Is high-end audio dying, if not dead already???

Better example might be clearing 500 K on sales of 10 120K speakers a year.

@Schubert - All you have to do is sell 10 $120K speakers a year and you've made $500K. And all you have to do is hit a single every third time you get up to bat and you're a multi millionaire. Sounds real easy on paper.

Hi end audio will never die but as the upper middle class diminishes there will be less people buying the very hi-end (expensive) gear. I believe this is why prices also keep increasing b/c there are less people buying so manufacutures have to ask more to keep their margins and stay in business. (This is just my opinion). Also these days as many before have said great unbelievable sound can be had for not huge sums of money, you start paying more and more for 1% and 2% increases in sound plus the 1" solid face plates and great aesthetics.
Compared to hi-end watches hi-end audio is but a pimple on ones butt! I know more guys that buy 20-50K watches that would never think of buying a 5K amp.
Finally if you are willing to look and buy from small unknown manufactures from other countries (i.e. Poland is just one example) that have been in business for 10-20 years already you can get sonics that rival the well know "standard" manufacturers for fractions of the price. I know I have and have not looked back!
There are still many US manufacturers that have been in business for a very long time that make gear at very realistic prices that must not be ignores, AtmaSphere gear is but one example.

(Dealer disclaimer)

"What makes you think that people will buy $1000 $5000 power cords just because you make them?"

Any elixer needs packaging, claims of a special recipe that creates the miraculous, and a good hawker. True, I'm being cynical and simplistic, but if I was in the game, I'd choose cables and do something to make them sound different, like very high capacitance. Then the game would be to sway a fairly small number of people that Different + Packaging + Elevated Price = Better, and that the listener was enlightened in their discernment. Ka-ching .

Does it happen? I think so because this is an area where a desire to believe, an ephemeral 'better,' and greed can intersect.

Any body remember the old days when magazines did not accept advertising from equipment manufacturers and they went out of their way to give the consumer the benefit of their experience and expertise in order guide them into the hobby with an eye toward keeping the end user between the ditches on almost every conceivable technical and practical matter? My how things have changed, of course. But, if you think about it, that may really not be all that surprising, I suppose. There was a much more finite number of makers in those days, for one...and a limited number of mags. But, I think more than just the increasing pressure to accept advertising as the number of makers began to steadily grow, was perhaps the underlying technical complexity of the hobby -the nature of the beast - (that could only be counted on to grow) that began to make it clear to industry editors that there might not be any real way to continue to truthfully fulfill that promise since, there was for them I suspect, increasingly the argument that not every piece of gear could be counted on to sound the same in every system. Sure, they could go out on a limb and state categorically what they felt the sonic positives and pitfalls were, but could they say that assessment would always hold true?...for every system?...in every country? Of course, we've seen that previous standard conveniently slip into the practice now of just mentioning the sonic positives and glossing over, or not mentioning at all, the sonic negatives (heh, heh). And we've seen the number of those technical and practical issues mushroom since those days.

These days the number of internet publishers is all but uncountable and there is still far more gear out there than ever gets reviewed. From the publishers there is an inexhaustible supply of information, but not so much understanding, experience or crucial explanation. Add to that, that most contemporary makers apparently must walk the line between giving potential buyers the gist of how they can claim their products work, but without letting the cat out of the bag for their competition and, for prospective buyers looking to gain reliable insight, this is just about a perfect mess. About the only place you can try to find info based on actual experience is in the forums...and even then it takes time for having to proceed cautiously. I've even heard of makers that confide that they will have to raise the expected price of their new, "breakthrough" product in order for it to be "taken seriously" in the market. For all of this there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. But, overall, maybe the question isn't whether high-end audio is dead, but whether or not it is now a victim of its own hype.

Also, I don't think there is any shortage of stoopid-rich people (I'm NOT saying stoopid, rich people!!) and makers can try to sell to hobbyists or to professionals who will not really have the time or inclination to do anything else but go through a dealer (or both groups, of course...hopefully...). But, I don't think high-end audio is dead by any stretch, not yet anyway. About the only thing I see dying is mp3, and it's about time. It's slated to be replaced by hi-rez portables which with any luck will eventually become affordable enough for most of the music-buying public to feel good enough about to ditch mp3 for good. Maybe then we can look toward a reversal of the current industry insanity of recording music to sound good through cheap-as-$#*! earbuds.

But, I agree with the post that Almarg pointed out above in regards to the fact that you can spend more money and get better sound quality and you can spend less money and get better sound quality. I think as long as you can continue to say that there is a ray of hope. But, these days maybe the high-end is trying to kick its own @$$.