What scares me most is the basic lack of economics or business savvy espoused in this thread.
The original poster asked, "Will there be a shake-out in high end audio? Will we continue to see $10k preamps and $30k amps?" The answer in short is, "Yes." Companies that base their sound business plan on primarily selling $10k preamps and $30k amps will probably be ok. If you can afford to buy $10k preamps and $30k amps, you probably aren't working for the State of California, and job security isn't one of your top concerns. It's those companies that base their business model on "average Joes" who want a taste of the good life are those that will really suffer.
The original poster asked, "Will there be a shake-out in high end audio? Will we continue to see $10k preamps and $30k amps?" The answer in short is, "Yes." Companies that base their sound business plan on primarily selling $10k preamps and $30k amps will probably be ok. If you can afford to buy $10k preamps and $30k amps, you probably aren't working for the State of California, and job security isn't one of your top concerns. It's those companies that base their business model on "average Joes" who want a taste of the good life are those that will really suffer.