It’s stuff like expensive cables that make me want to quit my audiophile journey, it’s just embarrassing.
Case in point: a $90,000 power cord by ASUNZ
Open Letter to the Audiophile Community: When High-End Becomes High Farce
There is a line between excellence and exploitation. In high-end audio, we celebrate passion, precision, and engineering that bring us closer to the music. We accept that real performance costs real money. But every so often, a product comes along that crosses the line into absurdity — and, frankly, insults the intelligence of the global audiophile community.
Case in point: a $90,000 power cord. (https://eqaudio.ca/power-cables/ansuz-mainz-d-tc3-gold-signature-power-cable/) A blatant insult to the intelligence of the global audiophile community!!!!!
Yes, you read that correctly. A piece of wire dressed up as “innovation,” sold for the price of a luxury car. It is not just excessive, it is contemptuous of the very customers who sustain this hobby.
The danger here isn’t only to one brand’s credibility. When companies market cables at such outrageous prices, they make the entire industry look foolish to the outside world. They reinforce every stereotype: that audiophiles are gullible, that high-end gear is snake oil, that this pursuit is less about music and more about status symbols.
We, as music lovers, are not idiots. We know the difference between engineering and opportunism. We know when craftsmanship justifies a premium — and when pricing is simply a provocation.
If high-end audio is to survive, manufacturers must show respect for both the craft and the community. Otherwise, the “legacy” they leave will not be of sonic breakthroughs, but of arrogance, excess, and ridicule.
This letter is not just directed at one company. It’s a call for honesty, sanity, and responsibility across the industry. If the goal is truly to celebrate music, then let’s price gear like it’s made for music lovers — not billionaires with no sense of value.
Steve Pappas
A concerned audiophile
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- 144 posts total
The next powerful speakers with huge bass may cost peanuts: Listen to this with English translation from French : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa4I1HKynBs Engineering will make disappear audio ignorance about cable exceeding the price of a car...
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Another fascinating thread about money, and for some, the apparently critical issue of how other people choose to spend their money. For me, these power cables are of no interest, and I can’t imagine they would ever represent value to me. But by the same token, I have no interest in buying crystals to put on my amplifiers, regardless of the price because that would not represent value either, For me. But some see that differently, and if it represents value to you, all the power to you. It’s great that you found something that you think works for you. Just because we differ, I would not refer to you as an idiot. But we, as a community, are severely, lacking in self- awareness. The great majority of people, millions of people, I suspect, who listen to music every day and would say that they really enjoy music just as we do, are most likely using cheap earbuds or a Bluetooth speaker that cost 100 bucks or less. Lots of these people likely would say those of us who have a $5000 system, hell, maybe less, are “idiots” foolishly spending our money on an unnecessary extravagance because they really groove on listening to their music on the Bluetooth speaker and don’t need to spend any more to enjoy their music. These things come down to individual preferences, and the relative nature of what represents values to each of us. Unquestionably, people have a right to characterize others as idiots, etc., because they choose to spend their money differently than someone else. At least until the Audiogon moderators exercise their plenary authority, in some arbitrary fashion and remove the thread.There is something that would be helpful. if you denigrate someone for the price they choose to pay for a product or a vendor for the price they ask, tell us, for each component, at what price does the consumer become an idiot. For speakers, is it $5000? $10,000? $30,000? $1000 more than you chose to spend?That would make the comments much more meaningful and would help the readers put your point of view, which you are certainly entitled to, into proper context.
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