Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

Adjusted for inflation I don't think HiFi is any more expensive that it was in the 70s. I remember paying over $450 for a Pioneer CTF-950 cassette deck in 1979. In today's dollars that's $1400. And I bought this while working as a stock boy in a grocery store. The big difference is I didn't have hundreds of entertainment devices competing for my money. No $1500 laptops, $1000 cell phones, $100 a month cell phone bill, $500 game consoles, $80 games, $300 concert tickets, etc. It wasn't uncommon for the average college student to assemble a setup that in today's dollars would be several grand. Sure we had to scrimp and save, but we just had different priorities.

@ghasley : clearly, you are unable to appreciate dark sardonic humor.

I also posted it as a way of protesting how off the rails off topic this thread became. 

I think the general offer of new tech or different designs increase with an increase in price at new pricier level never seen before for sure , but the possibility of buying a very good system with a better S.Q./price ratio is better than it ever was in the past...

With each passing decades more new products are  becoming more than ever  a new vintage purchase possibilities for example, then even if the higher high-end products increase in price we are luckier than ever for possible buying choices of great sound at low cost...

I paid 50 dollars my used Mission Cyrus box speakers...They had insanely good potential for their original mid-fi level....It is not a Fritz speakers for sure but not so far behind i am sure... I dream to buy Fritz speakers but i will live with my 50 bucks used marvel with clear bass i can feel all over the room...I cannot fault them even if better speakers exist like my past Tannoy dual gold concentric...

My 400 bucks Tannoy of 1976 will be priced how much today with inflation? 2,000 bucks... It is the price of the Fritz speakers or near it...

But there exist nowadays over 100,000 bucks priced models with way less equivalent products offered at a comparable  stratospheric price level in the past , the audiophiles basin was not the same anyway in numbers across the world  nor the audiophiles were the same species either...It is a darwinian evolution of the customers basin  with time and the environmental  technology pressure on him...

So we know that there is minimal demand for "hi end" audio among the masses.  It  seems demand will remain low until someone manufactures an audio system that truly creates a live and or holographic experience that any person can just plug in with little to no special set up (speaker placement, large/intrusive speakers, acoustic treatment, special cables, etc.).

To the extent that there are an excessive # of manufactures and retailers that sell products at excessive prices that are not truly "luxury" items,  high prices will remain artificially high. 

Whereas, I have no doubt that the Porsche Cayenne exceedingly out performs my Ford Edge.  However, I suspect that if everyone needed the full performance capability of the Cayenne to get to work or drive to the grocery store, the Cayenne might be a bit more affordable. Hence, I can save a ton of money by utilizing sufficiently high performance equipment that is cost effective relative to my 210 square foot listening environment. 

When I buy my mansion with an acoustically engineered small auditorium, I'll purchase a system that can push 2500 square feet of air at concert volume levels while maintaining near perfect frequency response and delivering hyper details (that I could not hear if I we're at a live concert because I don't naturally hear in "high definition" or because the room acoustics of the venue prevent me from hearing the sound of Diana Krall's eyes blinking as she sings.). 

.

+1 @rbstehno

I suppose thats why Revel stopped producing the 2’s. You can’t sell anything that good for such a low price today. The audiophile community demand higher prices.