Scamming or even misleading people is different than overpricing, which is a business/marketing strategy. In my business, there is a notable story, now taught in business schools, of a vendor with an inferior product but deep pockets and lots spent on p.r., trade shows, and advertising. They made in roads by creating demand from higher ups at companies, semi-knowledgeable, who liked the branding and wanted their department to buy it. Competing products did more and better, all the prices were around the same. They re-branded the company, claimed a massive engineering change, for endorsements from major players, put it all in a black box, all hardware and software now proprietary, so they said. They also raised the price to $160,000 vs 25-40k for competition. They sold to wealthier outfits so we'll that they went public and never looked back. With basically the same thing that had been $35,000. Harvard teaches it as a positive lesson that if you have something you spent too much on to develop and can't recoup cost because you are no better than or inferior to the competition, differentiate your product not on features or benefits but on price. They advise at least a 5 fold increase over the competing products.
The Insane World of High End Audio! Is it All a Scam?
This 15 minutes of youtube video by "cheapaudioman" say a lot and hide a lot...
He review low cost products ...
His analysis of audiophiles world here seems fair to me...
But nowhere in all his videos and in this one he mention "acoustics" as the basis of audio hobby, the anker of any system and gear piece evaluation and satisfaction...
He always talk about the gear... Probably acoustics for him as for most is only acoustics panels purchase...
My point is not that the audio world of audiophile is a scam with scammers...
Not at all.
It is ignorance of what is acoustics basics that makes people victim of their own decisions and a potential prey for honest or dishonest sellers..