Why so expensive??

I don't think costs or labor has anything to do with price. Every manufacturer in a competitively vibrant market should do whatever they can to charge the highest amount possible. The market and competition will dictate what price is ultimately set. How does one determine a proper multiple of cost of goods anyway? What is fair? There is no fair in a free market, only what the consumer will bear and what the competition will allow. Lets not be naive. Except for a very few instances, every manufacturer wants to make the most money possible while every consumer wants to spend the least amount of money as possible. It is this relationship that helps to determine "proper" pricing. If someone thinks the price of something is too high, they have the choice to simply not buy it. If enough people choose not to buy a product, the manufacturer has a choice to either lower price or go out of business. And if someone does have the cash to spend $350K on a pair of amps, more power to them. I can't and I won't. Even if I did I won't buy why bash the manufacturer for selling this product? Obviously, someone is buying it. You may think its absurd to spend $350K on amps but realize that people in many parts of the world will think that is just as absurd for anyone to spend $3 on a cup of coffee or bottle of water.

Of course if a manufacturer has a monopoly then I can see where examples of price gouging can occur.

"Unfortunately I have yet to find any woman who doesn't find an interest in Audio, plain weird."

I have yet to find a woman who doesn't find a man, who demonstrates his wealth of disposable income by spending a quarter mil on a stereo, more interesting than a guy with a Bose.

We have an amp that costs $92,000... it takes 2 of our guys about 3 months of solid work to build it. Its on 4 chassis and makes a lot of power: 500 watts into 4 ohms and it has built in tube testing and power line regulation. At least when done you can *see* where the money went. OTOH I agree with the initial comments but there was some thread drift so I jumped in....

Why is oil near $100 a barrel? Pumping it out of the ground costs no more today than when it was $19 a barrel.

Answer is that there are people who will pay that price. To the extent that high end audio is an ego trip, a high price is a plus.

Sometimes it is better to look at other factors besides just the actual price. For example, I am in the lawn maintainence business (fancy way of saying I cut grass). My lawn mowers cost $10,000; $8500; and $3500. Some may baulk at that much for a lawn mower, but they are all Commercial equipment made to cut grass sometimes as much as 50 hours or more a week, do it quickly and with a quality cut without tearing up (usually). Compare this to the homeowners' model riding mowers that have Built-in obsolescense (designed not to last too long, so you will maybe buy a new model in 2-3 seasons instead of fixing the old one.)

So high-end audio is like commercial lawn mowers, you get what you pay for.(although I still wonder about six-figure speakers;)