Is the idea of audiophile listening a dying concept as boomers die off?

Audiophile listening isn't dying.  The music worth listening to is old, just like the audiophiles who listen to it. We are a dying breed of connoisseurs, soon to be extinct.

People have mentioned the lack of attention span and the inability of youth of today to actually sit and listen to music for the sake of listening.  But I also wonder about whether the music contributes to that.  I grew up in the late 60's and 70's, which I consider to be the "golden age" of rock.  Classic rock and jazz are the genres that I listen to.  I can listen to the Doors, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Tull, Yes, etc. forever.  In 20 years, is anyone going to want to listen to hip-hop, rap, Taylor Swift, Steve Aoki, etc.?  Doubt it. Current music just doesn't have the staying power of the classics and so why listen to it on a $50K+ system.  For me, I love listening to classic rock and jazz that sounds like "you are there."  I always have appreciated great stereo since my college days in the '70's, and that has been a passion since then.  The realism of a fine system in the 70's hooked me in about 1975.   But in those days, we didn't have 100+ TV channels, YouTube, personal computers, smartphones and all of the other distractions.  Then, it was music, hanging out, smoking pot, and going to movies.  For people growing up now, there are so many distractions.  The more distractions, the less important the "hobby" of listening to music for the sake of music, as compared to background.  My step-son appreciates listening to my stereo but is never going to buy similar equipment.  I suspect that he won't appreciate it even when I leave it to him.  Bottom line, I hope that there will be a new generation that appreciates fine audio equipment, but I sadly suspect that we are a dying breed.

@moto_man  "In 20 years, is anyone going to want to listen to hip-hop, rap, Taylor Swift, Steve Aoki, etc.?"

A. Conflating individual artists with complete genres is a fallacy. Hip hop and rap have been around for 40 years now, give or take, and millions are still listening to hip hop from the 80's and 90's. Swift's audience is much more homogenous, but I suspect they'll be listening to her in 20 years. 

B. You're right insofar as there are way more avenues for personal entertainment/distractions now than simply audio and three channels on TV. Gen Alpha is more visual and meme-based than any generation in history and for them music consumption is much more ephemeral and hyper - as is consumption of almost any media. 

C. "But in those days, we didn't have 100+ TV channels, YouTube, personal computers, smartphones and all of the other distractions.  Then, it was music, hanging out, smoking pot, and going to movies."

• I would argue that avenues for creativity are way more varied and accessible now than they were "in those days". Having said that, I can't vouchsafe that Gen Alpha and Gen Z actually make use of them as much as they could. 

Here's my anecdotal take on the topic. I'm 52 and amongst my friends, family and coworkers I can count maybe, off the top of my head, 6 or 7 of them who have dedicated hi-fi setups. And when I say hi-fi, I'm talking about a receiver, speakers, and a turn-table - very mid-fi setups. Of those 7, only one has a dedicated streamer, CD player, pre-amp and amp combo, and a 2-channel system. That would be me. The majority listen to music via streaming services using Bluetooth speakers or earbuds. I think of the 6 people I know with dedicated listening set-ups, there are a few of those set up as home theater/gaming systems where music is secondary. 

So while there may be more hi-fi components being sold than ever and at the higher-end as well, that's not because the cohort of hi-fi consumers is necessarily growing exponentially in the under-50 crowd, but because the aging Gen-Xers finally have discretionary cash lying around to invest in systems and the 60+ crowd are replacing or upgrading. Sure, you'll have the 1%ers of the wealthy buying high end setups because they can and want to impress but that is still a small market share of total units sold. We also have a bigger global population as well. 

I'm sure over time, the Millenials, Gen-Z crowd will grow into wanting better-sounding systems, but many don't know what they're missing out on and will stick with whole-house Sonos or Google speaker systems that "do just fine" in playing their daily Spotify lists.

A small segment of headphonauts will stick with such setups but upgrade over time and maybe venture into 2-channel setups. But having discretionary funds to spend on those things is a big ask for people who are not dedicated & discriminating music listeners. I have 3 young kids so the idea that I'll be dropping huge wads of cash on components is laughable. I can justify spending $3-5K on speakers but anything beyond that is not a priority for me. I'm happy with a mid-fi hi-fi system. 

I know a few younger co-workers who are into listening to vinyl but they enjoy the sound and are happy with a $400 setup and honestly, the technological improvements happening over time make the entry-point into a decent hi-fi system easy to achieve without breaking the bank. I think the future of hi-fi will be the continued growth of mid-priced hi-fi. You'll still have the guys buying the flagship Gryphon and Wilson Audio and those manufacturers will focus on that niche. But companies like Marantz, Cambridge Audio, Bluesound, WIIM will be what a growing number of people will have as their first hi-fi setup.

FWIW, I am not a boomer and on the younger side of the Gen X cohort. 

Iraq and Afghanistan were my wars, if that you age me.  I think I might have been a fetus when my dad was in Vietnam, but would have to check a calendar.

I think it a factor of time and money being more available to older people, at least for people seeking "more than mid-Fi" fidelity.  And, bluntly, it takes serious bucks to make vinyl sound better than something from Best Buy.  Mainly, I think, because mid-fi has gotten darn good.  So there is no "Buick" in the lineup.  You go from nice Chevrolet that is absolutely fine transportation to Range Rover in the audio market.

Aside from the price barriers for equipment, it's having a dedicated place for listening, preferably apart from young children.  I am blessed enough to have a dedicated listening room and money for good equipment.   And a youngest child who is 15.

I do think the millennial generation is a bit skipped, for the reasons above.

But my children (older teens) are very much audiophiles, probably due to Covid lockdowns forcing them to have at-home interests.

Eldest who is in college has a nice headphone tube amp and streamer (and Focal Utopias she bought with hard earned money).  Her taste in music runs from the 1930s to now, and she readily admits older music (70s and older) tends to be far better.  She'd love to have vinyl, but a dorm room is not the place.

Youngest has a nice integrated system and my three year old B&W 701s in her room, along with a very high end Pro-Ject (also a hand-me-down) that is her prized possession.   We carefully tuned her room with REW software and minimal baffles.  Taught her how and she did it.  Currently saving up for a nice VDH Frog cartridge.  Her music tends towards modern angsty women singers (Lana Del Rey being the only one I recall and some Chinese/Icelandic singer), typically on vinyl.  She stole my Mammas & Pappas collection, vinyl.

Also, FWIW, I doubt I'll ever go to "audiophile" events.  I'm of the "this could have been an email" generation when dealing with meetings, in general.  And would, by far, rather text than talk on the phone.  Not much of a club joiner guy.  I'm the guy whose family goes to synagogue on the regular, gives plenty, but only talks with anyone if required to, if that helps.   Dreds when the rabbi comes to dinner.

moto_man  To parody my own statement, my grandparents hated my rock music! In their minds, the only music worth listening to came from 'real' musicians like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. Truth be told, I can actually listen to and enjoy music from their era now, but I hated it when I was younger, just like I can't stand the current generation's music. My point is that every generation has it's 'golden era' of music, and there's nothing wrong with that. We humans call it progress, even when it doesn't sound like it!

simao, Don't be too hard on us old geezers, we're just keeping tradition alive and well!

bipod72 I think you've hit on another aspect of the OP's query. I'm a Boomer,  and at this point in my retired life, I have more  discretionary cash flow and more free time to enjoy it then ever before. I've been channeling a lot of both into my system just playing around and trying new equipment. I try to temper the urges by reminding myself that our worldly treasures eventually wind up being somebody else's junk that they have to get rid of. If I pass before my wife, she'll just have her son pick everything up and get rid of it, which he'll do because he isn't any more interested in it than his mother. If I out live her, the end will be the same because I have no heirs of my own. BTW, I'll go to my grave never regretting that fact.

We now have virtual reality headsets with 3D sound that mimics true reality very convincingly, and I think that trend is going to merge right into the music world as well. Many of us two channel folks have strived to reproduce the 'live' experience in our home systems. I firmly believe that experience will be realized in the very near future with systems that fit on the head and deliver an experience we could only dream about.