$27,500 for whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???

It's high time we admit that Wilson and a lot of other brands are vanity brands.  Performance is far down the list of priorities.  The silly prices are the appeal.  It's sort of sad when you think about it.  You find yourself in the top 0.1% and you've got nothing better to spend your money on than vanity products.  They're big, they're shiny, a bunch of poor people spent significant chunks of their lives making them look impressive.  I find that world completely uninteresting.  Could we banish all that stuff to a vanity brand forum?

"paint shop or three for large shiny objects starting at $100 m each" - what?  It's not a "high end" forum.  It's an audio forum.  These are two very different things.  An audio forum is for people interested in audio.  A "high-end" forum is for people who are interested in "high-end".  "high-end" is for people who aren't really interested in anything other than being better.  It's really an absence of interests.  There's nothing in the entire universe you find really interesting so you fall back on the most basic lizard brain instinct - competition.  The lack of interest in audio means you don't care too much about performance.  It's more important to have what others can't.  It's so boring.  

@andy2 - "high-end" isn't an interesting term.  Is it high-end or not?  What if it's only mid-end?  What if it's 53.5678124326243% high-end?  It's just not an interesting term.  obviously.

@Andy, "high-end" is of no interest to me.  I have no problem differentiating the two.  People who are interested in audio want the best performance for however much they're willing to spend.  People who are interested in high-end are of no interest to me.  It's such a ridiculous term.  

I'm personally disgusted by conspicuous consumption and vanity products and that's all this is.  It has no redeeming qualities.  The 27k for paint is just an especially egregious example of it.  I think it's something we should all  avoid.  Almost anyone can feel good by having something others can't.  Even if you're just the homeless crackhead with the fanciest pipe.  It's not that the pipe somehow performs better, it's that the other crackheads in your group can't afford it, and you make yourself feel superior by being better than them.  There's no higher level goal like a better crack high.  It's the most base instinct.  Moving up in the pecking order, like a chicken.

@cd318, when I say I find it disgusting I'm not saying that I've never succumbed to this instinct myself.  I don't respect it and when I catch myself doing it I'm certainly disgusted with myself.