orpheus10 said:
"High end audio is not a necessity, and as each year passes, the middle class is restricted more to "necessities". Not a good recipe for the high end."
I think the logic of this is sound. And surely it is true in many cases. But I think it misses an important point: People will find a way to do what they love to do. Case in point: automobile racing. I am a member of a national racing association (though I do not race, just track days) with regional divisions. You might expect to find a paddock full of well healed gentleman drivers in Porsches and Ferraris but you would be wrong. Sure there are some. But a tour of the paddock will reveal a decidedly working class population of people who scrap together everything they can in order to race. And even at the lowest levels it is terribly expensive. No matter how low end the car it must have a roll cage, race seats and harnesses and the driver must have a helmet, full race suit with shoes and gloves plus a HANS device. And it all has to be current. That's about $3000 at the lowest end possible and that includes no car, no fees, no tires, brakes, fuel, hotels, etc. In some classes a set of tires lasts 2 races and cost $1000. They love it so they find a way to do it. And I know a lot of them....and they are not "living in an upper middle class environmental bubble".
And the hobby/sport is growing like wildfire. Right now. In this economy.
"People who are not aware of this must be living in an upper middle class environmental bubble; which is a good place to be."
I'm sure it is but I don't see the economy being at fault for the decline of hi-fi even if you believe the politically weaponized economic stats.