I'm two channel; integrated amp, DAC and power supply, CDs still, and vinyl in the attic 'waiting for the day.'
My children (19-32) have grown up with reasonable sound.
Have tried a number of amps on my eldest over 10 years.
She has finally settled on a Nuforce DDA-100 with my Quad 11L bookshelf speakers.
What has surprised me most is, after years of knowing and being able to distinguish good sound, all of my children have settled for convenience.
- Bluetooth
- Spotify
And that is sooooo frustrating.Â
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Thanks for chiming in. Gaming is where the youths disposable income goes |
Two channel hi end audio will die out with the boomers (of which I am one). The future generations really don’t care. Much like my dad trying to interest me in coin collecting which was a passion of his, but I had zero interest despite having been exposed to it at an early age.Â
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blueranger
Yes. A stereo system is a hard sell today's youth related to disposable income. I had very little during those teenage/young adult years.
Happy Listening!
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Personally I think in 20 years our disposable income is going to be going towards the most wanted and to die for product around. Your very own personal robot!!! |
Not one of my four children has any interest in audio systems, despite growing up with decent system always in our house. They seem quite happy to listen to Spotify quality over ear buds or just out of their cell phone speaker. They are less materialistic than my generation and focus more on relationships with friends and travel.
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Young kids love earbuds so they can go deaf and so High End Audio doesn't matter to them. |
I offered to let my kid hear the Billie Eilish album on vinyl on my rig with the big sub. "No thanks, Dad, I’ve got my Raycons." |
Casting Pearls before Swine? |
I have 2 sons- when I was my young's age I was already spying such things as Dual or Thorens turntables, AR speakers, and receivers from Pioneer, Marantz, Tandberg. And a Teac deck was not far from thought. Money I saved was earmarked for when I could purchase a system. Finally bought a system in 1977. Now fast forward to 2020- among my sons' friends, and they have many, there is exactly 1 person who has any interest in an audio system. Everyone else- music via earbuds and their cell phone is entirely adequate. And if you think about it, that's something to envy because they clearly care about the music, and the gear is purely a tool to get the music to them. I will also say that most of my kids' friend, however, do appreciate a fine sounding system. But the idea of having friends over to listen to records simply doesn't exist in 2020 among the younger set. |
I think the older generations should try to help the younger generations realize how enjoyable a good 2-channel system is to have in their house. The easiest way to do that: let them listen to your high end systems and if they are interested, teach them how to build something similar but very affordable (much of the young generation has student loan debt on top of increasing cost of living with stagnant wages). I have tech savvy friends that don’t know how stereo sound works. When I play my system for them while they sit in the sweet spot, I have to explain “there is no center channel, that’s just stereo sound doing its thing.” Education is important. A good system doesn’t have to cost a lot and you can upgrade over the course of years to decades. |
Maybe it is that younger generations will always be most interested in leading edge technology, and while many of us were young high-end stereo sound could have been considered leading edge technology for the time, with advent of computers and smartphones and other stuff, it no longer is.
Everyone by definition these days has a smartphone, which includes ability to play music and take photos. Although I'm not into photography, I suspect loss of interest in hi-end photography may decline coincident with that of loss of interest in hi-end audio. |
I think that todays inexpensive sources of music are better sounding than when we were kids. So there is not a sense of missing out on that much with their gear. |
True Jetter
I had a Walkman tape player, with music recorded from my Dual turntable.
And the headphones were flimsy, to say the least.
If I ran with it, the tape would move around, as would the music! |
They want to see movies, play games and listen to music on their mobiles. So give them the best equipment to experience sound those ways. Will also interest their friends. They just can’t sit down in front of two speakers and do nothing (like our wifes...) |
