I’ve noticed this weird correlation between listening to lps and death. Maybe the covariance between listening to lps and age holds a clue.
But seriously, the summer before my sophomore year in college, I used a significant chunk of my summer earnings to purchase new speakers for my system - Polk 10s for $600. Using my handy-dandy cpi calculator, that’s $2600 in today’s dollars, which would purchase some pretty kick-ass speakers for a college student today. So I don’t think it’s about debt levels, cost of systems today, etc. It’s just about what younger people value, and what they don’t.
When I was younger, the one thing a freshman in college needed before they went to college was a stereo. For my children - the youngest of whom is now 30(!) - we had to make sure they had a good laptop (cuz they already had their phone). And of course we don’t blink twice about spending $1000 on an iphone and $2000 for a laptop. I use a new phone and computer for anywhere from 3-5 years (or more); my kids? More like 1-3 years. So it’s really just about what technology the younger generation values and want to spend their disposable income on (and of course how they listen to music).
So the obvious reason for the shrinking audiophile population is that being an audiophile was a natural progression from the way everyone listened to music 50 years ago. Cheap console systems had built in turntables and, in many cases, cassette decks. If you wanted better sound, the path forward was obvious. For our children, the path forward from how they listen to music is more likely improved earbuds or headphones. It’s just not a straight line. So I guess Ive just convinced myself that the audiophile market is a bubble that is almost guaranteed to bust. I’m shorting Harman shares, lol!