few if any will agree on what a deeper soundstage, lower noise floor, longer note decay or any other Audiophile nuances should cost. This is why any price/performance ratio standard IMO is nearly irrelevan
Such an unintelligent falsity/ the common lie propagated by guys (dealers incognito) who try to sell sht that’s completely not worth the selling price.
Deeper soundstage? Lower noise floor? Audiophile nuance? It all comes down to the competence level of the engineer...all with negligible/zero perceptible gains beyond a certain limit even for a golden ear bat.
When one buys things from very intelligent guys like Andrew Jones, Peter Comeau, guys at Yamaha, etc, great things can be very affordable. When one buys things from dumb dudes like Daryl Wilson, mediocrity can be very expensive.
Intelligent dudes will get things made by intelligent dudes. Dumb dudes will get things made by dumb dudes. Birds of the same feather tend to flock together.