Like a brand-new television set back in the `50s, the videocassette recorder was once an expensive status symbol. ''Today you can buy status real cheap,'' says Miguel Diaz, a video-equipment salesman at J&R Music World in New York. ''VCRs are within the means of the masses.''

When the machines were introduced in 1975, the average VCR cost between $1,000 and $1,400. But prices have fallen significantly--15 percent in the past six months alone--and now a wide selection sells for $200 to $400. ''We occasionally advertise a bare-bones model at $169,'' says Richard Lewis, president of Newmark & Lewis Inc., a 26-store consumer-electronics retailer in greater New York City. Robert Amhoff, a J&R customer who paid $750 last Christmas for a top-of-the-line NEC brand VCR, is now pricing the same model for a friend. ''It`s down to $569,'' Amhoff says. ''It`s incredible.''

Consumers are benefiting from what industry officials have called

''bloody'' price cutting among brand-name marketers and suppliers trying to cash in on the VCR boom. While the Japanese and European markets are sluggish, unit-sales growth in the U.S., though down from soaring 1983 and 1984 levels, is the most robust in the world. The 11.5 million VCRs estimated to be sold in America this year represent a 50 percent increase over last year`s sales.

Executives in the industry trace the turbulence to the emergence this year of South Korea as a supplier. ''The Japanese makers and the American-brand marketers have decided to not let the Koreans come into the market and sweep the mid-to-low-end prices,'' says Donald F. Johnstone, president of consumer electronics operations at North American Philips Corp., which markets the Magnavox, Philco and Sylvania brands.

With VCRs so affordable, some owners are stocking up. Cary Lufkin, president of 30-store Lufkin Inc., a Baltimore-based consumer-electronic s and appliances retailer, says, ''It`s not uncommon for a customer to buy two,''

the second usually a basic model for the bedroom.

Buyers are also getting more sophistication for their money these days.

''The VCR that we sell for $250 today is far better than the one we sold in 1976 for $1,300,'' says Lufkin. ''You can get remote control, freeze frame, search and other features--it`s just a nicer machine.''

Although low-priced VCRs account for the greatest volume of sales, deluxe models are selling reasonably well. At J&R, Frank Carone, a videophile who already owns two top-of-the-line units, says he is looking to ''upgrade to hi-fi with slow motion'' and other special-effects features. High-fidelity stereophonic sound is one of the hottest extras on the market.

Before the end of the year, suppliers are expected to introduce higher-priced units with features that greatly enhance the picture. The improvements will result from signal-processing technology borrowed from the broadcast industry, says David Lachenbruch, editorial director of Television Digest, a trade publication. He adds that manufacturers are expending ''tremendous amounts of effort to make VCRs simpler to operate in terms of programming the machines to record unattended.''

But the bargains enjoyed by shoppers may presage a shakeout among VCR marketers. According to a Merrill Lynch & Co. study, makers are supplying perhaps as many as five million more VCRs than consumers will buy this year.

''There are too many people wanting a bite out of the pie,'' says Stanley Hametz, consumer-video general manager for Panasonic Co., a U.S. marketing arm of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Japan.

Some 70 brand-name VCR marketers, half as many more as there were last year, are battling one another for a piece of the U.S. market. As it now stands, the 10 most popular brands--RCA, Fisher, Hitachi and General Electric among them--have alone staked out a 65 to 70 percent share.

The bargains also could create a potential problem for consumers; many of them find the equipment difficult to master and often don`t realize that low prices sometimes carry certain risks.

''The VCR is a confusing item, and some dealers don`t tell you how to hook it up or what kind of antenna you need,'' says J&R`s Diaz. He has learned to spot the customers who read brochures or other literature about VCRs before actually shopping. One buyer, Diaz recalls, told him he wanted a front-load VCR. Then, a little sheepishly, the man asked, ''What`s front load?''