can this fact be accurate?

plus you can get a piece of paper and a short pencil stub and divide to get your percentage of the population 100,000 represents. or if challenged get a calculator. most people with some education can figure this one out in their head.

Good one Hotmailjbc. I did the calculations in my head. The answer is, a pretty freakin insignificant percentage of the population. It didn't matter whether my starting number was US population or world population.

The average age of the hobbyist seems to be increasing. I don't see a lot of college kids into it. I live in Boston which is a huge university town and there are few stores left. The obsession with vinyl isn't helpful.

Go to a newstand and see if you can find an audio magazine. I can't and I I often stop by newstands with hundreds of magazines and no Stereophile etc. Not a great harbinger....

I would think that there are 100000 audiophiles in Germany alone. Add to this the rest of the world and it should be a million or more, I guess.

I think its higher, maybe 250,000. Consider many if not most dont post on internet and quietly enjoying their system. Consider the 65,000 number who read Stereophile, you honestly think 65% of a population subscribes? That would be astonishing so even at 1 in 4 thats incredible but there is your reasonable 250,000.
Now what price point? I dunno how to define it but at this small of a hobby we must be in the 1-2 degree of seperation area so in that spirit, hiwdy y'all!