Why Is Hi Fi Gear So Darn Expensive?

More than any other hobby I can think of, audiophiles seem to associate quality with seemingly outlandish prices.  I don't deny there is a general relationship between price and quality, but it is inconsistent and certainly way out of proportion at times.  

I also truly believe many (but certainly not all) vendors take advantage of this fact and as a result make the hobby very confusing.  I know Ohm has been mentioned by several in this thread and I absolutely put them in the category of providing good value and not taking advantage of this trend, so good on them as well as other vendors who provide tremendous value.  

Some time ago, a Swiss watchmaker had about 20 prototypes of his new $400,000 watch and he went to the seaside and boarded one yacht after another. You know the kind, like you'd see at a Formula 1 race, all lined up with revelers and partiers doing their thing. 

It didn't take long before he was out of watches with enough commitments to buy that he didn't have to worry about work for awhile, of if they'd sell.

The kind of people who'd buy expensive audio gear live a different world than anyone here (I'd dare say) and would find these types of conversations both quaint, and sad, making them feel all the more fortunate and privileged, if they even cared.

All the best,
Nonoise

hmmmm 🤔 $50,000 or thereabouts U say?

were those the Oswalds Mill entry level speakers?

I think there are all kinds of people who buy ultra expensive audio gear. Some of them can easily afford anything. Others expend very significant amounts of their finances on that equipment and make sacrifices in other parts of their lives. I'd guess the vast majority of people who can easily afford that level have very limited interest in it. They may play with something like that for a while and then move on to other things. Have you ever seen those abandoned supercars in Dubai? I saw that first hand - beautiful cars half sandblasted by the desert wind and their interiors filled with sand. Somebody had their fun with that disposable trinket and moved on. 

A lot of high-end audio products might have more to do with art than with commerce. There are plenty of high-value products out there that deliver superb audio quality and are not at all frighteningly expensive.

But was it like this decades ago-- when nearly every decent sized city or town had stereo stores that served the full spectrum of products? No. Things have changed. The hobby isn't growing and it's market is greying. Retail has consolidated and most mom & pop stereo shops shuttered long ago, partly as a result.

Is the same thing happening in the EU? I don't know.

But in the USA, the numbers do not lie, and for at least the last forty years or so, the USA has been in economic decline-- not GDP decline, not productivity decline, they have continued to grow-- but decline in the incomes and the stability of U.S. middle class working families. This is called Social-Economic Mobility in the trades-- and in our case, the U.S. transformed from an upwardly mobile to a downwardly mobile society for most people over the course of the last four decades or so. The most basic of metrics-- lifespan, the chances your kids will have a better quality of life than their parents-- have all gone south. All key metrics for middle class viability have. Not my opinion, but rather a series of endlessly measured and documented hard economic facts.

Why? Because what hasn't grown nearly enough to keep up with baseline inflation are wages and salaries. This while many household costs-- like healthcare and college tuition, have grown nearly an order of magnitude greater than inflation over this time-- so has household debt as a percentage of income. This is an incontrovertible trend (those that don't believe in science or in the decades long collection of economic data-- don't bother replying to me-- I not interested in nonsense). This leads to less disposable income, and ironically, more work time spent for less money. The EU is better than the U.S., but still trending the wrong way. Their citizens at least have the benefit of more time to spend on hobbies, vacations, etc., with a vastly better safety net under their middle classes.

So people don't buy nice stereos generally, even if they wanted to, because they can't afford them, and are instead settling for the garbage they can get off of their phones and (mostly garbage) earbuds. That's normal today. 

So what's a smart, passionate high-end audio manufacturer to do? First they realize their is a limited market and many competitors in it. You want to sell the good stuff and you want people to know that is what they are buying-- then price becomes a very strong signal. 

On the really high-end stuff, it's so far beyond cost of goods or even R&D. It's aspirational pricing and and it requires relentless intelligent marketing to carve out a niche like this for your brand.

So I would not expect prices to come down, but I am also constantly amazed at the wonderful innovative and super high-value products that are released by so many excellent companies year after year. 

High-end audio is accessible to more people than ever. If only more of those people had the disposable income needed to take the plunge.

I know this is not everything and I'm leaving stuff out-- but this I think makes up the bulk of the reasons why the really high-end stuff is more costly than ever.

Turntables have clearly charmed Gen-Z, and the number of affordable products in this category is amazing. So who knows, quality sound may become a thing again. Priorities may shift, and if we don't give in to apathy, the U.S. can still have a huge second act sometime in our future -- if we can get our democracy working again-- working for everyone rather than just a few percent of us.