Every hobby becomes YOUR hobby because something about it speaks to you in a way that gives you happiness and satisfaction. The implication here is that if you never had the chance to hear a good system....or you did but someone did it in a way that was condescending, then it may not become YOUR hobby.
Usually, it up to an "industry trade association" to be supporting the manufacturers and stores in promoting that industry. The closest the audio industry seems to come to is the various major shows around the country.
Darko suggested that "they/we/someone" needs to come up with a great system for less than $500 to help interest young people. KEF, Audioengine, Klipsch and a few others are doing the best they can to make great sounding products at affordable prices available....but that doesn't answer the fundamental question....how to get people interested in the first place.
As a hobbyist, I think the best we can do is to gently encourage friends, relatives, associates to listen to our systems and if they seem mildly interested...point them in the direction of good sounding budget systems....and if they actually buy one and get the bug...then upgrades down the road will probably happen to them as has happened to most of us.
And....if you live in an area where one of the major audio shows occurs, bring a non audio friend and they might be really surprised by what they hear and decide that they should get their own system...and you can help them with guidance so that can get something that sound reasonably good with the budget they want to start with.
