Do audiophiles creat the high prices we complain about.

Perhaps I am not an audiophile- I don’t complain about prices. 

my buying decision includes price as a factor but it’s oriented towards the value for the price.  I love Audio Research and I am not willing to spend that much on components. I also like lobster - I don’t recall the last lobster I had…

I expect my experience isn’t singular- some folks value Audio Research higher than I do. 

mahler123

When they release a product that is priced below Market Comparable, the expectation is that it must be unworthy.

That's what happens when there is no universally acceptable way way to define what is "good". We become slaves to hype, biases, opinions, herd effect, magazine ads, you name it.

There are two standard ways of pricing and companies tend to follow one or the other.
 

Pricing by the market (basically the value the market will bear). So, carefully as @mahler123 mentioned, compare with performance in the market. The second is cost plus… I’m guessing that Schiit probably does this.

Of course, most companies consider both… something too expensive will not fly… and at the real high end… you don’t want to loose prestige by charging too little provided the performance justifies it.

H