The Economy.. will hi end audio mfgs lower prices?

Every response thus far has had at least a grain of truth in it.

As for gvt. spending, gvt. spending has in truth gottten us out of depression, WWII, the biggest gvt. spending program in the history of the world, 42-44% of GDP, depending on whose statistics you believe.

On the other hand, gvt. spending will have major costs down the road, inflation and debt are only the beginning.

And then you can have little or no gvt. spending, let the market speak, a lot of suffering will occur his way as well. Debts need to be paid down, 30 years of a go-go economy will take a long time to recover from. And then can you say, unemployment, watch out, gvt. will be spending big time again to support the unemployed, perhaps a deflationary spiral with no end in sight.

And then we have the middle way, middling amount of spending, middling amount of recovery. Many are going to suffer, gvt. will only save the middling few. I suspect this is the path we'll follow, ideologies count for everything today, people won't put up with doing nothing or doing everything (the conservative vs. socialist agendas). Still, perhaps this is the best path.

And so the middling path and audio. Audio spending will be down long term, some are going to suffer, others will continue.

Any discussion of the future of our economy is pure speculation at this point. We have never been in this position before, what works will only be determined by the facts of what happen. I think we'll have a better idea sometime late this year.

Real Estate,Stock prices are down = wealth down =
Demand Down = Lower prices

I think quality at a certain price point, rather than items costing 3x as much for that extra 2% in performance, are going to be where the markets will be strong. People like us will still be spending money on gear, but it may not be as much as before. $2000 interconnects and $15,000 preamps just aren't going to be popular. Others looking to get into 2-channel will have a set budget, and it may not be $15,000 anymore: perhaps they only have $4000 to spend, and that is still alot of money. They should be able to get something that sounds great for that price, not "mid-fi".

What scares me most is the basic lack of economics or business savvy espoused in this thread.

The original poster asked, "Will there be a shake-out in high end audio? Will we continue to see $10k preamps and $30k amps?" The answer in short is, "Yes." Companies that base their sound business plan on primarily selling $10k preamps and $30k amps will probably be ok. If you can afford to buy $10k preamps and $30k amps, you probably aren't working for the State of California, and job security isn't one of your top concerns. It's those companies that base their business model on "average Joes" who want a taste of the good life are those that will really suffer.

Some will and some won't.

Some will also raise prices in order to appeal more to those who are luxury minded, can still afford it, and use price as an indicator of value.