What makes a $20,000 cd player cost 20,000?


Hi,
Listened to a Linn Sondeck CD12 (sp?) a few years back and the thing amazed me.
Was expecting that digital player development would continue to progress and that this level of performance would become available in the 2-5,000 range. It appears to me that redbook cd player development has stagnated, so I wanted to run a couple questions by for a sanity check.
1. Is there anything in the design or manufacture of top notch cd players that neccessarily results in stratospheric production costs?
2. Has anything come out in the last two or three years that really struck you as raising the bar in the price to performace ratio?
Happy listening.
jeff_jones
Dear Greg: Why don't take a look to my " system ", there are some info about: A/V Station.

Regards and enjoy the music.

Raul.
Dear Greg: Please take a look to my " system ", there are some info about: A/V Station.

Regards and enjoy the music.

Raul.
Douglas_schroeder,

You hit it right on the head, most people do not realize it, but it is true, the truly wealthy people like to hold on to their money, especially old money wealthy, like you said, it's how they stay rich. The posers are the ones buying beyond their means, to have the appearance.
the fact that they know somone will be dumb enough to buy it.

The market they are trying to hit is the "new is always better and i gotta have the best" market. They wont sell many, but with that price tag they wont need to.

think of it like this, why manufacturer 200CDp's and ship them all for 100 bucks each, if you can just sell 1 CDP for 20k and save on all the hassle?