Price Increases

"The challenge is to find, say, the $10K speaker that sounds like those $100K "high-end" ones",

Well, there are some giant killers out there Ack, largely the small manufacturers selling direct. I spoke to just such a small manufacturer a couple of years ago, who estimated the material, labour and delivery costs of a $80000 loudspeaker, was probably $20000, including a modest profit. The rest is marketing, dealer and distributor margins, which can easily add 50% to the cost+ a large margin to the manufacturer.

Who are they? Well ones I have heard myself, Devore, Silverline and the ones I bought and am very happy with, Daedalus. Others I have'nt heard, but who you hear good things about, Vapour, Tyler, Odyssey. Vapour and Odyssey get uniformly good feedback at the shows, from reviewers, as does Daedalus of course.

Material and shipping costs all have increased parts vendors are increasing prices and have been doing so for sometime. So only was a matter of time before manufacturers have to pass it on to consumer.

Of course you are right Johnk, but I think the concern here is the 50-100% or more increase in cost of flagship models from numerous lines.

Also seems many are aiming for where they think customers are still left with disposable income. Tossing in less sales you end up selling less units for higher price just to pay the bills. Think you will see a great thinning of the herd in hi end manufacturing.

Jmc, I'm not sure the point of this:

As for prices rising on the same item, that is just the start of the devaluation of the US dollar that the Fed started early in 2012. We can lower unemployment when you devalue the dollar, the flip side is that retail prices will increase just to stay the same in value

It seems you are advocating for a return to the gold standard? As far as price stability goals, the Fed has been targeting around 2% inflation +/- 1% for decades. Nothing about the period you referenced (early 2012) is unique. And I don't think big increases in prices for high-end audio are related to monetary policy. Others above more accurately described the phenomena in my opinion.