How large (or small) is the audiophile market?

@jtucker very small.

Apple's dongle revenue in a year can be used to pay for every company not already owned by Bose, Samsung

I am interested in the number of audiophile consumers

that's what I wrote, if everyone buys a new speaker every 10 years, maybe 10 million people +-30%

In the December issue of TAS they report their subscriber numbers (it’s required for print magazines).  They printed 16,250 copies a month (average for previous 12 months). Total paid circulation was 14,188. There are also about 11,700 paid electronic copies

I don’t have my Stereophiles handy. Their numbers are higher but shrinking too.

I’m not saying there are 26,000 audiophiles but these numbers give some indication that there aren’t a huge number of us.

Paul at PS Audio once did some math that arrived at a population of 250k. Obviously, your definition of the target for inclusion will vary, but for high end stuff that might be close. 

Not too many people I know indulge themselves with fine audio gear.   I don't have any co workers or friends that spend on HiFi.     I'm pretty low key about my hobbies in general but it's not hard to see I've spent some money on this stuff.    Well worth the enjoyment it get in return though without question.    

I had a marathon listening session last night in my main room.   Haven't done that in a while.  I needed to escape for a while