Why so expensive??

"Any product/service is worth what someone is willing to pay for it."

Yep. Everyone has their own concept of "value" and "worth".

Of course, good marketing doesn't hurt to boost perceptions of "worth" either!

MYTH: $$$$$$$$$ = sound quality. This is where good reviewers, not beholden to advertising interests can help. Most of us are looking for the best sound, and if it can be had without spending a fortune, all the better. But I think most of us have a hard time getting away from the notion that the more something costs the better it is - definitely not always the case, but it takes a lot of time and effort to find great sound this way, versus the safer and easier approach of just spending more money -- which marketers are all to happy to take advantage of when selling their products. I'm not saying quality parts are not important, they are, but there implementation only brings cost of materials so far -- the rest is marketing and our desire for the holy grail. Companies are certainly free to charge what they want, but it is up to us to find good sound and not wasting a lot of money thinking that doing so is bringing us bettter sound when it isn't.

I think you are talking two different ideas. First, you reference costs. Well, as one other poster said above, most high-end manufacturers are small entities. So the cost of R&D and production, marketing, quality control, etc are spread over a relatively small volume, making the cost per unit high. Second, as another put it, the price is not always closely tied to the cost but to what people are willing to pay for it, i.e. what the market will bear. It does seem that in some instances, the higher the price the greater the demand. I seem to remember a show on TV, maybe 60 minutes, where an alcoholic beverage manufacturer found that the higher he raised the price, the higher the demand became--this could be called snob appeal. The value is in the eye of the beholder.

Then how much should it cost? If YOU can produce an amplifier identical to the $380,000 Dynaudio Arbiter for less than one percent of the price, let us know. We'll buy all you can make.

"People that take risks are rewarded - those who do not, covet." (Me)

Dr. Floyd Toole at Harman is fond of pointing to graphs in his presentations that in double-blind testing, the majority of listeners identify speakers in the ~$1500/pair range as "sounding best" and that speakers that cost ~$20K fare as poorly in testing as <$300 speakers.

Granted, I recognize the commercial interest behind his assertions, but it's a point worth considering.

Ultimately, this hobby is a harmless pastime. I don't imagine anyone here is failing to feed and clothe their kids in pursuit of a better stereo, so more power to them if they want to spend their disposable cash on snoochy hifi gear.

Regarding Jwales' comment about relative worth, that's reminiscent of what George Carlin said about drivers.