Audio for the Young - Noho Sound

IMO, this seems to be sort of a "bait and switch" situation. The younger crowd likes music but uses it more as a distraction. Mostly with portable equipment. Leading them in with musical events won't work unless you have a plan to change their burnt in mindset. Lead a Millennial into a Highend stereo store and try your best to convince them they need big chunky, in the living room only, stereo components to feed their music habit and then watch their eyes glaze over.....We need their support over time to help this hobby survive, but I believe there isn't any answer yet.

Audiophiles have ALWAYS been a tiny minority of hobbyists relative to the general population, and audio "salons" generally do exactly zero to change that fact. Zero. Using actual live music to draw people in? Heresy I say! Once you expose a bunch of so called "young" people to music you risk that, as with the general population for decades, a small number of them actually decide they enjoy music through a nice system instead of, "Siri, play Mahler." Live music as bait...have they no shame? Audio specialty stores gave up from the start on interesting people in the music, and generally are perfectly content with holding on to that tiny piece of anachronistic elitism as it pulls them right down the drain.

But I think what these guys are trying to do is get people back to the time where having a good stereo in the house was the norm.  My parents had a Harmon Kardon receiver with EV speakers in the 60's.  All of my friends had decent hifi's in their bedrooms from the days when they sold stereo in Sam Goody record store.  I think, Wolf, what you are talking about are the high-end neurotics like us, which absolutely is a small minority.  Frankly, I think their business model of selling expensive stereo to young people has a very small chance of success, but then again, who thought that people would ever love watching movies on a 4" phone?  As I said above, these guys didn't just drop in from a cloud - they are experienced NYC audio salesmen, who believe they know the market.  Speaking of which, while I'm not in the market for anything right now, I have no desire to see this place, as they have made it pretty obvious that the over-30 crowd is pretty much personna non grata there.  That's ok.  I don't want to kill their vibe.  

Having a decent stereo rig (or any stereo rig) was the only option years ago, and if you wanted something small you might buy a little KLH radio. What I'm mainly talking about is the sad fact that high end audio generally doesn't know how to get other people interested, and certainly the shops don't support live music. I live near both a great concert venue and a couple of high end shops...the guys in the shops have no idea what's happening at the venue, and the venue operators have no interest in the audio shops.

I fully support the movement of getting the next generation into hifi, after all they're the one's driving the return to vinyl. I remember 30 yrs ago when I tagged along with my dad to the local Hifi shop in South Portland, Maine. I was 12 and in heaven with all the boxes that did different things and curvy speakers. I bought my first gear there a few years later - used Acurus & PSB. Now he thinks I'm nuts as my current system costs more than his 2 cars but hey, he literally and figuratively created this monster...