Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

+1 @rbstehno

I suppose thats why Revel stopped producing the 2’s. You can’t sell anything that good for such a low price today. The audiophile community demand higher prices.

Not if you go about it in a smart and cost conscience manner and filter out the hype.

As an experiment, I just successfully replaced gear that sold for 9k about 12 years ago with a new unit that cost only 3K.

Just be aware of all the options out there. If you rely on this site only, chances are whatever sound you end up with may cost more. Plenty of affordable gear out there these days that can deliver sound worthy of the label “high end”.

can’t imagine Revel would hesitate to raise prices if it would increase sales...and this site still occasionally has some great deals...

I think the upper end of the high end maybe even the “vanilla” version of the high end has gotten stupid expensive.  But at the same time one can assemble a great system for not too much of a cost nowadays, as well.

What’s really crazy is you can connect a pair of inexpensive IEMs ($200-$300) to your phone and get absolutely mind-boggling good sound!  

Even a modest hi-fi system w/ better totl vintage, so no need to buy stratospheric priced gear.