heavily too.

“Basically good-enough sound is good enough if everything else is in line, like brand and color,” Mr. Arnold said. “You see young people walking around the mall with them around their necks. They aren’t even on their ears.”

Not all headphones work on the same economics as the fashion brands. Classic brands like AKG, Shure, Audio-Technica, Grado and Klipsch still market based on realistic sound and value. With no celebrity endorsers to share profits and a nearly unlimited shelf life, because the style doesn’t change with fashion, the marketing model is different.

Audiophiles have lauded Grado Labs’ SR80i headphones, which have remained largely unchanged since they were introduced in 1991. Those sell for about $100. The company hasn’t advertised since 1964 and has no celebrity endorsers, and the SR80is come only in black and are packed in a flimsy box. “We are very cognizant of costs,” said Grado’s Mr. Chen. “We make a good profit.“

In general, while fashion headphones may be worth their weight in peer approval, they may not be a value sonically. “These designer headphones are sort of flavor of the month, and people will get tired of this sound eventually,” said Jim Anderson, a Grammy-winning audio engineer. “That’s why you won’t see professionals using this equipment in studios.”