Haven't seen that mindset at work with the audiophool review media since the days of The Audio Critic and International Audio Revview.This forum is just losing the science angle completely. This sort of stuff belongs in the bog standard audiophile web sites and magazines.
If there's extra detail to be had, this will show up in the specs and measurements. The price is just marketing and psychology - "Reassuringly expensive", in other words. But sure, you can't trust a $20 item on eBay to be any good.
The audiophile cycle seems to be:
- Audiophiles keep raising the bar, spending more and more, until a pathetic little circuit block reaches $300, $1000, $5000....
- Someone comes up with a slickly marketed version for $100 that measures the same as the others (which, indeed, it always would have)
- Audiophiles whoop with joy. Hey! Someone has come up with a great phono preamp for $100 and it measures the same as one that costs $10,000!
- Goto 1.