What makes a $20,000 cd player cost 20,000?


Hi,
Listened to a Linn Sondeck CD12 (sp?) a few years back and the thing amazed me.
Was expecting that digital player development would continue to progress and that this level of performance would become available in the 2-5,000 range. It appears to me that redbook cd player development has stagnated, so I wanted to run a couple questions by for a sanity check.
1. Is there anything in the design or manufacture of top notch cd players that neccessarily results in stratospheric production costs?
2. Has anything come out in the last two or three years that really struck you as raising the bar in the price to performace ratio?
Happy listening.
jeff_jones

Showing 2 responses by readster

05-25-05: Tgrisham
Incredibly wealthy people who don't mind spending that much money on one component of their system!

And then have to brag about it, don't forget that.
Douglas_schroeder,

You hit it right on the head, most people do not realize it, but it is true, the truly wealthy people like to hold on to their money, especially old money wealthy, like you said, it's how they stay rich. The posers are the ones buying beyond their means, to have the appearance.