YouTube Indicates What the Future is For Audiophiles - Interesting Demographics.

With the exceptional rise in prices of gear over the last decade that has outpaced inflation by good margin, I think we are seeing the future unfold.  Manufactures are seeking to obtain profit from fewer, albeit wealthier, enthusiasts.   What are they to do?  Gear is made more “extreme” to justify the necessarily higher prices.  Does it sound better?  Probably.  Are there good value propositions to be found?  Not up at the extreme high end IME.  But those with deep pockets and ears to follow gratefully oblige.  As the customer base shrinks, the prices (and gear) will become more extravagant.  And manufacturers will die off with the customer base… to a point.  Some will certainly last.  But the landscape will absolutely look very different in 30 years, as it should.

Perhaps the silver lining is that with change, unexpected improvements can be appreciated.  The general tone of this thread is negative but thinking in a more forward direction, perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction.  What I’m interested in is if we can manage to create some ingenuity and end up with 90% of the sound quality, 20% of the complexity and 10% of the cost of today’s best systems.  That will never happen if all we do is continue to aspire to own systems that cost as much as a house and weigh as much as a car.  Perhaps we should welcome a little change.  

@seanheis1 Age seems to shift with cost while gender stays the same. I don’t think any of this surprises anyone. A few people early on commented to the effect “tell us something new”. My point and the reason for posting was to discuss what, if anything, could be done differently to attract a younger audience. We already know from the stats that lower prices bring a younger age group. That’s the point well made by a few people and is pretty obvious. I mentioned people like Devon Turnbull from OJAS who had an interesting way of marketing his business, using social media to connect with a younger audience. There’s more to be had from his methods.

Otherwise I’m not really losing any sleep over this, I’m too old to care too much about something that isn’t going to cause any wars or end the planet. My place in it all is that it’s been a hobby for over 45 years. I like the gear and music in fairly equal measures and I like dropping the occasional post on my blog or the occasional video on the socials. If, as some have suggested, this is a societal issue, another sign that the gap in wealth is growing and being concentrated more among an ever decreasing percentage of the population, then that’s a sad indictment of where we’re all at.

@2serious 

I like all of this:

With the exceptional rise in prices of gear over the last decade that has outpaced inflation by good margin, I think we are seeing the future unfold.  Manufactures are seeking to obtain profit from fewer, albeit wealthier, enthusiasts.   What are they to do?  Gear is made more “extreme” to justify the necessarily higher prices.  Does it sound better?  Probably.  Are there good value propositions to be found?  Not up at the extreme high end IME.  But those with deep pockets and ears to follow gratefully oblige.  As the customer base shrinks, the prices (and gear) will become more extravagant.  And manufacturers will die off with the customer base… to a point.  Some will certainly last.  But the landscape will absolutely look very different in 30 years, as it should.

Perhaps the silver lining is that with change, unexpected improvements can be appreciated.  The general tone of this thread is negative but thinking in a more forward direction, perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction.  What I’m interested in is if we can manage to create some ingenuity and end up with 90% of the sound quality, 20% of the complexity and 10% of the cost of today’s best systems.  That will never happen if all we do is continue to aspire to own systems that cost as much as a house and weigh as much as a car.  Perhaps we should welcome a little change.  

Not exactly sure what you meant here: "perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction."

I think the concern about the death of audiophiles is a bit melodramatic. Perhaps at the high-end spectrum but the growth in mid-fi/future-fi products that are all-in-ones that can do many things is where the growth will be. 

Despite the growth of streaming as a means to "consume" music, people are still purchasing music and predominately in the physical format. 

This recent article in Headphonesty talks about the growth of CD sales, particularly among younger people. With digital downloads on the decline among music buyers. Will they be listening to their CD and vinyl collection on high-end gear? No. But they will be listening on something...even if it is entry point equipment. 

So if the older audiophiles are concerned that a younger generation isn't following in their footsteps it's probably because the audiophiles aren't doing a good job of mentoring younger people. If your first response to a young person who is buying a turntable for the first time is to crap on their decision to buy an entry point Audio Technica TT hooked up to Bluetooth speakers then you're missing an opportunity to encourage them on the path to enjoying their hobby of building a music collection and the opportunity to upgrade over time to better equipment that will bring out the best of their collection.

@sokogear IMO Steely Dan has bad songs...Black Cow being one of them. As does Rush, Yes, the list goes on for me. I've tried many times to make it through certain Steely Dan albums that others considered great and have yet to find a single album that I can listen to from beginning to end. They're just not my cup of tea and while I can listen to them in bits and pieces I'm not going to die on a hill hating or loving them.