Why Don't More People Love Audio?

here is a simple answer:

in order to enjoy the sound of your favorite music, you only need a rudimentary personal audio system.

there is no need to acquire components to enjoy one's music.

thus, if you can listen to music on a "boom box" and enjoy it, why consider the time, money and emotion to get involved with audio equipment ?

There are many passions that engage people. Why don't you collect old sewing machines or spend time on blogs?

I think we can break music lovers down into a number of groups. I don't know how many, but I'll figure that out as I type, hopefully it will make sense once I'm through. I feel there's a finite number of people that are predisposed to become audiophiles. Now whether or not that happens is based a couple of factors. Some may just have an innate desire to pursue possess music in its ultimate form, be it going to as many concerts as possible, or having the best audio gear (money permitting) at home, on the road etc. I believe some of these people need an external factor to prod, suggest, coax, entice, or in some cases enrapture them to go in the right direction. Therefore, they are dependent on their environment, and their audiophilia may rest dormant throughout their lives. Then there are those that i consider absolute audiophiles, who were destined to be. They probably can't remember themselves as ever not being. They always wanted their music to sound the best. They may probably think someone or something influenced them, but it was always the good music in its purest obtainable form in their lives.
Outside of this group, I feel there is another group within the audiophile realm who are audiophiles simply because they demand the finest and want the best experience in different realms in life. I feel I fall into that category, no one got me into this hobby/lifestyle/religion?/money pit, I just wanted a better pair of computer speakers, got klipsch promedias, wanted better headphones went from logitech xxxx to sennheiser hd 580's, found out they could run better, got headphone amp, Got B$W speakers, got Pioneer receiver, sold it got Rotel amp, got preamp, got cd player, will sell x, will get DAC, plan to sell amp,......As time went on and things sounded better I began to love music more than I thought I could, or was permissible...WOW.
Now there are people who probably love music more than I do (If that's possible, but only need to hear it to love it,...SIMPLE. They will love yours when they hear it, but they don't necessarily need to hear it that way all the time for it so sound complete thereafter.

What we should be worried about are those who have that innate audiophile locked up in them, who will eventually pass through this life without unlocking it, and finally expire. They need the external stimuli, which is becoming less and less available in this day and age, like many have pointed out here.

Another question is, are the numbers of those predisposed to turn into audiophiles, given the right stimuli or spark, dwindling? We can never test that. We cannot force others to be. What is blatantly obvious is that the lack of exposure of kids to more accomplished forms of music, be it in performance or reproduction, and the non-existence of a prominent culture of accepted audiophilia will only further serve to reduce our numbers

there is a disnction between music and sound. music is everywhere, varying in sound quality. enjoying music does not require an expensive stereo system. many forget that people enjoyed music via the most basic , i.e., low fidelity media, in the past and perhaps in the present.

you will not convince them that you enjoy your music because you have an expensive stereo. the same people may not enjoy their music more on your expesnive stereo system, although they may admit that your stereo system sounds better than their "personal stereo" purchased for say, 200 at best buy or circuit city.

in order to engender audiophilia, one must losee all elitist attitudes that one can't enjoy music on a poor sounding stereo system. do not be supercilious when relating to people who use i pods or walkman devices.

exposure is the best that one can do. lead the horse to water. if the horse wants to pursue the hobby, encourage the horse but don't criticize.

above all, realize the distinction between enjoying musical content and the "sound" of the music. they are separate issues for most people.

I think people are more into home theater and A/V gear because their more into the overall experience of watching a show or movie. There's just no visual experience to listening to a home Hi-Fi as opposed to live music. They don't know what to look at while listening to music and end up getting bored. To them, music is for the background while you do something else.

Us audiophiles really focus on the music and listen critically. We know about the music and what to listen for, we think about all spects of the sound- where the saxophone is relative to the piano on the soundstage, the attack and decay of the note, the sizzle of the cymbal, the sound of the stick on the snare drum, etc. I often imagine I'm in Birdland in the 1950s listening to Coltrane and his band live (a martini helps this experience).

In other words there is a cerebral and emotional experience that peaks our interests. For us it is not just the notes being played, but the pureness of the tone that has an emotional impact. That is why we could not possibly be satisfied with MP3 players for a real listening experience. This seems to be lost on the majority of the music listening public.

You won't see the average person doing real listening sessions because there is no cerebral connection and their mind starts to wander and they lose interest.

I have a laptop that has software called Gallery Player that plays a slide show of famous works of art and photographs on my big screen TV. You can do playlists like an iPod with it. I have set up different playlists of images for different types of music (for example, classic works of art while playing classical music or old B & W photographs of NYC with jazz). I find that playing this when people are at my house while the music is playing helps hold their interest.