To an outsider like me it looks to me like all the basic things about audio have been solved and competition is only really about things you hardly can perceive

To an outsider like me it looks to me like all the basic things about audio have been solved and competition is only really about things you hardly can perceive or total hocus-pocus. Still some people seem to still earn quite some money, so it's no wonder that there's a toxic environment of people trying to protect their income source when it's not really backed up by offering a product that's really better than something much cheaper.