In the middle of a pandemic, Stereophile reviews ~ $30K equipment

geoffkait,

"Sweden’s idea of herd immunity didn’t work. End of story.

I agree that it is a little suspicious, but it is not end of the story yet. Not in Sweden, not in Brazil, not in the U.S.A. Sweden merely chose not to "flatten the curve", but to, sort of, take a hit at once. It is a different approach with its own shortcomings, but it is hard to assume that long-term outcome will be much different.

Again, remember that social distancing was to "flatten the curve". It was not automatically assuming better final statistics. It was to decrease the strain on the healthcare system at one time. Hoping that, eventually, it would improve outcomes for individual patients. Which is likely, but not guaranteed yet.

I knew you would try to defend them. Say, you’re Swedish, aren’t you? Say 99 in Swedish three times fast.

Herd immunity is a dumb idea when we don't know what we're dealing with. Humans don't have a great track record with developing herd immunity from respiratory pathogens. Never did. We usually end up developing medicines to tamp down the symptoms.

A lot of the times we're just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.
How many times have we heard that the vaccines we use are for flus that we've already caught? We get reinfected.

All the best,
Nonoise

On a bit of a tangent, I get more and more disillusioned with the actual prices of some of these things. They have no basis and relative reality of the prices of comparable items. You will never convince me that a tonearm, no matter how incredibly manufactured, is worth $53,000. 

I know, something is worth whatever the buyer pays for it. I would love to see a price breakdown of that $53,000 tonearm.

"I would love to see a price breakdown of that $53,000 tonearm."

Assuming it is made in a garage, for two tonearms: $700 for parts, $400-600 for machine use, $10000 for marketing, Roughly $100000 left for living a year until you can find another two customers. For which you may need to raise the price to stay competitive.