What a set of knockoff headphones taught me about headphones — and knockoffs

As a rule, you should never believe anything you see on social media. And you should really never believe anything someone says in a video with a TikTok Shop link, because they are nakedly trying to sell you something. From candy to headphones to supplements to power tools, TikTok has built a remarkable system: creators post videos promoting or reviewing products, TikTok blasts them onto For You pages everywhere, and when viewers click the link and buy the product, both the creators and TikTok get a cut. Everything's for sale and everyone's on commission.

I know all this to be true. So the first time I saw a video of an influencer hawking Picun F8 Pro headphones, which I immediately clocked as a convincing AirPods Max knockoff, I scrolled past it. But after weeks of video after video after video raving about how great these headphones are, I caved.

I kept hearing that Picun headphones were roughly as good as the AirPods Max for a fraction of the price. A few TikToks I saw argue that you're not the problem if you buy knockoffs - you're the problem if you're spending $500 more just to get a brand name. Some videos purport to perform scientific noise-canceling tests; others just ho …

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