Why Is Hi Fi Gear So Darn Expensive?

Price has anything to do with consumer products.

You pay you get. Miracles do not happen. Since a preamp comparison was mentioned, one costing 2k and the other 20k, which one is better? Easy the more expensive one, because in an accompanying system of relative value it would show less limitations compared to the more economic one. That does not limit the quality of the 2k one, which in turn could be better than a 3k preamp, making it a an excellent choice for the right system and most likely above that.

One of the issues is who can bring lower pricing on a statement product, my answer would be the big guns, you know the ones that produce mass market goods also, have the resources and the ability, and care to see in the end a profitable category and not product alone. Unfortunately snobbish behaviours apply to this hobby as elsewhere. Reasons for not succeeding has nothing to do with sound quality or construction but rather distribution, lower margins and not so perfect after sales service. Back to square one.

Wealthy people want it.

Poor people have it.

If you eat it you will die.

What is it?

This is one my daughter hit me with when she was 6. 

They asked what they want and that's the only thing. I can built an amp good looking finish sounds pretty good and van asked 20.000dollars.

You should do that then... 

@temporal_dissident I don’t particularly disagree w/ your lusting after gear theory.

I built a fairly nice system when I was married to the mother of my kids, which gave me a taste of good sound. Years later when I decided to build another system I decided to implement a little bit of a strategy, because I had learned about how expensive the upgrade bug can be.

So glad I decided to just go ahead and do things right the first time around.

Also thankful I had already learned about how important synergy in a system is, including having a complete loom of whatever cables/wires you use. I’ve learned some really valuable things from reading these silly posts.

It’s a good feeling to be completely content with what you have and not be the least bit envious of what others have. Like others have mentioned, relatively good sound can be had for a fairly reasonable amount of dough. I would consider our buddy @mahgister to be sort of a master of that particular domain.

"I recently heard a small 2-way stand mount speaker at a show. The sound was excellent. The product was priced at $50,000 or thereabouts, per pair. Allowing for distribution and marketing leaves about $25,000.  Add management and cost of capital, that leaves maybe $12,500 per pair for parts and assembly and engineering. Say the cost of parts was $5000 and assembly was $2500. Could engineering realistically cost $5,000 per pair? "

$25,000 for marketing and distribution of every pair of speakers? What do they do? Fly them to your house on a private jet? Seems to me that that cost would be amortized over whatever number of units were manufactured. Same with the rest of his justifications.