What's going on with the audio market?

Not many buying the hype anymore these days?

I'm 64...Been playing about with audio since my late teens. Have owned some semi-serious equipment in the past, but never 'caught the bug' or had the disposable income to  own Serious Stuff.  Did develop ears that could discern between mere hype and local acoustics over significance, IMHO.  Did learn to notice that 'HO' had a lot to do with the previous claims...again, IMHO.  When computers edged into audio, started playing about with that; it wasn't hard to see that the future went 'there' ultimately....
Current equipment isn't 'pedigree', nor the environment it exists in...half audio, half digital, cables like pasta to step over.  I amuse myself with my predilection of making a DIY Walsh speaker along the lines of the German Physiks units.  At 10% of the price of one, I make 4.  They're not perfect, but I enjoy listening to them more than the other speakers I own...
For me, That gets back to the basic and founding essence of this 'hobby', this 'pursuit'.  The endeavour for enjoyment and entertainment, what engrosses you and motivates.  One can spend more..'bang for the buck' is still a relative issue, and is relative to the individual's desires.
The market has never been more broad, as is the price of admission to one's chosen approach.  And that approach, as always, is driven by what one wants and what one is prepared to pay for it.  Serious Audio suffers the same fate as Serious Autos, or Serious Real Estate.  If you can afford it, you will buy it.  If not, you abstain, stand pat, or get out or downsize.
Tastes change too.  If one's Iwhatever and ear buds float your boat, that's where it'll stop and stay.  For others, no, and the spectrum of the current market plays to every conceivable niche one can consider...

Twas always thus.  It's just changing, as it always has, and always will.
C'mon y'all...quit fretting.  There's far more serious things going on than this...

Case in point:  The bees are disappearing.  Rapidly.  Stop, think.  No bees, no pollination.  Audio issues meaningless when you don't eat.

There are other nightmares pending, and presidents past, present, or future can't and don't fix these things. Their 'job' is to make a choice when an issue comes to a head, on their desk, for us (ideally).  They don't effect the price of gas.  They don't create jobs.  They can't make the stock market (or any other market) behave and play nice for our benefit.

They can behave badly and make us look astoundingly stupid.

Vote like you life depends upon it.

It Does.

Yup.  This is not a political discussion. But I tend to feel a lot of back in the day vibe here. Failure by companies and the older audiophile communityto step into the new times is also key.  This generation wants choice of music over sound quality. I think that pricing has really gotten out of hand. Listening habits have changed.  Same old rock Same old jazz and same old blues or country is not doing it for the new audiophiles.  You have them listening to other genres and people doing streaming and or computer audio more.  The straight up 2 channel market is suffering.  Eventually you got to accept that and that Obama has nothing to do with it. Lol. There is an eroding audio middle class. 

Don't start bringing social class into the discussion...

calvinj- I agree that younger listeners aren’t listening to the same "playlist" of geezer-pleasers, but they pick and choose- they may be doing metal (that seems to be the guy-rock of the 20 and 30 somethings) but every once in a while, a question like "Anybody heard the James Gang’ will pop up. My read is that two channel at the moment is back, but of course that can and will change. Look, I think we’re all speculating here in part on what the future will bring, but the one thing we can be certain of is that the hobby will keep changing. Does that mean the death of what AVSJerry called "Serious" audio? I don’t think so, and that branch was always a little bit of a rich man’s game (though the numbers in today’s dollars do seem staggering for some components). I’m also not sure about the class distinctions- some of the nuttiest audiophiles I’ve known have been poor as church mice, but spent what they had, and wrangled, to get "serious" gear. (Many worked in the industry to do this). On the other hand, the wealthy folks I know seem to have little interest in purist audio (another elitest term but you know what I mean) and have computer controlled whole house systems.... We’re geeks, that’s all.