High End is Dead?

I forget the actual product, but there's a recent commercial for an app where this Gen Z actor is simply hitting buttons on the tablet screen to create a tune. Said buttons are marked "Bass", "Strings", Vocals", etc. and they all correlate to an existing backbeat, again chosen from a menu of backbeats.

The whole thing (on the commercial at least) sounds engaging and catchy, even as it's just a mouse in a musical maze bragging about which direction she's choosing.

With music becoming more and more codified and ephemeral, it's no surprise HEA is starting to age out.

'If this statement hits too close to home then you might consider getting up out of your specially crafted chair that is both comfortable and yet not so absorptive as to damage the soundstage of that 1958 recording bootlegged out of that acoustically challenged lower Manhattan basement club of a heroin addicted clarinetist playing the 100th version of some show tune.'


Ouch!

High End Audio as we know it is dead because it was primarily a Baby Boomer and Gen X phenomenon. Millenials and Gen Z have no interest in it.

So going forward, the only market segments that are doing well are DAC's, headphones and earbuds - for the younger generations - and the ultra high end, for the boomers cashing in their retirements funds. Everything in-between these two extremes is being decimated, and its not going to get any better, or return to how it was.

People have been saying that for 50 years. Take a look at the major audio review sites and audio shows, make note of all the high-end manufacturers from around the world. It is clear that high-end is not dead. Look at the revival of records, reel to reel tape and I am seeing a new surge in cassette interest. All are peeking the interest of the younger crowd, planting the seeds for upgrades in the future.

My view of Millennial and Gen Z types around the internet such as Reddit and Massdrop is that there IS an interest in audiophile audio, but they are actively antagonistic towards high-end audio. So the interest in better audio is there but they have a hard stop at spending significant sums of money. It seems like a groupthink exercise in defining reality in terms that is beneficial for them. For example they will state that one DAC sounds no different than another, or if there are differences they are minor. If challenged to visit an audio dealer or a hi-fi show they will respond they don’t need to because it’s all snake-oil.

At first glance it seems like the simply don’t want to believe that better quality gear produces better audio, but that’s also not true; they do accept that better quality gear provides better audio, but that only goes as far as a few hundred dollars. So it seems they actually do believe in high-end audio, only that the high-end must include everyone on the internet’s ability to pay for it. A very self-serving community view.