I am 63 now. I caught the audio bug in undergrad, as I had a friend working at a high end Audio store that sold McIntosh, Audio Research, the high end stuff of the day. He would let me bring a record to the Store after hours...what a difference from my system that I was so proud of (Pioneer Receiver, Gerrard tt, Advent 3 Speakers). I couldn’t start indulging in Audio until my late forties, because of Graduate School, children, mortgage. Now with retirement looming I am contemplating how best to downsize and squirrel away my acorns, as inflation seems to lurking.
As others have indicated there seem to be some young ones interested in good sound, and the headphone data seem to show that. I think audiophilia is valued in Asia, and it is interesting that some of the posters here have indicated that cities that have a large Asian presence have some nascent retail activity.
Back in the day there was a definite progression in retail activity. Shops that catered to the likes of me were the bottom rung. Then there were the stores that had the mid Fi stuff, and then the high Enders. The current retail scene in the Chicago suburbs has the yawning gap between entry level stuff and expensive high end. No place to hang out and listen to stuff that might be one rung higher than what you thought your limit was, tempting you to find a way to stretch the budget, discover new levels of joy that keep you wanting to repeat the process. It’s more like having to choose a wine and the choices are Morgan David or an expensive bottle of Burgandy.
As others have indicated there seem to be some young ones interested in good sound, and the headphone data seem to show that. I think audiophilia is valued in Asia, and it is interesting that some of the posters here have indicated that cities that have a large Asian presence have some nascent retail activity.
Back in the day there was a definite progression in retail activity. Shops that catered to the likes of me were the bottom rung. Then there were the stores that had the mid Fi stuff, and then the high Enders. The current retail scene in the Chicago suburbs has the yawning gap between entry level stuff and expensive high end. No place to hang out and listen to stuff that might be one rung higher than what you thought your limit was, tempting you to find a way to stretch the budget, discover new levels of joy that keep you wanting to repeat the process. It’s more like having to choose a wine and the choices are Morgan David or an expensive bottle of Burgandy.