It depends what we're talking of here .

Things made from materials from other industries and then sold to audiophools touted as being an amazing new material (some vibration supports spring to mind - can't remember their name - and Torlite too! ) are a definate con VFM wise, they may well make sonic differences of course.

Things which are definately made for other industries but then sold to audiophools with a pumped up price - like those bubble levels, digital scales - are a con VFM wise.

Then we have the catagory of things which are very cheap to make but the construction is a secret or sealed away somehow can be the biggest cons VFM wise - like some cables or plug-in mains filters (which are just a cheap circuits costing pence to make in bulk but sold at high price to appear special). I've always wanted to know what is inside Black Ravioli isolation for example - I bet it is some regular material from another industry which has been packaged an hidden from view to create a mystical aura around it.

All you need to do when selling the above is to create such an uncertainty in the consumer that the cheap version isn't EXACTLY the same as the audiophool version that they'll give in and just pay the money to be sure! All that requires is to keep shtum and refuse to discuss construction - always a bad signal for a product IMHO ..

It is simply monetizing ignorance..


But, pretty much the hifi industry is a luxury industry which sometimes requires high pricing to give it's performance credibility! That's the fault of the consumer..

To create that brand (even for a single product) you need to create hype and make it appear desirable and you will need a good PR machine or distribution to get it sold all around the world and so show the world that you invented something sonically great. For that sonically beneficial product to get to market, people on the selling side of the industry will need to be financially incentivised by good mark-ups in order to go through that process of making it desirable. You kind of pay the dealer just to bring it to your attention, to make you want it - and if it really is a good cable or whatever then perhaps you just put it down to the way of life, but your system sounds better now.

Then again, in many spheres of life we have a more open-source environment growing with people passing on all sorts of designs and information - it's the internet age phenomenon.
So there ends up a larger and larger disparity and disconnect between the VFM of things people pay through the nose for and the VFM of those which you can make yourself or get someone else to make for you with some cash thrown in to reward for effort of the design, the art of it.

Paying pound per sound is a dead model because of the internet. The internet and availability of information - to those clued up enough to look for it anyway - makes the pound per sound model look more and more like you're being shafted! IMHO obviously..

They are my thoughts anyway..