The MA-1 is more expensive to build so its price reflects that- it takes a lot more time to wire (all hand-wired), has beefier power supplies, more power tubes, more tubes in the driver section and a larger chassis of thicker material with welded and ground corners that's considerably more expensive to build.
We price according to a formula rather than what the market will bear. This results in our products being less expensive than our competition. Veblen products are typically priced to what the market will bear. When I first read about this economic rule, the example given was college tuition. At first, to gain enrollment, colleges tried reducing the cost of tuition. But they found that enrollment decreased. So they raised prices to increase enrollment.
There are always products priced to a formula. In the bicycle world, back in the 1970s Shimano and Campagnolo were the high end spread and they price to what the market will bear (and still do). Along came SunTour, who had an innovation that allowed their derailleurs to shift faster, easier and were more reliable. SunTour priced to a formula so their parts were regarded as 'less value' despite measurements showing how much better their derailleurs actually were. But because of their lower price their products wound up on a lot more bicycles.
High end audio is never about price; anyone thinking so is bound to spend more money due to the illusion of the Veblen Effect. High End audio is about the intention of the product to be high end. That is why Tandy Corp bought out Linaeum so they could use the tweeter technology on a pair of speakers that were less than $500/pair, which got good reviews in the high end press.
