Seems like a lot of repetition of statements already made. Most people agree on what has been presented and would agree that there is a lot of "snake oil" salesmen in all aspects of audio beyond cables. How about a $150,000 amp that uses $700.00 worth of parts and engineering that was designed 75 years ago. How about those inexpensive mic clips and accessories that cost $1.25 to make and they charge $75.00 to $200.00 to their customers. How about using 50 year old mic technology and $50.00 worth of parts and charge $5,000 to customers for the end product.
Price increase for professional gear (which includes Rycote, Neumann, Schoeps, Sound Devices) is only partially due to parts.
1. Support. Expensive companies tend to have higher level staff dealing with customer issues.
2. Scale. The customer pool for pro gear is smaller, so all business overhead has to be shared by less customers.
3. Quality control. Again testing, measuring and qa of each product is more expensive than randomly testing 1 in 1000 coming off the production line.
My favorite professional vendor AJA makes and sells broadcast video converters and recorders. They are more expensive than similar products from BlackMagic Design and Gefen. What we get for the money is the best warranty in the business. (3 year)
1. If under warranty they FedEx a new unit to you when you file an RMA. Overnight. You then return the bad unit. Done.
2. If not under warranty, they have you ship the unit to them. They fix it for free, then ship it back on your dime. Done.
This level of service is worth the price bump.
However with the audiophile gear and cables, science and their product claims do not match up, so any increase in price to meet those claims is a bad investment.