Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

Yes, thanks for the help....

My deepest respect...

@unreceivedogma 

I’ll raise you one on that. I think the Ukraine War is really a conspiracy concocted by the Kremlin and the Pentagon. 

Rilly? You should consider reading more things and think about topics in your wheelhouse. The statement quoted from you above is simply beyond logic.

What was the original question of this discussion? 

I do believe that high end audio equipment has escalated in price above the levels of inflation that we are seeing. A lot of the more expensive equipment is cutting edge and requires higher quality components and fabrication. Small runs cost more and the materials that are being used are more exotic than in the past. It only makes sense that these items would be escalating in price ahead of inflation. 

Off topic. I absolutely believe they will need to start mining asteroids to acquire the minerals required to green the world economy. We cannot pull out the required resources from this planet without making it an even bigger environmental disaster. 

@ghasley 

+1

I am naturally a skeptic. But was fortunate enough to go to a junior high school that also taught critical thinking. They made us find and read articles on the same subject from different papers and magazines and to evaluate the different viewpoints to assemble a “accurate” picture of reality. The differences in points of view helped ferrite the truth,

Some thing that has followed me through life. I took logic in college and became a scientist. My skepticism has remained… ferreting the truth. Living all over the world and understanding different points of view. I have to admit, I am pretty ashamed to be an American. As some as my European and Asian friends said, “Americans, some really smart people (fortunately me included in this group) and a whole lot of stupid ones.”. Unfortunately, true.

Possibly I am naive; I recall equipment that was out of my range from the time I was making minimum wage to now being a 1 percenter. In virtually every product there is segmentation. Maybe the difference is the mass marketers exited high end. But I have mass marketed receivers that are exceptional; so maybe they just decided the market for that final 2-3% wasn’t large enough to invest. Class warfare was difficult when I was poor; it’s equally disturbing now that I am not. 
 

on the subject of banks- society needs normalization and consistency- or it is a free for all. No question things can favor the elites. But even the poorest have benefitted. I am living proof