Where are the young audiophiles?

Back in the day, we had three choices of home entertainment - three TV channels, board games or audio. Today audio has to compete with way more sources of entertainment.

Americans spend $50 billion on video games per year. Some of that used to go to audio.

Youngsters do not dream of owning good sound.  Their video games do not require it.  Recently, a kid I know came by my house for something, and asked about old my stereo, B&W 893"s powered by Audire electronics (Phono Head amp, two Diffet 3 preamps, and three Audire Forte amps, the third for the subs.  After plying around for something he liked to hear, which turned out to be Pink Floyd, he looked amazed, and said, "Wow!  That is great.  I can't wait to get home to see how good it must sound on my iPhone."

The price of high end audio has passed beyond means of this boomer.   7500 dollars for a Dac? 1000 for the streamer  to boot.  I am a physician and when I started most docs had a high end system.  When I tried to sell my speakers only one physican had one.  The dealer said most of his customers now are ceo cfo lawyers and venture capitalists who just pick out what they want and pay for it

This new generation care more about how loud their system sounds, than how clean and natural it may sound.  I been trying to teach some of the young people about how good hi end audio equipment sounds, but when they see the prices of most of the hi end audio equipment, they get scared and will go and buy a Bluetooth speaker or headphone instead! Hi end audio gear prices are getting out of hand and manufacturers are not helping either. They build 20 different models, instead of just a couple of good components at a reasonable price, that instead of helping the hobby is killing it!  

@lckluiano “This new generation care more about how loud their system sounds, than how clean and natural it may sound. ”

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Funny you say that. That was the primary interest initially when I got into high end audio in the 70’s. I forgot.  But it morphed over time to be more articulate, better tonal balance, better imagining, more realistic rendering of the venue, better midrange, and finally much better rhythm and pace. Ok, this really made me realize that each upgrade would add something I would not expect as well as what I did expect. I think this is an important part of the reward cycle for those who pursue it over a lifetime. The continuous surprise and rewards from initially simplistic expectation. Adding music discovery it is a constant discovery pursuit.