THE LITTLE BLACK BOX, 399.00 ABSOLUTLY NUTS

"It is one of many examples of greedy business practices in the audiophile market, and naive customers...extortionate prices are a tax on ignorance."
This is a very silly remark there is no extortion going on here because there is no coercion you seem to be suffering from the belief that what is right for you is right for everyone but the actual truth of this particular matter is that the $400 price that you consider to be illegal because extortion is itself illegal is actually for some members of the audiophile community a trivial expense and the kind of cost they can absorb without having any negative impact on their household budget. While for some audiophiles the cost might mean they have to eat beans for a week instead of steak for others the $400 cost is what Americans call "pocket change" or "walking around money" if you do not like the price of coarse you are free to not make the purchase and pursue another means of accomplishing your audio objectives but to call this a tax on ignorance is itself an ignorant statement but it probably makes you feel better about yourself because for you this price is something you cannot pay and I understand that.

Long live the stupidity of the rich.

Am I reading your issue correctly?

You have a Rega tonearm that you would like to convert to XLR connections to use with Atma-sphere pre-amp. You plan on re-terminating your Rega cable by attaching a Lemo connector to be used with another manufacture’s XLR phono interface box. Your issue is with the pricing of this other manufacture’s phono interface box to be used with your Rega DIY solution.

So the price is too high so why not just move on to another solution like getting your tonearm re-terminated to XLR. Why single out this particular manufacture who has nothing to do with your issue unless you have a hidden agenda?

If you were a small business with very limited resources (manufacturing all by hand) and could only produce X amount of products per year, and your product became very popular (demand increases exponentially), the only thing you can do is raise your prices to decrease demand.

I don't think the audio businesses really have large production capabilities unless they are outsourcing to China or the like.