I think that is an excellent proof of the maxim that to create value you don't have to be better you have to appear to be delivering value.<p>Sports cars, diamonds and lots of other 'conspicuous consumption' items fall in this category.<p>Sometimes when you raise the price of an item the sales will go up.<p>Perception is almost as important as utility.<p>For high-fi gear you are looking at a mix of both.<p>Most people do not have the ears (most people over the age of 12, sorry) to tell an MP3 from a playback directly from the master.<p>But they'll be able to tell if it doesn't work at all. Most of the time. So some utility is a minimum, above that it is mostly perception. And I'll bet you that if you put the two of them side by side in a 'double blind' test but told the listeners which one cost $3500 that the majority of the people would find a reason why that one sounded better.<p>Gold plated RCA connectors anybody ?