They know we will pay anything they can think of

Thinking that many speakers craftmanship designers are thieves who makes BIG money selling audiophile speakers is even if it was true a proof that they would be very bad thieves because one make money with vaccines or pharma drugs or banking or financials schemes , drugs and arms traffic, organ traffic etc not with audiophile speakers...😁

I dont even need to know the ratio of price parts cost versus the selling price to know that....

Most reputed speakers craftmanship is born of love not born from hubris...

The problem in audio is not the cost of ultra high end speakers; it is acoustic ignorance...

For sure some increase their price to sell luxury to rich people but it is not really crookery because these products overpriced are easy to spot...

….Out comes a price you know the rep made up while sitting in his office wondering how much he can ask those sick people to pay..

This seems false- unless the rep is the manufacturer, reps prices are usually established by the manufacturer. Reps sometimes can offer discounts to get the sale by reducing their profit margin, some manufacturers frown on this.

…advertising, manufacturing, and overhead is relatively expensive

What about R&D costs?  This is a major factor in driving up costs.  I’ve been to the Magico manufacturing where they gave cutting edge equipment including computers, CNC aluminum cutting machines, etc.  IIRC they recently build/upgraded a $250k sound room.  These costs must be covered by sales income.

I have Vimberg Mino D speakers whose Herculean construction is designed to reduce cabinet resonances and the finish is impeccable- this obviously adds to the cost.  The Diamond tweeter obviously is costly.  It is not some mere random markup.  I’m fortunate that I could afford this speaker which is the lowest model from trickle down technology from Tidal.

I also have the Constellation Inspiration electronics. Again I’m the beneficiary of trickle down technology as my electronics are Constellation’s entry level. These were listed in TAS top 50 bargains.  This doesn’t seem to fit the OPs random markup theory 

@ghdprentice I'm stunned... you mean it really does cost $22,000 to make a preamp and market it? I want to thank you for informing me. I will try to not be lazy next time and find the answers you have already found.

@mike_in_nc I felt you didn't get any of the tax cuts. Intuition. It's always easier to form a negative opinion of tax cuts your way.