Why Don't More People Love Audio?

Mrtennis: Coercion??? Who says we're trying to force people to love hifi? Are we jamming people's heads against a speaker and saying "this is what it's supposed to sound like now love it or else"?

Of course discussing it won't change anything. Listening will. If you have a hifi, invite friends, coworkers, family members, etc. to bring their favorite recordings over and have them listen to them on your system. Chances are most people won't take up the hobby, but some will. Word of mouth advertising doesn't work here, direct exposure does.

if it is like the weather, then discussing it won't change anything. in that case, be concerned, but you can't change what you can't change.

if you think something will change, what will change and how will it change ?

no one can be coerced into appreciating something if it is not important to that person. audio is important to a minority of minorities.

The concern, Mrtennis, is that high fidelity audio has become such a niche market that people are settling for sub-standard MP3 quality. Ergo, the CD market is dying and high fidelity will surely die along with it. Eventually no new music will be released on CD. Even engineering techniques have taken a turn for the worse. Check out "The Death of High Fidelity" in Rolling Stone's 2007 Yearbook issue.

Yep, Mrtennis, you hit it-- If everyone else enjoyed my hobbies, I would begin to question what I was doing... Good point.

why is there such a concern with the thoughts and opinions of other people ? if you have an interest in something and someone else doesn't, why obsess about it ?

I visited the family of one of my daughter's friends to pick her up after playtime. Stone walls inside the house, multiple large fireplaces including bedrooms and kitchen, home theater resembling a small, luxury commercial venue. Dad, correctly and to his credit, first asked me if I'd like a beer. I answered in the obviously affirmative. He led me to a bar refrigerator stocked with cases of... Bud Light, Miller Lite, or Coors Light. Cavernous wine cellar empty. You tell me...

77jovian, you hit it, in a nice way as well.
I would like to see some exposure to classical music, ballet & opera starting with the earliest grades.
My first Opera exposure was Orpheus & the Underworld with my grade 5 class and it made a great impression with all of us as I remember.
Action, danger, dynamic music; kids can dig that.
Just one experience a year from ~ grade 5 on would enhance music appreciation considerably-and help save our orchestras as well,imho.

Why is it a surprise that few people appreciate audio when so few have a deep appreciation, aesthetic gratification or understanding of music? It may be true that listening to music is a universal activity, but the vast majority of people do not listen to music as a primary activity...it is an accompaniment to dinner, conversation, an elevator ride or hurried walk through an airport terminal.

Second, most people have a musical attention span of about three minutes, thanks to radio and busy lives filled with careers, families and other activities. It is a foreign notion to many people to actually sit down and do nothing but concentrate on the composition, sound or content of a musical piece, especially one that lasts longer than a few minutes, much less to give thought to the structure, performance, production, etc of music. I recall, when I was younger, listening intently to music in my bedroom and my mother (a music teacher!) urging me to go outside and "do something with the day".

That's a good point - many of the other pursuits carry the notion that the thing being purchased will appreciate in value. I think we're all subject to justifying to ourselves our purchases, and the notion that one is buying something that will appreciate in value reinforces the rightness of said purchase.

For myself, my rationalization is along the lines of that I use audio gear daily, extensively, and year-round. You either drink a bottle of wine and then it's gone, or you store it indefinitely - you don't use it over and over. In any case, it's funny how we can all come up with things to reinforce our own desired behavior.

hi kthomas:

you make some good points. let me add one.

certain expensive consumer goods are accepted as status symbols. cars, boats, jewelery, watches, paintings and antiques are some examples. while expensive audio gear has some appeal to wealthy persons, it does not compete with some of the aforementioned items. i guess, there is a popularity or collectible value associated with works of art, wine, watches and cars. audio equipment is a depreciating asset in comparison to others which increase in value.

to summarize, audio equipment is not a collectible item and the enjoyment of music can be attained from listening to $300 personal stereos. where is the incentive to spend more than $300, for most people ? by the way, i wouldn't lose sleep over the general lack of interest in the hobby.
there is a certain satisfaction associated with being a contrarian, as far as taste is concerned.

Enjoyed your post, Leedistad, but I don't agree with your point about asking this question being akin to asking why more people aren't into model trains. Playing back / listening to music is an almost universal experience, and the fact that such a vast percentage of the people who experience this never move beyond the cheap stereo / boombox / iPod playback approach is a bit bewildering to me.

I think this post has lived so long because you can look at the question so many different ways, but one version, and the one I'm using, is to question why, when almost every other pursuit (you mention several) has luxury versions that people pursue. So, I'm not wondering why more people don't pursue $10K preamps and the like, but a $1K-2K system built around Creek gear, or the Arcam Solo, or any of a number of other nice, lower-cost manufacturers, should have more market penetration than it does.

To put it another way, off the top of my head, I could name several acquaintances who are "into" wine, several who are into bikes, motorcycles, power boats, some who are into art, some who are into watches, many many who have invested in expensive video, and probably even a couple who are into model trains. But I almost fall off my chair when I come across somebody who has invested past the bare minimum on audio playback.

As you say, different strokes, but I still find it odd that so many people listen to music, but the acquisition of decent playback gear is just absent from most peoples' world.

I think that most everybody has a driving passion that they sink their time and money into. Some, like golf, are realy mainstream. Others, like sailing are even more niched than audio. Asking why more people don't get into audio is sort of like asking why more people don't get into model trains: it's either in your blood or it's not.

Regarding audio as a status symbol, having a six or seven figure cinema room in your house is a pretty mainstream status symbol for people with high net worth. I know that's somewhat different from the original point about two-channel as a combination of hobby and status symbol, but I thought it fair to bring it up.

On the other hand, plenty of people as well off as those who spend six figures for their cinema opt to spend less than twenty thousand on their A/V rooms. It all comes down to individual priorities. I've met people who didn't even blink at spending fifty thousand on a waterfall in their foyer, but getting ten thousand out of them for a distributed audio system was like pulling teeth.

Wine is another one of those hobby/status things. While I adore expensive beer and spirits, I'm a total savage when it comes to wine. Anything over ten bucks a bottle is wasted on me. And yet, my stock single malts are all $100+, which some think is outrageous, but still isn't even the deep end of that hobby...

Different strokes, ultimately.

hi cruz123:

you make a good point. if most people can enjoy music in the car or by listening to a boom box, why spend more ?

enjoyment of music is not dependent upon sound quality.

the purpose of trying to attain excellence of reproduction is to appreciate the beauty of the human voice and the timbre of instruments.

thus there is a dichotomy--sound quality and music appreciation. sound quality is not a necessary condition for enjoying music.

i see three types of audiophiles, gear fanatics, compulsive chasers of accuracy and aesthetic appreciators of the sound of instruments.

Just noticed, this thread's got legs. Started on 01/02/01!

Hitman,
I like the "near CD quality" sticker! Figure, CD was hyped as "perfect sound, forever" so "near CD quality" must mean "almost perfect sound, for a long time".
You gotta love marketing.

A lot of people love music, but simply do not listen critically to the quality of the playback. As audiophiles, we require the best quality playback - within our budgets - to enhance our enjoyment of the music and assembling our playback equipment is part of the enjoyment. It's a hobby for us. Most, however, can get the same enjoyment from music by listening over a car radio or boombox. For example, I cannot understand why someone would buy a Rolex watch, when a $10 Timex does the same job. I can afford a Rolex, I just don't see the point.

if enjoyment of music is the basis for our hobby, a modest stereo system, costing under $1000 is sufficient.

i believe many feel that a $200 personal stereo can provide all the "sound" that a person needs to enjoy music.

I do part-time work for a computer audio lab at my local University and am astonished to find my colleagues, and even my professor, have no idea about high-end audio reproduction or just don't seem to care.

I too was young when I heard my first audiophile system and I've been hooked ever since. There's something incredibly therapeutic about being able to sit for hours on end listening to your favorite music, sipping on a cognac, and not once having the urge to crank the volume or go and do something else. I'm sure if more people were exposed to the aural pleasures of high end audio, they'd be hooked as well.

What it comes down to is convenience, exposure and of course, cost. Most people want something to listen to while riding on the bus or doing the dishes. I found it amusing how people used to brag about the convenience of their 100+ multidisc cd players without once questioning how WELL the disc's played. Or later the convenience of the MP3 and how the mid-fi magazines toughted them as "near cd-quality" at a fraction of the size. Now we're able to conveniently store our entire collection of music onto a tiny player and carry it around wherever we go at the sacrifice of quality...and no one seems to care except for us audiophiles who have seen the light.

Hey little soulgoober, the first taste is free.....! Just kidding, some better equipment will enhance your enjoyment of music. Certainly nothing wrong with that. There's a lot worse stuff to spend your money on. Certainly, you can spend a fortune if you can or want to but it's not absolutely necessary. The absolute cutting edge state of the art (as in most things) is very expensive but a lot of musical enjoyment can be had without going that far.

I remember when I was about 12 or so and I was at a friend's house. I heard someone playing a piano so I went in search of it only to be shocked to find it was my friend's father playing a record on an audiophile system. It sounded like it was in the room with me and I was blown away.

Later on I would visit audiophile stores occasionally growing up, but everything just seemed exorbinately expensive so I kind of half forgot about it.

Many years later I got a pair of Infinity speakers that sounded great for free. I thought I really had it made. Don't get me wrong, I'm a music fanatic, more fanatical than most people I've come across. I'm even a part-time DJ. Every once in awhile I'd think about getting better equipment but I thought, what could possibly be the difference between cd players other than just features? What could possibly be the difference between amplifiers other than just power? Still, I suspected I was missing out.

Recently I started a thread on the board of a music group about how people were losing interest in sound quality, what with the popularity of ipods, mp3's, listening to music through crappy computer speakers, etc. Once I brought up the word audiophile and upgrading my equipment to higher end stuff, almost no one had anything to say.

Then I decided to start probing into the world of auidophile equipment on line. Let me tell you, I was astonished, just completely blown away. I really had no idea that it was such a huge industry, that there was equipment that was better, and better still and on into the stratosphere in both quality and expense. I really had NO idea all this existed even with my slight exposure to it in the past.

People here must know that it's a subculture that exists below the radar screen and unless you've really had a lot of direct exposure to it or suspected like me that it was there and went looking for it, chances are people don't know it exists.

I think knowing it exists, some would care and some wouldn't. Many people are infatuated to death with convenience and portability these days and as long as they can hear the music, that's alright for them. If they're really ambitious they might go to Circuit City or Best Buy and buy some of the higher end mass produced models, but chances are they have no idea how high the end goes.

Then there's the sheer cost. Even for people like me who suspected it was there, it always seemed like a radical extravagance. I mean, here I am looking to spend $1,500 or so on equipment as a newbie audiophile and that seems like an extreme extravagance and borderline irresponsible, and that's nothing close to what many spend. Then again, maybe some of those people make a whole lot more than I do at the moment or have been working at slowly upgrading for years or decades.

I always wanted my music to sound great, and I care more than most people I've come across. If I had truly known what was available, I very likely would have acted a lot sooner.

Some people really focus and enjoy the things they like best in life. Me personally I couldnt imagine better entertainment than music

Hunches I have that people may not invest as much audio as others would be you arent always showing it off to others eyes and it does take an effort to sit back relax and enjoy the tunes.

many of the comments i have read reveal an alitist and condescending attitude. what happened to "live and let live" ? or "judge not lest ye be judged" ?

lead a horse to water. if the horse doesn't want to drink, leave the horse alone.

it is not a matter of intelligence or discernment, but rather a matter of priorities. one should not be critical of the way in which others experience recorded music.

sometimes audiophiles set an example of behavior that is offensive. let's look in the moirror before judging others.

Amen brotha'!

Intelligence and sensitivity are just not that common.

I've been thinking a lot about what Macrojack said. I don't know about the rest of you but going to a hi-fi shop, as an enthusiastic consumer, has almost always been a BIG disappointment to me. Picture this: you're excitement built, you walk in to you're local shop, you look around for a couple of minutes and a crusty old salesman strolls over to say "hello, how can I (or we) help you today?" I don't know about the rest of you but I always find myself WANTING TO SAY something like: "Well, for starters, you could take a shower...and maybe shave...or just wear some clothes that are less than 10 - 15 years old." But what I DO SAY is something like: "Oh, hello, my name's Bruce, I've been having a problem with this (insert equipment piece here) piece of gear and wanted to stop in to check out a (insert well-researched equipment piece here.) "Well, 1st of all (in a condescending tone, the salesman replies,) you don't want a (insert well-researched equipment piece here), you want this (insert non-researched equipment piece here.) "Okay, why not?" I reply. The salesperson replies, "Here, have a seat (on this dirty ol' sofa or chair,) let me go find a (particular & likely unfamiliar - to me at least) cd." So, for 2 - 3 minutes I'm stuck there waiting for them to return with some music I (most likely) care nothing for, while I could be exploring the gear in that room. They come back muttering something to themselves like "where on earth did that damn disc go?" "Okay, listen to this..." the salesman demands. Hmm, smooth jazz, GREAT, my favorite (not.) The salesman disappears again for 5 minutes and comes back to ask "so...?" "Well, to be honest (cause it's the best policy ;), it sounds like there's a speaker wired out of phase." "No, the salesman replies, I checked 'em (the speakers' phase) MYSELF, last week." "Okay, thanks for the demo, but I've got to get going." "Alright, says the salesman, 'here's my card, let me know if I can help you." Where do you think THAT card is going? Arghh!...very frustrating, but VERY TYPICAL! With sales people as enthusiastic and knowledgeable as him - it's no wonder more people don't care about (and aren't willing to make any space and time for) audio! A passion for the high end audio hobby is just like any other hobby; it's the net result of "seeds" correctly planted & properly maintained in the minds of newcomers by fellow passionate hobbyists. Imao audio is less like a disease (or "infection") & more like a religion. Thus, it's the responsibility of the "church (of hi-fi") to convert & help newcomers establish a meaningful relationship with the hi-fi gods. If we don't do it - who will?
-The Reverend Bruce30
Ps. Show me a kid who enjoys his (or her) parent's hobby & I'll show you 100 more who don't.

Wishful thinking. Most people don't get it and don't care to. That epiphany you imagine that opens everyone's eyes forever to the wonderfulness of high end audio is fanciful at best.
Over the course of thirty years I demonstrated high end audio to thousands of people. Most were already infected before they came to the store but the rest were immune.
I have a very high resolution extremely musical system at home and I show it off frequently. Many of those who have heard my system are musicians and/or music instructors. They never fail to be impressed but they never consider owning anything like this themselves. No amount of instruction or cajiling on my part can awaken a glimmer of ambition.
These people love music. It is their life. They do it all day every day and quite a bit at night too. They all have some sort of sound system but they don't care about quality at all. Just something that works; that's all they desire.
My relatives have responded the same way in recent years. There was a time when nearly everyone wanted stereo but only a small percentage of us took it any further. My own kids have decent systems hooked up to their computers. Both have NAD preamps and NHT Pro M-OO speakers with S-OO subs. Still they listen to headphones most of the time, occassionally using my rig.
Times have changed and audio as we know it is pretty much doomed. Fashions and priorities are moving away from our thing and our numbers are suffering from attrition.

I agree with Kentb...and must ask if audiophiles are doing our part to educate our friends, or are we just turning up our noses to their systems? I also agree with Michael Fremer (in his PS AUDIO "Coal to Coltrane" a brief history of power - dvd interview) when he said (to paraphrase him) that his 2nd favorite part of listening to music was bringing "non-audio friends" down to listen to music on his rig. His friends had questions/comments like "Why is it I've never heard about this (hi-fi stuff) before?"...and... "The music doesn't even sound like it's coming from the speakers!"...Has everyone seen this dvd?...it's FREE! GO GET IT!!! We must do our part to make people aware of our passion...if we did this I suspect highend stereo would quickly enter the mainstream! A whole lot of people want this sound, they just don't know it yet!

I think there are several reasons why high end audio is such a limited market. First of all the general public has no idea it exists. The greatest product in the world will not sell if no one is aware of it in the first place. Secondly, people need to be moved emotionally by a system if they are going to shell out extra dollars for a high end rig. Friends of mine thought I should have my head examined for the amount of money I've spent on my system until they came over and experienced an evening of music. When the lights went out and the music started they were awestruck because for the first time an audio system delivered the emotion of music. Every audiophile out there knows exactly what I mean. Another reason is the fact that people tend to be more visual than audio. This is why a family will likely spend several thousand dollars on a new HDTV and next to nothing on audio. Hopefully some day more people will have experienced what hi end is all about!

The Ipod is headed in the wrong direction. High end audio will flourish again when labor unions return to power and pot is legalized, or when hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

People do: mark my words, the iPod will eventually be that which grows the high end business again.

because most people dont understand good music and sound, most people just like to listen to "NOISE" not good music that takes you to heaven. Quite frankly, most/some people are cheap with it comes to audio

Here's one explanation.

Should a good system sound bad with bad recording?

Is hi-end audio as it exists today relevant to what most people listen to?

My 2p

High end is far from inexpensive (I can't see many disagreeing).

This is not something which is immediately demonstrable to our peers and therefore lacks value (bling) unless I let you into my fortress (house).

Since our other high value items atract more attention, I think this will remain in obscurity. Music will always remain accessible and mainsteam (great!), the quality always (very) personal, the value of our gear *always* insulated from the outside world and because of the price tag and the difficulty / passion / animocity (sp?) about personal preference, a very minority issue.

If high quality sounds were eminating from cars bouncing to the latest tunez, then firstly it would be fab for the technologists, but those who hang out here would hate it because we have probably chosen to be a monirity, because it suits us - for whatever reason. You choose!

people do love audio. It is just that peoples definition of what real audio is has changed. When I was a younger fella if you owned a Pioneer reciever with a Dual turntable and a set of J.B.L speakers you were big time. If you sit most people down in front of a $3.000.00 system and put on their favorite tunes they will say that it sounds fantastic, and you know what it probally does sound just fine. Does some lonely audio geek gushing over the improved sound staging that he is getting with his new interconnects that he paid for with all the money that he saved by never dating, sound on his 1950 era mono recording of some classical stuff that he does not even like really represent someone who is really into music.

Maybe they're watching "us" (audiophiles) and think "we're" crazy!

""Audiophile" recording techniques work best on acoustic music, so it's unlikely that many "audiophile" recordings of hard rock, hip hop, R&B, or rap will be produced. These are the kinds of music that appeal to the largest segment of the public today"
wanderingbob Jul-19-02 Audioreview.com

This was posted back when Audioreview was the best audio site on the internet IMO.

It all starts at the source and if no audiophile recordings exist, why spend big $$$ on an audiophile system. EG if you listen to crap recordings, why get a high resolution system which will only uncover more of the recording crap?
Bad recordings sound worse on a hi-res system than a low res system.

We live in a visual world....listening to music requires an attention committment most will not make...many have not been raised to play instruments or love music.

Few people have ever developed a musical sense of sound, especially that of acoustic instruments and their subtleties. I suspect this is because the pop music with which we are inundated in public places and on most radio stations was essentially made for harsh Sony and Alpine car systems w/ thumpin' bass, or for computer speakers, or even for phones and MP3 players. It was conceived of from its very beginning as a sequence of thumps, saccharine riffs, insipid squeaking, anything but a rich and complex mix of tones. If that's what people want to listen to, I certainly don't begrudge them that... but to such people, the refinements of AR and Vandersteen are understandably irrelevant.

With cell phones, music and intercom in all retail stores now, high noise level in many work enviroments, traffic, trains, jets,planes, and boom box car stereos, etc...maybe people just want to rest their ears when they get home.

Hi fi is not branded in a way that gives identity, Hi fi tends to reflect ones personality than something to aspire to - that is unless you shop at from some pretentious git.

A car/ house/ clothes/ watch buy you an image - Hi Fi doesn't, unless it reflects a generation in a generic way - ie 80's walkman, 00's IPod. They were not about quality but the status is of cool convenience.

People appreciate Hi Fi who really like and listen to music, there is some 'bling' to it, but only amongst those into it.

Take pride in the fact that your ears and tastes dictate this aspect of your life, and don;t follow the crowd.

Lohan

Bipolars tend to get lost and carried away in the music. Upgrade on a whim for a fleeting perception of hearing something better. Hi end audio would not be the same without them.

A.J.,
I hope I didn't offend you. My point was just that after reading about the first 20 or so responses (randomly throughout this thread) it seemed to me that people were less concerned about "why more people don't love audio" and more worried about "how soon will my beloved hi-fi hobby come to it's bitter end."

Maybe they do, but have you ever been to an audio store where people who wander in are treated nicely, and have people patiently help them put together a MUSICAL system for their budget ? Very rarely in my experience, so how can you expect people to love something they aren't informed about ?
It's audio's fault, even the term " High End " or " TAS " can be offoutting .
More exposure to music in the schools, and parents taking children to live music events seems like a " natural " solution.

Hey everybody,
In my opinion (and experience) our hobby is rather like a religion - tubes vs. chips, analog vs. digital, catholics vs. protestants. I believe whichever church you belong to - you were at some point inducted into it by some individual more enthusiastic about it than you. Whatever convinced you initially (penis envy, cathardic listening sessions/demonstrations, etc.) is/are the same thing(s) that will convince others. I suppose the reason why more people (IMHO) don't love audio is that we probably don't take it seriously enough to: dawn our short-sleeved white button-down shirts, black slacks and tyes, hop on our bicycles and ride around town door-to-door and shove it down peoples' throats. Sorry "Latter-Day Saints"...I'm just picking on you for the mental picture. I just think it's funny reading all the extremely furvent comments. The "tone" of quite a few of the posts seems to conjure images of audiophiles sinking on the Titanic, of the last few drops of water evaporating from the surface of the Earth as our Sun goes supernova. RELAX PEOPLE!!! Human nature pretty well dictates that there will ALWAYS be people not satisfied with the status quo of sound, video, cars, ashtrays, whatever - and as a result there will ALWAYS be someone who likes it just a little more than someone else or thinks that they have the "ultimate answer" or who just wants to make a buck. And on the 8th day God went down to the Earth because nobody in Heaven was aware of the latest advances in Teflon-coated speaker cables nor what effect they will have on His stereo" oh, and, Thou shalt not add, nor subtract from The Absolute Sound." ;)

One word, BOSE.

Chadnliz, for a resume, I'd stick with "audiophile". For real life ... well, I guess we know what we are ;-)

I have read and read these threads and what a great topic, I have what I can afford and wish for more, I love anything that sounds great to me, I wish more people got it and could appreciate or even acknowledge my efforts and share what I think is a great experience, but after the ball got rolling where would it stop? and if it didnt and everyone got on this wagon, where would we go? Part of me is really glad it isnt embrassed more than it is, it is amazing when you have a friend over who discovers it or gets it when they hear the sound, I know it makes me smile, and if someone doesnt get it...when they leave I play something.......and there is my smile back! I used to hear people have hobbies and have wondered for a long time why didnt I have one, I guess I never thought of this as a hobby...it just part of my life. Well now when a job application or whatever asks for any hobbies I can finally fill in the blank! trouble is I dont know if I am an audiophile or an audiofool. I just know im gonna wrap this up and go listen to Steely Dan.

Start with a more basic question - why don't more people love music? It's certainly true, in my experience, that I find a lot more people willing to carry on a conversation about music than audio gear, and I'm sure there is a majority of people, perhaps even a vast majority, who value music to a point that if you tried to take it away from them, they'd yell.

Now, put those people in front of audio enthusiasts and watch what happens. Like somebody with a nagging spouse, any love they start out with gets chipped away at rather than reinforced - "Rap isn't music", "There hasn't been any good music made since I was 18", "Melody is more important than rhythm", "mp3's sound crappy". And on and on. Maybe it's just me, but I'm into music and high-end audio, but exposing myself to others of the audio mindset, these are the messages that just keep being emphasized. It's basically all detriment, no reinforcement.

Assuming that somebody starts with a love of music before "discovering" audio, then they move into figuring out what to buy. And they get more negative feedback - "CD sound is terrible", "Why would you want gear that emphasizes aesthetics", "You have to spend X thousands to get good sound", "Why aren't you sitting still listening instead of talking or paying attention to something else".

The high-end community does nothing but denigrate somebody who is less into audio or music than they are. Spend only low 4-figures and you're buying "mid-fi". Sheesh. I doubt, seriously, that this is significantly different from other hobbies - I can imagine a thread somewhere called "Why don't more people love performance bikes?", coupled with comments about how we tell our potential biking-loving friends that you really don't need to spend more than $3K to get a decent bike.

I have taken to starting as many conversations as I can about music, and I never start a conversation about audio gear. It's amazing to me where I find people who genuinely are into music - I wouldn't even begin to believe I could guess from anything other than asking them, as the patterns are undiscernible. But I find LOTS of people who really enjoy music and want to share their thoughts, turn me onto music, be turned onto music, etc. The only time I talk about audio gear is when somebody suggests that they're thinking of buying something - I offer that I know a lot about gear, and could offer advice on getting the most for their money.

If Audio == high-end in the sense that audiophiles tend to define it, then I think the answer to the original question is because it's so niche that it will never appeal to a wide audience. If Audio means music and music playback systems, then I'd contend that tons of people love audio, they just love it for different reasons than "pure" audiophiles.

That is a awesome question.Sometimes people just have not heard how good it can get.i sell coffe,and its a educational process,they will freak out,when its 8 a pound.But they dont know any better.What would quality be if everybody ,everytime bought nothing but quality,all the time,well broke for sure ,I guess all im trying to say people really have no idea at all what they are missing.Back to coffe again they wont pay 8 for a pound of coffee but will drink a cap every day for 2 or 3 and not blink a eye ,and if you can boil water at home you will make a better cup of coffee there every time.Its the same with stereo the bargains on good sound are unbelievable and they are everywhere.hey we are a stubborn species.

I'm gonna stick my neck out and state that I think the main motivation behind the pursuit of audio perfection comes down to one thing -- to re-create for a listener through sound alone the same emotional, visceral, participatory experience one has at live performance.

Before there was sound reproduction, if you were rich enough, you had the performers come to you. The audience for that concert was sometimes only one person. (Just like it is for many audiophiles!)

I know (along with photographic hobbyists) we've been accused of being equipment freaks, but you only have to read the volumes of reviews of recordings of every kind to conclude that most of us spend a lot of time LISTENING!

A favorite moment in audio occurred for me when a few of us were listening to a new recording of a very familiar piano concerto on a to-die-for system. It was such an engaging experience that at the final crescendo, everyone broke into spontaneously applause! I rest my case.

Neil