Is it possible for a high end manufacturer to overprice their goods?

@prof   again, +1

" You cannot possibly be the CPA for both a drug cartel and a speaker manufacturer"

many CPAs don't know they work for the mob. I know this from Hollywood movies :)

@thyname That's an interesting direction. Only because these forums exist (mostly) to validate your purchases. Heaven forbid you overspend on a piece of equipment. 

From experience (outside of Hi-Fi): high-end = extra hassle and extra costs. The quality of the service and goods seldom meets expectations. 

For example:

- You can buy a sturdy laminate table in a flatpack box and get it shipped in 2 days for a few hundred dollars. Or you can custom order a table, spend thousands and wait months. You may be unlucky and notice that one of the legs isn't fitted properly. Because everything is hand-made and not factory-made with precision machinery. This applies to everything custom made: kitchens, sofas etc... There's a reason IKEA dominates the furniture world: consistency, convenience and price. You get none of that with custom high-end furniture. 

My point: entry-level Hi-Fi from established brands (Yamaha, Polk, Denon, Klipsch etc...) is consistent AF, affordable AF, easy to purchase (no dealers! Yay!) and the customer service puts a lot of high-end manufacturers with shady dealers to shame. You know that Yamaha will still be selling amps for decades to come, it's not certain with smaller boutique manufacturers. 

Mass-produced equipment is the way to go IMHO. I'll happily sacrifice "performance and prestige" for better reliability, service and prices. 

"Is is possible?" Sure it is! However, in a free and fair market the market will set the prices- not the seller. 

Said another way a thing is worth what someone will pay for it. 

There are some who seek the greater fool. Every now and then some bozo wins the lottery, gets an NFL contract, gets a lawsuit settlement, etc. Trying to sell to these types is a recipe for failure. There aren't enough fools with money to sustain a business over time who's building and selling overpriced items.

Interestingly if you sell to the classes you tend to eat with the masses but if you sell to the masses you eat with the classes.  

@yesiam_a_pirate You're missing something huge in your argument. Large manufacturers can scale production and outsource it to China in order to save a lot of money on production costs.

Smaller boutique manufacturers can't do that, unless they dropship or buy off-the-shelf modules and do minimal assembly. 

Success in the audio bizz seems to come from marketing, marketing, marketing... The quality of the goods and price seems almost secondary. Just produce something decent and hype it to the max. I'm astounded by the coverage around Schiit and now Gishelli Labs. Everything they release gets hyped up to infinity, as if they're "disrupting the market". They're not.  And these brands are relatively new.