Aesthetix Romulus Signature Upgrade Worth the $3,000 ?

there are less than 20 labor hours in final assy of a Scion and they sell hundreds of thousands of units..
hi end audio is often Aerospace grade parts, engineering, etc. Jim White not only knows what a Faraday cage is but how to use it to manage RF...for example...
look at Aesthetix operating with about ten employees in VERY high cost CA...small wonder we can afford anything they make.
go pick on somebody who really is skimming cream..

Grannyring,  which model apprentice stand are you referring to for the Romulus? 

Tomic601, we agree. You are making my very point. Our hobby has so few that our prices are so crazy high. We disagree on the parts being aerospace as the boards are filled with common parts etc...the type of parts found on the boards in a Scion. The whole CD transport is cheaply built, the parts used are common for the most part.

As for the $3000 cost for the upgrade, well we all know that is just plain nuts. I can buy a brand new highly rated dac that sounds as good for that kind of money like a Yamamoto. Yes I am using this as an example of audio ridiculousness. You are obviously a big fan of the designer and perhaps that clouds your ability to see the plain facts. $3000 for 4 resistors, a handful of capacitors, footers and a different digital board. Oh my. 

This is the Star Sound stand I am talking about. I purchased the coupling discs from Adona as they were more reasonably priced. Eden sound also makes nice ones for reasonable cost. 

http://www.starsoundaudio.com/ComponentPlatformsDetail.php?SP-SA-103-3-SA-103-4-10