On the other hand, we now live in a time where, if you know what you are doing, you can have better sound playback than 98% of the systems ever sold for under $200.
(Say, a Fiio X3duoo player ($75), a 128GB microSD card ($25), and one of N different Chinese IEMs depending on preference, all under $100 and most under $50. TRN V90 is about $40 and does a respectable job.)
There is so much to expand on there, too. Commoditization, while democratizing in some senses, loses the plot often.