Forgive my noobness. I want to clarify something thats been puzzling me for a long time. From what I gather on this forum am I correct to say that most audiophile sifus don't recommend consumer brands like Sony, Philips, Panasonic etc. Why?

The reason I ask is because many years ago, I started out listening to 5 ringgit made-in-china earphones. At that time I already knew that they were probably the bottom of the heap in terms of sound quality. Then I bought my 1st Sony Walkman and I thought the headphone that came with it was really good. Since then I have bought Philips earphones in the region of 40-50 bucks and I think they sound quite brilliant (compared to my 5 ringgit earphones of yesteryear). So why is it almost everyone is recommending 'niche' (I don't know if this is the correct word but what I mean is the smaller companies than the giants like Sony, Panasonic, Philips etc) brands which easily costs upwards of RM300 right up into the stratospheric levels of RM2-3K!! Is it purely marketing hype? Can such small companies match the the bigger consumer brands in terms of R&D? If not, then how can they be better sounding then? Are the consumer brands I mentioned really no match for these 'newer' and far more expensive brands?

Finally I would like some recommendations for earphones/headphones (I don't even know which is more suitable whether earbuds, earphones, IEM or headphones?) in the region of RM300.
I like separation(is it called soundstaging?) and I value clarity in the mids & highs above all else.
I like:
1. Pop
2. Classical
3. Jazz
4. Folk

I hate the loud boom boom bass reminiscent of the 70's when ppl were making their own huge wooden speaker boxes to house the woofer units in order to listen to Chinese pop songs!
I hate:
1. Rap
2. Grunge
3. Punk Rock
4. Hip-Hop
Thank you for bearing with me.

ive been using the regular iphone earphones until now. the remote didnt cause me any problems. just that the earphones fit very poorly and im looking for other with better sound.

any recommendations?