people who buy $20k line stages can typically go to live music when they choose. it's more a matter of how their allocate time. some might enjoy bringing the best possible reproduction to somewhere they can enjoy it on their terms whenever they choose.
personally i'm in a high stress job 6 days/55 hours a week. i'm around lots of people all day. for me; i want to escape into my own space and immerse myself in music. i'd rather watch my sports in HD mostly than attend games too (even though i typically have tickets).
as far as why expensive line stages cost so much.....it's somewhat 'all of the above'. if you examine the build of this piece of gear, it's clear the casework and all the very heavy anodized aluminum is quite expensive. and the workmanship level is extrordinary. some of that is a matter of performance, some is aesthetics. both are required on top level gear. nothing on this is 'off the shelf'. i know that Herve Delatraz spent literally years working on this product and came up with his own unique solutions to the challenges of building the ultimate preamp. he designed and built his own transparent attenuator solution.
it's not cheap to build things in Switzerland, but there is access to talented people that are world class precision builders. and when you are building dozens of something, maybe one hundred or so of something, there are very few economies of scale. so it's not efficient.
a few years ago i heard a Rowland class 'D' amplifier. it sounded pretty good. since it was very small, i considered using it for the rear channels of a multichannel setup i was putting in my room. then i found out it used an off-the-shelf ICE module. the Rowland cost $7000 a pair retail. i was able to find a Chinese built amp with the same circuit for $1800.
was the Rowland worth $7000? it's performance was in the neighborhood of other $7000 solid state amplifiers. but with off-the-shelf circuits it turns out that it's value did not hold up. and i agree that using good inexpensive parts sensibly put together can make a very compentent preamp.
before i got the darTZeel i had a passive balanced Placette RVC and custom switchbox. total investment $1200 for the RVC and $1500 for the switchbox. it looked very modest and unassuming in my expensive system. but i was not concerned about that. it had bettered my $15,000 Mark Levinson #32 preamp. i used it for 5 years and compared it to numerous expensive preamps. they all added crud to the musical message in one way or another.
then the darTZeel came along and was better at everything than the passive Placette. so i was not hung up on finding a 'bling, bling' preamp. performance was and is everything.
try to find a modestly priced preamp that can go head to head with the best over $20k preamps. have all the flexibility needed, be well built, have a remote, do everything. the darTZeel even has it's own 50 ohm BNC interconnect scheme which outperforms conventional interconnects. it has 2 separate phono stages.
it's not cheap, and i would not call anything swiss built a bargain. but it delivers value for the investment if one happens to desire the performance it can deliver.
