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Inflated prices in audio

Not being funny but I put a post into the thread about SME no longer selling tone-arms on their own saying they are not silly priced - I then had to row it back a bit when I saw that the SME V retails at £5500. 110 years ago it was half that price. My salary ain't doubled.

Likewise there are some real silly price audio equipment. If you index link top end audio from the 80's they would still come out significantly cheaper than now.

I'm not convinced that the best high-end from now is necessarily better than the stuff back then - different perhaps.

Is there any logical explanation for this? I think magazines like hi-fi world and what hifi are fairly responsible and do review a lot of real world products, but other publications are fixated with the utterly un-affordable.

What do you 'goners think?
lohanimal
gdnrbob
4,458 posts
 
Well, if a slice of NY pizza can go from 50 cents in the '80's to $3.00 today, I would say the dollar has taken a hit.
B
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
In 1930 a twenty-dollar gold piece would by a man a nice suit of clothes, a shirt, tie, belt, socks and a nice pair of shoes. Today, that same twenty-dollar gold piece could still buy that same outfit.

Today, a twenty-dollar Federal Reserve Note would buy you a couple pair of nice socks.

That’s the money story in a nutshell.

Frank
gdnrbob
4,458 posts
 
@oregonpapa ,
Unfortunately, we left the Gold Standard years ago.

In fact, a $20 Saint Gaudens gold coin would buy quite a bit more.
Bob
dill
2,543 posts
 
" Well, if a slice of NY pizza can go from 50 cents in the '80's to $3.00 today, I would say the dollar has taken a hit."

Or, the quality of the pizza has ....
ishkabibil
422 posts
 


From Erik.....

This is so true     
1 - Shift from a hobbyists pastime to consumer's pastime.
2 - Lack of cognoscenti3 - Belief that sales price determines quality.

This is why the true audiophile can be happy spending less. He/She is guided by their own ear and pleasure and is not lured by bigger and more expensive gear which may have no merit for them.
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