The price of top end gear does not bear that tight a relationship to the cost of the parts. The pricing is value-based. The builder compares the performance of the gear to other gear on the market and sets the price based on how it sounds as compared to the competition. Of course audio is something that not everyone agrees on what sounds good, so something priced way up in price might still not fit one's taste. But, that price is aimed at someone who likes this particular sound and is comparing the product to other like sounding gear.
Because potential buyers have limited ability to hear a wide range of gear, particularly to hear the gear in their own system, most do not even know of the range of possible sonic alternatives. A local dealer in my area that sells only tube amplification gear, almost all of it of the low-power type, often gets in customers who have never really heard what low-power tube gear can do with the right speakers. For many, it is almost a religious experience. This dealer often has to make odd deals where he is getting in gear for trade that is worth MUCH more than the gear the buyer wants to swap for--meaning the dealer would owe money to the buyer; the arrangement made is usually some kind of consignment sale of the turned in gear. At this store, it is not at all strange that the customer finds that his $40k and up amps sound much inferior to something around $10k. But, that is not to say that the $40k stuff is a rip off--it was more of a mismatch to the listener's actual preference, a preference the customer did not even know he had until experiencing the alternative.
