Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

The reality is, gas is the lifeblood of all things that have a cost.

So yes  Biden and his admin are the cause for gas price elevation,  with a little icing by the Russian embargo.

Printing money bodes for the future.  Essentially anything in your saving account now will be worthless in your old age.

I think low and modest cost components offer more value than ever...so much of the expensive gear if bought used is easy to sell for little loss a few years later...and I remember a manufacturer of an extremely expensive amp saying he expected to sell 2 or 3 a year worldwide, so these prices are not really representative of the industry...

Love to spend BIG BUCKS on High End Audio ITS FUN!!!!!!

ebm nails it, as usual

One only need look at reviews posted 3-4 years ago to see that prices for many components have gone up 10%-20% over the past few years, due to the factors cited by many in this thread - supply and demand, economic conditions, supply chain pressures, etc. . But if you look back at a source like Stereophile Recommended component listings from the 1990s, prices then and now don't seem out of line. If anything, today's value components seem like a greater bargain compared to what I see listed from the 90s.

The ultra-high-end has always been focused on a limited number of buyers who either have the resources or the appetite to tie up a significant portion of their net worth in an audio system. They can have at it, but for my purposes I'm pretty psyched about the ability to put together a truly musical system at just about any price point.