Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

The increase in audio prices starters long before the current inflation crisis.  There just isn’t a large market for two channel audio.  Economy of scale has been lost.  Ordinary consumers will spend the extra money for to hear bullets whizzing behind them during movies, and the audio produced by these systems are more than adequate for casual listening. The elites who lead our hobby have been compromised by their loss of advertising by extolling the virtues of 10000 dollar phono preamps that can be outperformed by a 10 dollar op amp, and 1000 wpc mono locks fed by 8000 power cords.   My 20k system at a bricks and mortar store could be spent on a tonearm and cartridge in the blink of an eye

Audio is one of the few things I spend real money on as a hobby.    But without a doubt, the money I spend is worth it given the enjoyment I get from my system every day , hours a day.

+1, oddiofyl!

Seems like what one can buy for $1,000 - $3,000 (entire system) is far, far better than what was on the market 10 years ago - well in excess of inflation. “Mass market” quality and fundamentals seem to advance with crazy speed

To me, audio actually seems like a bargain with a marketing problem

As to serious $, who cares? That stuff was always (a) fun and/or technically interesting to read about; or (b) made for customers who don’t care about price

All consumer markets have segmentation.  The question is whether one’s segment is improving over time, and that seems an obvious “yes” for all audio segments, at least to me

Would love to hear differing views, understanding of customers etc - good discussion

Have a great day!

A nice convertible Bentley will cost a couple hundred thousand. The price of cars is just getting too expensive!!