More potential bad news for some big names...

The audio industry offers nothing for young people to get into the hobby. There are no stepping-stone brands anymore. Manufacturers and many hi-fi enthusiasts consider anything under $3k "affordable." But to a person who just got out of college and probably has $100k in college debt, a $10k system is not within his/her budget. The gear they might afford is pretty much garbage. The only course today is vintage gear other than Harman Kardon, Marantz, Pioneer and Sansui. I recently set up a decent (not super hi-fi but decent) system for my sister-in-law consisting of a Scott 335R receiver, a Sony turntable and two Dayton Audio speakers for less than $300. Is it the equivalent of something that we would consider worthy? Of course not, but it's a beginning. She enjoys it and it serves her purposes. Why do the people on this forum always mock beginner systems? We all had to start somewhere and I doubt if we all bought McIntosh or PS gear as our first stereo.

Lots of negativity in this thread, we should lighten up a bit.

People have less disposable income, so they will spend less on luxury items, hence the increase in sound bar sales. This is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. It means people are still spending money on audio products.

Perhaps when they have more extra cash, they will upgrade to better things.

Earbuds and the like are the perfect solution for young people. They are affordable and portable. This is a good thing since it means young people are putting some priority on listening to music.

Music is meant to be shared. Earbuds are not a permanent solution, since people will want to enjoy the music with others, some of them will want it sound better, some of those will want it to sound much better.

The point is that people are still spending money on audio, and are doing the best they can. When they do better, some of them will upgrade. I honestly do not care if the AVR brands mentioned die. My newish $1400.00 Denon is feature rich and quality poor. They deserve to go out of business imo.

@yyzsantabarbara touched on something I noticed in regard to the younger audiences. They seem more willing to spend larger sums on personal high-end audio, like four figure headphones/IEMs, and five figure headphone amps (I’d love a Zahl myself, but can’t justify the cost).

To their credit, these younger listeners tend to be more open to differing opinions surrounding gear and how it’s implemented in their systems ( even supplemental EQ, gasp!). The headphone community seems to have a lot less gatekeeping, that the traditional 2-channel hobby has in spades. Source: try asking a question about CD players here. 

Larger manufacturers could follow the likes of Sony and Yamaha and expand into high-end the personal audio space, rather than attempt to lure in new buyers with cheaply made lifestyle components.
 

1)

Market Saturation....

It is quite easy for every bozo and his uncle to sell a speaker out of his garage these days with big margins. In spite of his severe lack of aptitude, he’ll buy drivers from somewhere, slap it on a board and send it to some paid YT reviewer to launch himself (start to look legit outta nowhere).

2)

The greedy old men never give any money to their descendants to help the latter out. Such old men are dumber/have lower aptitude than their descendants actually. But, it was a lot easier to make money back in those days than now.

etc, etc

No surprise. This has been happening since cable TV was gaining popularity. The more forms of entertainment, the less of a slice each one gets. Even now I'd much rather watch a concert video than sit and stare at two big boxes like we did back in the 70's and 80's. But it was either that or watch three channels on TV.