Bad news for audiophiles?

That phenomenon has been tested and documented before. I'd bet good money that the same phenomenon applies to audio. Not - as Akg suggest - to mean that low-fi gear actually sounds as good as serious audiophile gear. But within "high-end" I'm sure this bias exists. The problem is that it's much easier to set up double blind tests with wine than audio gear.

I'm a bit surprised at how much you guys are (intentionally) missing the point. The point is that our opinions of subjective items like wine, fine art and audio equipment can be persuaded by the cost. Many years ago, a friend of mine pointed out that nobody is interested in a $2 old chipped teapot at a garage sale. But if you take the exact same teapot and sell it at a fancy antique store for $200, somebody will find it very interesting and attractive.