Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

Around 1985, I bought a Harman Kardon integrated amp (the 645 vxi) for around $250 IIRC. It's still hooked up in a bedroom system. These days, NAD sells a similar product (the C316BEE V2) for $479 (Crutchfield price).  So the price hasn't doubled in ~37 years.  But neither product has ethernet, USB, WiFi, bass management, upsampling, or an LCD touch screen.  In many HiFi components, new technologies not only inflate the price, they often become outdated within 5 years or so.  Same with vehicles. An infotainment system adds maybe $2000+ to the price, and is outdated many years before the engine starts burning oil.  Yet it provides little capability - much less, really - than you'd get from a $500 tablet. 

There are frequently frictional lags in the degree to which the prices of goods track input costs. However, the current global circumstances have created an unusual, if not unique, situation. We have become accustomed to a having very low interest rates and very low inflation, but that situation is now reversing. We also have the various global supply chain problems arising from various circumstances including the pandemic and the current war being waged by Russia on Ukraine. The UK is suffering from further cost increasing pressures arising from Brexit.

Often when faced with input price rises, manufacturers and service providers try to absorb the costs to maintain their position vis a vis competitors. However, there eventually comes a tipping point where they have to raise prices and the effect can look rather sudden even though it's the result of a period of sustained pressure.

Separate to all that, the stock of wealth in capitalist economies tends to increase over time as a result of rising productivity and also inheritance.

Aside from the current price pressures, I haven't seen radical rises in the price of high end audio. But what I have seen is the introduction of higher priced lines i.e. product lines where the price is higher ab initio - Constellation Audio and Techdas are examples.

@audioguy85,

This is what we call a sh**post.  This is how entire threads get deleted. A completely off-topic little rant.  I'm glad you feel better.

I live in a summer vacation hot spot where multi million dollar homes with 100k + sports cars and SUV’s are parked in garages. The homes are occupied 2 months of the year and occasional weekends. Thankfully my modest 3 bedroom 2 car garage Cape within a short walk from many of these homes is valued at over 700k vs it’s build price of 180k including the lot back in ’98. I enjoy the same restaurants and beaches while having earned a good living designing and installing home automation systems and theaters in quite a few of these homes. As ridiculous as it seems to me and many others here in the area to have so much invested in a home and vehicles that get such little use, our local economy thrives so I for one don’t care what people choose to spend their money on let alone how much of it. I do however feel very strongly that the return and reward in a 2 channel audio system above a given investment cost today is marginally very slim compared to other areas of investment such as real estate for example. How much reinventing of the wheel has there really been with amplifiers for instance in the last 60 years in comparison to automotive engineering or medical advancements? The DIY community thrives in the restoration and enjoyment of older tube gear because of the great value both monetarily and for the fact that they can produce sound that rivals modern production pieces costing much, much more. The end goal most of us desire is the ultimate sonic experience available within our budget. The funny thing is most are never satisfied and keep chasing the unicorn. Proof is in how many components are bought and sold by individuals on a regular basis. Are you making uninformed decisions, never content, believing BS hype? I want to sit my ass in the chair and enjoy the music...I know unicorns don’t exist except in fairy tails.

It has nothing to do with inflation. Go to an audio show. I did last month and $35k-over $100k speakers sound much worse than say the Revel salon/studio 2’s for $23k or lower. If it was inflation and you also based it on sq, the revels would be $150k. There were some nice sounding speakers at the show but instead of $30k or more, they should have been priced for sq around $5k or a little more