Is the idea of audiophile listening a dying concept as boomers die off?

@audioisnobiggie 

I’m going to move to the US, start my own company that manufactures sutures and plaster for casts, and then become a musician. I wonder how much my fans could eventually allow me to compensate myself from my stocks?

I’m unsure if there is an IQ test administered to move here, but you may want to have your guardian check on that for you.

@ghasley +1

Aww, I'm such a meanie to the criminals. To a di-k-thing ni--a criminal gangsta, it's all the same thing after that anyways.

Shouldn't you be storming a capitol somewhere complaining about your privilege?

Quite simply younger generations like music "cooked in a studio"  Not their fault, but most Rap, hip hop and pop are highly "manufactured/processed"to death in a studio.....if everything new is made that way, no wonder the "younger" generations think we baby boomers are full of it

Quite simply younger generations like music "cooked in a studio"  Not their fault, but most Rap, hip hop and pop are highly "manufactured/processed"to death in a studio.....if everything new is made that way, no wonder the "younger" generations think we baby boomers are full of it

I guess the hobby will survive but it is more limited now to a smaller number of enthusiasts, who, however, are willing to (or are forced) to spend more. In the past, there were many people who wanted good quality stereo and could get it for a relatively small amount of money. Moving from a simple cassette player to a fully-fledged hi-fi system was easier. Now the young generation are mostly satisfied with music played from their phones (some invest in better headsets if they really care about the quality of the music they hear). Sometimes I'm really surprised at how little people know about our hobby. To end with a little joke, a friend of mine, who is a distributor of hi-end systems was once visited by a customer interested in auditioning a pair of speakers. The distributor played a track with beautiful vocals right in the centre of the soundstage. A person accompanying him in the audition commented: "If she's singing so beautifully right in the centre, why do you still need those on the sides? (pointing to the speakers being auditioned). I can see also all those strange looks my tube amplifier is receiving from people visiting me at home. 

The difference is that affordable and even non-music-dedicated gear offers much closer to quality audio reproduction than it did in past generations.

Phones and bluetooth speakers sound pretty good! 

So the younger generation doesn’t have to do the same things we did in order to get to pleasing sound, and that means there isn’t as much incentive to jump to music dedicated gear.

Doesn’t mean people don’t enjoy good music or good sound. It’s just easier now than putting together these huge boxes like we had to do, and still do. Not saying the boxes aren’t another jump in quality!

Audiophiles skew older because older people have money. Ever been to a golf club and seen a ton of 25 year olds? Me neither. That is because 25 year olds don't have the money to join golf clubs. 

I think the high end audio industry is unknown to the general public.  I spent over 22 years in the service and came across a huge number of people and yet met zero audiophiles.  Come to think of it, even after I retired I’ve come across zero audiophiles.  The only exception has been when I either sold or bought gear locally, in person.  
 

I think high end audio has always been, and will continue to be, a very niche industry.  


 

It’s one thing if one is alone and laziness wins out and they go, “aw, hell, I want to hear this song right now, screw it” and then plays it through their cell phone speaker. Treating a cell phone speaker this way in public, to my mind and ears, borders on sociopathy.
The evidence is in and it ain’t good; young people the last decade or so have been subject to this as normal and have been led to believe that this is a way to “listen to music.”  
These are the parameters; cell-phone (acceptable, not ideal) —> tiny Bluetooth speaker (end-game).  
How could younger people possibly afford the high-end stuff these days?  
I told a younger fella I used to chat up at a record store I used to frequent about my rig.  
He seemed almost disgusted at the retail value of my rig, like he questioned my sanity and judgment. I don’t blame him.
Space is also an issue with such horrible housing circumstances these days.  
If space were permitted, they could eschew both dreadful audio AND high-end and do what pretty much every young person did 20-50 years ago which was have some decent floor-standers, decent power/pre (likely receiver or integrated), decent front end, all from thrift shops at very affordable prices.  
Space and/or a lack of knowledge that such a setup is even a thing prohibits people from persuing that low-mid range, let alone high.

@ghasley lol

People get turned off by the snake oil. I'm glad some of that is going away thanks to science and more accessible A/B testing.