tendollarWell, the reason "audiophile" gear gets sold at a premium is because not many people care enough about sound quality to pay more. Smaller market, less guarantee of getting a return on your R&D investment, higher prices overall. Plus some snake oil vendors take advantage of this environment to charge stupid prices for average gear (almost the entire Beats lineup, Monster cables, etc).
But I'd say it's all about priorities, just because you wouldn't pay $500 on headphones doesn't mean you don't already pay that much or more on another hobby.
tendollarThis hobby definitely isn't for you then, this hobby generally involves spending exponential amount of money to get incremental increases. Life of an audiophile I guess.