A little about the luxury market: Centi-millionaires, traditionally, don’t loose sleep agonizing over whether or not they received strong price/performance when making a purchase.. They are primarily concerned with owning something that really IS something worth owning. Sure, they’ll brag about the "guts" or "workmanship", but their true motivators may be the intangibles that can’t be measured. What is the prestige in owning the best of the best actually worth? And, if it IS expensive, wouldn’t it be viewed as a badge of honor rather than a shockingly high-priced trophy?
Very well put. Their motivation by the "intangibles" specifically referenced here place them outside of audiophilia, in my opinion, as their concern is about their power (relative social status) and that is neither about "sound" nor "music." (Nor about their soul, if we channel Pope F.)
we could look at various price ranges to see if a significant and meaningful gap exists whereby a segment of the buying public is being ignored, or has been abandoned altogether. As a result of that 2x product introduction, is there still a healthy market for legitimate high-value products at 1/2 that price, and somewhere in between? IF that 2x product negatively impacted the viability and availability of those other (lower) price ranges, then some measurable damage has been done.
This is really insightful. Let me see if I got the gist: the intrusion of hyperbolic price increases ("game-changer" products and prices) creates a carve-out which damages an existing market segment. That segment has high quality (if a bit more expensive) stuff. They experience a new customer drought. Here, my mind goes to, say, an expensive Hegel H30 amp which at, say, $16k may be just a fantastic amp and an end-game solution for many customers in that aforementioned segment. But now, if enough people are now chasing, say, Gryphon amps, then Hegel has a problem because the carve out is starving them. I hope I am getting that right.