Back in the mid to late seventies, I owned a Yamaha CA800 amp. It was a beautifully made and finished machine; the switchable Class A, Class AB operation, and the variable loudness contour feature were unique for the day. Styling wise, it was almost the same as the latest models, with the silver finish and the lovely teflon smooth squared switches. Speakers at the time were B&W DM2a's which were a great match with the Yamaha - very natural sound indeed. However, I sold it to 'upgrade' to a Rait amp - which was a locally made copy of a Radford, - as it had the audiophile stamp of approval and sounded a little different - a bit sweeter and warmer in its apparent presentation.
Decades later it went to the tip having developed overheating issues; the designer having passed away and the company folded - no parts suitable for it were available.
It in turn was replaced by a Naim 72/Hi-Cap/180/SBL's which lasted 10 + years before an expansion of the system into AV saw the purchase of Sony 9000ES series kit.
The 9000ES Sony was their top range offering at the time and built with fastidious attention to detail; I realised how much I had missed the Yamaha with its butter smooth controls and astonishing build quality; here at last was its replacement in terms of exquisite build and finish.
In reasonably short order (12 months) the Sony replaced the Naim kit as the more authentic and better sounding kit overall - a very unexpected surprise.
And in time, as the Sony amp lacked HDMI and it was time to embrace flat screen TV's, it was replaced by a B&O TV and within 12 months some B&O active speakers.
At each step, the pleasure and satisfaction of ownership has increased - as has the audio/sonic performance to a very clear and noticeable degree.
And yet, Audiophiles would and did tell me at the time how inferior the Sony kit would be to the usual touted audiophile brands - despite never having seen or heard it.
Similarly, as I've discovered, if you own a brand such as B&O, the audiophile world dubs you a fancy Bose owner, and someone with more money than sense who doesn't know anything about audiophile sound 'quality'.
Interestingly, Stereophile, having actually listened to and measured the current Beolab 90's, now places them alongside a few other select speakers in their top Class A product recommendation, which I note with some irony given the fairly negative audiophile attitude towards B&O in general.
So I would say, absolutely - audio snobbery is alive and well amongst some audiophile circles without doubt.
Conversely, the music lover who listens to music on a quality HiFi system, as against the audiophile who listens to the kit as a hobby, is usually relatively immune to these kind of audio snobbery assertions and ideas - as are largely the general public/non audiophile buying group.
In terms of economies of scale, there's little doubt the major manufacturers can bring some astonishingly good pieces of kit to market and most certainly have the engineering chops to offer audiophile performance at a sensible price.
I still have my Sony DVP - 9000 ES 2 channel CD/SACD player; with it's fully copper plated chassis, custom built and hermetically sealing drive, separate toroidal transformer power supplies for digital and analogue, - there's literally nothing on the market at sensible money that would logically better it for build, component quality, and sound quality, currently available. But, I hear the audiophiles sigh... It's 'only' a Sony.
If I were to ever contemplate another passive system (should the big Sony amp driving the SBL's ever die) the Yamaha offerings would be my first port of call.
I'd say buy with complete confidence from every point of view. I certainly loved mine back in the day, and often wish I'd never parted with it - an amplifier for life.
PS: Speaking as a classically trained musician, Yamaha know a thing or two about musical instruments and what real acoustic instruments actually sound like in the real world.
Their piano division for example, is world renowned - right up to top 9 foot concert grands - the CFX - and in addition own Bosendorfer - a revered brand and sound if there ever was.
When it comes to hybrid digital pianos, and sampling - the Avantgrand range comes to mind - their electronics and sound sampling technologies are absolutely state of the art. They might be a 'mainstream' company in the minds of audiophiles, but I'm quite confident they could teach many an bespoke electronics company more than a thing or two when it comes to HiFi, and AV for that matter.