High end audio---or even hi-fi on any level---has ALWAYS been a niche market. Out of, say, a hundred young people I knew when I was in my 20's (in the 1970's), only two other than myself cared enough about having a good system to actually be willing to spend the $ necessary to get one. And of the musicians I knew, none. Zero.
But listening to a complete album was a "destination" activity back then. Music was considered an art form, not mere entertainment. There are young people now who are just as pre-occupied with music as we were then (some of the most passionate make and post videos on YouTube), to whom music is a major focus of their lives. Knowing how to find out about how to assemble a quality hi-fi---or even caring to---just isn't a "thing" for most youngins. When in my 20's, the guys I found myself surrounded by in hi-fi shops were middle-aged professionals. Hi-fi is just not a passion of most young people, and never has been.
It's the current crop of middle-aged professionals who haven't gotten into hi-fi that is the problem. The ones I meet now have ceiling-mounted Bose mini-speakers, and aren't aware of even mid-fi products. They don't see the ads for receivers and loudspeakers they way their counterparts in the 70's did in Playboy and Penthouse (at least that's what I hear ;-) . As for musicians, they listen to music on their computer's speakers. THEY are hopeless ;-) .