What's going on with the audio market?

I'm 61. I started buying serious gear pretty early, Audio Research electronics, SP-10 turntable, Quad 57s in around 1974 (I would have been 19).  I'll  continue to spend money on audio-related stuff 'til they take me to the nursing home or mortuary. The economy does suck, but the market for this stuff is niche to begin with. Despite the fact that a lot of young people seem to be losing, economically- bad job market for a lot college grads, etc.,  there are also a lot of pretty affluent people, young and old, around the world today, probably more than ever. This stuff just isn't first on the list- in fact, it never was, though we like to think so. Yes, more people had home systems back in the '70s, but how good were they? And how much did they spend to get there at the time? We've been lamenting the death of the "serious" audio market for decades, but somehow, more turntables, tonearms and cartridges, uber speaker designs, big money amps, phono stages, cables and accessories than ever. Somebody is buying this stuff---it's not just Silicon Valley money or Russian oligarchs. Last time I checked--it's been a while-- luxury goods hadn't been hit as hard as ordinary middle of the road products, and that's where the belt tightening is, i suspect. 

Jafant wrote,

"The gear that is made in china for openers."

Oh, you mean like iPhone and iPad?

My local dealer is in the process of expanding from two "brick and mortar" stores, to three.
Having said that, over the years they have de-emphasized music audio systems, increasing their emphasis in theater systems.
High-end audio systems is such a "niche market", bound to have ripples in the demand.
I'll never forget working at a dealer about 35 years ago, on the news a bump in the stock market, reduction in unemployment, reduction in interest rates and my boss bumped his orders up for products that moved well and we had the worst drought in sales for about three months...couldn't explain it.