It is the height of foolishness to believe that the more a component costs the better is sounds because, well, markets! What a laugh! There are massive, absurd, insane levels of diminishing returns as you climb the audio ladder. I’d also say that a lot of those "returns" are pure placebo. Just like with cables. No one will take a bet with me that they will be able to price rank a series of cables on a blind A-B test. You might be able to detect the cheapest pair assuming they were complete junk-- but the moment you hit a certain level of materials and build quality there is no better, there are just differences that, usually, you learn to hear over time. Same is true with amps. There are different flavor notes, different power capacities, and the differences you’ll hear as a result of how it plays in your particular room (most important thing for most people whether they know it or not), and with your particular combination of gear. To believe that a $100,000 amp "sounds" better than a $10,000 amp because it costs more makes you a... perfect customer! Fact is, it just ain’t so. More money does not equal better sound for almost anyone. Been there, done that, it’s a mind f@ck. BTW-- prices on top gear have jack to do with what it costs to make or what they’ll sell it to you for. It’s called "aspirational pricing" and a lot of that has to do with the astounding levels of inequality that exist today in our society. Paying stupid money for something and not thinking twice about it, mostly because you want the "bling factor" is for chumps, show-offs, or for those with more money than sense-- and there are plenty of those folks around-- about 80% of whom inherited that wealth anyway. Beyond a certain range or point, quality never equals price.
