Where are the young audiophiles?

I’m 31 and have been pursuing the hobby for 5 years or so. A big part of what got me into it was when most bands I followed starting selling physical records at their shows, that got me collecting other records and then realizing I wasn’t happy with the playback I was getting on an old Sony TT and pioneer receiver, I began to research. It has been a tremendous amount of fun. 

A lot of friends around my age are also budding audiophiles, or at least appreciate trying to get better sound than sonos or Bluetooth speakers. I live in NYC and a lot of the record shops now stock pretty decent budget audiophile gear to get people itching for some more. As others have said, if record sales are up I wouldn’t worry about this hobby dying off anytime soon. vinyl me please, which a lot of younger people use (a subscription record service) just partnered with acoustic sounds, so that should open the door to a lot of folks wanting to get more out of their equipment. 
On a somewhat related note, I haven’t been on this forum a lot recently because I was so upset with the dismissive views by some members on rap and hip hop, really made me not want to support a place where members go completely off topic of the OP and make sweeping generalizations about a genre they have little to no understanding of. If you don’t like rap that’s fine! There’s already too much obstruction in most public discourse let’s not let that sentiment seep into this forum. We should all want this to be a constructive and productive space :-) 

"...So it’s really only accessable to those upon whom God bestowed both outrageous wealth AND ears more sensitive than an oscilloscope. It’s a bit of a niche demographic, see?..."

The best part of this hobby is putting together affordable systems that sound great. I spent a lot of money learning this but you don't have to. 

Perhaps our job is to introduce the next generation to the magic, when normal times come back and the neighbors or relatives are visiting; ask some of the next generation if they've ever listened to vinyl?  If they look indifferent; just repeat "I mean really listened to music on vinyl."

Now its time to spin a record, most anything will do. The point is you're not introducing, lyrics, a beat or an artist.  You're introducing a dynamic, a new experience. 

The hobby will follow.  I have two nephews and one nice who are working on their first home 2 channel systems.  Of course my daughter loves vinyl; all that took was playing Adel's 19 (on vinyl).  The proof, she forgets to turn off my turntable and doesn't always put records away when she comes home.  I don't really mind.

95%?? Where did you get that percentage?  Inflated. When I was 16, I saved and with my fathers help got a nice beginner stereo. His Air Force career started as a radar engineer and he loved electronics. That helped. I had much more money in my first system than LP’s. The younger generation is more mobile. Hard to be footloose and fancy free with high end equipment. However what they lack in equipment they make up for in owning music. Many “senior” audiophiles care for their equipment over content. My daughter, is a lighting tech and  owns music from well over 400 artists, but she is content with a convenient Sonos system. Although not ‘high fidelity’, it is in constant use. Both for listening and background.  For the price the Sonos sound is very good. My daughter will  jump from Sibelius to Tom Waits to Miles Davis, and then will move to Garage Band to mix her own stuff. Perpetual change at work. If the definition of an audiophile is based on the equipment one owns, she is not an audiophile. However if the definition is based on a passion for music, she definitely is an audiophile! 

Back in the days of yore (1976-78) when I had my first good corporate job at 24 buying HiFi gear of quality was far more affordable than today. Here's what I bought from my local audio store: AGI 511 preamp ($450), Son of Ampzilla ($420), Mitsubishi DA-F10 tuner ($280), Ariston RDII TT ($270), SME 3009 arm ($150 - new!), GAS Sleeping Beauty E mc cartridge ($200), Verion SUT ($375), DCM Time Windows ($660/pr). Add some Verion Triaxial ICs ($30/pr) and Mogami 2477 coax speaker cable ($1/ft). So for about $2K+ this was a killer system then! Today one would have to spend $20K+ for similar quality! The bar has been raised too high for too many!