Over 25 years ago we had a Mark Levinson 30/31 DAC/Transport combo that was about $30,000 Canadian on demo so I was lucky enough to get to listen to it and compare to a lot of other high end gear. The notion of value is sort of meaningless but it was head and shoulders above anything else I had heard at that point. It was not just about being the most expensive, it was clearly better. I know ML sold some of them so the answer would be people who wanted them and could afford them. I am sure whoever bought a set really enjoyed listening to them and they probably did not have to deprive themselves of anything else essential in life to acquire them.