The Insane World of High End Audio! Is it All a Scam?

How do you get to the bottom of it with cheapaudiomen such as Randy, Mahgister, etc?

Conduct an experiment by taking cost out of the equation.

Let us suppose 'you know who' set 2 preamps in front of them and said, "You won a free giveaway, Both are free, but you can only pick one"

Preamp 1: Yamaha C5000, price 10k

Preamp 2: Schiit Kara. price 800 dollars

Both of them work well and sound good. But, if you open the chassis on both, one of them will start to not just look like an engineering masterpiece, but, a flippin work of art. Did it actually cost them a lot to make it, that they have to price it at 10k? Probably close, whole lot of cost and soundmaster's specialized labor sunk into it, different ethos applied. The other will look like a competent design that functions quite well, bang maxed for buck. The average guy over 65 with hearing degradation will probably not even hear too much of a difference.

But, what do you think they'd pick when both are free now, i.e. cost has been taken out of the equation? Such an experiment will reveal many truths about the cheapaudiomen.

learned is that audiophiles yearn for affirmation of our choices.  Randy gave it to his audience in this video, thus building loyalty to his "brand." I find that distasteful, but likely effective. Each to their own. That's what interested me on the topic, and of course, I may be wrong and anyone can disagree.

I have watched Randy's content since he started and have disagreed with him often. Never have I felt compelled to demean or excuse his opinions on gear or the music he chooses (which is not my cup of tea). But I have definitely noticed his transformation where high end equipment is concerned. Slowly but surely his ceiling has risen substantially. His opinions on cables and other minutia have changed considerably as of late. Randy still has a following to appeal to and at heart is selling his channel. He went from rants about "high end" to "ultra-high end". Baby steps my friends.

Randy has a point. With the "audiophile" discourse being dominated by stratospherically priced items, why does anybody wonder that there are few young people coming in?

He also has a point that at best marginally better sounding items in the 10K and up range, per component, nota bene, are considered entry level for "audiophile" systems. This is normalized by the general awareness of the ridiculously priced items.

And while in the 1970s the differences between a 0.1/1/10K electronics component were more pronounced, nowadays the differences are much less. Differences in recording styles (assuming same quality) is greater than differences in component sound. Yes, I tested that with $250 vs $5K DAC.

I for one would welcome if discussions, magazine articles and audio show would reflect the actual market place in terms of units moved. Lots of <1K components, a decent selection of 1-10K, and above 10K very little. Maybe one item above 100K. The endless 1M system rooms are both tiring as they are offensive, and typically are not sounding great anyway.

Of course, everybody can spend money on whatever they want. I prefer doing it on a variety of music that I play on a midlevel system (see my virtual system).

@gdaddy1 We installed hardwood floors throughout the house, and the music room has a carpet over the wood floor. plus furniture for sound treatment, and selected panels (DYI, btw). 

I’ll probably just stick with my example. There are ’value hunters’ at different price brackets.

This is a high value item @ 800 dollars.

This is ALSO a high value item, at 10k dollars.

Would a 10k value hunter open the chassis on a dartzeel priced at 120k and deem, "this is scam pricing". Perhaps, so...A guy who can afford to spend 120k may not be a moron, in every case. But, cheapaudioman doesn’t get to stand on his pedestal and say everything above his 800 dollar wallet size is scam pricing. It is quite silly.

Take a real good look at something and how much effort, aptitude, cost went into it before it’s deemed a scam price or not (whether it is a sonic upgrade or otherwise). For the guy sitting in his WAF approved living room, it won’t be for sure.

Randy has a point. With the "audiophile" discourse being dominated by stratospherically priced items, why does anybody wonder that there are few young people coming in?

He also has a point that at best marginally better sounding items in the 10K and up range, per component, nota bene, are considered entry level for "audiophile" systems. This is normalized by the general awareness of the ridiculously priced items.

And while in the 1970s the differences between a 0.1/1/10K electronics component were more pronounced, nowadays the differences are much less. Differences in recording styles (assuming same quality) is greater than differences in component sound. Yes, I tested that with $250 vs $5K DAC.

I for one would welcome if discussions, magazine articles and audio show would reflect the actual market place in terms of units moved. Lots of <1K components, a decent selection of 1-10K, and above 10K very little. Maybe one item above 100K. The endless 1M system rooms are both tiring as they are offensive, and typically are not sounding great anyway.

Of course, everybody can spend money on whatever they want. I prefer doing it on a variety of music that I play on a midlevel system (see my virtual system).

@gdaddy1 We installed hardwood floors throughout the house, and the music room has a carpet over the wood floor. plus furniture for sound treatment, and selected panels (DYI, btw).

@deep_333 great points and well made. The very high end is well above what I’m willing to pay, even if I had the ability, but I see no reason to create resentment towards those who buy in that segment of the market. When I hear someone call them fools for spending their money in a way that brings them joy, I think it says a lot more about the name caller than the purchaser.

I also think there’s a lot good to say about the state of affairs. There is more quality equipment available at the lower end then I can remember. I put together a system for a friend for under $3000 and it sounds really good and it’s bringing her a lot of enjoyment. I paid a lot more for my system and I don’t think anybody would say that it doesn’t sound better, but it’s great that there are quality products available at most price points. I guess we all look at things differently. When I see someone driving a Lamborghini, I think, man what a nice ride. I don’t think the guy who is able to buy that car is a fool. We can have interesting discussions about what works, and what represents value, and we can disagree, but I thought Randy and his viewers who commented presented a mean spirited tone that is unhelpful and unnecessary.