I guess we need to define what you call an Audiophile first. I dont consider myself one. As i think spending over certain amount of money is just silly. In that regards i am just a consumer who expect high quality headphone within a price, that could be around $200 - $300.

To simply put, if you are heavy Bass listener. And dont listen to any type of music other then Rock / Hip Hop. Then may be Beats is perfect.

You could argue most audiophile would embarrass themselves with blind test, but the traits in Beats are so different that any normal human being should easily distinguish it.