High End is Dead?

I know of not a single audiophile under the age of 50. I think the younger you go the less and less you will find. Gen Y / millennials believe a $300 soundbar for their home theatre “rig” is nirvana and expensive nirvana at that.  Musicians are likely the few putting serious cash into music reproduction gear.

Cant quite understand why posting these idiotic topics excites the OP so much. It is however my hope that he someday leaves his parents basement to discover there is sunshine and beauty outside to behold. That there are jobs to be landed and experiences out there waiting for him. He will then discover that playing video games all day and watching tosh.o all night isnt a life at all nor a career. Audio is either expensive to a particular person or it isnt.

in terms of real dollars, decent audio is better today than in the golden era of audio while also being less expensive. At the end of the day though, the OP is a troll and is probably back in the warming embrace of his parents basement thinking of ways to be relevant....unsuccessfully I might add.

Nope . real dollars where worth a LOT more back in the day than the currency that has lost 25% against the Euro in last year .

How long did you look in their basement ?

Thats my point. In 1962 someone who purchased a hifi spent real money, sometimes many months of free cash flow, whereas today you can get a decent system for comparative peanuts. Additionally, gear today is pretty darn reliable. 

High end is not dead but it’s very sick. As president of a large company with a CPA background, my observation is that the dealer base has shrunk to an obsolete level, just look at the city you live in, how many dealers are left?

Kids don’t spend Friday nights in stereo stores any longer, they listen to downloaded music on iPhones, families can’t afford to buy houses so disposable income of the masses is lower than it has been historically, the facts are there. We are also just 10 years out from the biggest financial depression in history, that is a real truth. The fact is, who can afford to buy a new from dealer system with a $30k price tag (a modest system to say the least), people just can’t. 

High end manufacturers are very small companies that have brilliant product and design minds but very seldom are their business acumen’s in line with what is required to grow a business. That is a typical issue in the world of small business and that’s why so many fail. The fact that isolates high end is the retail pricing based on cost and manufacturing margins. Efficient producers will benefit where inefficient producers will argue that margins are low although their retail MSRP’s are high. Another fact is that audio is not a necessity so the companies are not forced to fall in line with a specific retail price range in order to compete. They will tell you they do but they really don’t do that consistently throughout their product range. Example, all consumer car companies have entry level cars, most high end companies do not. Remember, I said entry level, not $18k for a phono preamp!

Most everyone will argue my points but just ask a manufacturer if they have seen a mass decline in a dealer base to sell to, all will agree. I just spoke to one last week who blames the dealers for discounting retail prices for the industry failure. 75% of his sales are in Asia. I also asked him how much a full range speaker to fill a 26’x17’ foot room would cost from him and he pointed me to a living room dealer, a guy with a nice room in his house, and recommended a $185,000 pair of speakers. His company is well known and respected and he was wonderful to talk to but that is not going to happen!!!! That is another big issue with the industry. How many business models do you know in the retail space In today’s world that sell at 100% MSRP?

Look, I love this hobby and got the audio bug as a very young boy, I’ve spent much time horse trading equipment my whole life searching for the ultimate sound like many of you have but the fact remains that any industry that can only survive with massive pricing because they’ve created a market where only the super rich can comfortably afford their products will get used sites like Audiogon doing more used business than the industry sells new. It’s a true measure of how sick and “dying” our favourite hobby is.

sorty for the blues but it’s a reality!!