What's going on with the audio market?

+1 macrojack, very well written post. I concur on all fronts.

I can no longer even see the carrot, and at one point in time, I had several carrots, not too long ago either (8-10 years ago).

As Bob Dylan said: The Times They Are A Changin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

61, 25,(gap from 30 -58) ??
Casual listening !  That's what affects the new audio market  for the Most part - imo

Talking with friends in hi end audio seems to be less & less interest in 2 channel 
Most sales geared to & from home theater 
This is from a very well established audio dealer in a very affluent area 

No interest = no sales. Given the cultural
trend  in music & the ability to download 
today's youth is content with ear buds !

Im not sure that a good stereo system would matter with much of today's music anyway   I have family members come down into my "music room" & listen to what I consider well recorded  LP  / CD . 
Usual reaction is  ok it's nice bye !  They don't want to sit & relax & HEAR the music 

Too bad from our point of view , not their thing    They don't care about soundstage 
imaging etc. 

not it enough younger people to sustain better equipment - imo.  But it can be a positive if factories realize this & try to capture the younger demographic. 
Competitive pricing may be in the future !!

Macrojack.. I'm in Syracuse, NY. now, but born and bred in Brooklyn. Have traveled and lived around the world during my 70+ years as a musician and a Nam vet.. Good Memorial Day to the Vets in this thread. It's good to be Home.

Remember that $10,000 in m1960 would buy over $80,000 today. But I do think casual listening is the order today. Any thing more is difficult to do everywhere with much fidelity and perhaps the distortion of modern music doesn't encourage fidelity.

I have a grandson who is a Junior in college now. He was a drummer in a jazz groups in high school and was listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I asked him if he wanted to hear that on my big system. He said yes. 

After listening he said it didn't even sound like what he  was listening, but that drums now sounded much more real. Later he left the room and I saw he went back to MP3.

In short we aren't likely to see a return to earlier audio. But I should say he now has an AR turntable and arm and a Stanton cartridge and a bunch of duplicate LPs I gave him. I've done my best. His mother was an audiophile until kids.

My kids (in their early 50s) and grand kids (late 20s), but for 1 daughter, have no interest in the patience and suspending of all other so called tasking to sit and listen to anything or even read a printed on paper page of any publication or book unless it's Very Small and portable. That's a few generations of lost audiophile equipment sales right there. I have a pretty costly sound system and I collected first edition books for 50 years and other stuff.. Collected mint, not saved. Grand kids Could buy 2 or three homes with my stuff. But none are interested or care to put down their I-phones. They don't even get the buy homes part. Facebook, video games and constant texting and "look at me" attitude have replaced everything us 70 year olds  used to see as pragmatic. My worst nightmare would be dying and my family putting all this stuff on the lawn for a yard sale. 5 bucks for YG Carmels (cause they're smaller than..), 10 bucks for a Vitus amp and maybe 20 bucks for a Playback Designs SACD player. Oh and those custom made cables? They come with the other stuff. Oh shit. Where's my Xanax.