Audio is a hobby like many others it has tiers like beginner, novice, advanced, expert and master. Think of it like flying. Piloting an airplane is like a live concert but many hobbyist enjoy piloting R/C aircraft. It is a much more affordable and a safer way to pilot an aircraft and affords much more opportunities for flying. The most basic in this hobby is a simple aircraft with styrofoam wings, very limited power and capabilities but can range to slightly larger aircraft that can carry a small camera. This tier can range from $5 to about $1000, weigh an oz to a pound and require an increasing level of skill to operate but generally it is a self taught skill. Larger aircraft, either self built or mass produced come with more complex controls, virtual cockpits with more capability and range. Piloting skill levels are much more advanced to handle these heavier craft as well as require the hobbyist to have a good understanding of aerodynamics, engine/motor technology, radio technology and mechanical design. Thousands of dollars are spent at this level of the hobby. And then in the upper range of the hobby are the elite drones that have some level of AI. Capability to fly under almost all conditions with hundreds of miles of range and carry significant payloads. These range in cost from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars with significant R&D budgets.
I think that parallels well with audio. Don’t forget that in spite of the criticism about the cost of hi end hifi a lot of manufacturers spend R&D money to develop new products. Since Audio is such a subjective hobby, the product developers must try to control the environment as much as possible with repeated listening tests. But once that product leaves the factory it is subjected to wide variation of environments in people’s homes as well as a nearly infinite combination of interacting complementary components. Combine that with subjective listeners with varying abilities and experience and the final experience and opinions can easily range from “hate it” to “love it” to “snake oil”. If you think about it you can see why it ends up taking hundreds of thousands of people to make a computer operating system.
When it comes to audio, like any other hobby or industry, performance correlates to cost. It has to because the materials used for higher performance generally cost more. Higher performance generally takes more effort to achieve which means more resources involved. As the costs go higher the market becomes smaller. A smaller market reduces the economies of scale. Perceived value decreases as the price/performance ratio decreases. A $200 quartz watch looks good at a glance and keeps much better time than a hand made $100,000 mechanical watch. But the mechanical watch provides a level of pleasure and feel to the wearer that cannot be matched by the less expensive watch. Most people wouldn’t know the difference. Audio is like that. Most people can hear our systems, our special love of labor and sacrifice, our most grand of sand castles on the beach and think, “meh. I like the bass in my car radio better.”
