[geebee]

That's an interesting observation. I'm an amateur violin player, but as I've started looking at middle tier instruments, I've already noticed that more expensive doesn't necessarily mean "better." Here's the thing, that doesn't mean the money goes nowhere, it just means it isn't measurably better, but it may mean more specialized and tailored to a particular set of acoustic priorities.

There is, of course, some correlation between more expensive and better, I'm more talking about what happens once you've gotten away from the cheap mass produced instruments and even the decent but unremarkable student violins. Once you get up into a higher level, instruments may get expensive because you need a highly skilled craftsperson to bring out particular qualities in an instrument that may match up to what a musician needs. That sort of thing can't really be mass produced, and because it requires a lot of attention and construction time from a skilled person, it's expensive too.

This holds true for a lot of things. For instance, what's actually "better", dinner at the french laundry, or a damn good burrito. The burrito actually isn't cheaper because it tastes worse, it's cheaper because it isn't as expensive to produce. This actually holds for a lot of things out there.

More expensive isn't always "better", but interestingly, just because it isn't quantifiably better doesn't mean you aren't getting something for your money when you spend more, either. Sometimes more expensive means high quality and specifically tailored for a particular set of criteria.