Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

Good hi fi has never been cheaper, esoteric hi fi has never been more expensive. It's the way all consumer goods are going, good practical clothes dirt cheap, brand name trainers made of the same material, in the same factory by the same people are well mental. Pay your money take your choice.

I get that it is better, but it gives me no more joy than the first one.

When you’re in your early twenties, it is much easier to enjoy just about everything. It being Friday was reason enough to have a party and throw caution to the wind. Everything was funny. You had girlfriends who were also in their early twenties. Who at 70 wouldn’t want to be in that situation again?

When you’re 60 or 70 a lot of the things you enjoyed 50 years earlier are no longer possible. Putting together a good stereo and really enjoying listening to music is a good way to spend part of your later years. Trying to enjoy what you enjoyed when you were 20 would not end well.

If music doesn’t engage you, maybe something else will. Don’t waste time. You’re just about out of it.

ghdprentice, right on.  Economics and economic policy are difficult to understand thoroughly, and sometimes even appear counter-intuitive.  And virtually every "simple" cause and effect is wrong.  Suffice it to say that even the "pro's" like yourself get it wrong some of the time.  But it sure helps to know what you are talking about!

ps. AB Economics Oberlin and MBA Northwestern.

@khughes 

"Sample gear, listen for yourself, and find the gear that speaks to you. Learn some acoustic and treat your room. And forget about what anyone else thinks.

I think you'll find that you can build a far better system, at a far more reasonable price, today (well, when the supply chain gets unfutzed) than in years past. So if you want "Hi End, sniff, sniff," yeah it's going up."

+1 

The media is perhaps responsible for this "print money" thing. It has been noted here that central banks do not actually "print" the currency you have. Each country has their own physical issuer of notes and coin. I think that it is the Treasury in America, which may contract the function out to a specialized outfit. Whatever, I dunno.

Central banks control (in theory, via a few methods) the money supply. Cash and coins are a very small fraction of the money supply, perhaps a single digit percentage of the total. Like anyone, I’d have to look it up (possibly on the Fed page somewhere I referenced previously, for America), and its included in what is known as the M1 part of the money supply.