Do audiophiles creat the high prices we complain about.

I’ve found that value does not always correlate to low price. Sometimes in life,we do get what we pay for. Sometimes not. Price is only one part of the equation. 

Do audiophiles creat the high prices we complain about.

I do think we do it to ourselves by greatly considering pricing when we buy. A manufacturer has to have certain price points or their gear wouldn’t be considered worthy. I have had audiophiles tell me they want 10-25k speakers, not good ones the price comes 1st for many. Anything under those prices isn’t good enough in their minds.

Interesting and relevant question, always is. What can be merely observed is how price is oftentimes sought slavishly linked to sound quality, and it certainly ties neatly into a business model and how people generally identify themselves from a monetary standpoint; wealthy people buy expensive stuff, some simply because they can (uncritically) and others because it offers them a less restricted playground price-wise to explore their hobbies and interests.

Even in the latter case though, IMHO, price and what is normatively accepted has a tendency to become too rigid and dictating a marker, whereby the incentive to truly explore sound reproduction - irrespective of high AND low price, status, looks, segment, size and design principles - is sidestepped by market draw and the overall domination and appeal of the hi-fi industry as is.

Indeed: why buy something cheap when you can have and afford other stuff more expensive - why even bother? I don’t mean to imply I necessarily adhere to or endorse this kind of thinking and putting-into-action, but it goes to show there are mechanisms at work that effectively bypass an approach to sound reproduction that isn’t influenced by the allure and draw of what high prices (by virtue not least of being high) can offer.

Not this week.

I'd blame it on subjective.

By keeping it in the ethereal world, who can say what anything is or isn't worth?

Not every company is the baby of some innovator spending his 401K slaving away in his garage to build a better product. At some point the successful ones have large R&D and then manufacture abroad. When they release a new product, I am sure that they start off with a price point in mind, and they determine that point by looking at what is already on the market. If they can build a product for $X but have determined that the customer base is willing to pay $5X, they price it accordingly.
I think what the OP is getting at is that we don’t see comparably built equipment being sold at $3X, with the thought that lowering price should increase market share. I tend to agree. When Paradigm released their ‘Founder’ speaker line, I thought they sounded great, better than my current speakers which retailed for three times as much. However there were plenty of disparaging comments, on this site and elsewhere. Paradigm doesn’t have the same niche as , for example, McIntosh. When they release a product that is priced below Market Comparable, the expectation is that it must be unworthy. I have also had Sony SACD players that blew away, or at least held their own with higher priced boutique brands, also similarly disrespected