First off your markups are pulled out of your backside. Please show me a markup of 3000% on a Integrated amplifier. Take the new Cambridge 150. The retail is the same if you are buying from Upscale Audio in CA or Audio Thesis in TX.
As for your cable comparisons they are total BS also as Audioquest, Synergistic Research both do their own distribution and operate on MAP pricing.
Really most of the Audio retailers are operating on 40% margins (retail 101) 60% on some niche products.
Your argument does not hold water. Your SG&A/COGS and MFR cost for moving offshore are suspect also. Quite often when a company opens manufacturing in new plant in a new country, they upgrade their equipment, making the capitol expenditures to improve processes and the product, that absorbs the labor cost savings from moving to say Mexico or Latvia vs MFR in South Carolina or CA.
Another factor not considered is the volume of sales and manufacturing. We are not talking a can of corn here or a box of nails. For that matter a Ford F150 either. What do you think the annual sales and production quota in for Audioquest to just break even, I do not know and neither do you. What is the cost of warehousing surplus inventory? What do production runs cost?
Would love to see the modeling you have done to extrapolate your figures oh wait it is right here it is called THIN AIR.
Your entire thesis is well garbage.
To a very large degree, the cost of High-End audio is high because it has to be: The companies that manufacture it tend not to sell it in large volume, so their costs—for parts, labor, shipping and overhead, and even sales and promotion—tend to be high, even if only because they can't take advantage of the economies of scale available to more major firms.
Delivering higher performance costs, too. The differences in cost between parts that are good and parts that are just good enough can be tremendous. And there's also the fact that, if a product needs to be expensive, it also needs to look and feel expensive, or people simply won't buy it. That drives prices up, too, and because the cost of entry can seem too high, the very things that are intended to attract them may be keeping potential new audiophiles away.
You should read this
Please have a great rest of your day.
The average MSRP markup on goods in CA is 3000%. To compare, Texas's MSRP markup is 300%. So the cost of materials will be higher to make the same product in CA than it would in TX. Synergistic Research and respectively Audioquest, has to charge what they do to maintain living and operating out of CA. But in Latvia? It is clear to me that the materials, tech and know how isn't that expensive there. So it can be surmised that the cost of living and operating out of Latvia is less expensive, which means they can offer the highest grade product at a much lower cost than if the same cable were made here in the United States.