rising audio equipment prices:

Fiat money printing nothing else! Oh yea over taxation as well, and I suppose over regulation.

What the sucker market will bear .
Easier to make 50K on one speaker than 5 K on ten etc etc etc .

Economics is the biggest lie taught in any college .

Parts costs keep going up for sure.

It's supposed ply and demand.  There's more demand now compared to the recession in 2008.  And as a few have mentioned , the rich is getting richer and they don't know what to do with their money.  So, they go excessive on food, cars, houses, audio systems.  I'll bet you that many things of those $250,000 systems do not get much playing time.  They get show cases when the rich friends come over for dinner.

And to the poster that is enjoying the $4K system, it's an extreme anomaly to score a $264 RS1.5 speakers....

@giantsalami  FOR A MOMENT THERE I THOUGHT IT WAS ALL CAPS DAY AND THEN I REMEMBERED... WRONG FORUM AND WRONG DAY. DANG! 
Prices go up when the economy is good and people feel like spending their hard earned cash. It's all part of the circus we're a part of!