The OP highlights the "problem" with many of the "hi-end" "snake-oil" peddlers in the industry. No doubt many of the products ARE excellent, but certainly they are priced way beyond of what they are actually "worth", even with costs and profits considered.
Most of these $20K+ speakers are manufactured for less than $2K, if not much less. That's a fact. Unless your tweeters are diamond or some other exotic material, which are expensive to produce, most likely they cost the speaker brand less than $100 to make or purchase from manufacturing vendors.
So much of the industry is to pray on "wealthy" (or mostly "wannabe") individuals that seem to still believe expensive=good. Or perhaps they know they are being rooked, but feel the mark-up is worth it to feel good about themselves or impress their friends.
That is the problem with the industry. And when the economy is good, no doubt not many people complain. But in these economic conditions, you'll find a lot of these companies failing or coming back to the customer with tails behind their legs and lowering their products to more "reasonable" costs, and still making substantial profits per speaker pair.
Not giving a free pass to dealers either whom are a huge part of the problem, or the silly consumers with the attitude of "this is my money, I'll waste it as I like" which is true, it is their prerogative. But like the finance industry, this Ponzi scam can only last so long, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's in store for the "hi-end" audio industry.
