Food for thought. Paul mentioned his age in one of his videos lately. Then I received this article in my inbox. Hard to think of our hobby as merely a Baby Boomer thing but I guess it is.
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There are way more important things to purchase like food,housing and general living expenses today. High end luxury audio is not even on younger peopleās radar like us āolderā dyed in the wool folkā¦ Itās demise is certain!
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This hobby has been a big part of my life for so many years that
itās sad to think that it might be a mere flash in the pan in a historical sense.
Harleys are similarly endangered.
Corvette was at risk but GM brilliantly updated the vehicle so that average age of a Corvette buyer has drppoed markedly.
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Donāt worry, Iām still here and wonāt be middle-aged for a while yet. 
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Show off!
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Which luxury hobbies disappeared or changed dramatically in the last few hundred years?
I assume wine will never fade.
Another question, if the number of audiophiles decreases in the west, might the hobby actually grow in Asian markets over the next century?
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You know, you might have something there. That part of the world couldnāt participate in the high end for decades. I understand that high end is flourishing in that part of the world. Certainly much of the digital manufacturing and development originates there now. Interest in China and other parts of Indochina is going up, I hear. Of course Japan has had a market there for years so they are probably more similar to the demographics in the US.
The question is why, which is pretty obvious.
Thereās an interesting article about this very thing here 40% of Audiophiles May Be Gone Soon, and No One Is Replacing Them | Headphonesty
And a long thread on Audiogon which is referenced in the article.
Iām too old to worry about it but I do feel bad that in some ways us older folks might not be doing enough to promote the hobby to kids and teensā¦
I donāt think itās a matter of not promoting it, itās a matter of affording it. Kidās and the teens who are living on their own are struggling with paying rent and feeding themselves, as well as a lot of the middle class, so thereās no funds left over for luxury items like high end audio gear. The companies that will be around the longest will be the ones catering to the uber rich, because the shrinking middle class are just trying to keep their heads above water.
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From what I have seen, most are simply disinterested. It is not an issue if money.
One can purchase a nice audio system at the cost of a serious gaming computer, or a home theater.
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People also seem to forget that most people donāt enter audio at the high-end. That means budget systems or head-fi until you have the living conditions (space) & budget to progress. If youāre not a part of those communities, then you donāt interact with or notice the younger audiophiles. It doesnāt mean they donāt exist.
Iāve stopped reading these types of articles, but have any audiophile-centric retailers shared customer demographic info thatās showed a decrease in younger customers over the last 10+ years? Thinking large scale businesses with a wide range of price points to pull a relevant sample. Next steps would be how data correlates to the overall US population ageing problem.
Thereās also the problem of online fora falling out of favor ( 
), being replaced by other social media channels. The average forum poster is ageing as well, which doesnāt help with the overall perception.
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Have smart / convenience speakers played a role defining sound?
Thereās some atrocious DSP out there and we know millions consider it to sound great.
For the little new music I get to hear I wonder if thereās any advantage playing it on a better system? In fact I suspect that the opposite might be the case.
When I had my first decent system in the 80ās, there was enough integrity in most of the recordings that I listened to such that improving the equipment yielded clear sonic benefits. Is popular / mainstream music recorded in such a way that it sounds better when played back on a revealing system, or worse?
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There is a tremendous amount of well-recorded new music in every genre.
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I agree that younger consumers seem uninterested. But I always remember it this way.
There were those of us who were into it and those who werenāt. And those who werenāt were just as perplexed by enthusiasts for hi fi. Like any hobby. It is a hobby, you know.
My father and my uncle were music lovers who wanted the music reproduced as well as it could beāat their affordability level.
The rest of the family and their friends didnāt get it at all.
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Perhaps the luxury hobbies stay, however, how many people enjoy and profit from these may vary because of economic prosperity and/or demographic developments. That said, in a global scale we have to deal with demographic decline, potentially also impacting economic prosperity. Letās see what that will do in time for our hobby.
Well, thatās it in a nutshell isnāt it. Thereās nothing we can do about it one way or the other.
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You donāt have to buy āhigh endā equipment to be an audiophile. There are plenty of good systems out there you can put together that do not cost the same as a car.
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