I suspect the relevant difference here between a hobby like photography and something like sound systems is whether it feels like the hobbyist has to exert themselves in addition to using the tool or whether the tools allow for purely passive consumption. Most hobbies where you have to "exert yourself," whether that's in the form of going out and taking pictures or e.g. getting on a bike and riding around have some element of the community that looks down (often with varying degrees of condescension) on people who buy a ton of expensive gadgets but don't have the ability to actually use those gadgets well. There's often some pride in being able to "get the job done" with the cheapest equipment possible to show how much of one's work is individual ability rather than technological help.

That element probably ends up being some sort of counterbalancing social force to unbridled gadget consumption whose end product is $3000 cables.