That word "over" means that you can't get a new Porsche for $40k; it will cost you more.
I am old enough to remember how expensive gear was in the 1970's.
Yes and by the same token I could simply say: You can buy a 90ft yacht for "over" $40K as well - since the statement would be true, however laughable it might be. I would reply in like manner to
you and ask that
you re-read my comment (which wasn't my point and was just for comedic value): That word "
understatement" means that although
techincally correct to say that $80-90K is more than 10X $4K... that the difference is more significant than what was implied.
I too am old enough to remember how expensive gear was in the 1970's... since I had to save up until the 1980's to be able to afford any of it (well at least the higher end stuff). However, the point I was trying to make is that I disagree with the current trends indicating an increase in the number of people interested in achieving truly great sound. It's simply a by-product of advancing technologies and declining production costs due to refining and reusing of existing manufacturing processes. There is also the issue of a significant increase in the amount of disposable income available to the middle class during the past decade (something that may well be coming to an end now with the death of the "my-home-is-an-ATM" phenomenon).
There are only two principal ways for a company to be successful in sales: sell a small amount of something at a very high margin, or sell a very large amount of something at a much smaller margin. If Scott, Teac, Pioneer, etc.. could have produced 10 million ultra high quality receivers and had a distribution network to sell them in 1970... then they could have sold each one at only $30-40 over their cost to manufacture each and been wildly successful. However, since there weren't huge electronics stores everywhere, and no ID sales options (not to mention the components used were in more limited supply, and the products much more costly to manufacture) they instead had to sell a few thousand units per year and therefore had to increase their prices much more. And, of course, reduce features and performance in order to hit even slightly more reasonable price targets.
What I was
agreeing with you
completely about was the fact that it is much, much easier for someone who is interested in good sound to be able to purchase equipment at virtually any price-level today, and this was not the case in the 70's and 80's.
However, by the very same token and further indicating the divergence between the two sales directions mentioned above - there were no more than a couple companies selling amps costing $10K+, or speakers costing $50K+, etc... while today there are literally dozens of companies that sell nothing but products at these levels. And many others that sell products in both (KEF, B&W, Focal, Canton, Bryston, etc...).
The takeaway is that the economic changes that occurred in the 90's not only created a massive consumer base that has at least a few thousand to spend on home entertainment (low-enders like me) but also for there to be enough deep pockets with nothing better to spend a few HUNDRED thousand on than home entertainment as well (high-enders nothing like me).
