What's going on with the audio market?

Some of this lamenting reminds me of Paul Lynde singing "Kids" from "Bye-Bye Birdie". Ours is a hobby from yesteryear which has long ago decided to catch up to the times but there will always be our kind of gear being made. There's really nothing to worry about.

This hobby of ours has made a great enough impact that no matter the times, it will always be here in one form or another. It's in our nature to cling to the past. Just take a look at any Mustang or Camaro. They bend over backwards to make sure it looks like something from the sixties (which dates it as soon as it leaves the showroom floor).

Brick and motor will suffer as the internet and audio shows take the lead.
Another auto analogy shows dealerships may be going the way of the do-do as well as manufacturers are considering online purchasing and the use of boutique stores for their cars to be displayed in, like mini auto shows. What's the matter with kids today indeed!

All the best,
Nonoise

jmcgrogan2 what was your system at 16? I ask because I had a complete load of crap at that age...

@infection , as I said earlier, it was my first system, but I wouldn’t call it serious audio. I didn’t get into serious audio until I was 28 years old.

At 16 I bought a pair of Altec Lansing Model 9 speakers, coupled them with a big old Pioneer receiver, a Technics turntable, and an Akai tape deck. All brand new, I didn’t know about used stuff back then.

I bought it all while my parents were away for the weekend. They were very unhappy when they came home. Those were the days (1976).
Risky Business before the movie came out. ;^)

I would have loved that when I was 16 in 1991.
So what did you have at 28?

As far as the future goes, things like quantum entanglement(which they are learning that more than photons and spin can be quantum entangled) leave us hope. I think we(as ordinary citizens) need to come up with stuff, as the powers-that-be would be busy trying to figure out how to make money from it.   For instance, I've found that energy and (some parts) of weather(this last one is a possible recent discovery by me) can be transferred also.  We just have a lack of imagination, and a lot of 20th century thinking, dominating much of what we call science.