Around 1985, I bought a Harman Kardon integrated amp (the 645 vxi) for around $250 IIRC. It's still hooked up in a bedroom system. These days, NAD sells a similar product (the C316BEE V2) for $479 (Crutchfield price). So the price hasn't doubled in ~37 years. But neither product has ethernet, USB, WiFi, bass management, upsampling, or an LCD touch screen. In many HiFi components, new technologies not only inflate the price, they often become outdated within 5 years or so. Same with vehicles. An infotainment system adds maybe $2000+ to the price, and is outdated many years before the engine starts burning oil. Yet it provides little capability - much less, really - than you'd get from a $500 tablet.